My daughter takes piano lessons. There is a lot of consistent practice that is expected when learning an instrument. Recently, she learnt a piece and practiced it daily. When she went for her lesson though, she was told by her piano tutor that she had made some mistakes while playing the piece. Although her tutor corrected her, she continued to make those same mistakes for the next few days.
It took her time to unlearn the wrong notes and relearn what the right notes are. She eventually got it right and played the piece beautifully.
Just like my daughter having to learn, unlearn and relearn the piano piece, we might find ourselves having to learn, unlearn and relearn about God.
Learning about God
We all have our stories of how we first learnt about God. Some of us are blessed to be born into loving Christian homes and learnt about a loving God that died and rose again for us. Others may have been born into families that are pious devotees of different religions. There will be also those that were raised to believe that God did not exist.
We learn about God through our families, friends, school, songs, television and the list goes on and on. We create a view of God based on our life experiences.
Unlearning and relearning
Unfortunately, sometimes we have to unlearn some of our views. Fortunately, God is patient and willing to reveal Himself to us.
Unlearning requires us to humble ourselves and lay down what we think of God that is wrong. We come to a crossroad where our faith is challenged and we need to own it.
We may resist this because it is not what our family believes. We may not want to question what we have unconsciously learn because it would mean that we are wrong. And we may very well not want to unlearn and relearn simply because it requires effort on our part.
However, unless we take the time to deliberately confront our “wrong learning”, we cannot learn who God really is.
Relearning who God really is
So how do we know who God really is? What is God’s heart like? Is He really interested in our lives? Where is God when it hurts?
God did not leave us without a clue. We have the Bible to answer a lot of our questions. “All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right.” (2 Timothy chapter 3, verse 16).
We have the Holy Spirit to minister to us. “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.” (John chapter 14, verse 26).
What is at stake?
Learning, unlearning and relearning about God is vital. Knowing who God really is and acknowledging Him as Lord of our lives is the assurance our salvation. Charles Spurgeon attests that to “be sure we have savingly believed in Him…is the most important question we will ever face in life because our eternal destiny is at stake”.