When God Sends the Words You Need

Within the last two weeks, I have received two very encouraging text messages.

The first came from someone who told me that the Lord had impressed upon her to remind me that God is hearing me. She encouraged me to expect miraculous answers.

The second message came from someone else who told me that I'm not alone. She reminded me that many Christians are experiencing some of the same things I've been seeing and carrying, and she encouraged me that the direction I've been going with it is the right one.

Then she said something that reached even deeper into my heart.....

She reminded me that behavior and outward appearance aren't where my eyes and heart need to remain focused right now. Instead, I need to pray and focus on the wounded hearts underneath it all. 

I truly took those words deeply to heart because it confirmed all that I had been feeling about it!!

This woman has been a licensed counselor for more than twenty years. She has a PhD in psychology, is a Children's Evangelist, and is also filled with the Holy Ghost. There's wisdom in her words that has been shaped through years of understanding people professionally, but there is also spiritual discernment behind them...and THAT, to me, is extremely important. 

Beyond all of that though, there is history.

We used to play together at church camp when we were children. She's not a stranger looking at me from a distance. The respect and rapport are already there, which made her words carry even more weight with me.

Both messages encouraged my heart more than either of these women probably realized.

God knew they were exactly what I needed, at exactly the time I needed them.

It's so easy to feel as though nobody truly understands the deeper dynamics of a situation. Most people only see what's happening on the surface. They see a reaction, a decision, a change in behavior, or a difficult moment, but they don't always see the history beneath it. They don't see the years of prayer, the complicated relationships, the grief, the questions, the private conversations, or the weight being carried behind closed doors.

Sometimes you begin to wonder whether anyone else could possibly understand what you're seeing or why your heart is responding the way it is.

Then God sends someone.....or two.

Sometimes it's not the person you expected. Sometimes it's someone you haven't spoken with recently or someone who has no way of knowing the full depth of what you've been carrying.

But...they say the very thing your heart needed to hear.

When God uses people to speak into your life that way, It it reminds you that you haven't been overlooked, that your prayers didn't disappear into silence. It reminds you that God sees the parts of the situation that nobody else sees.

And more importantly.....it feeds your faith.

Both messages felt like God speaking into places where I've been praying, questioning, and trying to discern whether I'm seeing things clearly. One reminded me that God hears me and the other reminded me not to become so distracted by what I can see on the outside that I fail to recognize what's crying out underneath it.

That's been the theme of my life....everywhere...God shows me that there's often a wound beneath the behavior. 

There's often fear beneath the anger. There's often rejection beneath the rebellion.
There's often confusion beneath the resistance. There's often a hurting heart beneath the part of a person that everyone else finds difficult to understand.

Like I mentioned in a previous blog, that doesn't mean harmful behavior should be ignored. though. And it doesn't mean that we excuse everything someone does or allow ourselves or others to be mistreated. But it DOES mean we can't afford to become so focused on what a person is doing that we stop praying about what is happening inside of them.

But the LORD said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, 

or on the height of his stature… 

for man looketh on the outward appearance, 

but the LORD looketh on the heart.

- 1 Samuel 16:7

It's only natural to look at what's visible, isn't it? I mean, we see the choices, hear the words, notice the attitude.  We witness the rebellion, the distance, the anger, or the change in someone’s appearance.

But God sees farther than we do! He sees the moment the wound started...and the rejection they never talked about.  He sees the fear hiding behind the defiance and the nights they cried alone!  He sees the thoughts they can't explain and the pain they don't know how to put into words.

While everyone else is responding to what they're portraying, God is listening to what their soul is crying!

And I believe He wants me to listen differently too! To pay attention to what He's been showing me now for years.  To not just listen to the words coming out of someone’s mouth, but to the pain that may be speaking through them.

To not just react to the behavior, but to pray for the heart. To not just ask, “Why are they acting like this?” But to ask, “Lord, what happened to them? What are they carrying? What wound are You trying to reach?”

Sometimes God confirms the direction of our hearts because the road He's leading us down isn't always an easy one. 

It's easier to judge what we can see. It's easier to step back from someone who has become difficult. It's easier to label behavior than it is to sit before God and intercede for the wounded heart producing it.

But love looks deeper!  Discernment looks deeper! Prayer looks deeper!

These two messages reminded me that God has been confirming what He's already been teaching my heart. 

He's hearing the prayers.
He's working where I can't see.
He understands the full depth of situations that others may only see in pieces.
He's reminding me to keep my heart soft enough to look beyond what is happening on the surface.

There are miraculous answers we're still waiting to see!
There are wounded hearts God is still reaching for!
Some people may look lost, angry, resistant, or completely unlike themselves right now, but God hasn't lost sight of who they are beneath the pain!

So I'll keep praying and believing!  And I'll keep asking God to help me see people the way He sees them!

And when my eyes become fixed on the behavior, I'll ask Him to turn my heart back toward the wound because sometimes the very thing that frustrates us on the outside is revealing the place that most desperately needs healing on the inside.  And sometimes..... while we're praying for God to reach someone else’s heart, He sends a person to strengthen ours.