Crisis: A Blessing in Disguise

This is the manuscript of my message today in the church. I hope this would help you in your journey with God.

oOo

I’d like to start today, with a cute story about the two frogs;

The Two Frogs

A group of frogs were traveling through the woods, and two of them 

fell into a deep pit. When the other frogs saw how deep the pit 

was, they told the two frogs that they were as good as

 dead. The 

two frogs ignored the comments and tried to jump up out of the pit 

with all their might. The other frogs kept telling them to stop, 

that they were as good as dead. Finally, one of the frogs took 

heed to what the other frogs were saying and gave up. He fell down 

and died.

The other frog continued to jump as hard as he could. Once again, 

the crowd of frogs yelled at him to stop the pain and just die. He 

jumped even harder and finally made it out. When he got out, the 

other frogs said, "Did you not hear us?" The frog explained to 

them that he was deaf. He thought they were encouraging him the 

entire time.

We could think of numerous lessons from this story from different perspective but one thing that I think so was astounding was the positive message it sent to those who are experiencing deficiency. It is true that our deficiency could be possibly be our salvation. Our difficulty, crisis and problems could turn to be blessing in disguise as the Lord allows it in our lives.

How would you feel if you will go through the following crisis?

1. You are a young professional who had been desperately looking for a job. You’ve given out more than 30 resumes but you have never been called for an interview.

2. You are a diligent nursing student spending sleepless nights with your summer major subject but your C.I. mercilessly gave you a failing grade.

3. You are a woman who failed to pass your CPA board

 exams after months of intensive studies and reviews.

4. You are a parent who labored so hard to send your eldest son to college but found out he impregnated his girlfriend and thus he needs to stop his schooling.

5. You are a sweet lover who invested so much to his girlfriend but found out that she decided to stay single for life because she wanted to enjoy her gift of singleness.

6. You are a leader (SOL 2 graduate) who has been wanting, praying to start a cell group but could not find one or You are a Pastor who had been training your leaders to start a cell group but  have not seen much results.

We can go on and on with the list of the things that could make us frustrated, exhausted and disappointed in life. We could even defend the validity of our feelings. But what do we do after we’ve gone through crisis in life? Others could be traumatized and paralyzed. Others could be discouraged and others would give up hope.

But let me tell you a story of a man in the Bible who refused to be traumatized by a night of fishing crisis. His name was Peter. His story is found in Luke 5:1-11

Luke 5:1-11

 1One day as Jesus was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret,[a]with the people crowding around him and listening to the word of God, 2he saw at the water's edge two boats, left there by the fishermen, who were washing their nets. 3He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little from shore. Then he sat down and taught the people from the boat. 

 4When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, "Put out into deep water, and let down[b] the nets for a catch." 

 5Simon answered, "Master, we've worked hard all night and haven't caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets." 

 6When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. 7So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink. 

 8When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus' knees and said, "Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!" 9For he and all his companions were astonished at the catch of fish they had taken, 10and so were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, Simon's partners. 

   Then Jesus said to Simon, "Don't be afraid; from now on you will catch men." 11So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him.

How Could a Crisis be a Blessing in disguise?

1. God allows crisis to create opportunity for us to know Him (vs. 1-3)

What was the crisis that Peter encountered? 

He had not caught any on his night of fishing. For a fisherman to catch nothing means no income for the day. For a family man like Peter, that would be a difficult situation. It should be frustrating for Peter and the rest of the fishermen to be back at the water’s edge with nothing.

What could be the scene if Peter had a successful fishing that night? 

Probably Peter could have been somewhere else. He could have been trading his fish or he could have been home remitting his income to his wife. He could have missed out the opportunity to listen to Jesus and experienced a life-changing encounter with Him.

What could we learn from here? 

God allows crisis to come into our lives so that He can create opportunities for us to see our need of Him and thus we will seek Him. This is why we often hear people saying that I feel closer to the Lord when I have problems because that’s when I’m moved to pray and realized that I can’t do it on my own. It’s when we are in the crossroads that we need to hear God’s voice for a clear direction. It’s when we stumble and fall (sometimes literally) that we call on the name of the Lord.

Rick Warren in his book Purpose Driven Life said that the most profound and intimate experience of worship will likely be in your darkest days-when your heart is broken, when you feel abandoned, when you're out of options, when the pain is great-and when you turn to God alone. It is during suffering that we learn to pray our most authentic, heartfelt, honest-to-God prayer.

2. God takes care of our crisis as we radically obey Him (vs. 4-7)

We have read in the story that Jesus had taken care of Peter’s crisis. They were able to catch large number of fish that their nets began to break and they called for assistance from other fishermen. The provision was beyond they could imagine.

