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ASSUMPTIONS & PRESUMPTIONS

No one likes to be misunderstood, yet we often make faulty judgments of people and situations, and even God, because of insufficient knowledge and lack of understanding. Misunderstandings, and our failure in resolving them, are ever so often the cause of relationships falling apart. We lack understanding, or like the author of Hebrews despaired, “we no longer try to understand” (Heb 5:11).

We misunderstand God because we do not seek to understand Him or His ways, unlike stalwarts like Moses, David and Paul who sought to know God and understand His ways.

We make the same mistake with people too. We judge based on partial information and seldom seek to verify or give the person the benefit of the doubt. We assume we know their motives better than them and refuse to hear them out when they try to help us understand. These baseless presumptions and assumptions are used by Satan to cause much damage in relationships, by breeding doubt and discord that leads to division, feeding our pride, deceiving us to think that our assumptions are always right and by not allowing us to humble ourselves and admit that we judged wrong.

We needlessly get worked up and upset because we don’t know what the other person is going through. The lack of communication further adds fuel to the fire that is already smoldering.

There is sufficient information in the Bible about God and the way He works. Above all, we have direct access to Him, to know Him and even reason with Him or clarify any doubts we may have, not to mention the body of believers and elders within the church who can also guide us in understanding our Father. Let us be like Job, who in all his troubles and depression and ranting did not make the mistake of charging God with wrongdoing because of his own inability to understand his afflictions (Job 1:22). Wrong assumptions about God that are not based on His word lead to false teaching and faltering of faith.

Let us also be slow to judge people, for with the measure we use, we will also be judged (Matthew 7:2).

The CHALLENGE to Change:

Sincerely ask God to increase your ability to understand Him, and the people around you. Let us not make faulty judgments about any one or any situation. Lord, increase my capacity to understand.