There are times when life makes sense, and there are times when it doesn’t.
Do you think trust requires understanding first, or can faith remain strong even when we don’t fully understand what God is doing?
I think there is a difference between trusting God and understanding God.
Understanding God means grasping something about His ways, purposes, or character.
Trusting God means relying on Him even when we don’t have all the answers.
Scripture often calls us to trust before we fully understand. Proverbs 3:5 says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.” Job is a powerful example. He never received a full explanation for his suffering, yet he continued to trust God’s wisdom and sovereignty.
Understanding can strengthen trust, but faith doesn’t depend on having every question answered. Sometimes the deepest trust is shown when we can honestly say, “I don’t understand what God is doing, but I know who He is.”
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I read the Bible and tell my wife I have no idea what it means. We have started using the Bible Recap along with it and it is a great tool. We have recommended it to family/friends and some have already discovered it or have started.
The more we read the Bible the more we’ll learn about our God, but there’s no one who has the full picture. We will know as we are known at a future date when the Lord returns for us. But, we can still trust Him and our trust grows as we experience His faithfulness. So yes, there is a difference between the two -trusting and understanding. How can we possibly understand something we’ve never experienced. Holiness for example. How can we understand that our God is love but also a consuming fire and both at the same time. We don’t understand, but we believe it because He said so.
Trust is what we do when we do not have understanding. I prayed that before. I said,Lord I don’t understand what you’re doing, but I trust you. So faith can remain very strong without understanding.
To batach (trust) is to fall into spacious security using the simple Qal stem – a posture of the whole person; to bin (understand) is to actively cause discernment using the Hiphil stem – an act of mental differentiation between things. The first requires no object except God; the second requires an object of analysis. Proverbs 3:5 forbids leaning on the second (binah) while commanding the first (batach).
Pro 3:5 Trust in Hashem with all thine lev, and lean not unto thine own binah (understanding).
Pro 3:6 In all thy drakhim acknowledge Him, and He shall make yosher thy orkhot (paths).
Pro 3:7 Be not chacham in thine own eyes; fear Hashem, and depart from rah.
Pro 3:8 It shall be rife’ut (health) to thy navel, and marrow to thy atzmot.
Pro 3:9 Honor Hashem with thy substance, and with the reshit (firstfruit) of all thine increase;
Pro 3:10 So shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy vats shall burst out with tirosh.
Pro 3:11 Beni (my son), despise not the musar Hashem; neither be weary of His tokhakhah (reproof);
Pro 3:12 For whom Hashem loveth, He correcteth; even as an av the ben in whom he delighteth.
J.
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Heb 11:1- Now faith is the ASSURANCE of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
We have to be CERTAIN!