What brought that provision? 

I believed it was Peter’s radical obedience to Jesus. What made it radical? Let’s see what Jesus told Peter to do, “Put out into the deep, and let down the net for a catch. This is how Peter responded, “Master we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets.” This is such a faith-filled statement from Peter. He could have responded with pessimism.

What could have been Peter’s Negative Responses?

a.) Jesus, I’m not being disrespectful but I think I know better about fishing than you do. This has been my work. As for you are a carpenter who happen to be a preacher now. However, I appreciate your deep concern.

b.) Jesus, I’m not intending to insult you, but don’t you know what hour of the day is it? Can’t you see the sun shining so bright? Don’t you realized how impossible for us to catch fish on daytime. However, I’m thankful for your concern.

c.) Jesus, we’ve worked so hard all night and caught nothing. I’m still in the state of frustration and I am already tired. May be we will do it another time. How about going with us tonight?

I admire Peter for such big faith on Jesus. I salute him for taking the risk of obeying Jesus without delay. I commend him for not allowing frustration to hinder him to obey the Lord. If he had not radically obeyed Jesus, he could have missed Jesus provision, he could have missed out Christ’s solution to his crisis and he could have stayed in the state of frustration.

What is Jesus telling you? 

What is Jesus’ invitation for you today in relation to the crisis you are facing? Did you hear Jesus voice telling you to put out into the deep water and let down the net for a catch. Did you hear Him telling you to trust one more time? Is he telling you to let down the nets of frustration, disappointment and exhaustion and trust him to take care of it?

One Sunday afternoon while we were having our prayer in our mentoring session with my group I sensed a feeling of disappointment in me and probably in my group mates as well with our difficulty to start, sustain and let our cell group grow. Some of us who had been handling cell groups before felt like it’s not working so well. It seems like we could come up with many reasons why it didn’t work and we started to entertain fear and doubt if it still gonna work. While on prayer, God brought to my mind this passage where Peter trusted Jesus and have seen fruits of His trust. I felt Jesus was telling me and to us that let’s put out into the deep and cast down our nets for a catch.

Whatever crisis, you are facing right now, I pray that you won’t let yourself be clouded with frustration and fear to move on and trust God all the more.

3. God uses our crisis to direct us to follow Him (vs. 8-11)

What is the impact of this  “crisis-solution” to the life of Peter?

The “crisis-solution” that Peter had encountered had become the turning point in his life. This was the place and time where he realized that he was a sinner and doesn’t deserve the Lord. But this was also the time when he experienced God’s forgiveness and love, discovered his purpose in life, heard and heeded to Christ’s calling to follow Him to become fisher’s of men.

What was the real blessing that Peter received?

In the real sense, according to one writer, the blessings that Peter received were not the miraculous catch of fish, but the glimpse he caught of who Jesus truly is. May be he thought it would be a blessing to catch some fish. But he found out , when he made the catch, that the Blessing wasn’t the fish. It was Jesus Himself. Peter left the fish, but He followed Jesus.

What is the implication of this truth to our lives?

This is also true with our lives. Most of our encounter with God took place in the desperate moments of our lives. We discovered who God is and what He wants us to do when we come to the point of nothingness and God miraculously provided. We begin to see how God allows critical things to happen in our lives to prepare us for something bigger and better. We take a step of faith to follow Him wherever and forever.

But it all starts by listening to God's voice, His voice of truth. We may hear other voices that would discourage us to move on and would stop us to live with hope and faith. But let us choose to listen to the voice of truth telling us we're on the winning side. Let's us not be consumed by our fear, but together let us put out into the deep with Jesus and let's cast the nets for a catch.

Conclusion

Four years ago, I was in desperate state of my my christian life. I was in the state of confusion and exhaustion not knowing what to do with my life. I know then that I needed to rest from the ministry. So I resigned from my ministry responsibility. I sought counsel and focused on my personal recovery.

During that time, working for ministry again was not an option. I wanted to try something new. But as my relationship with God is getting better, I felt like my spiritual senses were also getting better. It was at that moment that God has put a burden in my heart to serve Him by becoming an instrument for people to find healing in the Lord and enjoy their journey with Him.

For years had passed since that time, I am already a professional counselor now and had enjoyed the experience of being healed and being an instrument of healing for people. I am so thankful to the Lord for speaking to me and for leading me to the right path. I'm blessed more than I could ever imagine. Glory be to Him.

Let's open our ears to the Lord. Let's get our spiritual senses right. But more than that let's follow where He leads and we will reap the rewards of our obedience.