If you were assigned to write an essay on what you’d like in “the perfect teacher,” what would you say? What attributes would you include? Willing to sit for a couple of minutes and just imagine??? . . .
I’m pretty sure my list would include:
*General wisdom
*Expertise in my area of need
*Integrity
*Committed to helping me learn
*Available
*Patient
*Fluent in my native tongue
*Willing to listen
*Affordable
*Last, but not least, I would be especially grateful if my teacher actually cared about me as a person—not just as a student. It would be too much to ask, but I might dare to hope for a teacher who actually loved me and had a great desire to see me learn, grow, thrive, and succeed.
How about you? What did you imagine? What would your ideal teacher be like? Are our lists pretty similar?
What if I told you that such a teacher exists and is available to each of us? How much would you be willing to pay for that kind of guidance? What if I told you that a person with all these characteristics loves you dearly and would like to live with you for the rest of your life . . . free of charge? Wouldn’t that seem too good to be true?
In truth, God’s Holy Spirit loves each of us even more than our mothers or our dearest friend. God’s love for us is likened to the passion of a holy fire. His Holy Spirit woos us, causes us to recognize our sins and repent, brings us to rebirth, and indwells us forever. He becomes our comforter and teacher (John 14:26). It is the Holy Ghost who will “bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I [Jesus] have said unto you.”
Are you open to receiving such a gift? Jesus told his disciples not to worry about what they would say if they were questioned about their faith because the Holy Spirit within them—speaking with His still, small, inaudible voice—would teach them what to say when the time came. If you are a believer, you have the Holy Spirit within you. If you can’t hear his voice, it’s possible that you’ve grieved him (Ephesians 4:30), but He will never leave us (Hebrews 13:5), so He is within you, even if He seems to be silent.
Need a teacher? “And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:13). I believe this verse can be applied to both believers and those who have yet to place their trust in God. If you’re not yet a believer, Jesus offers you eternal life and the gift of the Spirit (see Matthew 11:25-30; John 10:28; John 7:39). If you are a believer, you have the world’s greatest teacher dwelling within you. By submitting to God and praying, you can access His wisdom. He loves you. He has an unimaginably passionate desire to see you (and me, and each of us) become children of God through faith in Christ and gloriously transformed into exquisite image-bearers of our Father, God.
Worried about what others will think or say? Don’t be! Remember, the Holy Ghost will teach you what to say when the time comes!
Text for today’s mediation: Luke 12:11-12, “And when they bring you unto the synagogues, and unto magistrates, and powers, take ye no thought how or what thing ye shall answer, or what ye shall say: For the Holy Ghost shall teach you in the same hour what ye ought to say.”
(Credit for the beautiful painting goes to Yongsung Kim, used by permission of Havenlight.com.)
Summer Setting 