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Recently in a prayer meeting with some sisters in Christ, one of my friends prayed, “Lord, Satan wants to put us into the what-ifs.” That stuck with me, and it’s one of my five wise statements.
Have you ever been stuck in the “what-ifs”? This is what James referred to when he wrote:
If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do (James 1:5 – 8).
You may ask God for wisdom, but if you are doubting when you ask, you should not expect God to give you wisdom. That’s what James tells us, and he describes people who doubt as being blown and tossed and unstable in all they do.
That’s what the what-ifs will do to you. One day you think you should do one thing; the next day you doubt if that is the right thing to do. Back and forth and back and forth—blown and tossed by fear. And you know that fear comes straight from Satan because God never gives us a spirit of fear. I repeat: Satan wants to put you into the what-ifs.
Another way the what-ifs work is to cause you to live in fear of what may or may not happen. So, you allow your mind to focus on those what-ifs instead of bringing your thoughts into captivity and thinking about things that are good and true, and soon you are stuck in that fear, worrying about the unknown, imagining the worst, and Satan is more than happy to leave you there.
Are you tired of living in the what-ifs? If so, here’s what you do: Cast all your care on the Lord because he cares for you, and leave them there, even if you must do that many times a day. And if you’re stuck in the what-ifs of some decision you need to make, seek godly wisdom, pray much, do your due diligence, and then take the first step out of the what-ifs and by faith, trust God’s wisdom in you.
God doesn’t want his children who have been set free from the bondage of sin to be trapped in the what-ifs. Is not a good place to be.