How to Trust God When You Don't Understand
Have you ever been believing God for something, doing everything you know to do, and yet it seems like nothing is happening?
We’re accustomed to getting things quickly.
But some of the things God wants to do in our lives require something Amazon can’t deliver:
patient endurance.
And learning to trust God when you don’t understand what He’s doing is part of that process.
Quick Answer
Trusting God when you don’t understand means continuing to believe what God has said even when you can’t see how or when His promise will come to pass.
Instead of allowing impatience, circumstances, or human reasoning to determine your next move, you remain faithful to God’s Word and follow His direction.
Patient endurance doesn’t mean doing nothing. It means continuing in faith without surrendering your hope or trying to force the outcome yourself.
Prefer to Watch?
Watch Pastor Jack’s Patient Endurance teaching to discover why waiting doesn’t mean God isn’t working—and how patient endurance helps us stay in faith while God brings His promises to pass.
When Nothing Seems to Be Happening
Hebrews 6:13–15 gives us an important picture of Abraham’s journey of faith:
“For when God made a promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself, saying, ‘Surely blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply you.’ And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise.”— Hebrews 6:13–15 NKJV
Notice what it doesn’t say.
It doesn’t say Abraham received the promise immediately.
He patiently endured.
That’s difficult when you’re believing God and nothing seems to be happening.
You start asking questions.
“Lord, I keep praying.”
“I’m believing.”
“I’m standing.”
“I have Scriptures.”
“I’m doing what You told me to do.”
“Why isn’t anything moving?”
The danger in that moment is allowing what we can see—or what we can’t see—to determine whether we still trust God.
Because something can be happening even when you have absolutely no idea it’s happening.
God May Be Working Where You Can’t See
I’ve been a member of the same health club for a huge portion of my life.
Between different memberships, I’ve probably spent around 35 years at that same gym.
I know everybody.
My family has been there. I’ve worked there. I’ve had opportunities to minister to people there. I have an enormous amount of favor there.
It’s almost like a home away from home.
Then one day I walked in and somebody told me:
“The MAC (my gym) just got sold.”
What?
I had no idea it was even for sale.
From my perspective, nothing had been happening.
But behind the scenes, people had been working on that sale for weeks.
There were conversations I didn’t hear.
Decisions I didn’t know about.
Things were moving that I couldn’t see.
Then suddenly, everything changed.
That gave me a picture of what can happen when we’re believing God.
You may look at your circumstances and think:
“Nothing is happening.”
But you don’t know everything God is doing behind the scenes.
There may be things being arranged and put into motion that you cannot see yet.
And then the moment comes when what has been happening behind the scenes suddenly becomes visible.
The turnaround can happen so quickly that it catches you by surprise.
There may be more going on that you can’t see than there is that you can see.
That’s why you have to keep trusting God.
Don’t Let Human Reasoning Replace Patient Endurance
One of the greatest dangers while we’re waiting is trying to help God fulfill His promise.
Have you ever been believing for something long enough that you finally thought:
“Lord, I think I know how we can speed this up.”
Abraham and Sarah did.
God had promised Abraham descendants, but the years kept passing and Sarah still hadn’t had a child.
Eventually, they began reasoning about how they could make the promise happen themselves.
Sarah had an Egyptian maidservant named Hagar.
So they came up with another plan.
If Abraham had a child with Hagar, technically the child would still be within their household.
Problem solved.
Except there was one major issue:
That wasn’t what God had told them to do.
God didn’t need their help fulfilling His promise.
They allowed human reasoning to take the place of patient endurance.
And Ishmael was born.
KEY TRUTH:
When you don’t understand what God is doing, don’t allow your impatience to create a solution God never gave you.
Impatience Can Make Expensive Decisions
Patient endurance exposes impatience in us.
And impatience can cause us to make some terrible decisions.
Have you ever bought something and later wondered:
“Why did I buy this?”
Because you needed it now.
Maybe you’ve been on a car lot and made an impatient deal. Now you’re still driving that car and only have 265 easy payments of $99 left.
Car salesmen love desperate people because desperation can make us impatient.
When we feel like something has to happen right now, we become vulnerable to decisions we wouldn’t normally make.
That applies to much more than buying things.
It can happen in relationships.
Careers.
Finances.
Ministry.
And the things we’re believing God for.
Don’t make decisions because you’re desperate.
Patient endurance gives us the ability to slow down, hear God, and obey what He actually tells us to do.
Why Doesn’t God Show Us the Whole Plan?
Sometimes we think trusting God would be easier if He would simply show us everything.
“God, just tell me exactly what You’re doing.”
“Show me where this is going.”
“Tell me when it’s going to happen.”
“Give me the whole plan.”
But I've learned that sometimes God not showing us everything upfront is actually His mercy.
I had an experience where I misread a relationship.
Have you ever thought a relationship was one thing and then discovered it really wasn’t?
I thought this particular relationship was going to be much closer than it actually was. I pursued it that way, and eventually I realized I had misunderstood it.
It was supposed to be a ministry relationship, not a best-friend relationship.
And because I had allowed it to get into my heart differently, that realization hurt.
It taught me something.
We can connect our hearts to things very quickly.
If God showed us every detail of where we were going ahead of time, some of us would grab hold of one part of the plan and start running toward it before He ever told us to move.
We’d try to make it happen.
We’d try to speed it up.
Sometimes God gives us what we need when we need it because He knows us better than we know ourselves.
There are times when not seeing the entire plan is actually the mercy of God.
God Is With You While You Wait
Patient endurance doesn’t mean God hands you a promise, drops you off in the wilderness, and says:
“I’ll be back in 20 or 30 years when you’re finished.”
