When You Don’t Understand What God Is Doing

There are seasons of life that make sense while you’re living them.

And then there are seasons you probably won’t understand until much later.

You’re praying.

You’re trying to make wise decisions.

You’re doing what you believe God has asked you to do.

Yet somehow, you still find yourself saying:

“Lord, I don’t understand what You’re doing.”

I’ve learned that one of the hardest parts of faith isn’t trusting God when everything makes sense.

It’s trusting Him when it doesn’t.

Sometimes clarity comes later.

Faith has to live in the meantime.

We Want God to Explain Himself

Most of us would probably admit that trusting God would feel easier if He gave us more information.

We want the plan.

We want the timeline.

We want to know why something happened, how long the season will last, and what’s waiting on the other side.

Basically, we want God to hand us the itinerary before we agree to take the trip.

But Proverbs gives us something different:

“Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not rely on your own understanding; in all your ways know him, and he will make your paths straight.” — Proverbs 3:5–6, CSB

That verse hits differently when you’re actually living through something you don’t understand.

Because Scripture doesn’t say, “Understand God with all your heart.”

It says:

Trust Him.

Understanding and Trust Aren’t the Same Thing

Understanding says, “I know why this is happening.”

Trust says, “I know Who is with me while it’s happening.”

That’s a major difference.

There have probably been things in your life that made absolutely no sense while you were going through them.

The closed door.

The delay.

The relationship that changed.

The opportunity that disappeared.

The season that lasted longer than you expected.

But then time passed.

You looked backward and started connecting dots you couldn’t connect while moving forward.

You realized God was protecting you.

Preparing you.

Redirecting you.

Strengthening you.

Or simply teaching you something you wouldn’t have learned any other way.

Sometimes hindsight gives us the explanation that the present moment refuses to provide.

Joseph Couldn’t See Egypt From the Pit

Think about Joseph.

God gave him dreams about his future, but what happened next certainly didn’t look like the dream.

His brothers betrayed him.

He was sold into slavery.

He was falsely accused.

He ended up in prison.

Imagine Joseph trying to make sense of that season.

God, You showed me one thing, but my life looks like something completely different.

Yet God hadn’t lost control.

Joseph eventually became second-in-command in Egypt and was positioned to preserve his family during famine.

The purpose became clearer later.

But Joseph had to live through years when later hadn’t arrived yet.

That’s where faith lives.

Don’t Make a Permanent Conclusion From an Unfinished Season

This is something I have to remind myself:

Don’t judge the whole story while God is still writing the chapter.

We’re quick to interpret unfinished situations.

“This isn’t working.”

“God must have forgotten me.”

“I must have missed Him.”

“This season has no purpose.”

Maybe.

But maybe you’re simply standing in the middle of something whose meaning hasn’t been revealed yet.

A construction site looks nothing like the finished building.

There’s dust everywhere.

Things are torn apart.

Materials are scattered around.

And if you didn’t know construction was happening, you might assume something had been destroyed.

Sometimes our lives look the same way.

What feels like disorder may actually be God rebuilding something.

What feels like an ending may be transition.

What feels like waiting may be preparation.

You simply can’t see the finished work yet.

Faith Has to Live in the Meantime

That may be the hardest place to live spiritually.

The meantime.

You prayed, but you haven’t seen the answer.

You believe God, but you still have questions.

You know Scripture, but you’re still trying to understand your circumstances.

You trust Him, but some days you wish He would just explain what’s happening.

That’s okay.

Faith doesn’t mean pretending you have no questions.

Faith means your questions don’t become greater than your confidence in God.

You can say:

“Lord, I don’t understand this.”

And then say:

“But I still trust You.”

Those two sentences can live in the same prayer.

Trust What You Know About God

When you don’t understand the season, go back to what you know about the God of the season.

God is faithful.

God is present.

God sees what you can’t see.

God knows what you don’t know.

God hasn’t stopped working simply because you can’t recognize what He’s doing.

And God is already standing in the tomorrow you’re worried about today.

So maybe you don’t need all the answers tonight.

Maybe you don’t need to understand why this season happened before you can keep walking through it.

Keep praying.

Keep moving.

Keep trusting.

Keep believing.

Because clarity may come later.

And when it does, you may look back and finally understand some things that make absolutely no sense right now.

But until then, remember:

You don’t have to understand the season to trust the God of it.

And sometimes that kind of trust is exactly what the season came to teach you.