Amidah 4 - Understanding

What is the meaning of life?
Why is this happening to me?
Why are they like that?
I just don’t understand! … This is the context of the fourth benediction: Binah, the prayer for understanding. “You graciously give knowledge to man and teach mortals understanding: Give to us from Lord Your knowledge, understanding, and intelligence. Blessed be Thou, O Lord, who gives knowledge”

We pray this prayer because we are to seek after understanding “May my cry come before you, O LORD; give me understanding according to your word.” (Ps 119:169) We are to seek after understanding as we week after gold and silver (Prov. 2:1-6) for if we have understanding we will gain everything in life.

Wisdom and understanding existed before the beginning. (Pr. 8) They help us understand God and His ways. (Pr 1:6-7; 28:11; Mt 13:14; Mk 4:12; John 5:20) Understanding is what set Israel apart from other peoples. (Dt 4:6). We are to seek to understand God and His ways.

We are to seek God out and His ways. He is “the Way, the Truth, and the Life.” The more we seek for God, the more we grow and understand. We are encouraged to seek wisdom and understanding. We should never stop seeking and asking, “Why.”

There is a promise given in James: “If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him” (1:5) which encourages us to offer this prayer. “But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.”

We need to seek wisdom in our daily lives – even in the mundane decisions we must make every day. We can ask God when we get up in the morning what we should do that day. When we don’t understand why something didn't work out the way we hoped, we should ask God. We need to ask God about the good things and the bad. The Lord in His time and His ways will show us so we will gain understanding.

As I led our prayer meeting the week after praying for understanding, I realized that this portion of prayer leads us into the next, the prayer of repentance. For as we pray for understanding of God and of ourselves, we also pray for God to show us any sinful way within us. To allow God to show us understanding will allow us to be fully cleansed and draw us closer to Him.

“For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God.” (Col 1:9-10)

“I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms.” (Eph 1:18-20)