Faith seeking understanding

O ye of little faith, why reason ye among yourselves, because ye have brought no bread? Do ye not yet understand, neither remember the five loaves of the five thousand, and how many baskets ye took up? Mt. 16:8-9

Have you ever thought of the connection between faith and understanding? I think perhaps we are more likely to think that understanding leads to faith, and of course that is true. But there is also a reverse side to the relationship between faith and understanding: faith leads also to understanding.

This is what our Lord is getting at here. It is because the disciples had "little faith" that they did not understand the import of what our Lord was saying to them. In the same way, we can so easily misinterpret and misunderstand God's dealings with us in providence and his instruction to us in Scripture when we don't come to them with faith in him.

Along these lines, the verses from Proverbs are helpful: "Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths" (Prov. 3:5-6). Let us not lean on our own wisdom but trust in the Lord and we will find that as we do so we have more understanding, not less.