I hate to admit it, but…I didn’t pay attention to our Bible
Lesson Sunday morning as well as I should have.
The reason?
The passage jumped
out at me in a new light, and a LightThoughts thought began to take shape. I spent the remainder of the hour reading and
rereading the passage and recognizing very quickly the educational layout of
the passage. Was Paul responding to a lesson plan? Was he writing an anecdotal
observation/reflection about himself?
Somehow I had never noticed the educational terminology in
Philippians 4:10-13.
Every good lesson plan begins with two basic parts. When the
lesson is completed, what do I, as the teacher, want the students to KNOW, and what
do I want them to be able to DO? From there the lesson plan develops between those
two points…Now I include such things as: What do I want them to UNDERSTAND? What CONCLUSIONS do I want them
to draw? By ANALYZING the information, what skills do I want them to perform?
In other words, when it is all said and done, what do I want them to Do as a
result of this lesson?
How do students get from Point KNOW to Point DO? It all depends on what they LEARN in the
process.
It is here that Philippians 4:11-13 jumped out at me because all
three of those words appear in those three verses!
Paul writes that he KNOWS (verse 12) how be abased and how
to abound. He could make a list of what would be considered poverty and what
would be considered riches. This is the KNOW part of the lesson plan~ basic
facts about the topic the teacher wants his/her students to be able to reproduce.
Being able to make a list is one of the categories included under the main
objective of KNOWING. Now, that doesn’t always mean the student understands the deep
rooted meaning of the lesson, nor that he/she can actually make comparisons between
the two lists, or be able to analyze the two~~ but he/she can make a list.
The lesson can’t stop there…
one must be able
to DO something with that list!
In verse 13 Paul states that he can DO all things
through Christ Who strengthens him. Paul now states what he can DO
with that list.
What led him from KNOWING to DOING? Notice what he states in
the second half of verse 12 (and also in verse 11). Paul states, “I have
LEARNED...”. God had included learning steps into His lesson plan for Paul’s
life. Paul didn’t just make a list, he lived it! He learned enough to be able to
fully understand the concept, and he was able to draw some significant
conclusions and analyze his options. He LEARNED that he could be content and
satisfied with his circumstances. He LEARNED that God was right there with him
through the trials (See 2 Corinthians 11:24ff for Paul's life-lessons!).
My friend, you may have heard the head KNOWledge that
teaches that God is faithful and that God provides. Now, once you have actually
LEARNED it (experienced it), you can then DO something with it!
You can
confidently proclaim that through any circumstance you can be content and
satisfied with God’s plan for your life. You can now ENDURE, GO THROUGH, and
MOVE FORWARD through any circumstance because now you KNOW (because you have LEARNED)
that you will be guided by God’s All-mighty, loving hand!
Listen to your "Teacher"~~
Debbie
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