How to Problem Solve with God
When difficult situations arise, our nature is to find ways out immediately. So what does it look like to allow God to guide our situations? We outline four steps to God-centered problem-solving.
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1 Now the gates of Jericho were securely barred because of the Israelites. No one went out and no one came in.
2 Then the Lord said to Joshua, “See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands, along with its king and its fighting men. 3 March around the city once with all the armed men. Do this for six days. 4 Have seven priests carry trumpets of rams’ horns in front of the ark. On the seventh day, march around the city seven times, with the priests blowing the trumpets. 5 When you hear them sound a long blast on the trumpets, have the whole army give a loud shout; then the wall of the city will collapse and the army will go up, everyone straight in.”
11 So he had the ark of the Lord carried around the city, circling it once. Then the army returned to camp and spent the night there.
14 So on the second day they marched around the city once and returned to the camp. They did this for six days.
15 On the seventh day, they got up at daybreak and marched around the city seven times in the same manner, except that on that day they circled the city seven times. 16 The seventh time around, when the priests sounded the trumpet blast, Joshua commanded the army, “Shout! For the Lord has given you the city!
20 When the trumpets sounded, the army shouted, and at the sound of the trumpet, when the men gave a loud shout, the wall collapsed; so everyone charged straight in, and they took the city.
Are you an experienced circle walker?
Usually, when we talk about walking in circles, we're referencing the metaphor that's not shared in a positive light. Instead, it usually refers to making little to no progress on some frustrating problem that we cannot solve no matter how hard we try.
Sometimes our minds go in circles, like the spinning of a computer icon. It always happens when your work is piling up, and you get stuck with the circle going round and round. You know the pain of this frozen loop in your mind makes it hard to find a new way to think about problems. We all know the pain of going around in circles.
But what we do when we're going around that circle makes the difference. When facing an unsolvable problem, we must realize that God alone can solve it, but He expects us to encompass that problem as He directs.
Many of you are in a predicament or facing a problem, and you need to ask yourself, "Am I facing this the way God would direct me, or is my mind needlessly spinning to solve the problem on my own?"
Joshua and the Israelites had an unsolvable problem. God told them to take Jericho, which is almost humorous. Jericho is on record as the oldest city in the world. Scripture says Jericho was tightly secured and was a significant obstacle with walls rising 30-40 feet high and 13 feet thick. The City of Jericho was designed to be militarily impenetrable with no natural way to besieged.
As if that wasn't daunting enough, the people behind the walls were equally as ferocious and barbaric. They were ruthless tyrants whose city had never been taken before. Only God can solve a problem of this scale.
We all face Jericho-like problems, and if you have a Jericho-sized problem, the Lord knows it. I want to remind you that you're a candidate for a Godlike miracle to solve that problem or predicament. Please have hope and joy in that fact. There is a solution; It's God's solution.
For the Israelites, the Lord's solution sounded strange. He told them to march around the city one time a day for six days and seven times on the seventh day. After that seventh march, they were to blow their shofars (a horn made from a ram’s horn).
Joshua and the Israelites were not problem-centered. They walked in circles the right way. It’s difficult, and much easier said than done, but we have to resist being problem-centered. We need to be God-centered. Don't get caught in the frustrations of your problem, but call out for God’s mercy and focus on glorifying Him. God says you will not win by your intellect, strength, or might. Put your eyes on Him and rely upon Him for every problem you have in your life.
How to Handle Your Problems with God
1) Encircle the Problem with Prayer
Problems are a call to persistent prayer. When we're caught in a predicament, we often have an innate tendency to pour our hearts out to other people grasping for help. God knows the gift of other people, but I want to remind you that we should never share our problems with others without sharing them with God first. No matter how much our friends and family love us, they cannot fix our problems.
“Don’t tell your problems to everybody. 80% don’t care, and the other 20% are glad you have them.”
God cares, and we should share the deepest needs of our life with Him first. Then, when we talk to Him about our problems, He will either remove the pain or improve us. God never wastes a problem.
Prayer invites God's supernatural power into our unsolvable human situations. When we pray, God sends His Word to heal and deliver. He sends a brother or a sister to us with the right word at the right time. If that doesn't happen, God will give you the grace to help you in your time of weakness and limitation because His grace is always sufficient.
2) Encircle the Problem With Praise
On the seventh day, Joshua said, "Shout for the Lord has given you the city." The ability to praise the Lord amid impossibility is a powerful secret. You may be reading this and saying, Brother Chris, "I've tried that, but it didn't work. My problem went from worse to worst." Things may appear to get worse, but there's one word that separates worse from worst, and it's worship.
Paul says, "Rejoice in the Lord. Always and again. I say rejoice." When the Israelites sounded the shofar, it was a call to battle and celebrated a match already won. In other words, don't wait for the problem to be behind you before you begin to praise God for delivering you.
3) Encircle the Problem With Faith
Think about the faith it took for Joshua and the Israelites to follow God's instructions in this situation. They had no organized army or weapons. All they had was sheer trust and obedience to an odd command while going against the most powerful enemy on the planet. You do not have to see the solution to follow God's direction.
"By faith, the walls of Jericho fell after the people marched around them for seven days." (Hebrews 11:30)
4) Encircle the Problem With Perseverance
“It’s not that I am so smart. It’s just that I stayed with my problems longer.”
Problems are a time to have courage when quitting is all you want to do. It's a time to have the grit not to quit. The Israelites' victory was not claimed in a day or two. It took a week of circling the city, and that was after forty years of wandering in the desert! So don't tell me they didn't want to give up, even at the finish line. It may take time for the Lord to break through and achieve victory in your situation, but don't give up.
"Let us not become weary in doing good for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not quit." (Galatians 6:9)
TL;DR
When facing an unsolvable problem, we must realize that God alone can solve it, but He expects us to encompass that problem as He directs.
We have to resist being problem-centered. We need to be God-centered.
Don't wait for the problem to be behind you before you begin to praise God for delivering you.
How to Handle Your Problems with God
Prayer
Praise
Faith
Perseverance
Related Reading
How to Remember Your Blessings by Bro. Chris Carter
Feeling Stuck in a Rut? by Bro. Chris Carter
How to Deal With Anxiety by William Merriman
About Christ Church Memphis
Christ Church Memphis is church in East Memphis, Tennessee. For more than 65 years, Christ Church has served the Memphis community. Every weekend, there are multiple worship opportunities including traditional, contemporary and blended services.
