101 Things That God Can't Do: Day 2- God can't be given a problem He can't solve

101 Things That God Can't Do: Day 2- God can't be given a problem He can't solve

But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, with men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible. Matthew 19:26

There have been times in my life when I honestly didn't see a way out of a situation. More often than not, the responsibility for the predicament I was in rest solely on my shoulders. There's nothing worse than sitting by yourself in a room and wondering what you could possibly do to get yourself out of the pickle that you've managed to get yourself in. Sometimes however, I have found myself caught in the middle of circumstances that I didn't create and yet they were still completely out of my control.

Stephen R. Covey, the author of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, talks about a Circle of Concern and a Circle of Influence¹. He states that a person's Circle of Concern encompasses the concerns that an individual has such as health, our children, problems at work, threat of war, personal relationships etc. In other words these are things that we are concern with ourselves on a daily basis. He then goes on to describe a person’s Circle of Influence. He defines this as the concerns that we can do something about. These are the concerns that we have some control over. Things like how much we eat, how we spend our money, how we interact with people, and other choices we make on a daily basis. He emphasizes the importance of keeping our circle of influence inside our circle of concern. To put it simply, don't expend a lot of energy over things you have no control over.

This may sound simple in concept but it is extremely difficult to practice, especially as Christians living in a torn and broken down world. Many times I've found myself losing sleep and damaging relationships because I refused to hand the problems that I had little or no control over to God. The good news here is that God's Circle of Influence is infinite.  I have tried to adopt the following mindset in my later years:

     God is not pacing back and forth in heaven saying to himself: “How am I going to solve this problem?”. As a Christian, we have a unique relationship with our very Creator. Everything we see, experience, feel, smell and taste has been created by God. There is no problem that God cannot solve. This does not mean that the solution will be easy nor may it be the path of least resistance. But know this, God does not worry, God does not fret, God never gets confused and God is never caught off-guard. If we are willing to allow him to bear the weight of our problems and accept his solutions, then we will live a more stress-free and enriched life and will be the witness to the world that we have been called to be. Remove the pride and insert faith, faith that enables us to realize that God is looking down and saying “Will you please relax, I got this one!”

           

 MW

Sparks, M. (1996). 101 things God can't do. Nashville, Tenn: Thomas Nelson Publishers.

¹Adapted from The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey