Obedience Rarely Makes Sense at the Time

Genesis 11:1, ESV

Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.

Proverbs 3:5-6, ESV

Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.

When God leads us to take a step of obedience, there’s usually something unknown within it—something(s) that doesn’t make sense. We see this all throughout scripture.

• Abraham didn’t know where he was going.

• Moses didn’t know the Red Sea was going to split.

• Joshua didn’t know the walls of Jericho were going to come down.

• Gideon didn’t know how God was going to use his small army to defeat the Midianites.

• David didn’t know how the stone was going to bring down the giant.

And on and on and on—right into the New Testament.

• The disciples didn’t know how filling some vats with water was going to fix the need for wine—or how Jesus was going to feed thousands of people with five loaves of bread and two fish.

That’s why obedience requires trust. Trust is the mortar that binds us to God and strengthens our structure as He builds us—brick by brick—upward and outward. 

We will only go as far as our trust takes us.

That’s why God goes to such extreme measures to build the strength of that mortar. 

God wants us to learn to trust Him—and trust requires that He doesn’t tell us all the details. So He sends us along paths we don’t fully understand and can’t fully “figure out.”

Then, we obey and trust—and see what God does.

• Abraham ended up in the promised land with a son of his old age.

• The Red Sea split in two, and Moses led the Israelites through on dry ground.

• The walls of Jericho collapsed.

• The Midianite army turned on itself.

• The Spirit-empowered stone took down the giant.

• The water turned into wine.

• The fish and bread were multiplied.

So trust and obey—and see what God does.

Our path always makes sense to the Director of our steps, even when it doesn’t make sense to us.