HEALING BALM - WHAT TO DO WHEN YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO 5-11-26

STOP OVERTHINKING AND SECOND-GUESSING YOURSELF 

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:04

The Lord said to the heart of the dollar of my people. Is there a note for this member? Okay, today's gonna be just a little bit different. I want to talk to you about what to do with you. What to do with me. What to do when you don't know what to do? How to put into words how you feel when you don't know how you feel. Ever been there? How do you tell somebody what's wrong when they ask if you don't know what's wrong yourself? How it feels when you don't feel anything and everything all at once, or that's what it seems like anyway. And you can't seem to put your finger on it much less describe it. Is it empty? Do you feel spent, exhausted, listless, not interested, no enthusiasm, numb and hurting all at the same time? You think you can't be numb and hurtin' all at the same time? You get a nerve problem in your leg or your hand or arm or something, and all that tingling starts and you can't feel anything. That's what I'm talking about. You can be numb and hurtin' all at the same time. Why do we keep replaying defeating depressing events or scenarios over and over in our minds? Are we trying to look at the situation from a different point of view or perspective? Or maybe we don't know that answer either. If you can't figure it out or settle it after the first umpteenth time, why are you still wrestling with it? I have to ask myself that. That's part of the problem. Wrestling instead of accepting or letting go of a situation or a life event that you can't change, but yet you can't accept it either. There's only so much you can control and so much you can see or know. You don't know it all. You don't have all the answers, you can't figure it all out. How can you predict how something is going to work out if you've never been through it before? Even if you have been through the exact same or similar situations because we're creatures of habit, we repeat the same mistakes over and over again, or at least I do. Before, we don't usually have a clue how we're going to get through it. Right? All some of the same things you've done over and over before, but we don't have a clue how we managed to get through it then. We didn't take notes or keep a journal. So about all the understanding we can get in searching or racking our brains for answers is that we just keep making the same mistakes, the same decisions, or shooting from the hip, that method of getting through some very difficult, tough, or painful times, with nothing accomplished. Have you ever had to answer a situation or get through a situation that you didn't have the answer to, didn't have a clue which way to go, so you just shot from the hip. You did the very best you could do. You worked off experience, things you'd been through in the past. Well, that probably didn't get you real far. But you still use that tactic. You're human. One thing pretty obvious. You can't just sit there like a sitting duck or lay there like a doormat and let people walk all over you, pull or pull the covers over your head. That's only going to make dark hours even darker. So there's no need in trying to hide in the dark. When we're stuck in that rut, our brains uh restart kind of to a scenario similar to the Kentucky Derby. Think about your brain, your mind, what's going on in your head. When you're stuck in that rut, all of a sudden, you know, or a Greyhound track, racing thoughts bombard us while the dust from the race distorts our or blinds our vision. You know, if you hear the fire of the shot, you're off. There goes the horses, there goes the dogs. Well, that's kind of how we react when we get in those situations. Our brains keep the pressure on us, pushing us to figure it out. Maybe you've tried to tell yourself, uh look, I just can't figure this out. I gotta quit thinking about it. My head hurts, my brain hurts. I'm tired of going over this same thing over and over again. But our brains keep the pressure on and keep pushing us to figure it out. So there we go. We're off at the sound of the gun. We're under the gun to figure the race out and either win it or at least stay in it, stay the course till it's over. It's too easy to jump the gun when you're under pressure. And when you're under too much pressure, that's not the time to be making lasting decisions or ones that can affect your future. It seems that no matter how we attempt to distract ourselves and divert our attention to another subject or task, we keep circling back, as they say, going back to the same old thing. It's like trying to run the race backwards, if you want to look at it that way. You know the saying that says one step forward and two steps back. Well, no matter how you calculate those steps, you're going in the wrong direction if you're taking one forward and two back. You're going backwards. And you're going to wind up stepping in some of the same traps or potholes that you stepped in the last time. You know, if we keep going backwards or around in circles, we can wind up so dizzy, confused, disoriented, that we don't really know what we think. When it gets to the point that the best option may be for you to just stop and stand still or lay it all down and take a totally different route or approach. When we get to that point, we don't need to just keep going. If we don't know where we're going with that situation. After all, if you could