What If God Is Doing Something You Cannot Yet Recognize?
There are things God does that are easy to recognize.
The prayer is answered.
The door opens.
The provision comes.
The diagnosis changes.
The relationship is restored.
The direction becomes clear.
Something happens that so closely resembles what we asked God to do that we immediately recognize His hand in it.
“God did that.”
But what happens when God’s activity doesn’t look anything like what we expected?
What happens when the door closes?
When the answer is delayed?
When circumstances become more confusing instead of less?
When the person leaves?
When the opportunity disappears?
When the thing we believed God was building appears to fall apart?
Can God still be working when what is happening doesn’t look like progress?
That may be one of the hardest questions faith ever has to answer.
Because sometimes we aren’t struggling to believe that God can work.
We are struggling to recognize what His work looks like while we’re standing in the middle of it.
And perhaps that is because we usually recognize God’s activity by comparing it with the outcome we expected.
If circumstances move toward what we prayed for, we say God is working.
If circumstances move away from it, we wonder where He went.
But Scripture repeatedly gives us stories in which God’s activity could not be properly understood until much later.
Sometimes what looked like interruption was positioning.
What looked like delay was part of the timing.
What looked like loss became part of a much larger story.
And what looked like God doing nothing was simply God doing something that could not yet be recognized from where someone was standing.
Joseph Could Not See Genesis 50 From Genesis 37
We know Joseph’s story so well that it is easy to forget what it must have been like to actually live it.
Joseph receives dreams.
Then his brothers hate him because of them.
They throw him into a pit.
They sell him into slavery.
He is taken to Egypt.
He serves in Potiphar’s house.
He is falsely accused.
He is thrown into prison.
He interprets the dreams of Pharaoh’s servants.
The butler promises to remember him.
Then forgets him.
Two more years pass.
And eventually Joseph is brought before Pharaoh.
We read all of that in a few chapters.
Joseph lived it over years.
And because we already know the ending, we see connections Joseph could not possibly have seen while they were happening.
We know Egypt matters.
Joseph didn’t know that when he was being dragged there as a slave.
We know Potiphar’s house becomes part of his development.
Joseph probably saw an unjust situation he never asked for.
We know the prison connects Joseph with Pharaoh’s servants.
Joseph saw prison.
We know the forgotten butler will eventually remember him.
Joseph only knew he had been forgotten.
And we know the famine will eventually bring Joseph’s brothers to Egypt.
Joseph didn’t know any of that yet.
He was living a story whose meaning had not yet become visible.
We Read Backward What People in Scripture Had to Live Forward
This may be one of the reasons biblical stories can sometimes seem easier than our own lives.
We know the ending.
We know David becomes king.
So when Saul is trying to kill him, we know the cave isn’t the conclusion.
David didn’t.
We know Esther eventually approaches the king.
We know Israel is delivered.
Esther didn’t know the outcome when Mordecai asked her to risk her life.
We know Lazarus is going to walk out of the tomb.
Mary and Martha didn’t know that while they were burying their brother.
We know Jesus rises on Sunday.
The disciples standing near the cross on Friday did not yet understand what Sunday would reveal.
We read backward.
They lived forward.
And we live forward too.
That’s why our circumstances can be so difficult to interpret.
We are trying to understand chapter seven without having read chapter twelve.
We are asking God to explain a sentence while He may still be writing the paragraph.
And sometimes we judge the entire story by a page that was never meant to be the ending.
Joseph Eventually Saw What He Could Not Have Recognized Earlier
Years later, Joseph’s brothers stand before him.
They are terrified because they know what they did to him.
But Joseph says:
“But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good…”— Genesis 50:20 KJV
We need to be careful with this verse.
Joseph does not say what his brothers did was good.
He calls it evil.
That matters.
God’s sovereignty does not require us to rename evil as good.
Betrayal was still betrayal.
Injustice was still injustice.
False accusation was still false accusation.
Prison was still prison.
But the evil intentions of human beings were not powerful enough to prevent God from accomplishing His purposes.
That’s different.
God did not need Joseph’s brothers’ evil to become good in order for God to bring good through what they had done.
And perhaps that distinction matters in our own lives.
Sometimes people say:
“Everything happens for a reason.”
That sentence can become painfully simplistic.
Scripture gives us something much stronger.
It tells us that even when things happen that are genuinely wrong, painful, unjust, or evil, they do not automatically place our lives beyond God’s ability to redeem, redirect, or use them.
God is not limited to working with the pieces we would have chosen.
He can work with the pieces that are actually lying on the floor.
We Often Expect God’s Work to Look Like Improvement
This may be where we miss Him.
We expect God’s activity to look like circumstances getting better.
But sometimes Scripture shows God’s purposes unfolding while circumstances appear to be getting worse.
Joseph goes from favored son to slave.
Then from trusted servant to prisoner.
If Joseph had measured God’s activity only by whether his circumstances were improving, what would he have concluded?
