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God My Teacher

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Sep 14, 1911

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 88, No. 37.

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God My Teacher

By Ray N. Studt

RAY N. STUDT
The Lord is a wonderful teacher. “Behold, God doeth loftily in his power: who is a teacher like unto him?” Job 36:22. When Jesus was on earth, he was acknowledged as a teacher by all with whom he lived. It must have been wonderful to have the Lord of heaven for a teacher, and to live and walk with him as did the twelve. But to them he said: “It is expedient for you that I go away.” There must be, then, even greater opportunities for his followers to learn of him now than in those days. When Moses asked the Lord to teach him His ways, God answered: “My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest.” O that every Seventh-day Adventist might have that presence, and have the consciousness of the Lord being his teacher!
“Whatsoever is not of faith is sin.” “When the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?” “Here are they that keep . . . the faith of Jesus.” “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” “The just shall live by faith.” These and many other scriptures tell the wonderful part that faith plays in the plan of salvation.
“Faith is . . . the evidence of things not seen.” How long was Abraham required to believe that he was the father of the faithful, when as yet he had no son? How long did David believe he was the rightful heir of the throne and the real king of Israel, when to all human appearances he was an outlaw, and the despised leader of a band of outcasts hunted by Saul from cave to forest?
We have often read these experiences, and have wondered how God could talk with us as he did with Moses, Enoch, Noah, David, and others who, though having like passions with us, were made the friends of God. We sometimes pray: “Lord, teach us to know thy voice;” but, like the mother of James and John, we know not what we ask. We know not how great is the price to be paid, how hot must be the fire to burn away the dross in our lives. O Christian desirous of being a real disciple of Christ! pray that prayer; then, when the trials begin to come which will help to answer it, exclaim, with Job, “He knoweth the way that I take; when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.”
Paul, writing to the Romans concerning the reason why men wandered from the Lord and understood not his voice, says: “Because that, knowing God, they glorified him not as God, neither gave thanks; but became vain in their reasonings, and their senseless heart was darkened.”
We pray for the Lord to lead us, yet we fail to thank him for the way he does lead us. More than that, we do not even recognize that he is leading us. We think it is our own mind that leads us to do these daily duties, and leave God altogether out of it. In this, are we not as the heathen? “In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.” The little things of life are the important things. God is waiting for us to come to him for help in everything; he desires that we shall acknowledge his guidance, and call on him for help in the humblest task.
Do you want the presence of the Lord always with you? Would you have him for your teacher? Then thank him for the lessons he has already taught you; and as surely as leaves come on the trees in the spring, as surely as fruit follows flowers, you will learn to know his voice, and everything in the world about you will proclaim his goodness and his mercy to your heart.
It is time that we should learn to know the voice of our God. We are living in a time when God wants to be closer to his people than ever before. The weak among us shall be as David. The least member of the household of grace may have direct communion with the God of the universe.
Madison, Tenn.