1 Peter 5:5
Here are 5 things that happen right before God gives you the solution to your issue.
1. Before God Reveals the Solution to Your Struggle, He Gives You the Power to Submit to His Will Regardless of Your Circumstances
James 4:10, “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.” 1 Peter 5:5, “‘God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.’ Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you . . .” James 4:7, “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”
Before the solution must come submission. Before God solves your problem, he will use that problem to help you repent of pride (2 Corinthians 12:7-10). When you humble yourself before the Lord, then God chooses to exalt you for his glory.
2. Before God Solves Your Issue, He Gives You Spiritual Insight that Affects Your Life in Tangible Ways
2 Timothy 3:7 states the wicked are “always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth.” Colossians 2:23 states of man-made spiritual regulations, “These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.” And to all who claim Christ in word, we are warned in James 1:22, “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.”
God will give you spiritual insight through his word, through biblical teachers, and through the Holy Spirit’s personal leading in your heart. But before your solution arrives, God will give you the power to actually act on these spiritual insights.
3. Before God Solves Your Big Issue, He Helps You Build Transformative Momentum in Smaller Areas of Your Life First
How you spend your days will be how you spent your life. The biggest changes in our lives are always produced through our small choices that we make every day. For good or bad, our lives are always gaining momentum in one direction or the other.
If you want your life to be going in the right direction, it starts by making small choices in the right direction.
For example, you may be severely addicted to porn. It’s gotten so bad, you are staying up late and showing up tired for work the next day. Start by choosing to go to bed on time. Then start by replacing your phone use with reading a book. And then start going to a Bible study. And then confide in a trusted Christian friend. And then just keep making one more right step in the correct direction. Over time, this consistent repentance will help you make major changes in your efforts to honor God with your sexuality. Victory comes through grace, but grace will help you make consistent changes in line with repentance.
Proverbs 20:13 states, “Love not sleep, lest you come to poverty; open your eyes, and you will have plenty of bread.” The little choices we make every day are what lead to a life of spiritual poverty or to a life of spiritual thriving.
4. Before God Solves Your Issue, God Will Give You Radical Personal Responsibility for Yourself
Everyone has been wronged by someone. Some of you have been wronged in worse ways than others. But regardless of how wronged you were, regardless of what disadvantages you were born into, and regardless of how much easier your life would be if someone just gave you the help you think you need from them – none of that changes the fact that you are always going to be responsible for managing and stewarding the life God has given you.
I’m sure you remember the parable of the talents. When the two servants managed their master’s talents well, he said to them both, “You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much” (Matthew 25:21-23). But when the wicked servant did nothing with the one talent his master gave him to manage, he said, “And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness” (Matthew 25:30).
You won’t be judged by what you don’t have in life. You will be judged by how well you manage what you do have. Before you can be given much, you must first be faithful with little.
5. Before God Solves Your Issue, He Positions Your Heart to Give Him All the Glory for His Coming Solution
All true biblical theology has roots in these two principles: man is responsible for sin and God is responsible for salvation. As James 1:16-17 states, “Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.”
The reason we are told not to be deceived about this is because the human heart so often wants to take credit for the good God provides and blame God for the problems we create (James 1:13-15). When you are prepared to give God glory for the good, you are then in a much better position to receive that good.
As Psalm 23:3 states, “He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.”