Seek Understanding

The other day I overheard a situation regarding a young woman who lives in community with some fellow believers. I heard that this young woman was locked out of her room by her roommates and that things between them have been a bit troubling for some time now. When reflecting upon this situation this morning, the phrase that instantly came to my mind was this: “The same person who closes their heart to another is the same person who has chosen to stop seeking understanding.”  This statement hit me so profoundly!

In regards to this situation of the young woman being locked out of her room, I don’t know the details, but what I do know is that somewhere along the way someone decided to discontinue seeking understanding. Someone decided it would be better to lean on their own understanding of things instead of yielding to the Holy Spirit to lead and guide them into all truth (Prov 3:5-6, John 16:13). Personally I don’t believe that the Holy Spirit would ever lead someone to close their heart to another. I believe that God is able to make all grace abound to us that we would be sufficient in all things and have an ABUNDANCE for every good work (2 Cor 9:8 NKJV emphasis added).

Have you ever felt at your whits end with someone? Have you ever felt as though there was not enough grace for a particular situation you found yourself in? Then may I ask, have you really considered 2 Corinthians 9:8? Daddy God, who loves to see His kids “playing nice”, sharing, and enjoying each other’s company, makes ALL grace abound to us so that we may know His grace that is sufficient and His power that is made perfect in our weakness (2 Cor 12:9). This GRACE and POWER allows us to be abundant in every good work! It allows us to overflow with GOODNESS, a fruit of the spirit, in all things!

My heart grieves to know that this situation is only one of many situations where we as the Body of Christ have chosen to discontinue seeking understanding with our peers and thus have closed off our hearts and adopted a spirit of ignorance and in my opinion, a spirit of pride as a result.

There have been so many times in my life where I have found myself a bit overwhelmed by certain people, perhaps even a bit lost as to how I even felt about them at all. But then I was always reminded by the Holy Spirit that we tend to run from the unknown. During these times the Spirit would often bring me to memories as a child. I used to be afraid of the dark, so afraid that I had to sleep with my light on the entire night because I was afraid of what the shadows would produce while I was sleeping. It wasn’t long before I realized that if I understood and really knew what my room was like in the light, then I wouldn’t be able to be afraid of its appearance in the dark. I wouldn’t be able to be afraid of that chair with the stuffed animal on it that resembled a scary old man when dark fell because I was certain of it’s pre-lights-out appearance.

So much of this is applicable to how we deal with people. If we are able to see people for who they really are, who they are in the Light of eternity and who they are in God’s eyes, then we are able to feel more comfortable around them should they “take another form” or appear to be something they’re not. Does this make sense? When we see the “ugly” in people, we are seeing people absent from the Light. But here’s the thing: because Jesus lives in us, WE ARE THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD! It is up to us to “shine light” on people and allow their true colors to shine. The only reason people appear “dark” to us or “ugly” to us is because we aren’t allowing our lights to shine.  We aren’t allowing ourselves to really seek understanding by “turning on the light” to reveal the true nature of the matter.

People, ALL people, are created in the image of God! Created fearfully and wonderfully made with a very distinct purpose (Psalm 139). People have an inalienable valuable. The Creator of the Universe chose us all before the foundations of the world, He chose us all before He formed us, and He gave His ONLY Son to pay the way for us to be united to Him once and for all.

I truly believe in the saying, “Treat others the way you want to be treated.” I also believe that when we are treating people a bit rotten, that we are really saying that we don’t love nor do we value ourselves. Somewhere deep inside there is this subconscious thought within us that we aren’t good enough, or that we deserve to be treated poorly. See, hurt people, hurt people. Loved people, love people.

I know that for me personally the more I have learned to love myself and receive the perfect love of the Father, the more I am able to love others in such a beautifully authentic manner. Why? Because I am convinced of it myself. I am convinced that I am loved when I am at my “worst” and also convinced of it when I am at my “best”. Therefore I am convinced that my friend over here is loved and deserving of love in the same scenario.

So if you’re finding yourself at odds with someone ask yourself this, “Have I closed my heart off to seeking understanding? Do I know how valuable I am? Do I know how valuable this person is? Have I done all I can to get understanding (Prov 4:1-13)?” And remember, the enemy comes to steal, kill and destroy (John 10:10)… he tries to bring division between the brethren, so do all you can to “keep your love on!”