Moving Forward When You Do Not Understand

Let’s be honest…often we do not understand what God is doing or what He wants in a particular situation. Possibly is it a desire that is unrealized. Maybe a dream that seems or is shattered. For some, it is an illness, injury, or financial crisis. This list can go on and on. In every one of our lives, we will at times face situations where we simply do not understand what God is doing in our lives. Maybe, for you right now, that is on more than one level. The question when we face these type of situations is, what does moving forward when you do not understand look like?

Consider Joseph in Matthew 1

In Matthew, we read of Joseph hearing about and responding to Mary’s pregnancy. Joseph looked forward to marrying Mary. Their parents had arranged their marriage with their approval. He and she both loved God and each other. As we sometimes say, “It was a match made in heaven.”

Joseph loved her. He busied himself getting ready for their marriage. As engaged, he was busy building a room for them onto the house of his parents. He longed for the day when all the preparations were finished, and he could go get his bride and bring her home.

During this engagement time, Mary went through her purification rites. She demonstrated her sexual purity. Yet, there is a problem. She is visited by an angel and told she was miraculously pregnant by the work of the Spirit of God. Although she is sexually pure, she still is pregnant.

She tells her fiancé the news. No matter how much she tries to explain the angel’s message while promising him that she has been with no other man, Joseph struggles to put it all together. He determines it would be best to put her away privately because he loved her (Matt 1:18-20).

However, as he considered his options, without any category to understand what has happened to his righteous love Mary, he is visited by an angel. The angel explains that she has told the truth, the baby is Jesus, and he should go ahead and get married to his bride.

Joseph woke up from his dream with the angel, chose to trust in God, and without all the answers, chose to obey.

Moving Forward When You Do Not Understand

Joseph demonstrates a proper response to God’s plan – even when we do not understand what is going on in it.

First, he trusted God. With no category to understand a pregnant, virgin fiancé, Joseph chooses to trust the angel from the Lord. He trusts that God’s plan was good, right, and trustworthy. Did he understand Mary’s pregnancy? Absolutely not. He did not understand the biology of it, nor did he understand the significance of it. Yet, he trusted.

Second, he obeyed. Even though he did not completely understand – maybe even barely understand – Joseph obeyed. He got up, went to get Mary and take her as his wife, protected her sexually until the birth, and named the baby Jesus. He obeyed.

Can you image their pillow talk? As they lay there, he probably asked Mary, “Mary, tell me one more time what the angel said.” “What exactly did Elizabeth tell you?” “What did she say happened in her stomach with her baby?” “The Messiah – this is really hard to understand.” “You’re a virgin. This is crazy.”

Did he understand God’s plan? No. But he did trust God and obeyed God.

Friend, this week, we can do the same thing. We need to trust and obey!