A Graduate's Call
(Powerful thirst and hunger for the Word of God)
The first step to walking on the path to Biblical success is to find God's plan for you through a powerful thirst and hunger for the Word of God. The New American Standard Bible holds this truth for the Christian graduate, "And you will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart." (Jeremiah 29:13) "Search" (Hebrew, daras) in it's most important theological meaning involves studying or inquiring into the Law of the Lord (Ezra 7:10) or inquiring of God (Genesis 25:22; Exodus 18:15; Deuteronomy 12:5) Christian graduates are to be like Ezra who "...devoted himself to the study and observance of the law of the Lord, and teaching its decrees [to others]." (Ezra 7:10, Matthew 28:20)
A teachable spirit begins with the proper regard for God's Word. The Bible must become the chart by which Christian graduates make every decision and to which they compare all things. They must learn to think Biblically in regard to every part of life. A man may take the greatest care to follow a road map but if the map is incorrect he will be misled. A man may have the most accurate map and still end up lost if he does not follow it carefully. It is not enough to desire to do right; for ignorance has led many to think that they are doing right before the Lord until they found themselves being chastised by the Lord because of willful ignorance.
Consider 1 Chronicles 13 when David attempted to bring the ark of God to Jerusalem. Uzzah reached out to steady the ark because the oxen stumbled. The Lord struck him down and David tells us why in 1 Chronicle 15:13, "...We did not inquire of Him about how to do it the prescribed way." Christians become like oxen in a china shop when they try to live life and do the Lord's work without inquiring His way through the written Word of God.
Christians accomplish the Lord's will for them when they inquire through what the Bible says how to live for Christ.