Problems have big mouths. They say a lot about us, about our character, our strengths, and our weaknesses. Take Mary Kathlyn Wagner, for example—a girl born into a rugged set of problems. Her childhood unfolded during the Great Depression and her father was bedridden with tuberculosis. Mary took care of him, kept the house, did the chores, and cooked the meals without skipping school. Her mother worked fourteen hours a day, seven days a week managing a restaurant and receiving a paycheck far below what a man would earn in a similar position. Mary longed to become a doctor, but funds weren’t available for college. She married a man with whom she had three children, but he cheated on her and abandoned them. She married another man, who died of a heart attack a month after the wedding. Her third husband died of cancer. Mary herself was struck by a strange paralysis that affected one side of her face.

But Mary never let her problems define her. Her mother had told her over and over: “You can do it, Mary, you can do it.” Taking those words to heart, Mary carved out a sales career and eventually founded a little cosmetics company you might know—Mary Kay, which is now one of the world’s largest direct-selling companies. “For every failure,” Mary once said, “there’s an alternative course of action. You just have to find it. When you come to a roadblock, take a detour.”

Problems Reveal Our Weaknesses

Sometimes problems reveal our weaknesses and show us where we need help. In 1 Samuel 17, King Saul had a giant of a problem—a champion named Goliath. It was an opportunity for the aging king to trust the Lord, lead his army, defeat his foes, and regain the respect of his people. Instead Saul was “dismayed and greatly afraid” (verse 11). When a young shepherd boy named David came along, Saul was relieved his problem was solved, but he grew jealous and resentful of the young warrior who had won the day. At every step, Saul’s response to his problems betrayed weakness and willful disregard of the life of faith. He spiraled downward in anxiety and despair.

Many people in the Bible followed the same route.

Hebrews 11 is a roll call of the heroes of the faith; and when you read it, you keep coming across the phrase: “By faith…by faith…by faith….” But what if we had a chapter in the Bible describing those who faltered and failed in times of crisis. It might say something like this: “By unbelief, Cain slew his brother Abel, for he was jealous and driven by anger. By unbelief, Pharaoh, seeing the multiplying children of Israel, enslaved them for fear they would become more numerous than the Egyptians. By unbelief, the children of Israel panicked in the desert, forgetting that the God who parted the sea could send forth rivers in the desert…. By unbelief, Demas abandoned Paul, for he loved the present world too much.”

When we approach any problem from a perspective of unbelief, we’re unable to resolve it successfully. We’re condemned to fail at the point of our problem. Perhaps you’re facing a deficiency, dispute, or distressing trial right now. If you could step out of your own skin, walk a few yards away, turn and study yourself at a distance, what would you see? Would your problems reveal weakness?

Problems Reveal Our Strengths

Or would they reveal strength and show others how to manage stress and strain with grace? The same giant that evidenced Saul’s weakness revealed David’s strength, for the shepherd boy told Goliath: “You come to me with a sword, with a spear, and with a javelin. But I come to you in the name of the LORD of hosts” (1 Samuel 17:45).

That is the way Christ’s followers have always handled problems, by coming at them in the name of the Lord of hosts. One of the benefits of reading biblical and Christian biography is seeing how various servants of God have proved the truthfulness of Romans 5:3, which says, “We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance.”¹

Dr. F. W. Boreham wrote a series of books on great biblical texts that enabled men and women of God to overcome adversity and prevail despite their problems. He wrote of how Martin Luther endured periods of great danger by remembering Romans 1:17: “The just shall live by faith.” John Knox, who was chained to the oars of a galley ship, never got far away from John 17:3: “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” John Bunyan, who was torn from his needy family and imprisoned in Bedford jail because of his preaching, trusted in John 6:37: “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out.” Missionary John Paton, who faced deadly peril on the New Hebrides Islands of the South Pacific, claimed Matthew 28:20: “Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

Of course, we needn’t rely on just one single text to sustain us amid our problems. We have more than 31,000 verses in the Bible. For every problem we face, God has given us multiple promises in His Word. Our problems can become opportunities for finding and claiming the promises of God. In that way, problems can reveal our spiritual strength. God never fails to give us grace and guidance in any and every situation as we trust Him. Zephaniah 3:5 says, “He never fails.”

Problems Reveal Our Attitude About Life

In this way, problems also reveal the core attitudes we exhibit to the world as we display a life of praise. Humorist Lewis Grizzard said, “The game of life is a lot like football. You have to tackle your problems, block your fears, and score your points when you get the opportunity.”²

It takes determination to win a football game. When my son was playing college football, I tried to go to every game, even when it meant flying across the country. I admired the stamina, strength, and determination he brought to the game. It was an inspiration to me to keep tackling, blocking, and scoring in the things God had assigned me to do.

If I could sit down with you right now—that’s what I feel I’m doing in this article—I would tell you: “Don’t give up. It’s always too soon to quit. Everyone encounters problems, but we can persevere by facing them with the promises of God. You can do it because God never fails.”

If we had no problems, we’d have no opportunities to trust God with the hardships of life. We’d have no occasions to flex our spiritual muscles. We wouldn’t need to develop a positive attitude because we wouldn’t be challenged by life’s negatives. Without problems, we wouldn’t be driven to prayer as incessantly as we are. We wouldn’t be pressed into a life of faith. Without problems, we’d never learn how to cast our cares on the Lord and see how He cares for us.

When it comes down to it, your problems reveal your spiritual condition. They help you see yourself more clearly and grow in faith, in perseverance, and in a can-do attitude. Rather than saying “Why me?” we should say, “What now? What is God going to do, and what does He expect of me?” The life of faith wends its way through problems by perseverance to praise.

Ask God to make you strong where you are weak and to shine where you are strong. Remember what Jesus said about problems in John 16:33, for perhaps you need His words now more than ever:

These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.

Sources:

¹New Living Translation

²Lewis Grizzard, Don’t Sit Under the Grits Tree With Anyone Else But Me (Atlanta: Peachtree Publishers, 1981), 11.?