Devotional for 1/14/13

To Be Understood as to Understand

 "Then He opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures." Luke 24:45

This passage is highlighted in my NIV Bible to remind me that it is pointless for me to spend time arguing with someone about God’s Word.  Especially since I know that when I started reading the Bible as an adult, most of it went over my head like a huge flock of geese flying south for the winter. I knew what the words said, but I just didn’t get it.

It was discouraging for a while, and I almost gave up, thinking that I was too dense to comprehend what seemed obvious to so many others.  Maybe God didn’t need me to get it.  Maybe He had enough people already, and I was just trying to fit in where I did not belong.  After all, I did not look like anyone else in my church.  Perhaps the people were just too polite to send me away.  They were Christians, after all.

Of course, being a Christian was something else that I did not quite understand either.  So my hard-headed self decided to keep trying. After all, I am a fairly bright person, and I read about the people in the Bible who were considered “less-than” in the eyes of their contemporaries.  Maybe I was one of those people.

Then it came to me.  We are all those people.  The less than perfect, incomplete, flawed human beings who seek love and acceptance. We make so many mistakes.   We fail time and time again. We judge ourselves and misjudge everyone else most of the time.

But if we can humble ourselves and seek the Lord, He will forgive and reconcile us. He will allow us true discernment and understanding, so we can learn to truly love.

I am learning this in small doses with the help of my sisters in Bible Study. I am learning to bow down before I look up for help. Seeing how I can blossom while God heals me inside.  

More and more I am finding the passages in the Bible that I need when I really need them.  Sometimes I gain understanding about what the Lord is saying, when someone I love reads a passage out loud and it seems to fill her with light from within.

We need to study God’s Word for ourselves; the way we would find a quiet place to read and re-read a letter from a person we cherish deeply. The Bible is filled with love letters to each one of us. 

The more I pray and ask for the Lord to open my mind, the more I understand about others and myself.

Written by Lynda Kinnard