I haven’t been a full-time student for decades, but when fall comes around something clicks in me, and I’m ready to go out and buy some notebooks, pads of paper and colored pens. Ready to go back-to-school. Hit the books.
You might be deep into graduate school or the parent or grandparent of a kid just starting out in kindergarten. Along with the books and backpack you buy for your youngster or the laptop you carry around, every student deserves to be wrapped in prayer. No getting out the door without it. Here are some Bible verses that offer support. Lean on them.
1) Blessed be the Lord, who daily bears us up; God is our salvation (Psalm 68:19). Learning is something that happens day after day. There can be good days and bad days. “I can’t make any sense of this math problem,” you might say or “How will I ever remember those vocabulary words?” Take heart. The Lord is present to bear us up, helping us study hard and apply ourselves. That good grade didn’t come from nowhere.
2) Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God (Philippians 4:6). Haven’t we all had dreams of turning up for a test and discovering we studied the wrong thing or forgot to bring a pen? Or some such nightmare. Our anxieties are not unique. As the Apostle Paul says, when the worries descend, put them in prayer.
3) Listen to advice and accept instruction, that you may gain wisdom for the future (Proverbs 19:20). Even if I’m not a full-time student, I work hard at listening, whether it is a friend giving me advice or my wife offering insights on behavior. I want to be a full-time student of life. Growing in wisdom. That is the back-to-school future.
4) And when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left, your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it” (Isaiah 30:21). God is the best teacher, wanting us to succeed. How though? What if we’re struggling with a paper we’re assigned to write? Or befuddled by a question in class. How do we move forward? As this verse makes clear, we’re meant to listen to that inner voice. It will guide us. I can think of times when I closed my eyes for a minute in the middle of a test. And prayed. That inner voice was there.
5) “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock” (Matthew 7:24). It’s not just a matter of learning, but as these words of Jesus make clear, we’re supposed to act on what we learn. Not for nothing was Jesus referred to as “Rabbi” or “Teacher” by the disciples and his followers. What we learn in school can change our lives, leading us onward. Building a solid foundation. Put your house on a rock.
