IT TAKES TIME TO UNDERSTAND

I Cor. 2:11 No one can know what anyone else is really thinking except that person alone, and no one can know God's thoughts except God's own Spirit.

There is no such thing as a mind reader. There are those who claim to be mind readers, but they are not. No one can know the thoughts of another person. One of the real contributors to conflicts is that we assume we know what the other person is thinking and means when they speak. We get defensive and argumentative when we hear something we think another person is saying that we disagree with or take offense at. Instead of sitting down and talking things through to get a real understanding of things, we become divided and break fellowship with another.

We often do the same thing spiritually. We often assume we know what God is saying or wants without really seeking to discern what we assume to be true. Many false doctrines spring up because we fail to put the effort into really discerning what God is saying. Anyone who is willing to wait on the Spirit of God to reveal the truth of the Scriptures will know the truth. It takes study and meditation to really know what God is teaching us through the Word. A casual reading of the Word of God will never ground us in truth or keep us there.

So many divisions in the church happen because we take such a light view of searching out the Scriptures to discern what it really says. We rely on what others tell us instead of doing our own search. We depend on church doctrine to guide us instead of actually reading the Word ourselves and meditating on it. We are not well-grounded in the Word so we are easily upset when others may disagree with us.

The Lord desperately needs us to be into the Word, study it, meditate on it, and let the Holy Spirit show us how to apply it and empower us to do it. It is the only way we will live in peace with one another and serve the Lord together for His glory.