God has stopped working.
But that conclusion would have been wrong.
The circumstances were deteriorating while the larger story was still developing.
The same thing happens in John 11.
Mary and Martha send word to Jesus because Lazarus is sick.
If Jesus is working, we would expect Lazarus to improve.
Instead, Lazarus dies.
From their perspective, the situation moved in precisely the wrong direction.
And yet Jesus knew there was more to the story.
That does not mean every worsening situation is secretly about to become miraculous.
We need to resist that temptation.
Sometimes circumstances become worse and remain painful.
Sometimes the answer we want never comes.
But Scripture prevents us from making another assumption:
Things getting worse does not automatically mean God has stopped working.
What If You’re Looking in the Wrong Place?
Sometimes we are looking for God to work in the circumstance while He is working somewhere else entirely.
We pray:
“God, change this situation.”
And perhaps God begins changing us.
We pray:
“God, make that person understand.”
And perhaps God begins teaching us how to establish a boundary.
We pray:
“God, open this door.”
And perhaps God begins loosening our grip on something we had decided must happen.
We pray:
“God, show me what comes next.”
And perhaps He begins teaching us how to trust Him without knowing what comes next.
We pray for relief.
He develops endurance.
We pray for an explanation.
He deepens trust.
We pray for circumstances to become comfortable.
He exposes something in us that comfort had allowed to remain hidden.
That doesn’t mean every painful circumstance was sent by God as a lesson.
We have to be careful not to make suffering sound like a classroom God deliberately constructed every time He wanted to teach us something.
But God is capable of forming us within circumstances He did not call good.
Sometimes we are watching the situation so closely that we don’t notice what is happening inside us.
Maybe You Are the Thing God Is Working On
That’s an uncomfortable thought, isn’t it?
Because usually when we ask God to work, we already have the project selected.
This needs to change.
This person.
This job.
This relationship.
This financial situation.
This health issue.
This door.
This problem.
And God certainly cares about those things.
But what if something deeper is happening?
What if, while we are waiting for circumstances to change, God is exposing what we trust?
What if He is showing us how much our peace has depended upon control?
What if He is revealing fears we didn’t know were directing us?
What if He is dismantling an identity built around somebody else’s approval?
What if He is teaching us to recognize His voice without needing constant signs?
What if He is developing endurance that could never be produced by immediate answers?
What if He is teaching us to seek Him rather than merely seek what He can do?
Then perhaps something is happening.
It simply isn’t happening where we have been looking.
The Disciples Could Not Recognize What Jesus Was Doing
There is a moment in John 13 that captures this beautifully.
Jesus begins washing His disciples’ feet.
Peter doesn’t understand it.
And Jesus says:
“What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter.”— John 13:7 KJV
That sentence could sit over so many seasons of our lives.
“What I do thou knowest not now…”
Not never.
Now.
There are things whose meaning can only be understood later.
And sometimes there are things we may not fully understand in this life at all.
But the inability to understand something presently does not mean there is nothing to understand.
We are creatures who live inside time.
God does not share our limitation.
We see the moment.
He sees the whole.
We see what something costs today.
He sees where the road leads.
And sometimes faith has to live in the space between:
“I don’t understand what You’re doing”
and
“I still trust who You are.”
Seeds Don’t Look Like Harvests
There is another reason we sometimes fail to recognize God’s activity.
Beginnings rarely resemble endings.
Jesus used this kind of imagery repeatedly.
A seed goes into the ground.
And from the surface, what does it look like?
Nothing.
For a while, there is no visible evidence that anything is happening.
But beneath the soil, processes have already begun that cannot yet be seen above it.
The absence of visible growth is not necessarily the absence of growth.
And yet we often dig spiritually at the soil.
Is anything happening yet?
We check again.
Now?
We pray again.
God, are You doing anything?
And because nothing has broken through the surface, we assume nothing is happening underneath it.
But some things require hidden development before they become visible.
Character does.
Healing often does.
Trust does.
Wisdom does.
Spiritual maturity does.
Relationships can.
Assignments can.
Sometimes what eventually becomes visible was developing quietly for a very long time.
Hidden Does Not Mean Inactive
This is the thread running through this entire series.
God can seem silent without being absent.
And God can seem inactive without actually being inactive.
Those are important distinctions.
Because we are naturally drawn toward visible evidence.
We want something we can point to.
A changed circumstance.
An open door.
A clear answer.
A measurable result.
But God’s activity is not limited to what we can currently observe.
Paul wrote:
“For we walk by faith, not by sight.”— 2 Corinthians 5:7 KJV
We often use that verse generally, but think about what it actually confronts.
Sight.
What we can presently observe.
Faith does not deny what sight sees.
Faith simply refuses to believe that what sight sees is all there is.
Be Careful Not to Invent God’s Explanation
There is an important caution here.
When we cannot recognize what God is doing, we sometimes become desperate to create an explanation.
