Clueless

When the kids were little I noticed that occasionally my response to their needs was anger. I had to think about this and realized that my anger wasn't directed at them but stemmed rather from a sense of helplessness - I didn't know what to do about a particular situation and that made me angry. Lately I've been facing a situation where I don't know what to do and find that once again, it makes me angry. I suppose I could psychoanalyze myself and try to figure out why I have the need to "know what to do" in every situation. I thought it might be more helpful, though, to just skip the analysis for now and get right to the what-should-I-do-about-not-knowing-what-to-do? If that makes any sense.

As always, the Lord was there waiting for me with His answer. I was reading and studying Psalm 78 this morning. The Psalmist is recounting God's dealings with Israel - His grace and provision and miraculous deliverance of them. Sadly, in vs. 32 it says "In spite of all this they still sinned, and did not believe in His wonderful works." The lesson from the Psalm is, it doesn't matter if I don't know what to do. The point is, do I believe in and trust in His sovereign work in the situation, based on His wonderful works in the past? Keil & Delitzsch comment: "They tempted God by unbelievingly and defiantly demanding instead of trustfully hoping and praying. Instead of allowing the miracles hitherto wrought to work faith in them, they made the miracles themselves the starting point of fresh doubts."

I was reminded of Jehoshaphat in 2 Chron 20. The sons of Moab and of Ammon, together with some of the Meunites, came to make war against Jehoshaphat. His response is a model for me. "Jehoshaphat was afraid and turned his attention to seek the Lord." In vs. 12 the following words jumped off the page at me: "O our God, will You not judge them? For we are powerless before this great multitude who are coming against us, nor do we know what to do, but our eyes are on You." Wow. Powerless and clueless. But his eyes were on the Lord.

My mental cross-referencing immediately brought Jeremiah 17 to mind: "Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind...and whose heart turns away from the Lord." And Psalm 123: "As the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master...so our eyes look to the Lord our God." It's not about knowing what to do, it's about walking in faith, fixing my eyes on Him. How often in the past has God miraculously worked and shown His faithfulness. He's the same today and will be just as sufficient today. I would hate to have "did not believe in His wonderful works" as the sub-title to this chapter of my life. Clueless is ok - unbelieving is not.