Preparing for Problems

Preparing for Problems: Lots of problems are solvable before moving to the problem solving lessons of the Bible with simple preparation. So much of what comes at us is designed to draw out or reveal to us what really lives inside. We were told even before Jesus came on the scene that He was God in flesh, and sinless. He then faced opposition from not only the wicked of his day but the religious leaders also. If we judge facing problems by how good you are, He should have had a problem free life. However, since problems come to draw out of us what is inside, we found out that Jesus was sinless by watching him face problems. Here are three things to help prepare us for problems:

Hebrews 4:12-16

1. Have a Biblical Faith: A Biblical faith is simply one that trusts God to be what He says He is and do what He said He would do. Verse 12, the Word is powerful.
a. If that sounds overly simplistic, consider that most people’s faith is a product of how they feel at the time and what they are going through. If they do not get the answer to prayer that they hoped for, their faith, that had grown through prayer, shrinks.
b. Biblical faith does not depend on how we feel or our exterior circumstances.
c. The Bible is the only way that we know about God.

2. Have The Right Expectation of God:
a. Faith is not determined by how I feel today.
i. Faith does not put me in control, it places control in God. Faith does not make problems go away, it gives us the ability to overcome them. I John 5:4
b. God’s love for me is not determined by individual events or circumstances. Luke 17:1 Offenses will come.
i. We “lose” faith when we see or experience things that we do not understand. We draw back from God when we feel like (because of circumstances) that God does not care about us. Hebrews 4:15
c. The Bible is true no matter what is going on.
d. The Bible does not promise, nor is there anything in the world that promises us our desired outcome in every situation. The Bible promise is for mercy and grace.
i. Mercy through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ brings forgiveness of all our sin.
ii. Grace gives us the ability to handle the greatest of trials we face.

3. Understand why problems come:
a. Build our tolerance and make us strong. We have an example. Hebrews 4:14
b. Build character through trial and make character apparent. Hebrews 4:15
c. Create life experiences. Hebrews 4:15
d. Increase our dependency on God. Hebrews 4:16 He wants us to come to Him and to depend on Him.

Advice: Opinions about what we should do.

How is it that I have all the answers for everyone else’s problems but not for mine? Advice is a combination of knowledge experience and common sense from which we formulate an opinion and then give that opinion to someone. Those we love give us advice because they care. That does not make the advice good. The Bible is full of counselors and advisors that have both good and bad advice. The good advice is there for us to follow and the bad advice is there so we will recognize it and heed it.

1. My advisor must be credible. Psalm 1:1-6
a. Is my advisor an honest person? Do we have the same values and belief?
b. Does the advice come from someone who has experience in the area in which he or she is advising?
c. Do they have a track record of discipline or lack of discipline in their life?
i. Knowledge
ii. Experience
iii. Common sense
d. Are they able to manage their personal and spiritual life?
e. Does he follow the advice he is providing?
f. If we are giving the advice we must be willing to refer someone to a more experienced and knowledgeable person.

2. The advice must be based on a predictable standard, and follow good principles. Proverbs 20:17,18-20, 22
a. To make a practical application of the standard, a study of the possible outcomes or consequences is vital.
b. The standard or principle that underlies the advice has an inherent direction toward a positive or negative outcome. Determining the direction will reveal the principle.
i. Advice that calls for deceit, lies, destroying another person’s life etc carries with it the consequences that you face for those tactics.
ii. Advice that calls for sin in any way brings with it the consequences for sin.
c. One of the best ways to detect bad advice is when it violates a known principle or standard. I Kings 13:9-24

3. It must be useable. Acts 5:33 – 5:39
a. They were taking counsel on how to kill the men that God had appointed to preach boldly at this hour. Gamaliel recognized that advice that puts you fighting against God is not useable. Isaiah 54:17
b. Advice must be something that I can do and that is reasonable to the situation. If it is not in my control to do, it may be bad advice.
c. The useability of the advice is usually a good indicator of its quality.
d. Useable advice will have a certain sense of rightness and relief of the pressure.

Advice and Advisors (counselors) in the Bible

I Kings 12:1-17 Jerobaom, the new king, picks his advisors:
1. Jeroboam is made king and seeks advice from two different groups.
2. The advice is completely opposite.
3. How did he make his selection?
a. Last advice
b. Longest advice
c. Most popular advice (quantity of advisors)
4. His advisors were those he grew up with.
5. It is wise to seek good advice: Proverbs 13:10
6. There is safety in getting a lot of good counsel: Proverbs 11:14
7. We should ask God for His counsel and advice on everything. Joshua 9:14, Judges 18:5

Ahithophel hangs himself when his advice is not taken. II Samuel 16:23-17:23
1. If we advise someone successfully, we should not let that go to our head. One piece of good advice does not an advisor make.
2. Ahithophel came up with a plan to defeat David and to hand the kingdom to Absalom.
3. Absalom calls another to get a second opinion. Even though he liked Ahithophel’s plan he wanted to hear another advisor before moving ahead.
4. Ahithophel could not deal with the fact that his advice was not followed. He was made proud by the accolades of the people and could not deal with the humiliation.
5. Our reaction to those that do not follow our advice must be laced with humility. Not with I told you so. We also must realize that sometimes they are better off for not following the advice of know-it-alls like us.

