I want to talk to you about problems. Problems are something that everybody has. They’re always a part of life. We’re never going to escape them. A man named Steve Backlund, who’s in Redding, California, said one of my favorite quotes of all time, he says, “Our worry about a problem is a bigger problem than the problem.”
Sometimes we can let problems overwhelm us so much that we start to worry, and then the problem isn’t even the issue anymore, but our perspective of the problem is the issue. And recently, I was reading in Luke chapter four, and there’s a story about Jesus. He had just come into the synagogue after being in the desert for 40 days, fasting and communing with the Father and being tempted by Satan. And He comes out of the desert, He goes into the synagogue and He reads Isaiah chapter 61, and it’s the chapter about the Messiah. And He says, “This has been fulfilled in your reading today.” He’s telling the people, “I’m the Messiah.”
Now, the people’s reaction is super interesting. This is what Luke chapter four says these people do in response to Jesus reading Isaiah 61. It says in verse 29, “They got up, drove Him out of the town, took Him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built in order to throw Him down the cliff.” This is what’s interesting, in verse 30, “But He (Jesus), but He walked right through the crowd and went on His way.”
When I read this recently, I felt like God said, “Tim, there’s gonna be problems and issues that you’re gonna have to deal with in life, but there’s also gonna be problems and issues that just like my Son did that day, you’re just gonna have to let them go and walk straight through them, and they will work themselves out.”
This was super freeing to me, because sometimes I feel like I have to work every problem out and I have to have my hands gripped around everything, trying to hold tightly and bring about a solution. And I just want to pray over you today, to have the freedom to know and discern that there’s problems that you don’t have to deal with, but that God’s going to deal with on your behalf.
So Jesus, I just thank you right now for freedom and for discernment to be released to anyone watching for them to know that they are a problem solver, one, but also that there’s problems that they don’t have to grab onto, but that they can walk straight through and you’re going to work those things out on their behalf. In Jesus’ name, amen.