Henry Cloud - What to Do When You Dont Know What to Do: 8 Principles for Finding Gods Way

R ecently on our national radio talk show we received a call from Marian, a middle-class career woman who was on the verge of losing it all, even her husband and children. In a not-so-smart moment, she had just once tried crack cocaine. Drug use was totally out of character for this respected Midwestern mother, but because of the power of chemical addiction, she was not able to do cocaine just once. The drug had instantly gripped her, and she suddenly found herself to be something that she never would have imagined-an addict. She had no idea what to do or where to turn.

Helpless, hopeless, and feeling terribly guilty, Marian turned to God. She made a commitment to being good, mustered up her will to stop the drug use, and began attending church. But doing the God thing was not working. Nothing was changing. Now believing that not even God would help her, she was more desperate than before.

Marian was not finding God; she was only finding religion. Big difference. Religion is about trying to be better and using God language to do it. If she had found God, she would have found help and strength beyond her own efforts. Instead, she seemed like a half-dead person trying to shock herself back to life with electric paddles.

Gods way, we explained, does not depend on our willpower to transform a hopeless situation. He can raise people from the dead and create life where none exists. We said we wanted to see her in a program, surrounded by other addicts through whom God could provide his help and express his love and support. We asked Marian to abandon her effort to help herself by sheer human willpower and to reach out for God to meet her where she was. And we prayed for God to do a miracle for her.

Marian was willing to do all we suggested. She opened herself to Gods help, and thats when the miracle began. Heres how it happened: We knew just the drug rehabilitation center she needed, but she didnt have the money to pay for it and had no idea how to get it. So we prayed that God would make a way.

Within minutes, the phone began ringing. People from all over the country called to say they felt God moving them to help pay for Marians treatment. Money was pouring in, and we were certain that God had answered our prayer. But at the end of the program we were dismayed to find that we had come up short-$5,400 short, to be exact. But God was not through yet. The phone rang again, and a woman told us that she had received an inheritance and felt God moving her to give a gift for this womans treatment.

How much is your gift? we asked.

The inheritance was $54,000, she replied. I want give ten percent$5,400.

We were ecstatic! God had indeed made a way. Within a short time Marian was in treatment and, as of this writing, she is doing great.

Little did Marian know that her call from the Midwest to a radio studio in California would land her in a treatment center in Arizona, paid for by people from several other states. Stories like Marians tell us that God shows up in many ways and changes even the most hopeless situations. One of the most powerful lessons we can learn is that even when bad things happen and we dont know what to do about them, we can trust God to be present and working on our behalf, creating a path through the most painful wilderness. Even when the problem is of our own making.

The main obstacle to following Gods way through crises is failing to trust him. Most of us have little difficulty believing in God. But for some reason we balk when it comes to really trusting God. Our doubts rage like a rising river: Will he come through for me? Can I depend on him?

Trust is the bridge over that river. The way God makes for you means nothing until you step on the bridge and start walking. Trust is both an attitude and an action. You must follow your first small step with another and another. The more you act on your faith in God, the more you will see of his way for you.

God is active on your behalf, even when you cannot see it. Faith calls you to be active also. This may seem like a paradox. Am I doing it? Or is God doing it? The answer to both questions is yes. God will do what only he can do, and your job is to do what you can do. Marian could not kick her crack habit or find the money for treatment. God had to do all of that. She did not know what to do, but she acted by praying to him to do something, and by taking the steps he placed before her. Thats faith.

The God who made a way for Marian is available to you now. He watches over all of the earth, with an ear attuned to all who desire him. As the psalmist said, The Lord is near to all who call upon Him, to all who call upon Him in truth. He will fulfill the desire of those who fear Him; He also will hear their cry and save them (Psalm 145:1819).