John 20:8-9 Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.)

It’s recorded here that John, seeing the empty tomb, believed, but neither he nor Peter yet understood from Scripture that this was what had been prophesied from long before. Faith is essential, but it’s not the same as understanding, and we need both. This takes us back to the message I preached yesterday, which came from what I wrote on the 5^th. The disciples didn’t yet have the Holy Spirit to teach and explain all these things to them. We need to be as familiar as possible with the Bible, and we also need the Holy Spirit to explain to us what it means, so that we will have real understanding. Faith without understanding is blind. Sometimes we can’t understand what’s going on, and in that case blind faith is indeed necessary, but such situations are mercifully few and far between. Faith without sight is a blessing, as Jesus told Thomas, (John 20:29) but sight doesn’t guarantee understanding, as it says here. We need to ask Holy Spirit to help us understand things, but we are to keep trusting even when we don’t yet understand. I keep coming back to something it says in Hebrews: “These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised. God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.” (Hebrews 11:39-40) When we have that understanding, faith actually becomes much easier. We need to both believe and understand that God is both omnipotent and loving, that He is both perfectly holy and graciously merciful, and so walk in obedient trust no matter what our circumstances.

I have always liked the Southern Gospel song with the repeated line, “We will understand it better by and by.” There are some who deride that song, considering it “anti-intellectual,” but such an attitude fails to understand the limits of human mental capacity. God has given us minds and expects us to use them, but there are things that are simply beyond our grasp. That has been hard for me to accept, since my IQ is somewhere north of 150, but I have had far more peace since coming to that understanding. There’s an interesting irony there! I am to seek to understand as much as I can, with the help of Holy Spirit, but I am not to falter from the obedience prompted by faith even when I don’t understand. There are many things that are totally beyond my human understanding, and I’ve got to be OK with that, because I know that God is God and that He loves me so much He sent His Sone to die to save me.

Father, thank You for this reminder. I do pray for faith and understanding for the many who are suffering in various ways right now. You know who is particularly on my mind, but there are multiplied thousands more that I don’t even know about. I ask Your grace and mercy on us all, and I pray that indeed, Your rule and reign would be established as Your will is done, even here on earth, as perfectly as it is in heaven. Thank You. Hallelujah!