Do you enjoy learning?
In this week’s Unveiled: G.I.F.T.S. Process class, we are having the 5th and final module of my signature program, using the acronym G.I.F.T.S. – S for Study to Show Yourself Approved. This comes from the scripture 2 Timothy 2:15, AKJV:
“Study to show yourself approved to God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”
I love learning new things, and never want to stop. I also believe that God desires for us to be life-long learners and to share what we learn with others. Water that doesn’t move becomes stagnant and putrid- and stinks, like the Dead Sea, which has no outlet.
As God’s Word is flowing into our lives and others are imparting into our lives, in return we need to pour into others, sharing what God is teaching us. As believers in Christ, we are responsible to learn wisdom and knowledge to grow in truth.
A great example of Study to Show Yourself Approved is the Bereans, from Acts 17: 10-11, NASB.
“The brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews. Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so.”
The Bereans listened attentively and respectively to Paul teaching the gospel in Berea on his second missionary journey. They searched and studied the scriptures every day to find out if what he taught was the truth. The Bible says they received the word with readiness or eagerness.
From the Forerunner Commentary*, we read:
The Greek word, prothumos, suggests that they looked into the Scriptures with enthusiasm, eagerness, and zeal. The Greek paints a word-picture of a ravenously hungry man who devours the food set before him or an extremely thirsty man who is finally given something to drink. The Bereans were full of enthusiasm, readiness, and zeal for God’s Word.
I love this word picture – a ravenously hungry man (woman) or extremely thirsty man (woman), devouring the food in front of him/her or thirstily drinking.
Are you hungry for God’s presence ? Are you thirsty to learn new things from His word and others?
Do you have a hunger and passion to learn new things – or are you failing to grow, not life-giving and stagnant like the Dead Sea?
Become like the Bereans. Get hungry. Get thirsty. Study to show yourself approved.
*Resource: http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Topical.show/RTD/cgg/ID/466/Bereans.htm
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