Does anyone understand how I'm feeling?

Encourage one another and build each other up (1 Thessalonians 5:11).

"You can’t understand what I’m going through!" A lot of people feel this way. They feel isolated, alone with their problems. They don’t believe that anyone else can possibly understand how they feel, what their life is like at this moment.

"You can’t understand what I’m going through!" With these words, the suffering person pushes away those who would offer help. They feel that any advice from someone clueless to their pain would only be a waste of time. In fact, they fear that having to explain their pain will only make the hurt feel worse—better, in the end, to just be left alone.

But you know what? Everyone knows what it feels like to have their trust betrayed. Everyone has been lied to. Everyone has been made to cower in fear by cruel words or the threat of violence. Everyone has had something stolen from them. Everyone has been insulted or treated with disrespect.

God gave the Ten Commandments to regulate our behavior, because it is our nature to act without regard for the pain that our choices might inflict upon others; and it is because of our unwillingness to obey the Commandments that every one of us knows what it’s like to be betrayed, lied to, threatened, stolen from, and disrespected. Sin is a problem common to all people, as is the pain that comes from being hurt by another person’s sinful behavior.

A woman whose husband has cheated on her might say to me, "You can’t understand what I’m going through!" Now it’s true that I am a man and that my wife has never cheated on me; nevertheless, I still know from experience what it feels like to be betrayed by someone whom I trusted implicitly. I can still sympathize with that woman’s feelings of betrayal and the fear of ever trusting anyone again. Sin levels the playing field for all of us. We all commit sins; we are all victims of the sins committed by those around us. This is why we need Jesus to walk with us, hand in hand, every day. On the cross, Jesus suffered the torment of every sin to win relief for us. Only He can forgive us for hurting others. Only He can give us true release from the pain of being victimized by sin.