Why Obedience Comes Before Understanding 🙇‍♂️ | Matthew Devotional (7-Step QT)

7-Step QT Notes

1. 🙏 Quiet Time

Pause.

Take a deep breath.

Ask God to help you trust His plan even when it doesn’t make sense.

2. 📅 January 17, 2026

Today’s passage reminds us:

Obedience often comes before understanding—and that’s where faith grows.

3. ✝️ Matthew 3:11–17

John said he baptized with water for repentance, but the one coming after him—far greater—would baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire, separating wheat from chaff. Jesus then came to be baptized by John, who hesitated, but Jesus insisted to fulfill all righteousness. After His baptism, the heavens opened, the Spirit descended like a dove, and a voice from heaven declared, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

4. 📖 Key Verse

But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented (v. 15).

5. 📝 Reflection

John the Baptist couldn’t understand how he could baptize Jesus. He came to prepare the way for the Lord and felt unworthy even to carry His sandals. How could he baptize Him? To John’s confusion, Jesus gently said, “It is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” So John obeyed, even without understanding.

Life is full of things we cannot comprehend—whether good or bad. I recall the testimony of a faithful pastor whose beloved wife was suddenly diagnosed with cancer and passed away within months, leaving two young children behind. We cannot explain why such things happen. The pastor admitted he still doesn’t understand, but he chose to follow God quietly and continues to serve his church faithfully.

Dear friends, if the Lord tells you today, “Do this now,” I pray you will obey like John. He chose obedience over understanding. Following Jesus even when we don’t understand—that is true submission. And when we obey, we participate in fulfilling God’s righteousness.

6. 💬 What does this passage speak to you today?

  • Where am I struggling to obey because I don’t understand?
  • How can I trust God’s wisdom over my own?
  • What step of obedience is He asking me to take today?

7. 🙏 Prayer

Lord, help me obey even when I don’t understand.

Teach me to trust Your plan and timing.

May my faith grow deeper through obedience, and may my life reflect Your righteousness.

Amen.

Scriptures

📖 11 “I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 12 His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”

13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him. 14 John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” 15 But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented. 16 And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; 17 and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” (Matthew 3:11-17, ESV).

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