Do you have problems? I’m sure you do. If so, you’ve probably been talking to God about them. 

I recently came across this statement by Mark Batterson: “It’s okay to talk to God about your problems, but at some point you need to talk to your problems about God.”*

At first it didn’t sit well with me. He seemed to be downplaying the effectiveness of God working through prayer and suggesting that the onus is on us to slap our problems in the proverbial face and put them in their place.

But the more I thought about it, and based on the context of what he was saying, I don’t think that was his intention. We should one-hundred percent lift our concerns to the prayer-answering God; he is good, almighty and working. As we are reminded in James 1:17 every good and perfect gift is from him.

But we should also be proactive about putting our problems in perspective. If we’re passive (instead of proactive) we’ll stew and fester and constantly roll them over in our heads at 2am.

In Colossians 3:2 Paul writes: “Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.” To me, this is the quintessential verse about perspective. Christ is interceding for us at the right hand of our heavenly Father. Since we are “in Christ” by faith, we are actually with him right now looking down upon our own lives, spiritually speaking. We are simultaneously standing at the victory line with Christ and with the crown of life on our heads and also running the race that he has set before us in this life. 

That’s the reality our problems need to be reminded about.

-“Let me tell you about my God for a moment…”
-“Do you know that Christ—my Lord and Friend—has already conquered every evil power?”
-“My God can work good through all things for those who love him…”
-“Stand aside and watch the God of creation do something great while you’re preoccupied with slinging mud that will never stick.”

Problems can feel big. God is bigger. Sometimes our problems need the reminder.

“Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.”

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Notes:

–*Mark Batterson, Chase the Lion (New York: Multnomah, 2016), 112.

–Bible quotes are from the NIV.