God’s Great Understanding

by Lenae Bulthuis
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o weep and wail and say, “No one understands me!” may be what you’re feeling, but it’s not true. Jesus knows. Jesus understands.
Each heart knows its own bitterness, and no one else can share its joy.
Proverbs 14:10
There’s a part of your heart and mine that sits alone in solitary confinement. There’s an isolated space in our souls that no one else can climb into and fully understand. There are parts of our physical, emotional, spiritual, and/or mental pain that no one else gets.

People may nod in understanding, listen intently, and walk in your shoes as best they can, but to fully press into every ounce of what we’re feeling and experiencing is impossible. No amount of tears, words, or time can reach into that deepest space.

Except for Jesus. To weep and wail and say, “No one understands me!” may be what you’re feeling, but it’s not true. Jesus knows. Jesus understands. Jesus feels every ounce of your pain and can reach into the deepest hurt. In Christ there is no solitary confinement of the soul.

Jesus knows what it is to be misunderstood. He experienced all sorts of differing reactions to His ministry. Even His disciples didn’t get Him most of the time. In the gospel of Mark after He explained His death a second time, Scripture says they did not understand what He meant and were afraid to ask him about it (9:32). As if further proof were needed that they were clueless to His mission, the next thing we read is that on their walk to Capernaum they get in an argument about who is the greatest! So Jesus sits down with them again and explains something we still struggle to “get” today: Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all (Mark 9:35).

Jesus knows suffering. He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain (Isaiah 53:3). He suffered His entire life, but especially at the end. Not only did He experience the excruciating pain of the crucifixion, He drank the cup of wrath as God crushed Him on the cross. His ultimate agony was God turning His face away. The relational pain pierced deeper than the physical!

Jesus sympathizes with our weaknesses (Hebrews 4:15). He has great understanding about what you’re going through. He feels your pain; He knows your hurt. Cry out to Jesus! Approach His throne of grace with confidence so you may receive mercy and find grace to help you in your time of need (Hebrews 4:16).

HE>i: Will you take your hurt to Jesus and rest in Him today?

Don’t for a second believe the lie that Jesus likes your suffering. He hates it, and He wants to do something about it. Let Him help you now, and look forward to the day when He will destroy suffering forever.