Be careful from whom you take advice. Your best advisors in one area may be worthless in another. Be even more careful about the advice you give.

Know what you want to accomplish;

Time management step one: Know what it is you want to accomplish:

A goal is something that has a definite and objective outcome, and set time and a measurable character.

If you set the goal to become a “better person” you are hurling toward failure. Its not objective, measurable nor does it have a time frame for completion. Success has to begin with a proper understanding of what must be accomplished. To have that understanding you must understand who you are and what role you play. The manager of a group of people may be able to do their job better than they. If he does it, there is a certain amount of praise that comes to him coupled with a sense satisfaciton that it got done right. While he succeded at their role, he failed at his. His post was untended while he tended theirs. He became and overpaid worker (the manager makes more) and his post was abandoned. You have to know who you are and what your role is.

A manager’s role is different than a foreman’s role as is a pastor’s role different from that of a missionary. Being successful doing all sorts of things that are other people’s role is the same as failing. To know what you want to accomplish, you must understand who you are. You must understand that you cannot do every role for any length of time and that without a focus and a steely determination to serve one role with all you are, you will not succeed at one thing, but fail at many. Know your role then know what goals go with your role.

Ask yourself what the ideal person in your role does. Read all you can about the best in your specific field and their product and focus your goals around achieving the best. Take any goal that does not have a defined time, measurable character and objective outcome and either chunk it or break it down until it is in a bite sized piece that can be defined and measured. Here are the defininitions for the three terms i am using.

Measurable character means that it can be quantified. Profits, members, pounds lost or animal crackers. It can be measured.
Objective outcome means that anyone can look at it and define it like you would. They can look at your income statement and see the profit, count the members in your church or see the lost weight.
Specific time. I will get it accomplished by this time.

Knowing what you want to accomplish and defining it correctly are 95% of the battle when it comes to goals. Nebulous, ambiguous or just plain humongus goals should be pitched, re-defined or broken down into what i can get done on this in a week or a day’s time.

Here is a Ken Tracy tip on goals. Write them down each day. Then look at your “written plan” (no joke, write it down or you are doomed to wander) for the day. See how your plan for the day compares with your goals. Nine times out of ten our day plan does not achieve our goals, it only gets our hours. SCRAP THE PLAN for the day if it does not attain the goals for who you say you are and what your role is. If you continually execute a plan for a different role than you say you are, go ahead and admit that you are not what you say you are.

Here is a quick step process:
1. You should have next week’s written goals already handy.
2. Write them down each day and compare them to the written schedule for the day.
3. Ask yourself if the schedule matches the goals then have the courage to change the scheduel if they do not.
4. Re-cap the goals at the end of the week and measure the success or failure. Adjust accordingly.

Making it happen requires knowing what it is.

My Time Management Strategy

I have been asked several times about my time management strategy. If i had a face for video like Austin, i would do a Youtube broadcast. Since i have more of a face for a written blog, here she blows.

1. Goals: Know exactly what you want to accomplish. Not a big nebulous goal, but a specific attainable goal and a timeframe to complete it.
a. Setting realistic goals means knowing exactly what you want to complete in a week, month or year.
b. Things that stay on your to-do list and do not get done are not really important (even though they may sound or look important, or you know they should be on there) or they would get done. Remove them from the list or break them down into small enough sections to complete.
2. System: Create a trustworthy system to record things that need to be done.
a. You cannot keep things in your head. First of all, you will forget them. Secondly they take up space in your mind and you are less likely to complete them. They are a great source of stress and frustration.
b. Have a method to record things as you think of them then stop thinking of them. They should go onto a critical list as you schedule their completion.
c. Your system should include a time of review of your lists and a segregation of items into categories such as; immediate, follow-up, delegate, or trash. Reviewing the lists each week will keep it useful and clean.
3. Plan: Do not plan the day at the beginning of the day. Plan each day the day before then write the plan and put it where you will be first the next day.
a. Execute the plan. If you change the plan every minute, then you need to fire the planner or fire the guy that executes. Since both are you, then plan your next day, next thing, next place and execute them. Trust the plan you made.
b. Prepare for meetings, situations etc. Preparation is something that so few people do well. All meetings that you organize should have an itinerary.
4. Structured hours: Recurring tasks should have set and specific times for completion.
a. The more structure you add to your day and week the more you can expect to get done. If you start a day without a plan you can expect to accomplish little or nothing.
b. Make use of spare moments. Have your reading, planner or scratch pad ready for down time while you are waiting on something. You can make a lifetime out of spare moments.
5. Do the next thing. This is great, but simple advice. Work while you work and be constantly doing the next thing to reach your goals.
a. Work while you work. This is a Ken Tracy slogan that really makes sense when you consider all the work distractions you have during the day.
b. Do the next thing toward attaining your goal. Figure out what the “next thing” is and do that. Ask yourself. What is the “next thing” I need to do to reach my goals. This fights distractions.

Joshua Holt

Well, I beleive i have had an influence on at least one of the Holt family members. All three of Jason and Lori Holt’s children are cute beyond words. This little guy has been a real treat this week. He thinks that Kristen is his grandmother and has really taken to boots and shades. This guy will grow up in a different country and speak multiple languages. He will one day realize how incredible a life he has and maybe will take the gospel to other parts of Chile or the world working with his dad.