Lord, I Don’t Know What to Do

“Lord, I don’t know what to do.”  

How many of us have spoken these words with a level of exasperation in the past few weeks? In most homes, life is looking a bit different and while there may be many gifts found in our new reality, let’s be real, there is a reason for the saying “absence makes the heart grow fonder”! I don’t know about you, but I have been grieved at some of my responses and reactions to my family’s lives splashing up against mine in a “close to home” kind of way. Maybe you’ve uttered the words, “Lord, I don’t know what to do” as you stand at a kitchen table filled with school books, computers, papers and your children, wondering how you are going to get through another day of unplanned homeschooling. Or it may be that your parenting seems to be falling on deaf ears; or you are realizing, for the first time, just how hard-hearted one of your kids really is and you are not sure how to shepherd a heart that doesn’t want shepherding.   

“Lord, I don’t know what to do.”  

Maybe you have said these words after another argument with your husband over something dumb, as you waved an accusatory finger of rightness while all the while, it was over little more than a difference of opinion…the very thing that makes you such a good team when you work together. But you keep forgetting that and are repeating a cycle you are not used to being in. You are struggling to find a way to break this sinful behavior.  These words may have whispered past your lips in a spirit of discouragement, as you watch the plans you made go up in smoke or fall like heavy rain. Or this might be a sentence that echoes over and over in your mind throughout the day as you watch your business struggle, your income shrink, or a loved one battle for life due to this very real virus. Your heart is full of fear, not unlike the man who uttered these words in the pages of Scripture some 6,000 years ago…King Jehoshaphat. 

2 Chronicles 20 begins with a daunting picture. Several nations, the Bible calls them a “vast multitude”, joined together to fight against Judah. King Jehoshaphat was afraid. Yet in that fear, he didn’t panic. He didn’t begin to strategize with the leaders of the land. He didn’t turn to the corrupt king of Israel for help. He didn’t try to negotiate with the evil kings that were coming against him. He didn’t grumble and complain or give up.  

• The Bible says he “resolved to seek the Lord”. (vs. 3,12) 

“We do not know what to do, but we look to you.” 2 Chron. 20:12 

• He meditated on the character of God.  

 “Lord God of our ancestors, are You not the God who is in heaven, and do You not rule over all the kingdoms of the nations? Power and might are in Your hand, and no one can stand against You.”  20:6  

• He obeyed the words that God commanded. 

 “You do not have to fight this battle. Position yourselves, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord.” 20:17 

• He praised God in the midst of the storm before he was even delivered from it. 

“Then he…appointed some to sing for the Lord and some to praise the splendor of His holiness. When they went out in front of the armed forces, they kept singing, “Give thanks to the Lord, for His faithful love endures forever.” 20:21 

And when he, and all the assembly with him, brought their need before the Lord, fixed their eyes on Him, meditated on who God is, obeyed the words of the Lord by standing firm on His promises, and as they exalted His glorious name…they had a front row seat to His magnificent salvation.  

God turned the nations that had come against Judah on each other, and the Bible says they completely destroyed one another till all that was left were corpses, and there was so much plunder it took three days to gather it all in. Who could have imagined an outcome like that?  

 Only God.  

 And He is the same God we serve, love and cling to today, even amid a pandemic. While we may not always understand His ways, His ways are not without purpose.  

“Lord, I don’t know what to do.”  

 Whether it’s been said in a moment of exasperation, discouragement, fear or uncertainty, as children of God, our Heavenly Father loves to bring us to the place of total dependence on Him. He loves to help us see that He is enough for every moment and situation of our lives. May we follow King Jehoshaphat’s example and resolve to seek the Lord. And as we meditate on His character and obey His righteous commands, we will find our hearts at rest and filled with praise, even though the storm may not have passed. God loves to display His saving power in our lives that the world around us might see His greatness, as we stand firm on His truth and cling to Him. He displayed this truth through King Jehoshaphat and He’s still displaying this truth today through you and me! 

“Be gracious to me, God, be gracious to me, for I take refuge in you. I will seek refuge in the shadow of your wings until danger passes. I call to God Most High, to God who fulfills His purpose for me. He reaches down from heaven and saves me, challenging the one who tramples me. God sends His faithful love and truth…For your faithful love is as high as the heavens; your faithfulness reaches the clouds. God, be exalted above the heavens; let your glory be over the whole earth.”  Psalms 57:1-3, 10-11