Oh to Understand

I've been meditating on the verse below for the last 3 weeks. While I don't have complete understanding of it all yet I wanted to share with you what I am getting so far:

Isaiah 43:10

You are my witnesses," declares the LORD,

"and my servant whom I have chosen,

so that you may know and believe me

and understand that I am he.

Before me no god was formed,

nor will there be one after me.

Beth Moore had us memorize this verse for our Breaking Free study and she emphasized the facts that our rights as daughters in this journey to freedom is to know and believe God. To have these attributes in our lives involves us learning to trust Him. Beth chose not to focus on the word understand but the Holy Spirit has had me stuck on the word "understand" for the last 3 weeks.

My fixation on the word understand began when during the same week I was memorizing that verse I watched a Love, Marriage and Stinking Thinking episode. Mark Gungor was focusing on communication between spouses and he said his ministry is not about "changing" people but about helping people understand how the other person thinks. Once a person has understanding of how the other person works and operates they can them approach them in ways that the other person can understand. In that episode, he was explaining the reasons why women think men never listen and he explained how a man's brain operates and he gave tips on how best to communicate to a man based on the way they receive information.

Mark Gungor gave the example of a man sitting on a train with his head down and his kids are jumping around, screaming and being wild. Everyone on the train car is getting irritated at the man, why doesn't he deal with his kids? Finally, someone confronts the man and says, "Would you please control your kids?" The man looks up and says, "Oh, I'm sorry. We have just left the hospital, my wife just died. I guess I was consumed with grief and didn't realize they were being disruptive." Suddenly, everyone on the train is full of compassion and they are helping the man with the kids. What changed about the situation? Nothing. The man was still despondent, the kids were still upset but the people understood why they were behaving the way they were and as a result they pitched in and helped the man.

So what does this have to do with God? According to Isaiah 43:10 God has offered us the gift of understanding Him. We all have situations in life and we would like to know the whys of why it is happening; I don't think we are guaranteed the answer to any whys. However, how many situations in life do we not understand the whys and as a result we blame the who? Over the last 3 weeks I am beginning to believe and trust that God has offered us the opportunity to understand the who without understanding the whys.

There may be situations in your life that are difficult. You cannot understand the whys of it happening and you may never get the answer here on earth. But I invite you to ask God to give you understanding of the who, who He is in the situation. Your situation may not change, but because you know where He is and who He is in it you can operate in a completely different way in the situation. You can also look back at previous situations you've been involved in and invite Him to give you understanding where He was and allow Him to break off the lies and false agreements you made because of the situation.

God loves you with an everlasting love, you are the apple of His eyes, He has invited you to walk in daily freedom with him, as his beloved child. Invite Him to give you understanding.