Handling Crisis!

Handling Crisis!
Alice Smith

Have you ever been in a crisis that you knew the Lord was ready and waiting to give you victory, and yet you blew it? When you could have trusted and praised Him for the situation, instead you complained? Has it happened to you? It has to me. What generally happens next?

Most often the Father engineers the crisis again, to give you another opportunity to pass the test. However, you will not be as committed to learn the lesson as before. There will be less discernment of God and more humiliation having not obeyed. And if you continue to grieve the Holy Spirit, there will come a time when you become numb to the crisis – choosing simply to blame the devil for your own lack of obedience. Never sympathize with the issues in your life that are stabbing God all the time. God sometimes has to shake areas in your life that must change. If you continue to resist the work of the Lord, the result will be emotional turmoil and spiritual emptiness.

However, if you face the crisis with humility, all the while praising God for the opportunity to become more like Him, then the testimony of your life reflects Christ’s likeness to others. Gloriously, you are promoted to new levels of victory and joy because in your heart you know that you stood strong in faith regardless of the crisis you had faced.

Can you imagine the tension that Moses felt when he was asking for God’s presence to go with him as he was leading the children of Israel into the Promised Land? In prayer, Moses asked God, “Now therefore, I pray thee, if I have found grace in thy sight, shew me now thy way, that I may know thee, that I may find grace in thy sight: and consider that this nation [is] thy people. And he said, My presence shall go [with thee], and I will give thee rest. And he said unto him, If thy presence go not [with me], carry us not up hence” (see Ex. 33:13-15).

Can you see Moses’ crisis? Moses was faced with leading millions of people from slavery, through a wilderness and into a place of promise? He would not go without the presence of the Lord. You too may be afraid to move forward, when facing your crisis. Questions invade your mind like, Did God really tell me to do this? or What happens if I fail?

Do you experience undisturbed peace when faced with difficulties? I find myself many times painfully disturbed, distracted and unsure. It’s as if the waves and billows of God’s providential timing are sweeping over me even though I am not prepared for them. Moses didn’t feel ready to face his crisis either. Yet God told him, “And it shall come to pass, while my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a clift of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by: And I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back parts: but my face shall not be seen” (Ex. 33:22-23).

Do you find there is an unconscious fear that maybe if you pursue the Lord more, and begin to receive His friendship in a deeper way, that it might cost you more than you are willing to pay? We long for more of His presence, and yet we know that to whom much is given, much is required. Surely the responsibility could be so great that if you disobeyed or did something stupid during the crunch time, you would be disqualified for future ministry opportunities. Relax. The Lord is a good God and He desires for us to stay humble, teachable and always hungry for more of Him. As long as you continue to seek His face, you have nothing to worry about.

To learn God’s ways can be costly. But to live without knowing His ways will always cost you more. God called Moses His friend. (See Ex. 33:11.) The crisis may prove difficult, even costly, but imagine the joy of hearing the Father call you His friend. Don’t you want that? I do.