Gloucester Cathedral
Teach me your ways, O Lord, that I may live according to your truth! Grant me purity of heart, so that I may honour you.
Psalm 86:11 NLT
As I mentioned before, I recently took my Trinity certificate in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages. It was the most demanding and intensive learning experience I’ve ever participated in. Throughout my course I had to concentrate, for my background is training, not teaching. Training demands I impart skills, while teaching demands I communicate information.
Walking God’s ways is a lifelong process of learning. Anyone of us can get stuck along the way. We often confuse information with knowledge. But true knowledge is when I know how to apply all the information I have gained. There are so many teaching resources today that none of us can fail to know a great deal about our Christian faith. Yet, how this information influences the way we live our lives is more complicated. It does demand an undivided heart since many of the cultural norms that surround us prove unhelpful in realising our Christian life.
The writings of the early Church Fathers reveal that much of their effort was spent in encouraging Christians in how to live, and what the knowledge they had gained through finding Christ meant as regards to their lifestyle choices. And this in a society in which Christianity was not generally accepted and approved by either society or government. A divided heart, one that shared affection for several different things, was most certainly unable to pursue God with the level of devotion these pioneers of Christianity suggested was critical to effective Christian discipleship.
Does your heart remain divided between many competing demands? Maintaining an undivided heart is my greatest challenge.
QUESTION
What does your knowledge about God mean for practical daily living?
PRAYER
Lord, please enable me to maintain an undivided heart. Thank you that you are willing to help me.
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