journey onWord with us

Without a doubt, there is someone in your life who seems to live in crisis mode.  Seemingly every event or circumstance creates a new crisis. Often, even though you love the individual, the constant drama wears on you. In less dramatic ways, we all have daily moments of crisis which amount to nothing more than irritations or minor frustrations. But if we are not careful, those daily moments wear on our emotions and sap our spiritual energy.

Just last week I experienced some of the minor crisis moments. They came daily, and began to be a bit frustrating. Have you ever had a week that just seemed to be one event after another? We have to make a decision to not let the crisis erode the joy available to us in Christ.

My week started with a moment that will illustrate my point. I was helping our daughter get her car serviced (she was getting set to drive it to Tennessee). I told the service technician to let me know if anything major was wrong. A little later in the day he called and reminded me that I had asked for him to advise me on items that needed to be done.  The battery failed a test, the brake pads were low, the wipers were streaking, and the car needed an air filter. In one phone call our daughter ended up with a $957 repair bill … all from an oil change and a simple request from dear old dad!  And that was just the start of our week.

My point in focusing on the word crisis was intentional.  Irritations from last week (both mine and yours) were probably minor at best, but there is a serious crisis that Christ-followers are confronted with constantly. It is a crisis of belief.  It is interesting to me that the Greek word for crisis means “decision.” Whether major or minor, the crisis’ we face will call for decisions to be made.  Henry Blackaby states it well in his book, Experiencing God, by saying that a crisis of belief is “a turning point or a fork in the road that calls for a decision. You must decide what you believe about God.”

Reading the Word can cause a crisis of belief. In reading, we are confronted with the truth and our responses will reveal what we really believe about God. Will we obey the principles and trust God in that moment?  Or will we trust our feeling and logic in a crisis of belief moment?  An easy example, and one we have all faced, is forgiveness.  We have been hurt (sometimes deeply), and have a choice to make. Obey the Word and truly forgive, or trust our own logic and carry a grudge.  Obeying and forgiving is always the right decision.

We are also confronted when there is a definite prompting from the Lord. We know He is leading us to witness, show care, change jobs or obey an assignment.  We have a decision to make which, again, shows what we really believe about God.

I was profoundly impacted recently when reading about Moses in Exodus chapter four.  God wants to use Moses to lead the people out of Egypt and meets Moses in the form of a burning bush (chapter three). Moses struggled greatly with the assignment and his own confidence.  After hearing clearly from God, Moses’ protest angers God.  The words of Exodus 4:13 have resonated with me… But Moses again pleaded, “Lord, please! Send anyone else.”

My first thought is, “How could Moses protest with God like that?” But, in all honesty, when God gives you and I an assignment, those same words often flow through our mind. Moses failed to believe God in a crisis of belief moment. And so have I!  We can’t fix the past, but we can choose to believe and obey in the opportunities God has chosen for our future. The real question is, what do we believe about God?