And Jesus stood still, and called them, and said, What will ye that I shall do unto you?
Matthew 20:32


An old man seated in the doctor's waiting room, when called in to see the doctor, slowly got up, and, grasping his cane and hunching over, slowly made his way into the examining room. After only a few minutes, the man emerged from the room, walking completely upright! A patient who had watched him hobble into the room all hunched over, stared in amazement.

"That must be a miracle doctor in there!" he exclaimed. "What treatment did he give you? What's his secret?"

The old man looked at him and said, "Well, the doctor looked me up and down, analyzed the situation, and gave me a cane that was four inches longer than the one I had been using."

How often do we give everyone the same length cane; that is, the same answer for every problem? Then there are those people who see every problem as a nail for which they have only one cure-a hammer!

For example, some people blame every problem on a demon. Others' answer to every problem is to take it to the cross or give it to Jesus. To my embarrassment in younger days I used to teach that if you had a problem, you overcame it by being filled with the Holy Spirit.

While, at times, there may be an element of truth in the above answers, in reality life isn't that simple-neither are our problems. Causes of problems can be complex and multiple and there is no "one answer fits all." And as for pat answers, they are rarely correct, if ever, and are a means of avoiding one's own or another's reality. Not only that, they can do more harm than good to a trusting person.

Jesus never had a pat answer for anybody-ever. And he never had the same answer for any two people. His basic question, either spoken or unspoken, always was, "What do you want me to do for you?" In other words, like the Master Physician he was, he always understood a person's specific need, and prescribed the perfect answer to minister to and meet that need.

May God help us to do the same.

Astute? Theres a word you dont see everyday. I chose to post this because being a forum, sometimes we can get into the habit of giving pat answers to difficult situations as talked about above. I am guilty of this myself and this writing has brought this to my attention so I posted it to bring it to everyone elses attention.

I would suppose that when we answer questions or try to find remedies for todays many problems, we should think about backing up our words with the words of Jesus. Use the Bible for what is worth, The Truth.

I believe that if we all do this, we can be more responcipal Christians and give those in need the correct and deserving answers rather than pat answers like those explained above.

Make Sense?

Oh yes for sure we are living in a day where everyone has an opinion, good or bad. It is getting all the more vital to be able to back it up with Bible principles, not only to give it credibility but as a witness and teaching way for those we wish to show an example for.

This was an awesome post. When we witness to people, we need to personalize our witnessing to each person, but try to give a "one side answer fits all" type of witnessing. How would you like to be helped by someone who does not personalize there reponses, they just give the generic response?