He is with you in the wilderness.
When Israel was traveling toward the Promised Land, God didn't abandon them along the way.
He was with them.
And He is with you too.
The waiting season isn’t just about getting to the promise.
God is doing something in you on the way to the promise.
We’re learning to become more reliant on Him than we are on our own minds, our own wills, and our own ways of doing things.
That’s part of what patient endurance produces.
Abraham Waited 25 Years
Abraham gives us one of the clearest biblical pictures of this.
Genesis 12 tells us Abraham was 75 years old when he departed as the Lord instructed him.
Genesis 21 tells us he was 100 years old when Isaac was born.
That’s 25 years.
Twenty-five years between promise and manifestation.
Was Abraham perfect during those 25 years?
Absolutely not.
He made mistakes.
He got impatient.
He and Sarah tried to figure things out themselves.
Ishmael was born when Abraham was 86.
Then Genesis 17 begins when Abraham is 99 and the Lord appears to him again.
In the video above, I pointed to that 13-year period as a sobering picture of what happened after Abraham and Sarah allowed their own reasoning to interfere with what God had promised.
But Abraham's story didn't end with his mistake.
God was still working on Abraham.
Patient Endurance Changes the Way You Think
Something remarkable happened to Abraham over those years.
Early in his journey, his reasoning sounded like:
“How can I make God's promise happen?”
But later, Abraham's reasoning had completely changed.
Hebrews 11 describes the moment when God tested Abraham with Isaac:
“...concluding that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead...”— Hebrews 11:19 NKJV
That word “concluding” carries the idea of reasoning.
Look at the difference.
Earlier, Abraham reasoned his way into Ishmael because he couldn't understand how God's promise could happen.
Later, Abraham reasoned:
“Even if Isaac dies, God is big enough to raise him from the dead.”
His reasoning changed.
He went from reasoning according to what he could see to reasoning according to who God is and what God had said.
That’s what patient endurance can produce in us.
It teaches us to stop allowing our circumstances to have the final word.
If you struggle with allowing circumstances, emotions, or old patterns of thinking to determine what you believe, learning how to renew your mind with God's Word is an important part of this process.
How Do You Know If You’re Still in Hope?
Here’s a simple question:
When you think about what you’re believing God for, do you still smile?
Is there still an expectation inside you?
Is there still something in your heart that says:
“God is faithful. I still believe this.”
Patient endurance means enduring delay or trial without surrendering hope.
Waiting can be difficult.
But waiting does not have to become hopelessness.
You can be in a season where you don't see anything changing and still have hope in your heart.
You can say:
“I don't understand how God is going to do this, but I still believe Him.”
That's faith.
What If You’ve Made Mistakes While Waiting?
This may be one of my favorite things about Abraham’s story.
Read Genesis and you get to see Abraham’s journey.
You see the mistakes.
You see Hagar.
You see Ishmael.
You see moments when Abraham didn't get everything right.
Then go read Hebrews 11.
Hebrews 11 is the great hall of fame of faith.
And when it talks about Abraham, what does it talk about?
His faith.
His obedience.
His willingness to go when God called him.
Sarah receiving strength to conceive.
Abraham offering Isaac and believing God could raise him from the dead.
And do you know what you don't see?
A list of every mistake Abraham made along the way.
If you only read Hebrews 11, you might think:
“Man, Abraham crushed it from start to finish.”
No, he didn't.
He made mistakes along the way.
Abraham wasn't the father of faith because he was perfect. He was the father of faith because he was obedient to the end.
Maybe you've made mistakes in your own faith journey.
Maybe you tried to speed something up.
Maybe you made a decision out of impatience.
Maybe you even gave up on something you once believed God for.
Don't hold yourself to a standard of perfection.
Get back up.
If God gave you a promise and you've laid it down, pick it back up.
Keep believing.
How Do You Trust God When You Don’t Understand?
When you’re in a season where you can't see what God is doing, remember these things:
1. Keep Going Back to What God Said
Your circumstances may change.
God's Word doesn't.
Don't allow what you see today to become more authoritative than what God has said.
2. Don't Try to Force the Outcome
Abraham and Sarah show us what can happen when we try to speed up God's plan.
You don't have to manufacture the answer.
3. Refuse to Make Decisions Out of Desperation
Impatience creates pressure to act.
Slow down.
Listen to God.
Obey what He tells you to do.
4. Remember That You Can't See Everything
Your inability to see progress doesn't mean nothing is happening.
God can be working behind the scenes long before you see the result.
5. Stay in Hope
Don't surrender your expectation because the promise hasn't manifested yet.
Keep believing God.
6. Let the Waiting Change You
God isn't only interested in getting the promise to you.
There are things He wants to develop in you along the way.
7. Keep Going Even If You Haven’t Been Perfect
Abraham made mistakes.
God still fulfilled His promise.
Your faith journey isn't about performing perfectly.
It's about continuing to trust and obey God.
You Don’t Have to Understand Everything to Trust God
Maybe you're in one of those seasons right now.
You're believing.
You're praying.
You're standing.
But you don't see anything happening.
Don't automatically assume that nothing is happening simply because you can't see it.
God may be working behind the scenes in ways you know nothing about.
Your job isn't to figure out every detail.
Your job is to keep walking with Him.
Keep listening.
Keep obeying.
Keep believing.
And patiently endure.
Because Abraham wasn't remembered as a man who never made a mistake.
He was remembered as a man of faith.
Your story isn't finished either.
Ready to Keep Growing in Faith?
At West Houston Christian Center, we’re passionate about helping people know God’s Word, grow in their relationship with Him, and become the disciples He has called them to be.
We are a Go Ye church—making disciples, living by faith, and walking in love.
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