Proverbs 14:7
Leave the presence of a fool, for you will not meet the words of knowledge.
Proverbs 14:10
No one else can know your sadness [Literally: A heart knows its emotional distress], and strangers cannot share your joy. [EXB]
Here is a great and simple verse that serves as a quick reminder not to judge others. We cannot know the sadness in someone’s heart, what they’ve genuinely gone thru, or everything affecting them up to and at this point. We just can’t. Only their heart knows. And even if we could know, we would still not grasp it fully because of the fact of everyone being affected uniquely due to our individual wiring and life circumstances.
Think of how we could be more loving and understanding if we entered every situation in this humility of surrender to the fact that we cannot possibly know every emotional nuance of this person’s life. We defer to the only One who knows everything about them. With this mindset, we will listen better, and most importantly, pray for them with a greater depth and fervor. For we would then be consciously calling upon the true Expert on their lives for the most divine, and therefore effective, of help.
Paradoxically, by accepting the fact that I cannot comprehend the depths of another person’s emotional state, I believe we can more fully enter in to their sadness and hurts so as to comfort and minister much more effectively. We can then more appropriately point them to Jesus who enables us to enter in (in part of course), if He allows us, where He enters in to the fullest degree.
Matthew 14:13,23
Jesus regularly got alone to be with His Father. This was vital to His life. It was jugular, as we like to say here. How much it should be so with us!
Why do we not spend time alone with Him? What could possibly be more important? We literally have nothing better to do.
I have found it to be the most rewarding part of my day and week. We were made to be with Him. Anything else is second rate.
God is the only thing that truly gives life. I like how my friend Andy Chen described sin a year ago–A decision to take action on something that I believe will give me more life than God. Sounds so ridiculous when put like that…
Solitude…means not only the absence of other people. It means detachment, as far as possible, from our normal routines, reliances, and roles. Solitude calls us to confront ourselves with a directness impossible in everyday life, to learn who we really are and what we can rely on.
-Parker Palmer
Matthew 14:30
But when Peter saw the wind he became afraid and started to sink. He shouted, “Lord, save me!”
This story never gets old to me. Life is so much what we choose to look at, to focus upon.
The storm.
Or Jesus.
Focus on the crap, and your day will be crap.
Focus on Jesus, His love and provision, and it will be a joyful day despite the circumstances.*
*Remember, we define “joy” as Someone glad to be with you.