Bring God Problems, Not Solutions

January 18, 2017

Have you ever said, “Please, God, get this slowpoke out of the way so I can get to work on time?”

And the slowpoke leaves, but something else comes up and you’re still late?

So often when we pray, we tell God how we want things to go, instead of just telling Him what’s bugging us.

So what’s really bugging us?

“I don’t want to be late.”

“My best friend hurt my feelings.”

“I hurt somebody’s feelings, and I don’t know how to fix it.”

“I don’t think I’m really doing the most with the talents you gave me.”

“My medical bills are getting out of control.”

The thing is, there may be lots of ways to fix a problem. If you focus on one way, you may not pay attention to the other ways that present themselves.

And sometimes you don’t think there is a solution. And maybe there isn’t; maybe there are only coping strategies, or maybe you have to just give up and go in another direction.

Sometimes solutions happen step by tiny step; and you may not even realize a problem is getting solved until you’re halfway there.

And maybe this method won’t work for everybody. But I’ve found out that if I just bring God the problem and not the solution (exception: I’d still like to win the lottery), things actually go much better.