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Wouldn’t it be nice if we could learn everything we need to know just once, and that’s it! But life is not that way and we are all prone to forget—prone to wander from what we know—prone to do our own thing and go our own way. So, if we’re going to become spiritually mature, we have to be good at re-learning.
For example, we often need to re-learn to be content. Most of us are victims at times of looking on the other side of the fence and deciding that the grass over there sure looks greener than our grass. It just sometimes seems like our lives are painted drab gray and everybody else has bright red or yellow!
Someone once wrote: “The uncommon life is the product of the day lived in the uncommon way.” Which means that a person whose life is exciting and full is one who finds meaning and satisfaction in the seemingly insignificant, daily things in life.
Let me give you a very simple example: I have some china which I really love. And it gives me great pleasure to set my table with that china, to hold it, even to wash it. I enjoy my china. I remember once, when my daughter was a teenager, Julie found it rather strange to hear me getting excited about this china which I had owned for years.
And I said to her, “If you can find pleasure and joy in the little things in your life, your life will be full of pleasure and joy. Otherwise, it’s going to be very drab most of the time, with a few high points only now and then.”
Regardless of how humble and unpretentious your daily life may seem, you can elevate it if you can learn to enjoy and appreciate what you have. As the Apostle Paul says in Philippians 4:11, one needs to learn the secret of being content in any and every situation. Contentment brings meaning to our daily lives and frees us from the dreariness of looking over our fence at someone else’s grass.
Have you enrolled in the school of contentment? You can begin today by appreciating the small things, smelling the roses which are in your life, instead of being focused on what you don’t have and looking over the fence all the time.
Another thing high on the list of things I have to re-learn is how and when to let go. You know, there are times when we simply have to let go and turn situations over to God. Letting go does not mean that we don’t care, nor that we wouldn’t do whatever we could do to help the situation. It simply means that we recognize where our abilities end and where we relinquish situations to God’s control.
For instance, most parents face this “let go” decision with their children. You raise your children the best you can, teaching them biblical principles, but at some point, you have to let them go. Perhaps you let them go and they make mistakes, but you know there’s no other way for them to learn. You let go allowing them to make their own decisions, even if you could make better ones for them.
I answered a letter to someone who was struggling with letting go of his dream to be married. He really wanted a partner and was obsessed with that dream and just could not let go of it. You know, often we have to let our dreams go—those cherished things we’ve been hoping and longing for. They may be very good things, like getting married. But God often wants to know if we love him more than we love our dream. And so we have to let go. Sometimes those dreams are returned to us fulfilled later on; sometimes they are not. But until we let go, they will possess us and rob us of joy and contentment.
We have to learn to let our burdens go. Jesus has told us to turn our heavy burdens over to him and accept his light in exchange. Many feel guilty when there’s a problem in their life if they aren’t feeling the burden all the time. Would that describe you? But that’s not the way God wants us to respond. He wants us to drop our burdens at his feet and just keep letting them go. I can tell you that I have verbally told God, “Lord, I’m dropping this right here. I’m letting it go because it’s too heavy for me.”
What is it God wants you to let go of today? Let me encourage you to do it. You can trust God. He’s able to take care of the situation, but first you have to give it over to him. Unclench those fists right now, and just keep learning to let go.
Here’s another one: We need to re-learn how to humble ourselves. In Numbers 12:3 Moses is identified as a “very humble man, more humble than anyone else on the face of the earth.” What was it that made Moses so humble? After all, he had great power and wealth, and the highest position in his country. He had spiritual privileges, talking with God face-to-face, and he performed incredible miracles. How could he be so humble?
Well, first, he spent 40 years in the desert, because of a failure on his part. Humbling ourselves means we have to learn that in our own strength, we are failures. For ten years of my life, I thought I could make things happen, as we say. I had to learn that in myself I can do nothing.
Then, you remember that Moses had a speech impediment. He stuttered and couldn’t give a speech, so Aaron became his spokesperson. That had to be humbling for a great leader. It was a constant reminder to him that his talents and skills were not sufficient. The Apostle Paul had the same experience—a thorn in the flesh, he called it—which God did not remove because he knew Paul would need that thorn to remind him of where his strength came from, to keep him humble.
