Be Still, Advent Day 20: How to Dissolve Your Problems

Stop Overthinking: An Invitation to Rest

It’s the season of twinkling lights and evergreen boughs, and the hum and tangle of worry lighting up our hearts instead. We’re spinning scenarios in our heads, trying to figure out every possible “what if,” like we can somehow out-think the sovereign God who’s already written our story.

But what if this Advent, we dared to let go of the constant hum of our problem-solving minds and leaned into trusting the One who holds it all together? One very intersting and promising way to look at the destruction of over-thinking, over-worrying, can be found in a surprising book by Richard Dotts, Dissolve the Problem. Just the title of that little tome isn’t enough to make you grab it ASAP — and I did! While the book is great, I found myself thinking, that what the book’s idea of “not-Mind” is almost impossible to do without a place to rest on the promises in The Bible. The book, without saying it, echoes a deeply biblical truth: peace doesn’t come from fixing; it comes from surrendering. as not me, Lord, but You?

When Overthinking Creeps In, Let Trust Take Its Place

The book cautions against getting trapped in your thoughts about the problems. Sound familiar?

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding” (Proverbs 3:5).

Advent is the invitation to stop wrestling with your understanding and start resting in His. Jesus came as Emmanuel, God with us, not so we could fix everything, but so we could trust the One who already has.

Letting Go of Control

Dotts suggests that when you stop trying to force solutions, you open space for answers to appear. What if we did hand over control to the One whose plans are good?

“Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7).

When you cast your cares like seeds on the water, you let God grow them into something beautiful in His time. Trusting God isn’t passive; it’s active faith that chooses to let Him work where we can’t.

Finding Stillness in His Presence

Dotts emphasizes the importance of inner stillness of quieting the mind. The Bible has a place for this.

“But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.” (Matthew 6:6).

The Prince of Peace didn’t come so we’d stay frantic, scrawling mental lists of how to fix everything. He came so we could rest in His perfect peace, a peace that guards our hearts and minds (Philippians 4:7).

Trust Brings True Advent Joy

This Advent, what if you chose trust over overthinking? Trust in the One who sent a baby to Bethlehem to light up the whole world. Trust in the God who provides manna in the wilderness and daily bread to the weary.

Here’s the invitation: when the problem enters your mind, instead of overthinking it, whisper a prayer like this: “Lord, I trust You. This is Your problem to solve, not mine to carry.”

And maybe you’ll find yourself living these words:

“You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in You” (Isaiah 26:3).

This Advent, let’s stop leaning into our worries and lean into Him—the One who’s already done the heavy lifting, the One who came to give us life abundant (John 10:10). Trusting God is the ultimate “not-Mind” method, and it’s how we live not just an Advent life but a Christian life.