Sometimes understanding comes later, and faithfulness cannot always wait for it. Some verses don’t just speak to you. They stop you.
That happened to me while reading John 12:16.
John describes Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem when he says the disciples did not understand the significance of what was happening at the time. It was later, after Jesus had been glorified, that they remembered what Scripture had said about Him and began connecting what they had witnessed with what had been written.
“At first his disciples did not understand all this. Only after Jesus was glorified did they realize that these things had been written about him and that these things had been done to him.” John 12:16
I kept coming back to those words: They didn’t understand… they realized after.
These were people walking closely with Jesus. They were watching the story unfold right in front of them, and they still did not fully understand the significance of what they were seeing.
But later, they did, and that made me think about something else Scripture says about faith.
Hebrews 11:8 tells us that when God called Abraham, he obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. That is uncomfortable faith. God gave Abraham something to obey without giving him every detail he probably would have preferred to know.
And if I am honest, I usually want the opposite.
I want understanding first, then obedience. I want clarity before surrender. I want to know where this is going, why it is necessary, what it will cost, and preferably how everything is going to turn out before I say yes.
Basically, I want the map before I start walking. But sometimes God gives enough clarity for obedience without giving us enough information to answer every question.
And those are not the same thing. I have felt that tension in my own life.
There was a season when I sensed God leading me to focus more intentionally on my children and their well-being, even though part of me wanted to move in a different direction. At the time, I didn’t fully understand what surrender would mean. It felt costly. It felt unclear. It felt like obedience and explanation were not arriving together.
But I knew where I needed to be: present. That season looked like taking my children to therapy, helping them navigate obstacles connected to their diagnoses, advocating for them, learning alongside them, and staying committed to their care.
At the time, that was enough reason to obey. My children needed me. But looking back, I can also see ways God used that season to work in me.
And I think that distinction matters.
I cannot claim to know every reason God allowed or directed every detail of that season. But I can recognize fruit that came from walking through it.
One of those things was a healthier understanding of humility.
I had been selling myself short. I knew how to serve. I knew how to work hard. I knew how to keep going. But somewhere along the way, I had confused humility with shrinking. And those are not the same thing.
Romans 12:3 warns us not to think more highly of ourselves than we should, but in the verses that follow, Paul immediately talks about the different gifts God has given members of the body of Christ. That means sober judgment doesn’t require denying what God has placed in us.
Biblical humility does not inflate our gifts, but it doesn’t pretend they don’t exist either.
Humility recognizes the gift and remembers the Giver.
That season began exposing how uncomfortable I was acknowledging some of what God had placed in me. And I didn’t see that coming; I thought my obedience was about one thing. Looking back, I can see God used it for more than I understood then.
Maybe that is one of the uncomfortable things about obedience. Sometimes it takes us directly through our blind spots. And this is where I think we need to be careful.
Faith is not blindly doing whatever thought enters our head and calling it God’s voice.
We test what we believe against Scripture. We pray. We seek wisdom. We remain teachable. But when obedience to what God has made clear in His Word conflicts with our desire to have every question answered first, Scripture does not tell us to wait until everything makes sense.
It tells us to trust.
Proverbs 3:5 says: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding.”
That does not mean understanding is bad. God gave us minds, so wisdom and discernment matter. But our understanding was never meant to carry the weight of our faith.
God does. There is another moment in John that I find beautiful.
When Peter cannot understand why Jesus is washing his feet, Jesus tells him in John 13:7 that he does not understand what Jesus is doing then, but he will understand afterward.
In that particular moment, Peter really would understand more later. But I don’t think that means God promises to explain every difficult season to us eventually. Some things become clearer with time. Others may remain questions.
Faith cannot depend on eventually receiving an explanation. And strangely, I think there is freedom in that.
Because trusting God is not saying: “I know why this is happening.”
Sometimes trusting God sounds more like: “I don’t understand this, but I know enough about Your character to keep following You.”
That is different.
And maybe that is where some of us are right now. Trying to interpret a moment that has not finished unfolding. Trying to explain something while we are still living inside of it. Trying to force clarity where God may simply be asking us to faithfully respond to what He has already made clear.
Maybe the question is not: “God, will You please explain all of this to me?”
Maybe the better question is: “God, what does faithfulness look like for me right now?”
That is the part I keep coming back to. Abraham did not know where he was going, but he knew Who had called him.
The disciples did not understand everything they were witnessing, but their lack of understanding did not change who Jesus was.
And our confusion does not change His character either.
Sometimes we look back and recognize that what felt like an interruption became a place of formation. Sometimes surrender develops something in us we didn’t know needed developing. Sometimes a direction we resisted produces fruit we could not have predicted.
And sometimes we still have questions. God is faithful there too.
So maybe we need to stop measuring God’s faithfulness by how quickly life makes sense to us.
Some things will make more sense later. Some things might not. But obedience was never supposed to depend on having the whole picture. Faith means we can trust the One who sees it.
So what are you trying to understand before you are willing to obey?
What has God already made clear through His Word that you keep postponing because you want more information? And what would it look like to trust Him with the part you cannot see?
Maybe understanding will meet you later. Maybe some answers will take longer than you hoped. But until then, we do not have to manufacture explanations.
We obey what is clear. We trust His character. We stay humble and teachable.
And we let God be God in the places our understanding cannot reach. Because sometimes obedience comes before understanding. Not because questions are wrong. Not because discernment doesn’t matter.
But because faith ultimately rests in Someone greater than our ability to figure everything out.
Let’s tune in.
