Ten Ways to Shorten the Duration of a Problem...

1. First and foremost, take responsibility for the problem.

If we give ownership of the situation to someone else, then we must wait for that person to repair the damage and we may wait from now to eternity for the problem to be rectified.

2. Be willing to work for what you want, no matter how impossible the task before you appears.

Put on the whole armour of God (Ephesians 6) and work as if your future were depending upon it. It just may be.

3. Don't waste time fighting over what you can not change.

Believe in the 'spilled milk' philisophy. Heartaches, disappointments and betrayals can not be changed, but through the grace of God, the outcome of these things can. Remember, it is not what we are 'going through' that matters, but what we are 'going to.'

4. When you are wrong, admit it. Take charge of your life.

Make sure that you never pay back wrong for wrong, but always try to be kind to each other and to everyone else. I Thessalonians 5:28

5. Do not hold a grudge and refuse to forgive.

In Matthew 6:12, Jesus say's,"Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors." Forgiveness liberates you from an emotional prison. When you refuse to forgive, you are the prisoner.

6. Be generous to those who need help.

But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great and you will be sons of the Most High, because He is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.(Luke 6:35)
What God gives, gives. God gave the sun, the sun gives light. God gave the seed, the seed gives the harvest. God gave his son, He gives life. If what is in us resents giving or if we give without joy, it is not of God.

7. Let your mouth be ruled by the law of kindness.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Galatians 5:22 Yes, even at home, not just on the job or with strangers. Be quick to say 'please' and thank you' and to express your genuine appreciation, especially to your mate, the one who is most often taken for granted.

8. Refuse self-pity when life gives you a raw deal.

Pick your self up and dust off your pants and move forward with the knowledge you are a child of the King. When royal blood flows through your veins, NOTHING is impossible, no matter how bleak and hopeless it appears at the moment.

I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. Philipians 3:14

9. Learn to listen..really, really listen. Try to understand the point someone else is making.

How often have we been in an 'intensive conversation' and not really listened, because in our minds, we were frantically 'rehearsing' our next remark? Listen to God. Wait patiently for His voice. Many times in the Word we read where the servant is instructed to 'listen to the Lord,' never do I recall the Lord being reminded to 'listen to the servant.'

Luke 12:11 "...do not worry how you will defend yourselves or what you will say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what you should say."

Proverbs 16:9 "In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps."

10. Be a peacemaker. Do not let the sun go down on your wrath.

What have we gained if we win a battle, but lose the relationship or burn the bridge? Many times something must be broken before God can use it, therefore, He will sometimes send a problem that will break us.

From the broken clouds He brings rain, from the broken soil and seed He brings crops, from the broken atom He brings the power to make a bomb, from the broken alabaster box He brought the perfume which was used to annoint His body during the last 48 hours of His life. When the heart is broken, it opens and the Word of God penetrates it in a deeper measure.

Peter was broken when, three times, He denied Christ. The same Peter was used of God to speak in the midst of the crowd in the Upper Room on the day of Pentecost, the glorious day the spirit of the Holy Ghost was poured out upon man.
(Acts 2)