Inactivity

As I (Aimee) was driving earlier today, I was thinking about something and I found that I had a moral dilemma. It doesn’t really matter what the issue was. What matters is that I didn’t know what to do. I knew that something needed to be done, something more than just feeling pity, but I didn’t know what to do. So, as I drove, I prayed and asked God to help me to know what would be the right thing to do.

 

And then I started thinking about something else. I asked myself, “How often do I ask God for wisdom to know what to do about something, and then the next time I’m confronted with that same issue I’m asking again, because I never heard His answer and I still haven’t done anything?” Sadly, the answer is: often.

 

Please tell me I’m not the only one. I know I’m not the only one.

 

The problem is that keeping me guessing, keeping me questioning God’s will, keeping me inactive as I feel inadequate, unprepared, and uninformed keeps the enemy really happy. It’s one of his best tricks. Instead of steering us away from God, he ties up our hands and our minds with so many questions that we are self-paralyzed and never actually accomplish anything. Then he brings on that other trick where he convinces us that it’s all ok because we’re trying (even though we aren’t really trying), and that we have great intentions (even though God doesn’t care about intentions, He cares about actions).

 

There is absolutely nothing wrong with asking God when we don’t know what to do. In fact, James 1:5 tells us to do exactly that. The problem is that we (myself included) often ask God, “What should I do?,” and then we don’t look for His answer so we end up never acting cause we’re still waiting for Him to answer. We don’t search His Word, we don’t talk to mature Christians, we don’t do the research, we don’t do whatever it is that we should do to help more us towards a decision and action except to ask God. And while, no doubt, there are times that we ask and God speaks and nothing else is needed. But the fact is that He often speaks through His Word, and through others, and through other mediums in our daily life. But we’re still waiting for Him to part the clouds, say our name to get our attention, and then tell us what to do (wait … I think I’ve brought this idea up before) …

 

My whole point is this: are you allowing uncertainty to keep you from acting? When you know that something should be done, do you do nothing because you don’t know what to do?

 

Acting rashly for the sake of acting isn’t going to help anyone. But God doesn’t want people who claim to follow Him to be people of words and no actions (look at 1 John 3:18). Instead, when you know that something should be done, I suggest the following:

(1) pray for wisdom

(2) ask others for prayer and advice/counsel

(3) pray for wisdom

(4) do some research (you know that thing you’re on now, it’s called the internet and there’s a lot of information on it)

(5) pray for wisdom

(6) act!

Then, after you’ve done all that, let us know how it goes.