I Don't Understand

You know those moments that just stick with you? The ones that form you and shape you more than you would have ever expected. The ones that are really pretty mundane, but somehow get cemented in your memory. 

I had one of those moments in college sitting with a group of friends in a dorm room, and one girl shared how it had taken her years to fall in love with the Bible. She said she read it diligently every day for about 3 years before she started to genuinely enjoy it. 

I remember feeling a sense of relief, because I didn’t always enjoy reading my Bible in that season. Some days it felt like a chore and it didn’t make sense. But I also remember being so encouraged that it was possible to really fall in love with the Bible. 

This was a girl my age getting a regular college degree and she had fallen in love with the Bible. This simple moment freed me up to realize that I didn’t have to be a pastor, theologian, or seminary student to love the Bible. I just had to be diligent and keep reading, even on the days I didn’t understand.

“Then he said to them, ‘These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.’ Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures,” - Luke 24:44-45 (emphasis added)

The disciples followed Jesus at least 3 years before their minds were opened to understand the scriptures. He even told them point blank what would happen to him and they couldn’t believe it.

We can’t begin to understand it until the Spirit opens our hearts to understanding, and that’s not in our control. The Spirit decides when to do that. All we can do is obediently submit to Him, reading scripture daily or more with a heart that desires to understand.

“As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” - Isaiah 55:9

Like the disciples, we may not understand, and we won’t fully understand until Christ returns and that’s okay. His ways are higher than ours and often we have to be ok with not fully understanding. We just need to trust Him.

“At Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night, and God said, ‘Ask what I shall give you.’ And Solomon said, ‘...Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, that I may discern between good and evil…’” - 1 Kings 3:5,9

God came to Solomon and asked him what he wanted. He asked God for wisdom, discernment, and understanding. God was so pleased with him that he gave him riches and honor and a long life too! In order to ask for wisdom, Solomon first had to be humble enough to recognize that he wasn’t wise. He knew how much he needed the Father if he was going to lead Israel well.

Is that something that blocks you from understanding the Scriptures? Do you feel like you already know everything you need to know, or are you open to being humbled and learning wisdom from God’s word?

Like Solomon, ask for wisdom and it will be given to you. In that wisdom, you will begin to understand things about scripture in a supernatural way. 

And when, like me, you are struggling to even want to read the Word, you can ask the Lord and He will give you a hunger and desire for it. That’s in part why He gave us the Holy Spirit. When we don’t have the strength, the Holy Spirit helps us. He gives us the desire, and gives us the strength to keep pressing on. 

“Lean not on your own understanding, but in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight.” - Proverbs 3:5-6

We have a limited viewpoint of things. We can only see our own circumstances from our own eyes, and interpret it with our own mind. God sees it all. He sees the whole story playing out on a cosmic scale and He can understand things beyond our comprehension. Sometimes He will grant us understanding, and some things will remain a mystery at least until Christ returns.

We’ve got to learn to be patient when we come across scripture that’s difficult to understand and rely on the Lord to reveal to us what we need to know. God doesn’t expect us to have it all figured out. That’s why he told us to seek Him, and promised we will find Him.

So I challenge you to seek Him this week and don’t give up when you come across a difficult scripture. Keep pressing in and seek the Lord.

“I love those who love me; and those who diligently seek me will find me.” - Proverbs 8:17