Genesis 26: 1-7
Source
1 And there was a famine in the land, besides the first famine that was in the days of Abraham: and Isaac went to Abimelech king of the Philistines, to Gerar. 2 And the LORD appeared unto him, and said, Go not down into Egypt: dwell in the land which I will tell you; 3 Live in this land, and I will be with you, and I will bless you; for to you and to your seed I will give all these lands, and I will confirm the oath that I swore to Abraham your father: 4 And I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and I will give to your seed all these lands; and all the nations of the earth will be blessed in your seed. 5 Because Abraham heard my voice, and kept my commandment, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws. 6 Isaac lived in Gerar. 7 And the men of that place asked him about his wife; and he replied: She is my sister; because he was afraid to say: She is my wife; that maybe, he said, the men of the place would kill me because of Rebecca; because he was beautiful looking.
Obeying God against all odds will always be the best option if we want to prevent a crisis. A single false step triggers a series of unpredictable events when we decide to ignore the voice of God to do our will. This is what happened to Isaac, who due to the famine that affected his people, was filled with fear and ignored the command of God; He made the decision to go to the kingdom of Abimelech, a place full of perverse men who killed the spouses to rape the women, so he had to lie and say that Rebecca his wife, was his sister in order to survive.
Soon the truth was discovered and Isaac had to flee with his people, but every time they opened wells for drinking came the men of Abimelech and closed it. Suddenly Isaac finds himself without a place for his people, without water and pursued by his enemies. All product of a bad decision that took not to hear the voice of God.
Jehovah had told Isaac that he would bless him where he was, but circumstances filled him with fear and he made a bad decision. As long as we have God on our part we must be confident, He never changes. There will be things that we can not handle around us that will affect us, but we should not fear, but trust and advance in faith, because fear can make us make terrible decisions.
Isaac did what he did not have to do, but he had the opportunity to amend his mistakes, returning to the place where God had sent him and there God appeared again to reaffirm His promise to bless him.
In the same way God tells you today that it is not too late to repent and amend the bad decisions by going back to the place where Jehovah sent you. Although man condemns you, God forgives you and restores you.
God blessed Isaac in such a way that the enemies came to make covenants of friendship, because they saw that Jehovah was with him. What God promises you will accomplish and others will see the glory of God in you, because he is faithful and true, and His promises will never cease to be fulfilled.
Crises are events that nobody wants to live, they often occur unexpectedly, sometimes they are inevitable, they can appear by making bad decisions, also as a consequence of sin, other times they appear and we have no explanation. There are economic crises, illness, marital crisis, with children, at work and many more.
We can not escape from crises, it affects believers and non-believers, no matter what their ministry is, God will prove his character. We know a real person when he is being processed, an orange can look very pretty, yellow, but we will only know if it has juice when it is tight.
What happens many times when crises come?
People cease to be kind, change their character, stop to congregate, stop decimating and offering, isolate themselves, speak ill of pastors. When this begins to happen we are cutting the connection with the source of our solutions, which is God. It is as it is said in the good Cuban, we get bad with the cook.
What situation did Isaac have?
Abraham and Isaac: the teachings of the patriarch never forgot the son
Isaac was 60 years old, again the town was going through another time of crisis, he was worried because he could not provide for his family, that need leads him to think that he should go elsewhere to try his luck. Isaac's decision was to go to Egypt but God did not allow it.
We can learn a lot from Isaac, he listened and obeyed God even though everything seemed adverse, he had a good relationship with God so that he could listen to him and obey him. To make decisions in times of crisis we must be connected with God, to listen to the Holy Spirit and receive his instructions. Isaac had knowledge of the promises of God and he knew that he was a son of Abraham, so he sowed to harvest (Genesis 26: 12-13). In times of crisis we must also work, sow to be manifested in us the law of the sowing and harvesting.