[x_custom_headline type=”left” level=”h4″ looks_like=”h4″]Perhaps there have been times in your life when your problems seemed too big to solve. Maybe it was a health issue that plagued you, and the diagnosis was so bleak that it appeared impossible to ever arrive at a place of victory. There was a woman with a bleeding disorder in the fifth chapter of Mark who fit this very description, who until her encounter with Jesus, didn’t ever improve but instead grew worse and worse (see Mark 5:26).[/x_custom_headline]
Or maybe it is a financial crisis in your life that is staring you in the face when you wake up in the morning, and then seems to grow into an insurmountable problem right in front of your face as each passing day goes along. And as the shortage increases, so too does the overwhelming hopelessness.
And perhaps we can fill this page with other problems, demonic attacks, and a myriad of other painful issues that happen to people in life, which all may appear at times that getting the need met is out of the question, and that a breakthrough is unachievable. But that is often because people don’t know the biblical way of how to shrink their problems down to size.
To begin with, here are a few questions to ask yourself: When I am in a desperate situation, who is the first person that I turn to? Whose counsel and wisdom do I have the most confidence in? Who do I trust the most to meet this need?
Oddly enough, many Christians will look to themselves for the answer to their problems and to find a solution to their desperate situation. No wonder their problems remain so gigantic to them.
But this is what the psalmist instructed us to do as he was led by the Holy Spirit:
[x_blockquote cite=”Psalm 34:3-10 NASU” type=”left”]“3 O magnify the Lord with me, And let us exalt His name together. 4 I sought the Lord, and He answered me, And delivered me from all my fears. 5 They looked to Him and were radiant, And their faces will never be ashamed. 6 This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him And saved him out of all his troubles. 7 The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear Him, And rescues them. 8 O taste and see that the Lord is good; How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him! 9 O fear the Lord, you His saints; For to those who fear Him there is no want. 10 The young lions do lack and suffer hunger; But they who seek the Lord shall not be in want of any good thing.”[/x_blockquote]
The first thing you do is to worship the Lord and make Him big in your own eyes and in your own heart. We are to “magnify Him” the Bible says. Well, what does a magnifying glass do, for example? It makes things bigger. So, we are to magnify the Lord until He looks much bigger in our own eyes than our problems do.
And you will have to change your conversation about what you are dealing with, too. Don’t talk about how big the problem is, but about how big God is! Because when all you ever talk is your problem, it seems to grow in size, and become bigger than God and His ability to meet the need.
Instead of talking the problem and magnifying it, we need to remember everything that God has done in our lives. Begin to rehearse the many victories He has brought about in your life. As you do this, begin to thank Him and praise Him for all that He has already done, as well as for what He is doing in your life right now. You will be magnifying the Lord as you do this.
Again, to magnify is to make larger. We need to make God larger in our thinking than our problem is.
[x_blockquote cite=”Psalm 18:6, 16-19 KJV” type=”left”]“6 In my distress I called upon the Lord, and cried unto my God: he heard my voice out of his temple, and my cry came before him, even into his ears….16 He sent from above, he took me, he drew me out of many waters. 17 He delivered me from my strong enemy, and from them which hated me: for they were too strong for me. 18 They prevented me in the day of my calamity: but the Lord was my stay. 19 He brought me forth also into a large place; he delivered me, because he delighted in me.”[/x_blockquote]
The Psalmist is describing God as awesome and powerful and mighty. He isn’t referring to Him as weak, or barely able to keep up with the problems faced by one man. David is saying, “the mighty God I serve has rescued me out of a problem ready to drown me,” (verse 16). God delivered him out of all of his troubles. And since we serve the same God, He will deliver you out of all of your troubles, too.
Something else that we must do is begin to meditate in the scriptures about how awesome our God is, and the price the Lord Jesus paid for us. For example, when you meditate on the greatness of God in creation, you have to realize that if God can measure the world in His hand (see Isaiah 40:11-26), our problems do not overwhelm Him in the slightest.
Next, bring your problems to the Lord in prayer. However, don’t come before the Lord in prayer impressed with your problems. Come to Him impressed with Who He is, and how Awesome He is. In fact, start off your prayer talking about how big God is. As you pray keep the problem in the proper perspective by making the problem much smaller than God and is ability.
As you consistently magnify the Lord, meditate on how awesome and mighty He is, and pray in faith to the Lord Who is more than enough, you will soon discover that you are also shrinking your problem down to size.