I encourage you to learn to be thankful for the impediments you have, the things missing in your life, which contribute to helping you learn humility. It’s extremely important that we be truly humble, and, like Moses, we need reminders of our needs so that we can humble ourselves.
One reason Moses was able to be humble is that the highest priority of his life was to know God. Moses knew God better than any other person on earth. He spent lots of time alone with God. You know, when we start to focus our lives on knowing God, humility is an inevitable result. You learn true humility as you learn who you are in comparison to who God is.
In Philippians 2:6-8 we read that Jesus humbled himself to become a servant. Servanthood is one revealing a sign of true humility. I remember a person who complained about the fact that when he came to church, no one gave him any attention and he couldn’t form any real strong relationships because people weren’t friendly. And I thought to myself: A servant doesn’t react that way. A servant doesn’t come into a group to see what the group can do for him or her, but rather, comes ready to do something for others. We learn to humble ourselves as we learn to serve others.
Have you learned when to ignore people? Well, you may need to re-learn it! Of course it’s important for us to be good listeners, but the opposite side of that truth is there are times we should absolutely ignore what other people are saying to us. Let me give you an example.
In Mark 5:36 we read, “Ignoring what they said, Jesus told the synagogue ruler, ‘Don’t be afraid; just believe.’“ This was the man who asked Jesus to come and heal his sick daughter. On the way to his house some of his friends met them and reported that his daughter was dead, so there was no need to bother Jesus anymore. And in response to those words of death and doom, Jesus told Jairus to believe and not be afraid, and he completely ignored their bad report.
When he got to the house and announced the child was not dead, everyone laughed at him. But Jesus ignored that, too. He just went in her room and brought the girl to her feet, alive and well.
It seems there are always people around to give us negative, discouraging words. They may be well-intentioned; they may be your best friends. But if their words of advice and information are faith-destroying words, then you should ignore them.
Jairus had to choose to believe Jesus in spite of what his friends said to him, even when they laughed at him. If others are giving you faith-destroying words, you too can choose to ignore them, refuse to be afraid, and continue to place your trust in the word of the Lord. Jesus gives us words of life and hope. We must cling to them and not be afraid. He is faithful to do what he has promised. You can trust him. So, learn to ignore others when they give you faith-destroying words and advice.
And the last thing we need to re-learn is to persevere. Lots of people make good starts; not too many complete the course.
We read in Hebrews 12:1 that we should run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Note that each of us has a unique race marked out. Your race will be different from mine, but the important thing is to hang in there and cross the finish line.
The night is darkest just before the dawn, and all too often we quit the race when it gets dark and bleak, when the finish line is just around the corner. In the first chapter of James (v. 4) we read “perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” Without perseverance we won’t reach spiritual maturity. That’s why we need to learn and re-learn perseverance.
How often do you feel like quitting? I can remember saying to the Lord at one point, “What use is it, Lord? I don’t see light at the end of the tunnel and I’d just like to walk away from the whole thing.” You know, if you have those kinds of thoughts you might as well talk to God about them. He knows what you’re thinking anyway. But God reminded me that I’m called to be faithful, to persevere, and I had to learn it all over again.
Hebrews 12:13 says, “Don’t wander away from the path but forge steadily onward. On the right path the limping foot recovers strength and does not collapse.” Therefore, we need to make certain we’re on the right path, and then, stay on it regardless. Even if you’re just limping along, don’t stop. As we hang in there, our limps are healed and we’re able to cross the finish line.
How often do you quit as soon as you develop a limp? Maybe you’ve failed, or you weren’t able to accomplish something you had planned, or the resources you were counting on didn’t come through, things didn’t go as smoothly as you hoped—and you quit! But the Bible says keep going on the right path even with your limp.
Paul wrote to the Corinthians “Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful” (1 Cor. 4:2). Proving faithful is perseverance, and we can learn to be faithful and to persevere. I’m telling you, I’ll take a faithful person any day over one with bigger talents or gifts who isn’t willing to hang in and get the job done—to stick with it through thick and thin times.
I want to encourage you today to learn perseverance. Quitters don’t win and winners don’t quit, and God is looking for people with endurance. Let’s stick by the stuff and make it to the finish line by his grace.
So, I hope you’ll remember to re-learn to be content, to let go when you should, to be humble, to ignore faith-destroying words, and to endure to the end. Five things we need to learn and re-learn.