The Eight Most Profound Truths We’ve Learned by Lisa Burkhardt Worley and Dr. Lynnette Simm
- We don’t have problems.
Remind me of this the next time I blog about a “problem,” but this was a profound teaching I received over the weekend at the Global Media Summit I attended. Brad Bright, CEO of the Bright Media Foundation and son of Campus Crusade for Christ founder, Bill Bright, convinced me that I don’t have problems. He asked, When we have what we call a problem “What attribute of God are we struggling to believe?”
I just wrote a book about the Father’s attributes like God is loving, God has a plan for us, God provides for us, God gives us strength when we don’t have it ourselves. You get the picture. So when we have a “problem” why is it so difficult to see it as a part of a much larger picture that we are not privy to?
I know that every time I begin to have a pity party, God will put someone in front of me who has it worse. But I was enjoying feeling sorry for myself. Inevitably I will repent of my complaining and ask to trust God in the scenario, no matter how dire.
Brad Bright also said that instead of viewing something as a problem, look at it as “an opportunity to see the Master work.”
As I scan my life, I’ve overcome fatherlessness, a mentally ill mom, major career and financial crashes, illness and situational depression. However, in all of these cases, it was an opportunity for the Master to work. He was adjusting something in me or my family and it was all for His glory and for our edification. Instead of coming out weaker, I emerged stronger and was able to help others through what I endured.
In the Message translation, Hebrews 12:2 says, “Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we’re in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed-that exhilarating finish in and with God—he could put up with anything along the way: cross, shame, whatever. And now he’s there, in the place of honor, right alongside God.”
I want to follow Jesus’ lead, don’t you? Just this morning, I was pleading with Him, “Help me to stay focused, Lord! Help me to remain fixed on whatever gives glory to you, and not anything that takes me away from your plan for my life.”
At the beginning of his message, Brad Bright asked us to raise our hands if we had a problem. Almost everyone in the room raised their hands high in the air. At the end, he asked again if we had a problem, and aloud, I confidently replied, “NO!” People laughed at my assuredness, but he had convinced me. What about you? Do you have problems? (LBW)