Keep Learning

February 11, 2008

By Gary Rogers

Life learning should never end. The person who stops learning becomes a target for disaster. In this fast-paced, technological world we quickly are left behind and miss our potential if we stop learning.

I know some people who refuse to have a computer in their home. They view the use of a computer as knowledge so complex and unattainable they are intimidated by it. “I don’t even know how to turn one on,” I’ve heard some say.

On the other hand, each of my five grandsons — even the youngest one at 4 — can turn on a computer. None of them are intimidated. In fact, if you turn your back on them, chances are they’ll have everything electronic in the room turned on and maxed out within minutes. Before those boys could say their name clearly all of them could get their favorite DVD out of the box, in the player and be sitting in my chair within five minutes of walking in the front door.

A mind refusing to learn can become a closed, arrogant, self-righteous vault sealed to receiving instruction from the Lord. It is so important we remain open to the correction and instruction of the Holy Spirit. Our God is infinite. No one has complete, all-inclusive knowledge of Him. The moment a believer refuses to grow in the knowledge of the Lord is the same time their view of God makes Him manageable and predictable.

Newton D. Baker said, “The man who graduates today, and stops learning tomorrow, is uneducated the day after.” From a Christian perspective, “The person who receives knowledge and understanding of God today, and stops hungering for more tomorrow, is spiritually cold, dry, and indifferent the day after.”

God wants us to continue to hunger and thirst and grow in Him, and that’s a goal we’ll be pursuing throughout eternity.

“How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand” (Psalm 139:17,18, NIV).

— Gary Rogers is senior pastor of First Assembly of God in Coweta, Okla.