#TuesdayTruth John 13:7

“Jesus replied, ‘You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.’ ”

This statement recorded in John 13 is directed from Jesus to His disciples, as He set about the task of washing their feet. If you are like me, you can read that simple sentence and see it applied to your life. I can look back on SO many things in my life and see that, in the “heat of the moment” I did not understand what God was doing in my life, but once it was in my past, I was able to better understand. I was able to look back and say, “Thank you, Lord, for saving me from that” or “Thank you for providing for me when I did not see a way.”

I say this to encourage anyone who finds themself in that position of not knowing or understanding what God might be doing in your life- anyone who does not see a way out of that difficult situation, anyone who does not know which path to take, anyone who does not know how they are going to be able to do all the things they need to do, etc. May I remind you (and myself) that we are not called to understand every single thing/situation/circumstance/event that we encounter. We are called to love our God with all our hearts, all our souls and all our minds, and to love His people as ourselves (Matthew 22:37-40).

I do not say this to indicate that we should be able to shrug off the pain of this life, ignore it and just carry on. There are things that happen in this life that can hurt badly, can break our hearts, can cause us grief, can feel like too much to bear or can bring us to a point that we never thought we would be. Instead, I say this to simply remind us that not everything in life will make sense in the moment. After all, “this is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance. That is why we labor and strive, because we have put our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of all people, and especially of those who believe” (1 Timothy 4:9-10). Our hope is in Him and He will never disappoint.

So, even (especially) when times are hard, we push on, we declare His goodness, and we “fight the good fight of faith” (1 Timothy 6:12). We may not understand what He is doing now, but later we will understand.

Heavenly Father,

Thank you for the comfort of knowing that we do not have to understand it all. Thank you that you very plainly tell us that there are thing that we will encounter that will not make sense in the moment, but will be understood later on. Thank you for meeting us in our pain and for bringing us peace and comfort that only you can give, and that you give us freely. You are truly a good, good Father.

We love you Father, Amen.