Crisis will come

“Yet man is born to trouble as surely as sparks fly upward.” Job 5:7 (NIV).

TROUBLE WILL come. What we need to learn is how to make it through. A crisis is “an intense time of difficulty requiring a decision that will be a turning point” (John Maxwell). The Chinese word for crisis, ironically, is a combination of the symbols (Chinese words are represented by symbols) for ‘danger’ and ‘opportunity’. A crisis has elements of danger even as we’re living in a time when there is a clear and present danger, but we often don’t think about a crisis also as a time of opportunities – opportunities to grow, face somethings that weren’t considered before, and opportunities for God to demonstrate His power on our behalf and to teach us lessons that we couldn’t learn any other way.

In Acts 27:10-12, we see a crisis developing. Paul told the sailors, “I don’t think it’s a good idea to sail right now. I think it’s very dangerous to sail, you could lose the cargo and we could all lose our lives.” Paul possibly asked the Lord and God told him not to sail, but they decided to sail anyway. A bad decision was made. Why? There are three common reasons people make bad decisions – two we will look at now and the third next week. Bad decisions happen today just as they always have, because people make bad decisions and human nature hasn’t changed.

The first reason we make bad decisions is, believe it or not, getting bad advice from experts. In the case of Paul, the centurion, instead of listening to what Paul said, followed the advice given both by the pilot and the captain of the ship. Maybe they thought, “What do you know about sailing, Paul? You’re only a preacher who hears from God”. The first reason we get ourselves into a mess is that we listen to the wrong experts.

There are many crazy ideas out there and it seems that everyone wants to give advice, especially on the Internet. Everybody’s an ‘expert’. It takes a lot of wisdom to sort through all that “stuff” and get to the good stuff. The Bible says: “Hold tight to good advice; don’t relax your grip. Guard it well – your life is at stake!” Proverbs 4:13 (MSG). Some people will go around and look for people who will agree with them and then do what they want, which isn’t good. Good advice is godly advice. We therefore must consider the source of the advice we take.

The second reason people make bad decisions is when we have the wrong perception of the circumstances. Those who were with Paul looked at the circumstances, “Since the harbour was unsuitable to winter in ...” they did not consider it a good place to stay. “When a gentle south wind began to blow, they saw their opportunity; so they weighed anchor and sailed along the shore of Crete.” Acts 27:13 (NIV). The sailors thought they had obtained what they wanted because the circumstances looked favourable.

It’s crazy to ignore what God says, even if circumstances tend to contradict it. Things may look good right now, but you may be sailing right into a storm.

People say, “Well, this decision must be okay because I feel so good about it.” Be aware of your feelings, but don’t rely on them. Feelings can change faster than the weather, and they can be notoriously wrong. If God says, “Wait in the harbour.”, you’d better wait in the harbour, regardless of what the circumstances say.