When a difficult situation arises, do you know how to meet it? Have you any clearly defined plan for solving unusually difficult problems as they develop? Many people proceed on a hit-or-miss method, and, sadly enough, most frequently they miss. I cannot urge too strongly the importance of a planned use of your greater powers in meeting problems.

In addition to the method of two or three praying together in the “surrender of God” technique and that of establishing a partnership with God and the importance of a plan to tap and utilize emergency inner powers, there is still another tremendous technique—that of practicing faith attitudes. I read the Bible for years before it ever dawned on me that it was trying to tell me that if I would have faith—and really have it—that I could overcome all of my difficulties, meet every situation, rise above every defeat, and solve all of the perplexing problems of my life. The day that realization dawned on me was one of the greatest, if not the greatest, of my life. Undoubtedly many people will read this book who have never gotten the faith idea of living. But I hope you will get it now, for the faith technique is without question one of the most powerful truths in the world having to do with the successful conduct of human life.

Throughout the Bible the truth is emphasized again and again that “If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed … nothing shall be impossible unto you.” (Matthew 17:20) The Bible means this absolutely, factually, completely, and literally. It isn’t an illusion, it isn’t a fantasy. It is not an illustration, nor a symbol, nor a metaphor, but the absolute fact—“Faith, even as a grain of mustard seed,” will solve your problems, any of your problems, all of your problems, if you believe it and practice it. “According to your faith, be it unto you.” (Matthew 9:29) The requirement is faith, and directly in proportion to the faith that you have and use will you get results. Little faith gives you little results, medium faith gives you medium results, great faith gives you great results. But in the generosity of Almighty God, if you have only the faith symbolized by a grain of mustard seed, it will do amazing things in solving your problems.

For example, let me tell you the thrilling story of my friends Maurice and Mary Alice Flint. I became acquainted with them when a previous book of mine, A Guide to Confident Living, was condensed in Liberty magazine. Maurice Flint at that time was failing, and failing badly. Not only was he failing in his job, but as a person as well. He was filled with fear and resentment and was one of the most negative persons I have ever encountered. He was endowed with a nice personality and at heart was a wonderful fellow, but he had simply messed life up as he himself admitted.

He read the condensation of the book in which is emphasized the idea of “mustard-seed faith.” At this time he was living in Philadelphia with his family, a wife and two sons. He telephoned my church in New York, but for some reason did not make contact with my secretary. I mention this to show his already changing mental attitude for normally he would never have called the second time, because it was his pathetic habit to give up everything after a feeble effort, but in this instance he persevered until he got through and secured the information relative to the time of church services. The next Sunday he drove from Philadelphia to New York with his family to attend church, which he continued to do even in the most inclement weather.

In an interview later he told me his life story in full detail and asked if I thought he could ever make anything of himself. The problems of money, of situations, of debts, of the future, and primarily of himself were so complicated and he was so overwhelmed with difficulty that he regarded the situation as completely hopeless.

I assured him that if he would get himself personally straightened out and get his mental attitudes attuned to God’s pattern of thought, and if he would learn and utilize the technique of faith, all of his problems could be solved.

One attitude that both he and his wife had to clear out of their minds was that of resentment. They were dully mad at everybody and acutely so at some. They were in their present unhappy condition, so they reasoned in their diseased thoughts, not because of any failure on their part but because of “dirty deals” other people had given them. They actually used to lie in bed at night telling each other what they would like to say to other people by way of insult. In this unhealthy atmosphere they tried to find sleep and rest, but with no successful result.

Maurice Flint really took to the faith idea. It gripped him as nothing ever had. His reactions were weak, of course, for his will power was disorganized. At first he was unable to think with any power or force due to his long habit of negativism, but he held on tenaciously, even desperately, to the idea that if you have “faith as a grain of mustard seed, nothing is impossible.” With what force he did have he absorbed faith. Of course, his capacity to have faith gradually increased as he practiced it.

One night he went into the kitchen where his wife was washing dishes. He said, “The faith idea is comparatively easy on Sunday in church, but I can’t hold it. It fades. I was thinking that if I could carry a mustard seed in my pocket, I could feel it when I began to weaken and that would help me to have faith.” He then asked his wife, “Do we have any of those mustard seeds, or are they just something mentioned in the Bible? Are there mustard seeds today?”

She laughed and said, “I have some right here in a pickle jar.”

She fished one out and gave it to him. “Don’t you know, Maurice,” Mary Alice said, “that you don’t need an actual mustard seed. That is only the symbol of an idea.”

“I don’t know about that,” he replied. “It says mustard seed in the Bible and that’s what I want. Maybe I need the symbol to get faith.”

