How To Thrive In Crisis
In the late 2019, a crisis started that turned the tables for many companies, families and countries.For the past two years thousands of companies have gone into bankruptcy, thousands have lost their jobs, people losing their loved ones, people losing their homes and the world has been living in constant fear.
The governments have been scratching their heads, trying to figure out what they should do in this Covid situation. We are afraid to turn on the news and seeing the number of people infected, we have even been afraid to go outside our homes.
We are living in times where people are either losing faith or coming out stronger as individuals. We are living in times where people are either giving up or finding new solutions. We are living in times where individuals are either taken by the hurricane or standing firm on a well built foundation in life.
Many of you may look at this title as say to yourselves “ there’s no way we can benefit from this crisis, doesn’t she realize what people are going through.”
I understand the concern, however when we have an understanding of the principle of crisis, we will find out that in a strange way it can actually benefit us. Everybody loves benefits right? However benefits never come without sacrifices.
The Gym Principle
One way we can understand the principle of crisis, is to understand the gym principle. Those who exercise regularly at the gym, they understand in order to build muscles they have to shock the muscles.
They cannot stay with the same weight, hoping to get result. If they want result, they have to go heavier in order to get stronger and leaner.
If you stick with 10 kg for years, you will get no result, your muscles have to go through the crisis of pain in order to benefit from it.
What’s the principle then? Every hardship and crisis is not built to destroy us, but to build us. Our character is not built in good times, nor is our faith. Greatness is not found in good times, but in challenging times that drives you to create something great.
While thousands of companies have gone into bankruptcy during Covid-19, many other businesses have actually succeeded. Is that unfair? Maybe, but one thing they do know is how to use crisis for their benefit.
I said above “We are living in times where individuals are either taken by the hurricane or standing firm on a well built foundation in life.”
In reality crisis comes to check if our foundation is stable, if we have no foundation, then the hurricane takes us wherever it desires.
What do I mean by that? Every carpenter knows that if you build a house without first building a stable foundation, then the storms will break it down. The most important step when building a house is the foundation.
It doesn’t matter how beautiful design is on the outside or inside the house, if you have no foundation then the beauty will fly away with the wind.
Do you have a stable faith and a stable character? Do you give up on any moment where difficulty falls on you? If so, you have to check the security of your foundation.
A great proverb from an ancient philosopher, Solomon, is crucial to put into consideration:
If you falter in the time of trouble, your strength is small. Proverbs 24:10 WEB
Now let’s go into the reality of life.
A World Of Constant Change
One crucial thing we have to understand and remind us everyday, as long as we live on earth we will always experiment change.
Change does not listen to our complaints and arguments, it just does its job. No matter how much we desire to always stay young and beautiful, you’ll find yourself not being in control of it.
No matter how much you love your spouse, he/she can’t live forever. Sometimes I want to freeze time so I would have more time in a day, but find myself helpless.
We are experiencing a big change which we find ourselves having very little control over. However one thing about change is that it goes on, it never stays forever no matter how much we think so. Change is like a waterfall, it flows on.
If you drop your phone in a waterfall, is is not going to freeze for you, your phone will flow on with the waterfall.Some changes we have no control over, however some changes are controllable. For instance, your body always changes.
Your body can gain weight, lose or maintain — depends on your control of the changes. If you eat unhealthy everyday, then the changes in your body become negative. The problem is, you are responsible for your decisions. You are responsible for what you avoid and what you change.
Unrighteousness in a country is not an uncontrolled change, it can be controlled in some level, but our decisions have led us to avoid it and let it continue, even in the church.
If you are going through a crisis in your life wether that is a loss of a loved one, loss of a job, getting sick with the corona virus, divorce or any kind of crisis, you have to understand it is only for a season.
Seasons come and go, however if you build a house around your crisis in life, you are just preparing yourself to live there. There is a life after a divorce, and there is a life after a loss.
Many people think there is nothing beyond their grief, therefore they never move on into the next season.
Consider this principle:
For everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven:
A time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
a time to seek, and a time to lose;
a time to keep, and a time to cast away; Ecclesiastes 3:4-6 WEB
6 Benefits We Can Get From Crisis
1. Crisis Reveals Our Purpose And Gifts
We adore the successful leaders who have affected our lives either in current generation or former generations. We love to read about when Moses delivered the Israelites from the bondage of Egypt, or how Martin Luther King had great impact on the world in how he fought for his race.
