Lessons in Teaching

March 24, 2008

By Jennifer McClure

Last summer I began giving piano lessons to a 5-year-old girl. Each week after she leaves I marvel at how well she is doing.

During one of these times of reflection, I thought about the many things she simply must memorize and accept. She must believe those symbols or facts mean what I or the book says they mean. She’s not old enough to understand and process the reasons. To explain them all, to share all my knowledge with her, would overload her with information.

How similar that is to our relationship with God — except so often we (or at least I) ask why.

Though there are times the Lord explains to us why something is or happened a certain way, as He did in the case of Lazarus (John 11:4,15), there are plenty of other times we simply follow and obey His leading without understanding His reasoning behind His direction. This was the case for Abram (later called Abraham).

“The Lord had said to Abram, ‘Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you’ ” (Genesis 12:1, NIV).

When Abram set out, the Lord didn’t explain why; but after Abram had obeyed the Lord’s direction, God revealed part of His plan for Abram’s life through a promise. “The Lord appeared to Abram and said, ‘To your offspring I will give this land.’ So he built an altar there to the Lord, who had appeared to him” (Genesis 12:7).

In matters concerning the end times, eternity and sometimes even life-changing decisions, God conveys to us only what we need to know; He is not obligated to explain or to satisfy our curiosity. As I’ve heard many say before, God knows we could not handle knowing everything there is to know about these matters. He wants us to simply trust and obey — to take Him at His Word.

When we don’t understand what we’re stepping into and why, it is reassuring to know verses such as Jeremiah 29:11 and Isaiah 55:9.

“ ‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future’ ” (Jeremiah 29:11).

“As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:9).

I thank God that He has a plan for my life. All I have to do is follow His leading and remember He’s much wiser than I am or will ever be.

— Jennifer McClure is assistant editor of Today’s Pentecostal Evangel and blogs at Going Up? (jmcclure.agblogger.org).