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Day 44: Understanding

Sometimes our emotions impact our capacity to hear and understand God’s voice. Do you agree? How receptive are you, emotionally?

by David Joynt on May 23, 2016

Day 44: Understanding

JOHN 16:12 

The remainder of this passage is encouraging and humbling at the same time. Jesus reminds us, in this single verse, that our desire for understanding is greater than our capacity for understanding. We can formulate questions we cannot answer, we yearn for truths that lie beyond our comprehension.


Sometimes these “cognitive deficits” simply reflect our limitations as small creatures trying to grasp the ways of a vast universe and a Supreme Creator. Sometimes they reflect our current emotional state. Jesus knew the disciples were perplexed about the coming cross and terrified of his departure. Afraid and anxious, they were not ready for some of the information he wanted to give them. God’s revelation to us is limited by what we can “bear.”

Tags: devotional, encountering, understanding

About the Author
David Joynt

Dave Joynt began his service as a pastor at Valley Presbyterian Church in Paradise Valley, Arizona in September 2014. This meant a move away from the Northeast, where he has a long history, growing up in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and then serving congregations in Delaware and New Jersey for a total of 23 years.

Dave was nurtured in a great church in Bethlehem where his parents, Anne and Carey, served as elders. He graduated in classics from Lehigh University where his Father taught, and then from Oxford, where he met his wife Julia. Ordained in 1988, he completed a Ph.D. from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1993.

He and Julia have a son, Tristan, and a daughter, Madeleine.

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