The elders who are among you I exhort, I who am a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that will be revealed: Shepherd the flock of God which is among you, serving as overseers, not by compulsion but willingly, not for dishonest gain but eagerly;
nor as being lords over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock; and when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that does not fade away. Likewise you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility,
for “God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble.” Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you. Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion,
seeking whom he may devour. Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world. But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you.
1 Peter 5:1-10
[Title] When You Don’t Know What to Do
Not knowing what to do at times leads us down the wrong roads. And in life we find more times than not that we don’t know what to do when a situation arises in our life. In today’s message we will look at four guiding principles we should turn to before we step out on our own in handling our life’s issues.
1 - Try Being Prayerful
This is the one area of Christian life where we do not give great importance to. Have you ever noticed what great comfort you feel after talking a problem out with a friend or family member? Well, that comfort is also there with our Father in heaven, the one whose words are faithful and true, the one who can solve a lot of our problems.
Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:6-7
Many of us fail to pray as we should. We fight the Holy Spirit when He leads us to pray for ourselves and others, and in so doing we may miss the blessing that God wants to give us. We become so wrapped up in trying to decide what to do that we fail to ask God for His guidance.
If we are to come to the right decision, we must ask God, listen to God, obey God, and wait on God’s time. When we don’t know what to do, we must “pray without ceasing” and in our prayers we must believe that God will give us what we need.
And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.
Matthew 21:22
While kayaking in southern England off the Isle of Wight, Mark Ashton-Smith, a lecturer at Cambridge University, capsized in treacherous waters. Clinging to his craft and reaching for his cell phone, Ashton-Smith, thirty-three, called his dad. It didn’t matter that his father, Alan Pimm-Smith, was training British troops in Dubai 3,500 miles away. Without delay, the father relayed his son’s Mayday to the Coast Guard nearest to his son. Within twelve minutes, a helicopter retrieved the grateful Ashton-Smith. Like this kayaker, when we are in peril, our first impulse should be to call our Father in heaven — the one we trust to help us.
See that no one renders evil for evil to anyone, but always pursue what is good both for yourselves and for all. Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
1 Thessalonians 5:15-18
Know that this is Jesus’s desire, that you call upon Him and let Him know your cares and worries. What friend can truly say that they are there for you no matter what? No other friend than Jesus.
2 - Try Being Patient
When James Garfield, later to become the twentieth president of the United States, was principal of Hiram College in Ohio, one father asked him if the course of studies could be shortened so that his son might be able to complete his studies in less time. “Certainly,” Garfield replied. “But it all depends on what you want to make of your boy. When God wants to make an oak tree, He takes one hundred years. When He wants to make a squash, He requires only two months.”
From this illustration as well as our scripture we see that God takes time to build, shape, and mold us into who He wants us to be; and in the shaping process we must persevere so we can be what God wants us to be. And so, it comes down to this: do you want to be a mighty oak or a lowly squash?
When we are unsure of what steps to take, we should exercise patience. We should delay making important decisions or taking actions that could change the direction of our lives.
My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.
James 1:2-4
People who do not know what to do often make rash decisions and rush into actions which later bring regret and disappointment.
The writer of Hebrews says this about being patient in Hebrews 10:35-38:
Therefore do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise: “For yet a little while, And He who is coming will come and will not tarry. Now the just shall live by faith; But if anyone draws back, My soul has no pleasure in him.”
So be patient for the things that God has promised you in prayer. Be patient for those things that are the desires of your heart. Don’t rush headlong into your problems and situations, but patiently think things through, and when you realize you do not have a good solution, now I say good solution because we can come up with so terrible solutions, but when you see that there is no good solution in sight, then wait on God.
3 - Try Being Positive
As a people we spend way too much time focusing on the negative. We see the glass as half empty instead of half full. We see the light at the end of the tunnel as another train coming to run us over, as opposed to the start of a new journey. But we need to see that Scripture tells us to have a positive attitude as we go through our life’s journey. The writer of the book of James tells us to count all bad things as joy. The writer of the book of Thessalonians tells us to rejoice evermore. 1 John 4:4 says this:
You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.
Not knowing what to do often brings discouragement and self-pity. We must keep an optimistic outlook. We must believe that God is still on the throne and is able to direct our lives, because left to our own devices we will approach a situation in the wrong way. The following illustration should give us a good view of what happens when we do not approach our problems in a positive light.
A man was driving down a country road and gets a flat tire. He looks in his trunk for a jack. Not finding one, he spots a farmhouse about a quarter-mile away with a truck in the front yard. The man says to himself, “I’ll go borrow the farmer’s jack.” As the man approaches the farmhouse, he is feeling bad – one, for falling to have a jack; two, for having to depend on someone else for help. As he gets nearer to the farmhouse, he begins to feel rejection and starts to get angry over the expected rejection. As he becomes more and more angry at his unmet dependencies from his past, he projects on the farmer the anger he feels toward himself for needing the jack and for others who has disappointed him in the past. By the time he knocks on the door and the farmer opens it, the man yells, “Keep your jack!” This will most likely guarantee that he doesn’t get the jack that he needs, so the man walks back, re-convinced that you cannot depend on others. Very often our outlook and expectations determine the results of our endeavors.
And it is for this very reason that the Bible tells us to rejoice during our troubles, knowing that God has already made a way out of our troubles keeps us from taking the negative view of things and missing out on the blessings that God has for us.
4 - Try Being Productive
The fool folds his hands And consumes his own flesh.
Ecclesiastes 4:5
We should be patient, awaiting God’s time and way. But we should not sit with folded hands and idle away the time. Because in sitting idle God considers us to being slothful and He has plenty of things to say about the slothful, which we will leave for another message. As we keep in mind that God has His time for all things, and only God knows that during your productivity may come the answer to your problems.
Someone has said, “The secret of patience is doing something else in the meantime.”
When you don’t know what to do, do something for God. Think of things the church can do that help shine a light on the Lord Christ Jesus. Lend a helping hand to the less fortunate and share Christ with the unsaved. This will work wonders in bringing direction and meaning to your life.
But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him? My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.
1 John 3:17-18
All the things I mentioned today about handling life’s situations seem hard but know that we do have an example of how it can be practiced…that example is Christ Jesus.
He was patient. For some 33 years, knowing that He came to die for us, He endured all the problems a human would endure: He was poor, He had no place of His own, the people hated Him, and He had to wait for the proper time to go to the cross. Even today, while in heaven He is patient with us to come to Him in love, looking for that gift of salvation.
He was prayerful. Many times, in the bible it told us that Jesus went await to have private prayer with God. When faced with the time to sacrifice Himself He went to God in prayer, asking if there was another way. Notice that He prayed before He thought of ways to solve the problem of man’s sin, and when He received the answer, He did what the Father wanted Him to do. He solved the sin problem in the best way possible, by giving His life as a ransom for our lives. The solution our Father in heaven prescribed.
He had a positive attitude. Even though He faced hatred at every turn, even though many of His disciples had forsaken Him, even though the religious leaders wanted Him dead, and even though He had to shed His blood for us He kept a positive attitude about the outcome. He knew that the work He has done was profitable.
He was a productive man. We read in the bible that Jesus spent all His time preaching, teaching, and healing. Even after His resurrection He spent that time doing the same, even taking time out to cook breakfast for His apostles.
