Daily Thought: Ushering in God's Promise

When you ignore problems, you relinquish a place of truth.  When you ignore obstacles, you communicate a lack of confidence that God can overcome obstacles that have debilitated or even paralyzed God's people.  Identifying the clear problems is not expressing pessimism or negativity.  It is not judgmentalism or condemnation. It is standing to face whatever Goliaths stand before God's people and speaking with confidence about a future gained after Goliath's defeat.  Identifying the clear problems is the beginning point of spiritual warfare in leadership.  It gives the spiritual leader an opportunity to call God's people to prayer and usher in the promises of God, promises of a future and a hope.

Erwin McManus, An Unstoppable Force, Thomas Nelson Publishers (2003), p. 191

Sunday Quote: Face Our Problems

"When you ignore problems, you relinquish a place of truth.  When you ignore obstacles, you communicate a lack of confidence that God can overcome obstacles that have debilitated or even paralyzed God's people.  Identifying the clear problems is not expressing pessimism or negativity.  It is not judgmentalism or condemnation. It is standing to face whatever Goliaths stand before God's people and speaking with confidence about a future gained after Goliath's defeat.  Identifying the clear problems is the beginning point of spiritual warfare in leadership.  It gives the spiritual leader an opportunity to call God's people to prayer and usher in the promises of God, promises of a future and a hope." ~ Erwin McManus; An Unstoppable Force, p. 191

Everyone Has Problems

One of the truths that we have constantly remind ourselves of is that we live in a fallen world. Things are not what they should be. That is true for me and it is true for you. The truly amazing thing isn't that we have problems in our lives, but that we have good in our lives. Though we tend to credit ourselves with the good and blame God for the bad, but that is a different topic for another day.

What I want to do today is to point out that no matter who good we think another person has it, he/she has a set of problems that are all their own. No one lives a perfect life.

I find myself, when I am feeling lonely and depressed, wishing I had a different life. "If only I had a million dollars," I think, "then I would be able to help so many people" (I had a dream recently in which I won the lottery and I was try to figure out how to give the money away).

"If only I was at a bigger church, then perhaps I would get invited to speak at events." There are times when I think it would be cool to have people seek me out for advice and value my opinions.

No matter whose life we would like to have, or what dreams we have that remain unfulfilled, there is no such thing as the perfect life. The single guy can envy the married guy and the married guy can envy the single guy, but each situation has its own unique set of challenges. The same is true for money. As much as we like to think that money is the answer to all our problems, the fact remains that a rich person has a set of problems that a poor person knows nothing about.

Because we live in a fallen world, a world where sin messes everything up, the is know problem free life. We might be getting tired of the set of problems that make up our lives, but that doesn't mean that anyone else had it easier. Since we cannot know everything that goes on in a person's life, their problems are probably not easier, they are just different.

Instead of wishing for another person's life, we need to deal with the problems that we have in our lives. Perhaps that means confessing a sin or seeking forgiveness. Maybe that means going to counseling for guidance or going to the doctor for a physical exam. Perhaps you need to create a budget and cut up the credit cards or you need to repay you friend for the money he lent you.

Worrying and wishing will not change our lives. Change happens when we seek out God's will and then take the necessary steps to accomplish that will. That means that God will provide the guidance, but we must make the choice.

Everyone has problems, so we might as well stick to our own, and put our effort towards making changes rather than wishing to trade lives with someone else. After all, I know my problems, I don't want to have to learn a brand new set of problems.

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