Not everyone experiences the same things in life, but we all have crises.

The official who came to Jesus was in the midst of a crisis. His son was ill and was at the point of death. He walked 20 miles (from Capernaum to Cana) to ask Jesus to heal his son (John 4:46-54). The Apostle John related this as the second miraculous sign Jesus performed.

Jesus healed the son without being in the same place or without seeing the son. In the first sign (John 2:1-11), Jesus proved able to overcome time. In the second sign, He overcame space.

We are going to experience crises. What can we learn from them?

(Let me be very clear. I don’t want any crises. Neither do you. Yet our hard times can be great teachers.)

First, God uses crises to teach us about Himself. As the man (and we) learned from his crisis that Jesus is the Son of God, we learn from our crises as well. God wants to use our difficult times to show His power and to show us our need.

As we go through a crisis, we need to ask God to show us who He is.

Second, faith is essential. When Jesus encountered people, He looked for faith. Jesus was amazed at how little faith He saw in Capernaum, where He performed many of His mighty works.

Is He amazed at our little faith as well?

Third, our crisis can be our opportunity to grow in Him. Over my life, I have noticed my greatest growth came in times of crisis. James told us our struggles will help produce strong character in us (James 1:2-4). For this reason, we can even count our difficulty as a source of joy.

Finally, as we experience crises, we must remember that God is going through the crisis with us and that He has even gone before us. 

We know God and trust Him because of the crisis He went through with His own Son.

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