How To Solve Problems (7)

WED, 21 AUG 2019

‘His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known.’ Ephesians 3:10 NIV

Seventh, try to see the problem from different angles. Paul talks about ‘the manifold wisdom of God.’ To understand the word ‘manifold’, think of a diamond. Each time you turn it, the light exposes a different facet of its beauty. God’s wisdom contained in the Bible is like that; it exposes different aspects and approaches to the problem.

There’s a joke about a woman on trial for killing her third husband. The trial lawyer asked, ‘What happened to your first husband?’ She replied, ‘He died of mushroom poisoning.’ He then asked, ‘How about your second husband?’ The woman replied, ‘He died of mushroom poisoning too.’ Finally the lawyer inquired about her third husband. She replied, ‘He died of a brain concussion.’ The lawyer asked, ‘How come?’ She replied, ‘Because he wouldn’t eat the mushrooms!’

Seriously, most problems have many solutions, and no problem can long withstand the assault of sustained thinking. So fire up your God-given creativity, apply sustained thinking, and pull together your resources. Included in those resources are people. Who else has solved this problem? How did they do it? Often the problems that surround you aren’t nearly as crucial as the people around you. When Joseph came up with a plan that saved Egypt from famine, Pharaoh said, ‘Since God has revealed the meaning of the dreams to you, clearly no one else is as intelligent or wise as you are. You will be in charge of my court, and all my people will take orders from you. Only I, sitting on my throne, will have a rank higher than yours.’ (Genesis 41:39–40 NLT)

Bottom line: with God’s help, you can generally devise more than one way to solve the problem.