Forthcoming Clarity (John 13:7)
Jesus answered him, ‘What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.
– John 13:7
This verse has meant so much to me over recent years amidst challenges and trials of various kinds to use language from I Peter. And I just want to encourage you with it today, especially if you are walking through challenge trial in your life in any way.
John 13:7 Emphasizes the Fact that We Will Grow in Understanding
This picture of Jesus washing his disciples feet and Simon Peter saying, “You’re going to wash my feet?” And he’s resisting what Jesus is wanting to do in his life. And Jesus looks at him and says, “What I am doing you don’t understand now, but afterward you will understand.”
There was a moment, I was a year plus ago when I was walking through something in an older brother in Christ, a pastor for decades who I respect deeply. I was sharing with him some of the struggles that I was walking through. And he looked at me and he just quoted this verse, and he said, “David, you don’t understand now what God is doing, but afterward, one day, you will understand.” I was talking to another pastor friend later that exact same day who said something very similar. He’d been studying heaven.
And he said, “David, I just don’t think based on what the Bible teaches about who God is, what heaven is like, that we’re going to get there one day and God’s going to say to us, ‘You know that trial, that difficulty, that challenge you walk through?'” “Yeah, I don’t know what that was about. No.” “And one day, we’re going to understand that God was working in ways we couldn’t see and didn’t understand. But all throughout that challenge in trial, he was faithful and he was wise. He was loving toward you.”
John 13:7 Encourages Us to Hope in God’s Forthcoming Clarity
And so, I just want to encourage you with that today amidst whatever you might be walking through that you don’t understand now. One day, you will understand and you will see in a much clearer way than you see now, that God is in control and God is good. And he’s loving and he’s wise, and he is always working for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose.
God, I just pray that over people who were walking through challenges right now in their lives. I pray that they would hear you by your spirit speaking, encouraging truth over them right now that though they don’t understand now, one day they will understand. God, we praise you that you see all things, you see and know how all things are working together. You are the one who is working them together for our good and for your glory. God, we trust you, we love you, we worship you, and we wait for that day, confident that you are working in this day, and we wait for that day when we will understand, confident that you are working in this day when we don’t understand.
Praying for the Arora People
God, I just pray that you would encourage hearts right now with that truth. And God, even as we are encouraged by that, we pray for people who don’t know that kind of confidence, because they don’t know you. They don’t know Jesus. God, we pray for the Arora people of Pakistan, hundreds of thousands of them, no known followers of Jesus. No access to the gospel right now. God, please cause the good news of your grace, of your sovereign love and power and wisdom to spread to the Arora people of Pakistan.
That they might be brought into this family of those who will one day understand how you were working all things together for their good, for the good of every nation, tribe, and tongue in people to know your salvation. God, bring it about, we pray. Cause the Arora people to know your love and your wisdom and your grace, even as we do as we read John 13:7. In Jesus’ name, we pray all of this. Amen.