have figured it out or come up with a make sense answer, you already would have, right? If you could have, you would have. So you wouldn't still be looking at this same question or same situation over and over and over. What makes you think eight more rounds in the ring of indecision with no answers is going to make you a champion or a winner or a survivor for that matter? Okay? Back to that first question that that I ask you. So what do you do when you don't know what to do? And you're trying not to listen to your brain giving the same answer over and over again. It's kind of like your brain is hung in some kind of gear and it won't go past that same answer over and over. Well, that's not the darn answer. Don't keep telling me that same thing. You can't even accept what you're trying to tell yourself. Well, it's time to have a talk with yourself and your mind. Most of us talk to ourselves anyway, and some of us answer ourselves. Some of those answers are shot in the dark, groping for answers without considering whether the answer would be right, wrong, and different, or just what you want to hear. You know, sometimes you may be gonna receive a different answer than you want to hear. So sometimes you reject, reject, reject because no, no, that's not the right answer. That's not the right answer. Well what what do you want? What do you want to hear? Or just as bad telling someone what they want to hear to get off the hook. Don't kid yourself. You're still on the hook. Your mind isn't going to let you buy with that cop out. Remember this, if you don't remember anything else, I've said, it's usually not possible to have all the answers and everything figured out before you have to take action or make a move. Sometimes you can't have all the information before you have to make a decision, before you have to take a move. Times we just gotta do the best we can with what we got and hope to God that it turns out. Ask God to bless it and help you and help you walk through it. If you don't know what to do, if you're stuck or frozen and attempting to plan every step or move because you're so afraid of making one more mistake or the wrong move, you're just gonna stand there. And sometimes the bears will eat you if you just stand there. Just don't do that. Remember, there's only so much you can foresee happening. And I want to back up just one second. Now I when you s when I say don't just stand there, there is a time when you've done all you can do to stand, that you just stand and you wait on God. But you better be praying while you're doing that. You need to have been talking to God prior to that. I'm talking about normal, everyday decision making, trying to figure out what's going on with us humans. There's only so much that we can foresee happening or the outcome. You know, normally we can kind of look forward and see what the expected outcome is, but you really don't have a lot of control over the situation or the outcome. We have to break that pressure pattern of having it all figured out by using our own brain. Boy, what a trap. One exception I've learned in my life, after observing lots of people wrestle with indecision, we think our way into and out of most every single thing we do. And you know what? Our feet follow good or bad decisions. Whatever you're thinking in your mind, that plan you've made, you know, you start thinking all these things, the next thing you know you're walking in that direction. Another thing I've learned is that things or outcomes will pretty much go their way regardless of how much we prepared or didn't prepare. Some things we're just not going to change the outcome. They're just going to take place. And guess what? That is life. There are so many things or outcomes that we can't prepare for that will be nothing like we expected or hoped. It's kind of like talking to somebody on a phone that you've never met before, and you may talk to that person for two hours, and it seems like, ooh, you made a connection, and you can just picture that person. And when and you think, man, I recognize you the minute I see you. You might in their spirit, but all most of the time, that person is not going to look one thing like you had figured out, right? So things are not always going to be what you thought they'd be. Sometimes they turn out better without our interference or our input. And uh the faith walk actually requires that. Trusting in God and and you know trusting where you can't see, put your hand in his and walk. Sometimes a faith walk causes you to have to walk blind. You better be walking with the Lord when you head in that direction. Stop exhausting your already tired brain. We can't make good decisions or figure things out if we can't think straight. Stop overthinking things, ruminating, chewing over the matter like an old piece of bubblegum when you're a kid. You've chewed on it till all the flavor's gone, and now all you've got is a sore jaw. Spit it out before you get to that point. Don't keep holding on to thoughts, replaying scenarios or situations till you're just worn out. You can't think anymore. Allow some things to pass and accept the fact that you can't win them all and move on. At least you won't stay frozen in place by indecision with your head spinning. We don't win them all even when it's people we love. You may not be able to control the outcome. You can choose how you react and the effect or control it has over your life and happiness. Everything don't have to be fatal and terminal and life and death. We make