Matthew 15:10
And he called the multitude, and said unto them Hear, and understand.
Jesus tells us to ‘understand’ even though that He knows that we don’t always. He tells us to understand knowing that there is a possibility that we don’t. Even when He was here in the physical, explaining things lovingly and patiently, people didn’t understand.
I think we as believers today understand more of what Jesus was up to, than the 12 desciples that walked with Him for 3 years.
Even years after the crucifixion and resurrection, Peter still had problems understanding:
1 Corinthians 13:12 For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part;
The fact is, although we can read the Bible, go to church for 50 years, we still can’t honestly say that we totally ‘get it’. We understand in part all the things that God wants to teach us. Somethings just aren’t meant for us to understand now. Not only things in the Bible, but also in day to day life.
Our minds are like computers. We want to be able to file things away. There is stuff that happens to all of us that we do not understand. We don’t know whatto do with it. It frustrates us when we don’t know where to file something away.
When we have a physical paper file we tend to hold on to it until we figure out where to put it. We go around asking people, who have no idea about your filing system. We tell everyone who sees our file on our desk that we don’t know where to put it. We walking around with it in our hand, waiting. It messes up the rest of the filing system. We become disorganized and un-functional. Same thing or worse when we have a mental file that we don’t know where to place.
We need to create a new file folder. This one is called the ‘I don’t understand file’. Read something that you don’t understand in the Bible, place it in the ‘I don’t understand’ fold. Something bad happens to you? Something that doesn’t make sense? You have to let go of things you don’t understand. Place it in the‘I don’t understand’ file.
Put what you don’t understand, your hurts and your problems, into the ‘don’t understand’ folder, and just walk away. There are so many things that we do understand. Obey the parts of the Bible you understand. Dwell on the things in your life that are good and make sense. Walk away from the rest.
JV McGee said ‘Sometimes reading the Bible is like eating chicken and dumplings. If you find a bone, take it, put it beside the plate, and keep on eating’. That is like filing it away. Don’t keep on trying to eat it. File it away to the side of the plate. Reading the tough parts of the Bible, going through a trauma, getting bad reports, has all the same remedy. Enjoy the good, put away the bad.
Feeding the hungry, loving the unloveable, visiting the sick and lonely, working to provide, raising a family, honoring God, loving Him with all your body, soul and mind. Those are things we can all understand. Those are things we can all understand and do.
Let go of the bad, or ‘I don’t understand’ things in your life, and focus on thegood, and the things that you do understand.
Ask Jesus to help you carry on, to let the bad stuff go, and to embrace the good stuff. Thank Him for what you can understand. Thank Him for the good things that happened to you, and what you can do through Him.
Dean