A person had a toilet that wasn't working right. He turned the water off to examine it further. As he looked at it, he determined that there was probably something wrong with the fill mechanism, but in taking it apart, he managed to finish breaking the seal between the tank and bottom where the issue really was, and all of a sudden he had a mess. He cleaned up the water that had flowed out of the tank. He saw the seal had a chunk out of it where before it had just been cracked. He went off to the nearest home repair store to get parts to fix the leak.
Upon arriving, he found a divided circular bin with lots of fill mechanisms, but finally decided to just try to repair the part that was broken in the original. He found a repair piece that looked like it was almost right and took it to the counter to check out. He inquired as to how to go about putting the new part in the old fill mechanism. The person on duty went through the work to replace the part that needed some special expertise and tools to repair.
The person with the broken toilet was satisfied. He thought he had saved some money over calling a plumber to fix the problem. But the thing is, the part that was really broken was the seal. He had completely forgotten about in his push to fix what he had originally thought was broken in the cheapest way possible.
How often are we like that? I am reminded of Christ's parable where He mentioned that nobody patches an old garment with new cloth because the tear would be made worse with the patch (Matthew 9:16). Nobody puts new wine into old wine bottles because the old wine bottles would break and they would lose both the bottle and the wine. They put the new wine into new bottles (Matthew 9:17). We tend to look for what we think is broken in our lives, and fix that. Sometimes we have other problems that we know about and might seem huge. But sometimes we ignore the big things and try to pick the hardest thing we can to fix ourselves. We should be looking for the most obvious things that are leaking the worst and fix those first.
Clearly if God tells you that you need to fix something in your life, then give that a priority. If you just look at your life and see water pouring out everywhere, fix the problems in your life that are leaking the worst first. Realize that if you look to God for direction in what to do, He's probably not going to try to get you to fix everything at once other than the biggest issue of accepting Jesus as your Savior and coming to Him. He may be pointing things out your entire life after you've handled the big leaks.
For a big country wide example, look at the violence in the country. There are more weapons in this country, per capita, than in any other country in the world. The latest estimate in 2017 put us at 120.5 guns per 100 people. The next nearest is the Falkland Islands at 62.1 per 100. Since they got attacked by Argentina and their population is only 2,000, their high percentage is a bit more understandable. Many of the others with small populations have similarly higher rates. If you included knives, bows and arrows, cross-bows, and other martial arts weapons, we'd be even higher. And yes, we do have a problem with violence. But trying to fix the problem with gun laws is akin to trying to patch a fill mechanism when water is gushing out the seal. No matter how good a job you do on the fill mechanism, you'll never stop the violence because the only solution to violence is turning people to God through Christ, and putting the fear of God in everybody else.
The countries between Egypt and the promised land knew about God and what He had done to the Egyptian army. Most didn't want anything to do with fighting the Israelites because they knew God was on their side. As the Israelites won victory after victory in conquering the promised land, after their initial fear had kept the elders out of it for 40 years, those enemies who were left didn't have any heart to fight either. Why? Because God was on the side of the Israelites. No army raised against them could stand as long as they were true to God. If you think that anything would be different today, you're mistaken.
God doesn't care what the enemies defenses are. He doesn't care how many criminals they have in a gang or organization. God sent an angel who destroyed 185,000 Assyrians in a single night (1 Kings 19:15-37). The strength of the enemy doesn't impress God, who created the universe. The fear that God would send an angel to stand in the way of whatever crime someone was planning to commit... The fear that even if they got away with their crime in the eyes of the law, that God could send retribution into their most secure fortress with impunity and kill them dead if their crime was severe enough... That would stop the majority of crime in its tracks.
I'm not saying that there would be absolutely no crime. Occasional crimes of passion? Perhaps. Occasional crimes by mentally unstable? Perhaps. But the bulk of crime would go away if the majority were Christian and everyone understood the power of God on behalf of His people.
Concentrate on fixing the real problem in the country which is that too many people have turned away from God, decided that God is just a myth from an old book, and are trying to survive on their own without His help. Teach them about the God of the Old Testament. He hasn't changed from Noah's time. He hasn't changed from when He defeated Satan's forces at when Satan rebelled initially. He is still ultimately in control. The best legislation crafted won't work fix the problems of hate and violence. It will just reduce the chance of the legal population from defending themselves and enable criminals to grow more bold.
Save the people. Be filled with the Spirit. Listen to Him guide you to do the acts that He is asking you to do - whether praying, witnessing, fasting, teaching, preaching, helping administrate His organizations, baptizing, healing, doing miracles, discerning spirits, dispensing His wisdom and knowledge, giving words of prophecy, having faith in Him as He lifts up His church and works to save the rest, or reaching people who speak a foreign language via tongues and interpretation. Work.
Understand that He can ask you to do different things at different times. You aren't locked into just one thing. And remember to give Him the glory when something good happens and to testify of it to others for the rest of time. Trust that as more people are saved and the fact that God is working in people's lives can't be hidden by the media any more that the fear of God will come on the world and change it for the better.
There is coming a time when Jesus will return a shout and the voice of an archangel, and with the trump of God sounding to raise the dead and summon all Christians to join Him in the sky (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18). Many have felt this will happen since the time period when Christ was resurrected and returned to heaven. But God gave the world a long period of time until he made Israel a nation again. That was the last prophecy remaining to be fulfilled before Christ could return. That was quite a few years ago. Now, it really could happen at any time. Be ready yourself.
But also realize that Satanic forces can do great things that will deceive the very elect. They can't best God, but they can look more powerful than man. Look at Pharaoh's magicians and others through history. They didn't do their simulations of God's work through Moses and Aaron by their own power. But Satan's power wasn't enough to beat God's power. They lost their staffs. And there were some things they just couldn't do. You need the discerning of spirits to understand what is of God and what is of Satan so you aren't deceived, both now and in the tribulation period to come.
What is in your life? Are you offering something you think is a problem for God to fix and ignoring the real issues in your life like the guy with the fill valve? Are you like the mote hunters in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 7:3-5) who are pointing out the faults of everyone else and completely ignoring your own problems? Give it all to God to fix. He knows the real problems in your life, and He knows how they need to be patched temporarily and fixed permanently. Put your trust in God. No matter what the problem is, He is the solution.
You may not like it if His answer is to wait longer. I know I never like to hear that. But I want His best solution to the problems I have. I want His best solution for the people I love. I know that I don't know everything about what is going on with everyone around me. I don't even know everything about myself like God does. His solutions are best, even if they aren't immediate.
Be sure that when you ask Him for help you bring all the parts that need fixing and let Him do His work. Then stop worrying about broken plumbing and get out and work.