The Guardian (Nigeria)

When You Do Not Know What To Do ( 1)

- By Israel Kristilere Text: 2 Chron. 20: 10- 12

Introducti­on

ODAY, the Lord wants to speak to us on the topic, “When You Do Not Know What To Do.” In life, there are times when we run out of options, or do not know what else to do. Many years ago, a woman came to the office of a Pastor crying bitterly because of her predicamen­t. She had been married to her husband for 11 years and they had no child. While trying to comfort her, the Pastor counseled on the need to see a doctor to know the problem, but she told the Pastor they had seen many doctors, mentioning some tests they had under

Tgone. The Pastor, being a Medical Practition­er, started mentioning some other tests and before he would conclude, the woman would complete with the sentence, ‘ we have done that.’ The moment the Pastor mentioned a test and she replied, ‘ we had done that,’ she would cry more. When the Pastor mentioned IVF, she sobbed more, saying we have done that four times. Truly in life, there are situations and circumstan­ce that make us feel we have run out of options, or we do not know what exactly to do. I believe the current pandemic and its challenges have brought many of us to that state, whereby we are beginning to realise we do not know what else to do. Not knowing what to do might actually mean we do not know what else to do, for all we have done before were as if we had done nothing. The truth is that until we have done something that solves the problem, we have not known what to really do. May the Lord teach us what to do. Amen.

( A) Man’s Extremity Versus Divine Opportunit­y.

The story of King Jehoshapha­t, the king of Judah and the conspiracy of three nations, namely the Moabites, the Ammonites and some Meunites ( 2 Chron. 20: 1) ( NIV) against Judah reveals to us that man’s wisdom/ strength/ power can sometimes be stretched to its extreme. Jehoshapha­t was a strong and powerful king that could overcome any of those nations, if they had attacked individual­ly. But they all came together against him. According to verse 3, their alliance created fear in him, set himself to seek the Lord and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah. In verse 4, they gathered to seek help from the Lord. From verse 5, he began what I consider a lengthy prayer in which he made a powerful statement in verse 12, asking for divine interventi­on and confessing that they did not know what to do. It was a humble confession and a plea for divine interventi­on. Man’s extremity is indeed divine opportunit­y. May God turn our extremity at this time to His own opportunit­y to prove Himself strong in our world. Amen.

( B) What To Do

According to Jehoshapha­t, the people of Judah had no power against the great multitude coming against them, just as our world seems not to have power against the deadly virus confrontin­g us. Similarly, many of us are confronted with the battles that are far stronger than us. But the truth is that they are not stronger than God, The Almighty. Also, you might be faced with a battle in which you do not know what to do or you have done many things and it seems you have done nothing. What do you do?

This is the question the Lord

Kristilere has put in my mind recently and the answers He gave me are what I am about to share with you. When you do not know what to do,

Rev. Dr. Israel Kristilere,

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