However these great leaders we look up to did not discover themselves in good times. When there was a problem in Egypt, one who everybody would call an ordinary man stood up and made a history.
In the times when black people could not share buses, schools and even sometimes neighbourhoods, one ordinary black man decided it is a time for change.
While we look at crisis as the end of us, these people decided to look at it in a different way. They decided to be in control of the crisis, rather than be controlled.
They decided they are not going to avoid it, they are going to write a new story.The reason why people have not found their purpose in this crisis, is perhaps because they have a narrow mindset. They only look at the problems, but never consider a solution.
But what is a purpose? A purpose is a conviction of something you feel you have to fulfill in your generation. Most of the times it is a problem that strongly bothers you, which drives you towards it with a solution you are convinced is going to make a difference.
I like to think of a gift in how you approach your purpose. It is a talent or strength that you were born with. Perhaps you have a strength in giving counsel to people, and people are drawn to you for the sake of that strength.
It is a discovery of passion, that drives you towards every morning. It is the thing that you do best, and what inspires other people around you.
2. Crisis Pushes Us To Create
We hear of many successful entrepreneurs stories in how they became who they are now. Most of them come from a background where they had nothing.
That lack pushed them to create something out of the nothing they had, using their own imagination and gifts.We have also heard of people who went through hard experiences, for instance abuse, bullying, or personal problems like poor mindset, depression, anxiety, lack of faith and so forth.
These experiences pushed them to create something to help individuals who are going though the same things as they, in order to help them conquer it.
Like I said above explaining purpose, crisis allows you to see a problem which you never saw before or never thought about before.
That anger or irritation you got towards the problem pushes you to create something of value in order to solve that problem.
Martin Luther King was angry in how black people like himself were treated, that anger pushed him boldly to come forward and be heard.
Even during the pandemic, the online businesses have increased. During lock down where people were losing their jobs or companies were shut down. That pushed many people to create businesses online.
3. Crisis Tests And Strengthens Our Character
Like with the gym principle, a crisis was never meant to destroy us in any way. You don’t get stronger by lifting 5kg everyday, you can’t be a marathon runner by only running 1km. Strength is only produced by the pain we can endure.
You have to go through pain, sweat and build up consistency in order to get your dream physique, and so it is with other fields.
Crisis comes to your life in order to test you, and prepares you for bigger tasks. For instance in the gym 5kg prepares you for 10kg, and 10kg prepares you for 20 kg or heavier. Crisis tests if you can handle a heavier weight.
Crisis is like your personal coach, it gives you a weight it knows you can handle, but your ability to lift it depends on your mindset and willpower.
Perhaps you lost your job, or maybe you have a job that makes you anxious. You have to ask yourself then, are you willing to lift that
weight and come out stronger and be more knowledgable in the process?Like with a personal coach, he is there for you to help you be leaner and build your muscles.
Through the tests crisis offers us, if we take advantage of it, we will understand that it can be the bricks that builds the foundation of our character.
When you take advantage of a dumbbell, you’ll understand no matter the difficulty, it was never meant to destroy you, but to strengthen you.
4. Our Leadership And Vision Is Tested In Crisis
When you have found your purpose, you also find out what kind of leader you are. However when crisis comes into your life it is testing the quality of your leadership.
It is testing if you are a leader of integrity or just a dictator. It is testing if you are serving people around you, or if you are just demanding from people.
It is testing if you inspire or if you are only showing your followers that you are better than them.Crisis also watches over your vision as a leader, and gives you a little test so you can prove that your vision is authentic. It questions you if your vision is preserving the next generation, or if it is only for your selfish gains.
5. God Creates Crisis For His Citizens To Thrive
We may think that God is not responsible for any crisis, well this one then may shock you. God is not responsible for every crisis, for often times we create our own crisis by our poor decisions.
But we can see for instance how God created crisis in the land of Egypt to release His citizens. And even caused them all the riches from the Egyptian kingdom.
We can also see how God allowed Satan to mess up with Job’s life. We can also see when God allowed Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon to throw three of His citizens to the fire.
