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Our Weekly Devotional

What to Do When You Don't Know What to Do

Monday, May 5, 2014 • • General
"If only you'd been on time, Lord?" Ever felt like Mary, wondering where God is when you're in trouble? What do we do when the road ahead seems blocked and it feels like we've lost touch with God?

When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died"--John 11:32

     What do you do when you don't know what to do?  This had to be the question the disciples were asking on the day after Jesus' death?  Throwing caution to the wind and acting on faith, they each had given up their jobs to follow Jesus when He asked them. Early on, things were heady, especially when miracles made everything seem possible. Sure there were hard days when the Pharisees were badgering them and the Roman Empire seemed daunting, but spending time with Jesus always calmed them down.  But now, He was dead, they thought, and all the plans and promises seemed to have disappeared with Him.  They were devastated.

     "Now what?" they likely wondered.

     Here at Desired Haven, we found ourselves in a similar place just weeks ago.  Since God rarely lets us get discouraged at the same time, my wife and I were both stunned to hear the other say, "okay, I'm ready to be done."  This time the situation just seemed too bleak is and it felt like God wasn't going to intervene, or if He did, it would be too late, as in the case of Lazarus' death.

     "Okay, now what?" we found ourselves saying.

     What do you do when you don't know what to do?

     Hannah faced this question in I Samuel 1. Earnestly longing for a child and being taunted by her husband's other wife; she even got scolded by the prophet Eli when he accused her of being drunk in the Temple.  Could she be any more alone? 

     So what do you do when you don't know what to do?

     The disciples drew together rather than being blown apart.  Its interesting Scripture doesn't record any signs of bickering between them in their trial.  Instead they faced their common grief together.  They also put one foot in front of the other and did the next thing.  Jesus even found them fishing. 

     Hannah prayed, again(!), and we see her attitude was changed even before she got word God would fix her problem.  Alone, she turned to God even though it seemed He wasn't hearing.  This act of continuing faith is a thing to behold given her countless pleas before this. 

     Without realizing what the other was doing, Cheryl and I separately found ourselves asking the same question:

      Is Jesus enough?

      If He doesn't come through with answers, will we still acknowledge Him as Lord and Savior?  Is His gift of grace and unyielding advocacy at God's right hand enough, after all, for we who have never been worthy?  By morning, we both had answered in the affirmative: He is enough.   Given that realization, the only logical decision was to put one foot in front of the other and do the next thing we know to do.  What He did next in our ministry is a tale for another time, but the peace we found came not from answers but from perseverance.  As Cheryl often says, we determined "not to forget in the darkness what we knew to be true in the light."

     So what do you do when you donâ??t know what to do?  First: Refuse to rebel; refuse to cast angry words God's way for failing to meet our timelines, or if you do, don't get stuck in your anger at God.  The God who loved us enough to send His Son for us will not now abandon us. Next: Don't be isolated; fellowship with others as the disciples did, and enlist them in praying with you.  Finally: Don't sit idle; do the next thing that presents itself, continuing to put one foot in front  of the other trusting that God will make us aware of what He's doing when it serves us best, for He is a loving Father.

     These steps, simple as they are, may only begin the process of discovery.  Just as Hannah and the disciples would learn more as they moved forward, we also have discovered we have more to learn about what to do when we don't know what to do.  Why do we say that?

     Because as Cheryl did her 'next thing', which was to pick the study for our small group she leads, up popped David Jeremiah's study of the book of James? It's sub-title?  What to Do When You Don't Know What to Do! 

     Stay tuned.

--Randy Kilgore     

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