A Prayer for Encouragement When You are Misunderstood
By Sophia Bricker
Bible Reading:
“He was despised and rejected— a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked away. He was despised, and we did not care. Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down. And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for his own sins!” (Isaiah 53:3-4, NLT).
Listen or Read Below:
Quietness is often mistaken for indifference. Sometimes, even anger or insubordination. That was what a fourth-grade substitute teacher assumed when she taught me. As always, I sat quietly at my desk, hands folded, and my attention focused on the teacher. Unlike others in the class, I did not yell out answers or talk during the lesson. My mother had taught me to remain quiet at school, and I was naturally shy. Even my closest friends knew I was not prone to talkativeness.
But then the substitute teacher paused after a lesson question. “Anyone have a guess?” She pointed at me. “How about you? Are you too good to answer? A little snob.”
Perhaps she was having a difficult day or had a bad encounter with a class in the past. However, the remark cut deep, and not just because of the insult. To be misunderstood, having quiet attentiveness taken for prideful judgment, was painful. Tears stung my eyes, but didn’t spill until I told my mother about the incident on the way home from school.
Most of us have experienced times when others misunderstood our words, actions, or intentions. A student’s silence is mistaken for snobbery. A mother’s wise rule for a child is taken as an uncaring mandate. Or a conversation between friends is misconstrued because of hearsay. Regardless of our situation, we can find comfort knowing that we are not alone. Our Savior knows what it is like to be wrongly judged. For He is the perfect Son of God, yet the religious and governmental leaders had Him crucified as a criminal (Isaiah 53:3-9). They hurled insults at Him as if He were a wicked sinner.
How wrong they were! But still, Jesus endured the pain of being misunderstood, being called a sinner though He, the sinless Lamb of God, hung on the cross to die for the sins of us all. As Scripture says, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21, ESV).
Though our experience does not match the Lord’s, we can be comforted knowing that He empathizes with our pain. And like Him, we can entrust our case to the Father, who knows the situation perfectly, as others are incapable of doing (see 1 Peter 2:23). We can take the tears of being misunderstood and give them to the Lord. He sees the truth clearly.
May we also learn from the hurt of others falsely judging us, so that we become more apt to listen and less likely to jump to conclusions. Or, in the words attributed to St. Francis of Assisi, “Grant that we may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love.”
Let’s pray:
Precious Savior who came to that which was Your Own, yet was rejected and despised, teach me to respond to mistaken judgments with grace and humility, as You did. For You know the stab of pain that comes when others misunderstand and slander the good that was done. You, the spotless Lamb of God, were falsely accused and sentenced to death as a criminal.
As I take comfort in Your empathy, knowing that You understand the hurt I feel when I am misunderstood, help me learn from this experience. To remember the sorrow of incorrect judgment so that I may grow in my ability to understand and listen to others. To be more willing to understand rather than being understood. I do not want to hastily come to conclusions about others, just as I do not want them to impulsively judge me. Instead, let Your grace guide me so that I spend more time listening and observing rather than quickly voicing my opinions.
Even if others do not come to recognize the truth, I trust my pain to You since You know all things. You are the Righteous Judge who was willing to take my sin, dying the death I deserve, so I may have everlasting life. In Your name, Christ, I pray. Amen.
Share your reflections on today’s devotional in the Your Daily Prayer discussion on the Crosswalk Forum.
Photo Credit: ©Getty Images/Kamonwan Wankaew
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