And when He allowed the king of Babylon to throw Daniel to the lions den.Why would God sometimes allow hell in our life? So we can walk out of hell with more strength, boldness and experience.
If God wants us to thrive, then we can’t always live in good times. Growth only happens in challenging times, for you can’t grow if everything is good.
Sometimes parents have thrown their children to the deep pools, in order for them to figure out how to swim. They create a little crisis for their children, not to let them drown, but cause them to figure things out in difficult situation. That is exactly what God does to His citizens.
“ Why am I broke?”
“ Why did I get affected by the virus?”
“Why did my husband leave me?”
“ Why do I have such challenging job that makes me anxious?”
“Why me, why me, why me,” is a pretty common question. Well, the reason is you are in God’s training session.
Let’s say you want to participate in olympic weightlifting, and all you do is practicing on 10 kg barbell and never level up.
Suddenly it happens that you have to lift 60kg, and you are not prepared whatsoever. What happens? You’ll fail.You should never avoid the crisis in your life right now despite they are little, for they prepare you for something bigger you won’t expect.
Instead you should lift it and be ready for the next level. Let’s get real. Life on earth is not a life of happily ever after, it’s not a fairy tail. It is a life of pain, difficulties, persecutions and challenging times. That is why in those times we have to be prepared to withstand the weight that falls on us.
We also have to remember that challenging times in our life is our training sessions, and the good times is our rewards. Don’t only live in the rewards, grow and receive BIGGER rewards.
Regardless that God allowed the king of Babylon to throw the three men of God to the fire, the fire never touched them. Despite God commanded Abraham to sacrifice his only son, God stopped him in the process.
It wasn’t to destroy their lives, but a test of faith to make them stronger, and prepare them for bigger weights that they are now qualified to lift.
Crisis is not a dead end, crisis is a new highway. For Kingdom citizens, crisis is where they thrive. It is where their visions sharpens, it is were they gain strength, it is where they get fresh solutions. It is where they create, while everybody else is living in frustration.
It is where they get new ideas, while everybody else lives on other’s ideas they didn’t create. Therefore crisis is not the end of the world as we may think, for we can create a new way during crisis.
God’s training sessions are all focused on training our faith, training our abilities to create, training our dominion and training us as royalty.
6. God Can Allow Crisis So His Citizens Improve Their Relationship With Him
2020 and 2021 has been the years where people are either straying away from God, or becoming even stronger in their faith. Why do I know that? Look at this verse from the parable of the sower:
What was sown on the rocky places, this is he who hears the word and immediately with joy receives it; yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while. When oppression or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles.
Matthew 13:20-21 WEB
These years has revealed the true heart of each “citizen.”Do they have a laid up foundation in the faith of God? Are they legitimate citizens or immigrants passing by? Are they only for the favours in the Kingdom and not willing to lift the weights?
This has been the year where people ask themselves: “if God is so good, then why did He let this happen?”Many thought they believed in God, because they grew up in a christian environment. However they never had a root in themselves.
Therefore we live in times where people are finally realizing where their saying was “I believe in God,” was actually an act for following the customs of their family.
In times like these, God sees the hearts of the true believers and those who were just pretending, by the fruit they produced. For in difficult times, God watches those who lift the weights and those who drop them.
God allows His children to go through difficult times in order to show us how much we need Him. That is why true believers are now finding themselves in more prayer than usual, or more bible studies.
We can see the crisis David went through in his life, but all those challenging times led him to be in constant prayer. Sometimes crisis is a reminder for His citizens to read the bible again, or go on fast again and gain better relationship with Him.
What We Need To Consider In Crisis
In Crisis Is A Time To Fast
In crisis is one of the best times for Kingdom citizens to go on a spiritual fast for the Lord. For a fast is really one of the keys Jesus gave us according to Matthew 16:19, to bring solutions from heaven to earth.
It is not a religious practice, it is a law every Kingdom citizen has to fulfill in order to bring heaven on earth. It is part of the countries culture that should be a norm for every citizen to participate in.
In times like these we are experiencing right now, the earth needs the help from heaven’s government. Therefore it is a good solution that every citizens of the Kingdom together participate in spiritual fast.
Fast and prayer combined together is the most powerful petition we can experience, for that reason it is important for us to fast during crisis.
