2-20-10 "Teach Me Your Way"

Mountain View
By Paula Friedrichsen

Teach Me Your Way

I’ve been a Christian for about 24 years, and yet God is always showing me new facets of His personality, goodness, and beauty. It amazes me that my relationship with Him is still growing, changing, and fresh after all these years. I am a woman in process… a diamond in the rough. He is the diamond cutter—and I love Him!

Lately I’ve been encouraged by this portion of Scripture: “Teach me your way, O Lord; lead me in a straight path because of my oppressors.” Psalm 27:11.

“Teach me your way” has become the cry of my heart. So often I’ve tried to do things my own way—which at times have been disastrous. In my pride I sometimes think my way is best. But you know what I’ve discovered? My way is the LOOOOONG way, and definitely not the “straight path” that my heart longs for. If I will only cry out to God for “His” wisdom, He will gladly show me what to do in each troubling situation I encounter.

I love the imagery in the second half of that Scripture above; “lead me in a straight path because of my oppressors.” In other words, when I allow myself to get off the straight path, I wander away from the Lord’s safety and protection. There are oppressors out there, and I subject myself to the enemy every time I meander away from the revealed will of God for my life.

My pastor, Eric Stovesand, occasionally quotes from an old hymn called, “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing” by Methodist pastor Robert Robinson in 1757.

O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I’m constrained to be!
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above.

It’s comforting to know that I’m not the only “wanderer” in the Christian family. It’s simply the human condition. In light of this, I see the necessity of tethering myself to the Word of God and to the presence of God. I also make a concerted effort to recall the many ways God has spoken to me, led me, directed me, and stopped me from going down the wrong path over the last 24 years. In fact, I did just that the other night… I couldn’t sleep and I was feeling worried about a troubling situation in my life so I decided to do my best to remember every single time that God had moved wonderfully and supernaturally in my life. Well let me tell you, I had revival right there in my bed at 2:00 a.m. As I mentally went back through the years thinking of all the ways that Jesus had helped me, or put my feet back on the right path, or comforted me in distressing times, or healed me, I became absolutely filled with praise to Him! God has a perfect track record with me. He is faithful!

His part is faithfulness. My part is to cry out with all my heart, “Teach me your way, O Lord; lead me in a straight path because of my oppressors.”

Paula Friedrichsen is a member of Church on the Mountain, a vibrant community of believers in Crowley Lake. We meet at 9:30 Sunday mornings. Call for more information: 935-4272 or www.ChurchOnTheMountain.org