mistakes. Everybody makes mistakes. If you're facing a huge life or lifestyle change, you're fighting the change will not prevent it from happening anyway. There's things that's going to change in our life and they may change tomorrow. You're fighting them, unless it's something you can truly grasp and do something about it, then that's that's one subject. But if it's something that you can't do, if an illness has hit you, a sickness of some kind, or a family member, or a job or finances, whatever it is, there's things that can hit your life that you can't do one single thing about. And you fighting that change won't prevent it from happening anyway. Especially if you have no control over what's happening. You can resist, kick, cry, refuse to accept a change, or allow yourself to get in the state of personal peace. And when I say that, I mean if things are gonna go south, if things are gonna just go bad and there's nothing you can do about them, and you're gonna have to go through them, at least you can go through them in peace of mind. At least you can walk through them knowing that God is with you. You're gonna stand in peace, and whatever happens, you're not gonna look back and you're not gonna walk off from serving God. You've got to have that personal peace. Trusting God will work things out better than you ever could have. That's what you got to keep in mind. Some things that look like they're gonna have a fatal end or a tragic end are only a situation that you're gonna be in that can prove God's power, prove his healing power, his strength, his deliverance. Some tests and trials are good for us. They don't feel good and we don't like them. But that's the truth. Another valuable understanding is that depression comes from the past, and anxiety comes from the future. No wonder we wind up in a mess suffering from depression and anxiety at the same time. That's a physical, mental state that they'll give you some medicine for, trying to fix you. They tried to fix me when I was about 14 years old. Diagnosed with depression and anxiety, trying to medicate or meditate our way out of a situation, out of a present, now-to-day situation. You know, you man, that's anxiety and depression is terrible to deal with, but you gotta look at it like it really is. That depression's coming from the past. If something already happened, then your guts makes you sick, makes you feel bad, and you do get depressed from it. Anxiety is looking at tomorrow, the consequences of maybe a lot of things you may have done or said or what have you, but anxiety is in our future. Don't get all wedded up with those two things and claim it as your current today situation. Don't diagnose you as that. Now, today is what you can do something about, right? One day at a time, one step at a time, one thought at a time, and get this one subject at a time. We are prone to jump from one subject to another multiple times in two or three minutes. We can be sitting at the table having a conversation about one specific thing, and next thing you know, we're all over the place. Just jumping subjects one at a time. You can't get nothing accomplished like that. Now I know iron sharpens iron, and if you're having a real good spiritual conversation, you love it when you get like that. But if you're trying to straighten some situations out, that's not the time for you to fly off in every direction. There is nothing you can do to change the past. To undo a wrong, to unsen a sin. We need to ask for forgiveness when it's a matter between us and Jesus. Do the best you can according to Romans twelve and eighteen. Paul said if it is possible as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men. You know, sometimes it's not possible to live peaceable among all people. People will steal your peace, they'll provoke you to cause you to lose your peace. But to live as peaceably as possible among all mankind. When there's nothing you can do to change the past, accept that that it's the past. Let go of it and move forward. Don't try to live in the past because you can't. When you try to go to sleep with scenes playing over and over in your head, it's easy to have your sleep elude. It can bleed over into your tomorrow and ruin it before daylight even comes. Remember this too shall pass. Remember, maybe it's not in your time or the way you want it right now, but it will certainly pass, and tomorrow is another day. Like an approaching cloud, think about this, or a thunderstorm. Tornado, if you will. It will pass, and the sky will clear up. The winds may have blown a lot of your belongings away, or even the roof is gone. With precious memories scattered in the trees or taken completely out of sight. But as long as you have breath in your body, there is hope for a brighter day. You've most likely never been a human before this lifetime, surely. Well you you may have, but most likely you haven't. And you really didn't come with an own owner's manual. I didn't. So you're not gonna have all the answers or know what it will take to fix you when you're broken. And we break sometimes. We crack. Well sometimes a crack can be worse than a break. You ever had a fractured bone? A a deep fracture can be worse than a break, harder to fix. A lot of us are fractured. The aging doesn't stop. And our parts are gonna wear out. They're gonna begin to wear out. So take as good a care of yourself as you possibly can. You likely won't get but one chance at this life. And I look forward to being back with you in the next message.