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Understanding Others

“Apply your heart to understanding.”
Proverbs 2:2

Understanding is a matter of the heart, just as knowledge is a matter of the head. To understand is to know intimately in experience; it is to become deeply acquainted with. Understanding begins with God, who knows all intimately. Many may look on the outside, but God looks on the heart. The psalmist speaks of His knowing your steps before you take them and your words before you speak them. He formed and fashioned you in your mothers’ womb and knows the number of days of your life. He knows the intentions of your heart and the inner struggles of your flesh. And still He loves you. He’s known you. He knows your future failures and has not rejected you.

No greater testimony of “understanding” can we find than the Word becoming flesh and dwelling among us (John 1:14). This is about God being with us, as us! Christ could have come to earth, died on a cross to pay for our sins, and then immediately returned to glory. He didn’t have to stay for a week, a month, or a year, and yet He lived on earth for a lifetime. He lived so that He too could endure grief, sorrow, hurt and disappointment. He wanted to live as we live because He wants us to know that He understands. Such understanding is additionally miraculous in that even though He knows us, He has not rejected us but welcomes us with open arms.

Prayer
Dear Heavenly Father, Thank You for sending your Son to earth and for understanding and loving me. Your Word promises me that You have not rejected me but that You welcome me as Your own. Create in me the desire to understand others so that I can share the love of Christ with them. I pray this in Jesus’ Name. Amen