God closed that door because…
God allowed this because…
God removed that person because…
God made me wait because…
Maybe.
But unless God has clearly revealed the reason, we should be humble.
We do not need to invent an explanation in order to trust Him.
Sometimes the most faithful answer is:
“I don’t know why this happened.”
We don’t know every reason behind every delay.
We don’t know why some prayers seem unanswered.
We don’t know why some people suffer as they do.
We don’t know why one door opens and another doesn’t.
Faith isn’t possessing secret information about everything God does.
Faith is trusting His character when the information hasn’t been given.
And perhaps that is more difficult than having an explanation.
Because an explanation gives us something to hold.
Trust gives us Someone to hold.
Maybe Recognition Comes Later
There may be things in your life right now that make absolutely no sense.
Maybe you’ve been asking God about them for months.
Maybe years.
Maybe you have prayed every way you know how to pray.
Maybe you have searched Scripture.
Maybe you’ve asked for wisdom.
Maybe you’ve waited.
And you still don’t know what God is doing.
I don’t want to give you a cheap answer.
I don’t want to tell you that everything will soon make sense.
I don’t know that.
But I can tell you what Scripture repeatedly demonstrates:
Our inability to recognize God’s activity does not prove the absence of God’s activity.
Joseph couldn’t recognize it in the pit.
Mary couldn’t recognize it beside Lazarus’ tomb.
The disciples couldn’t recognize it at the cross.
Jacob didn’t recognize God’s presence until after God revealed Himself.
And there may be things we are presently misreading simply because we haven’t lived far enough into the story yet.
What If This Isn’t the Final Meaning of This Moment?
Maybe that’s a better question than:
“Why is this happening?”
What if what you presently understand about this moment isn’t everything that will eventually be true about it?
Joseph could have defined the pit as:
The place where my brothers destroyed my future.
Years later, the pit was still evil.
But it no longer had the authority to define his future.
The cross looked like the end of Jesus’ ministry.
It became the means through which redemption was accomplished.
Again, we should not force every painful event into a dramatic turnaround story.
But we can refuse to give today’s pain the authority to write tomorrow’s conclusion.
This moment may be real without being final.
That is hope without pretending.
Maybe God Is Doing Something You Cannot Yet Recognize
So what do we do while we wait?
We remain faithful with what we already know.
We don’t manufacture signs.
We don’t force doors.
We don’t call every coincidence divine confirmation.
We don’t assume silence means absence.
And we don’t assume lack of visible progress means nothing is happening.
We pray.
We stay in Scripture.
We obey what God has already made clear.
We remain open to correction.
We seek wisdom.
We pay attention.
And sometimes we simply wait.
Not because waiting is easy.
But because we have learned something about the One we are waiting with.
The Story May Look Different From Further Down the Road
There are things in your past that you probably understand differently now than you did when you were living through them.
Things that once seemed devastating taught you something.
Things you thought you needed turned out not to belong in your life.
Things you couldn’t understand eventually became clearer.
And there may also be things that still don’t make sense.
Both can be true.
Faith doesn’t require every loose end to be tied.
But perhaps our past can teach us some humility about our present.
We don’t always recognize the meaning of something while it is happening.
And if that is true, then maybe we should be careful about making permanent conclusions about God from temporary vantage points.
God Is Not Limited to What You Can Currently See
That may be what I want us to carry from this entire series.
When God seems silent, He has not necessarily stopped speaking.
When God feels distant, He has not necessarily left.
And when nothing appears to be happening, we cannot automatically conclude that He is doing nothing.
We simply don’t see enough.
And perhaps faith begins where our field of vision ends.
Not blind faith.
Not denial.
Not pretending pain isn’t painful.
But a grounded confidence in the character of God.
I don’t know what You are doing.
I cannot see where this is going.
I don’t understand why this has taken so long.
I don’t know why You haven’t answered the way I hoped.
But I will not use what I cannot see to redefine who You have already shown Yourself to be.
That is a different kind of trust.
And Maybe That’s the Invitation
Perhaps God isn’t asking us to understand every part of the story.
Perhaps He is asking us to know the Author well enough to trust Him while there are still pages we haven’t read.
David knew silence.
Joseph knew waiting.
Mary and Martha knew disappointment.
The disciples knew confusion.
And Scripture lets us see what they couldn’t see at the time:
God had not disappeared from their stories.
Maybe He hasn’t disappeared from yours either.
Maybe the silence isn’t empty.
Maybe the waiting isn’t proof of abandonment.
Maybe what appears inactive isn’t inactive at all.
And maybe somewhere beyond what you can presently see, God is already working within a part of the story you haven’t reached yet.
You don’t have to pretend you understand it.
You don’t have to call something good that is painful or wrong.
You don’t have to predict the ending.
You simply have to resist making one conclusion too soon:
“God isn’t doing anything.”
Because perhaps the truth is much simpler.
You just cannot recognize it yet.
Much Love
~Gayla~
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