In Crisis Is A Time To Renew Our Minds
Perhaps we have been the ones running from the weights God told us to lift. If we want to get in shape, we cannot approach that idea with the same mindset we used to have, which was to be comfortable. To get in shape is all about the mindset first and then the process.
We used to live in a way to avoid problems rather than approach them. We used to complain about problems in the world that bothered us, rather than step into boldness to fix them.
We used to think the difficulty in the world is someone’s else’s job:
“Not to worry, the pope will handle this.”
“ It is the governments job, not ours.”
“ Why is no one doing anything?”
“ We just enjoy our tea while others fix the mess.”
However it is our job, it is everyone’s job to make earth peaceable to live in for everybody. Not just the governments or the pope’s.
Earth is under our responsibility, and the mess we created is our responsibility to fix. If we stay comfortable in avoiding our responsibility on earth, the world will never improve.
Therefore in times like these when the earth is in great need of our leadership and gifts, we cannot stay in our old mindsets.
You cannot get in shape if you avoid the gym or exercise in general, in the same way earth will never improve if we keep avoiding the problems.
Most of the times our religious mindsets are stopping us from doing God’s will on earth. We say things like:
“ Just believe. Pray, read the bible, follow the church tradition and let the world mind its own business. We should just bow down our knees and pray constantly, then everything will be okey. Have faith in God, and He will do wonders.”
That sounds good, but the bible does say “faith without works is dead.”
What good is it, my brothers, if a man says he has faith, but has no works? Can faith save him? And if a brother or sister is naked and in lack of daily food, and one of you tells them, “Go in peace. Be warmed and filled;” yet you didn’t give them the things the body needs, what good is it? Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead in itself.
James 2:14-17 WEB
While we pray for miracles to heal the world, we should know we are the healers of the world. We are the answer to people’s prayers.
We are the ones to bring light to the world, if we have faith in something then that faith should draw us to work. How can we believe in our dreams, then never do anything to accomplish them?
We Kingdom citizens should know that prayer is not God doing everything. Prayer is the process of God transferring His will to us in order to fulfill it on earth.
Through prayer we get wisdom, strength, our assignment, gifts of the Holy Spirit and God’s desire in our hearts. Not for our benefits, but for others to bless and transform their lives.
Therefore when we are praying for the world, we are setting ourselves to go in there are fix some things.Therefore dear citizens, if we haven’t already it is now time to renew our minds and take the worlds problems into our hands.
In Crisis We Need Fresh Solutions
The world is in constant need for more leaders with new solutions, that is why the world respects those who brings solution to their problem to the table.
The world is drowning in problems, and the inhabitants hunger for new and effective solution to simplify life. Especially during crisis in the world, the hunger increases.
We may think as Kingdom citizens that our solution to the world is to get people to heaven. However we were sent to be the light of the world, that means we help people to solve their problems here on earth.
We are not the light for people to go to heaven, we are light to bring righteousness on earth, bring truth, bring God’s solutions to the systems of the world.
Therefore it is in our best interest as peacemakers and bearers of the truth of God. To go into governments, health systems, educational systems, business, music industries and film industries — season us all around the market places and systems God sends us to. In order to impact peace, righteousness, Kingdom’s culture and give the world fresh solutions from God.
Crisis Is Not Going Anywhere, We Have To Be The Ones In Control
We also have to remember that crisis is ongoing, it is not going anywhere. We face crisis every year and that isn’t going to change, no matter how much we want to.
But we need to remind ourselves as dominators of the earth, we have to stand our ground and not let crisis have dominion over us. We need to be the ones in control of the changes in the world that we are able to control.
We are supposed to be the ones to make things happened, bring solutions, fix problems, bring peace, bring righteousness— but not avoiding the changes that is in our responsibility to control.
Fly Like The Eagle In The Midst Of Crisis
An eagle is never afraid of the storms, he uses the storm for his advantage. In fact he uses the storm to lift himself higher and rest his wings.
Eagles take pride in the storms and loves challenges for they know the benefits they get from them. Eagles never take their eyes off the prize, their eyes are always concentrated on their prey.
Therefore we should fly like the eagle in the midst of crisis and constantly fight for our faith. Let’s take the crisis in our lives as an advantage to thrive, to sharpen our vision and aim on our prize, build ourselves as stronger individuals and create something fantastic.
