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PROGRAM D-8407
I’m presenting the do’s and don’ts for tough times. When we face financial hardships or downturns, we are tempted to make quick decisions out of fear. Instead, when times are tough, we need to be wise as serpents and innocent as doves, as Jesus said, which means avoiding some of the foolish decisions we can make out of fear.
For example, you remember Chicken Little who kept declaring that the sky was falling. You see, Chicken Little jumped to a hysterical and irrational belief that disaster was imminent when an acorn fell on her head. She spread her fear to her friends as she was making her way to tell the King. Foxy Loxy was then able to manipulate Chicken Little’s friends for his own benefit because they were operating on false information and out of fear.
What do we learn from Chicken Little? Don’t believe everything you are told or everything you read. Learn to be discerning. Often when we’re facing tough times, rumors are running rampant. For example, rumors that your company is being purchased, that they are going to lay off many people, or that they are filing for bankruptcy can spread like wildfire through your organization with little, if any, real proof that they’re true. