World over, people have problems or put more sophisticatedly- people have challenges. For certain, there is no one alive who has no challenge. There are always ladders or mountains for each and everyone of us to climb. This is partly what makes life great!

However, a lot have not learnt that these challenges are not meant to be another cross that we are to carry! Indeed a lot of times people say ‘your problem is your cross’. No! I only know of one cross, and that is the glorious cross of Jesus Christ, which brought salvation to us! The cross is the instrument of eternal destiny. Not a jack of problems, as some suppose. You don’t have a problem that is a cross! No, not one!

All problems come, and they have to go at some point in time!

Sure, your problems may be as high as mount Everest but that does not qualify it to be the logo of your life! The Lord has not given you a life to carry problems all  about. To all who are facing daunting  challenges, His Word says in Psalm 55:22:‘Cast your burden on the Lord, And He shall sustain you; He shall never permit the righteous to be moved’.

Those that will survive their problems or burdens and  even turn them into wells of  opportunities are those that will learn that we have a God that can solve all human problems. He is always ready to deal with our problems no matter the type they may be. Hear again the promise attached to that divine counsel in Psalm 55:22,‘…..He shall never permit the righteous to be moved’.

This God is too awesome! He will never allow you to be overcome by that burden. He is too good to do that! He won’t allow your boat to sink at sea. He won’t allow satan to triumph over you. Even if you were the one that caused the problem, He will still help you out of it! So then where is the problem?

The problem is you! I mean you are the infact the problem of your problem! You ask how? Can’t you see that the way you worry about your problem is causing more harm than good? In your heart, you curse yourself all the time. In your mind, you curse God and you complain and condemn your faith as if there is no God. Listen the bible says it is only fools that says there is no God (Psalm 14:1). But I never said there is no God, you say.

Yes you are saying so indirectly with the uncontrollable ways you run around worrying! Everybody knows your problem in the city,ever before you talked to God about it! You go about making essay presentations of your problems.But have you ask yourself: ‘what has men been able to do about it for you?

You see it is not possible to cry and laugh at the same time! It is either you are crying, or laughing. You can’t have both ways at the same time. So, if you want to laugh it is your time to stop crying.

Truly, God understands how you feel. He knows those problems are beyond your own solution. But He won’t have you go about  anxious and worrying! Do you even see what anxiety and worry is doing to you? You now have grey hairs before your time. Your heart  now has too many scars as a result of   worry and stress! Imagine the story of a man who was sick with stomach ulcer, then he began to worry! In no time, he got high blood pressure as result of sleepless nights and stressful thinking. Before he knew it, the high blood pressure developed into heart complications. Finally, one day an ambulance came to wheel him  to the hospital, but unfortunately the doctor had no time to work on him because before they arrived, he was dead. So the doctor sent his body to the pathology unit, where the autopsy showed that he died of heart complications. Can you see? His    problem was initially stomach ulcer. But he could still live a normal life and even be cured but as a result of worry he ended up in the grave before his time.

Some people know how to worry so much that they qualify to have Ph.D in ‘stress-nology’ and ‘worry-nistic’! Perhaps they‘ve not heard that Jesus said:

‘….do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?

Then He asked you a question in verse 27:‘Which of you by  worrying can add one cubit to his stature’?

Since the time you have been worrying and anxious, what has changed about that problem? All that want to come out of burdens and problems must learn how to handle them. According to our running scripture in Psalm 55:22, handling problems means:‘casting them on the Lord’ To cast your challenges means to believe that your God has enough muscles and brain to deflate that burden. He is a burden bursting, and mountain crushing God.

You’ve got to believe and trust! No other way. You need to know that God will never  abandon any of His children  inside the fire. He is in that situation with you. He will not run back, when you are going forward! NO! Rather than worry or be stressed, pray, pray and pray! As you pray, peace will come and not stress! Inexplicable joy will replace anxiety as promised in Philippians 4: 6-7: ‘Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God which surpasses all  understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.’

And when you have prayed, trust that He is working something out for you! He is pressing a button now for you! He is touching somebody’s heart for your sake. He is moving the heart of a king for you. He is  causíng a law to be rewritten that you may be set free. You’ve got to believe!

Refuse to be a baby again. Learn how to handle life. Your problem is only a burden and nothing else. It is not your God. It is like an inflated balloon, that carry empty air. As soon as somebody deflates the air, the ballon can go nowhere anymore! I see God disarming all your problems. Peace unto you.

Please read Part II in coming editions, to learn how to cast a burden away from your life.