He looked at it in the palm of his hand and said wonderingly, “Is that all the faith I need—just a small amount like this tiny grain of mustard seed?” He held it for a while and then put it in his pocket, saying, “If I can just get my fingers on that during the day, it will keep me working on this faith idea.” But the seed was so small he lost it, and he would go back to the pickle jar for another one, only to lose it also. One day when another seed became lost in his pocket, the idea came to him, Why couldn’t he put the grain of mustard seed in a plastic ball? He could carry this ball in his pocket or put it on his watch chain always to remind him that if he had “faith as a grain of mustard seed, nothing would be impossible unto him.”

He consulted a supposed expert in plastics and asked how to insert a mustard seed in a plastic ball so there would be no bubble. The “expert” said it could not be done for the reason that it had never been done, which of course was no reason at all.

Flint had enough faith by this time to believe that if he had faith “even as a grain of mustard seed” he could put a mustard seed in a plastic sphere. He went to work, and kept at it for weeks, and finally succeeded. He made up several pieces of costume jewelry: necklace, bow pin, key chain, bracelet, and sent them to me. They were beautiful, and on each gleamed the translucent sphere with the mustard seed within. With each one was a card which bore the title, “Mustard Seed Remembrancer.” The card also told how this piece of jewelry could be used; how the mustard seed would remind the wearer that “if he had faith, nothing was impossible.”

He asked me if I thought these articles could be merchandised. I was no expert in such matters so I showed them to Grace Oursler, consulting editor of Guideposts magazine. She took the jewelry to our mutual friend, Mr. Walter Hoving, president of Bonwit Teller Department Store, one of the greatest executives in the country. He at once saw the possibilities in this project. Imagine my astonishment and delight when in the New York papers a few days later was a two-column advertisement reading, “Symbol of faith—a genuine mustard seed enclosed in sparkling glass makes a bracelet with real meaning.” And in the advertisement was the Scripture passage, “If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed … nothing shall be impossible unto you.” (Matthew 17:20) These articles sold like hot cakes. Now hundreds of great department stores and shops throughout the country find difficulty keeping them in stock.

Mr. and Mrs. Flint have a factory in a Midwestern city producing Mustard Seed Remembrancers. Curious, isn’t it—a failure goes to church and hears a text out of the Bible and creates a great business. Perhaps you had better listen more intently to the reading of the Bible and the sermon the next time you go to church. Perhaps you, too, will get an idea that will rebuild not only your life but your business as well.

Faith in this instance created a business for manufacturing and distributing a product that has helped and will help thousands upon thousands of people. So popular and effective is it that others have copied it, but the Flint Mustard Seed Remembrancer is the original. The story of the lives that have been changed by this little device is one of the most romantic spiritual stories of this generation. But the effect on Maurice and Mary Alice Flint—the transformation of their lives, the remaking of their characters, the releasing of their personalities—this is a thrilling demonstration of faith power. No longer are they negative—they are positive. No more are they defeated—they are victorious. They no longer hate. They have overcome resentment and their hearts are filled with love. They are new people with a new outlook and a new sense of power. They are two of the most inspiring people I ever knew.

Ask Maurice and Mary Alice Flint how to get a problem solved right. They will tell you—“Have faith—really have faith.” And believe me, they know.

If as you read this story you have said to yourself negatively (and that is being negative), “The Flints were never so bad off as I am,” let me tell you that I have scarcely ever seen anybody as badly off as were the Flints. And let me say further that regardless of however desperate your situation may be, if you will use the four techniques outlined in this chapter, as did the Flints, you, too, can get your problem solved right.

In this chapter I have tried to show various methods for solving a problem. Now I wish to give ten simple suggestions as a concrete technique to use generally in solving your problems:

1. Believe that for every problem there is a solution.

2. Keep calm. Tension blocks the flow of thought power. Your brain cannot operate efficiently under stress. Go at your problem easy-like.

3. Don’t try to force an answer. Keep your mind relaxed so that the solution will open up and become clear.

4. Assemble all the facts impartially, impersonally, and judicially.

5. List these fact on paper. This clarifies your thinking, bringing the various elements into orderly system. You see as well as think. The problem becomes objective, not subjective.

6. Pray about your problem, affirming that God will flash illumination into your mind.

7. Believe in and seek God’s guidance on the promise of the 73rd Psalm, “Thou wilt guide me by thy counsel.”

8. Trust in the faculty of insight and intuition.

9. Go to church and let your subconscious work on the problem as you attune to the mood of worship. Creative spiritual thinking has amazing power to give “right” answers.

10. If you follow these steps faithfully, then the answer that develops in your mind, or comes to pass, is the right answer to your problem.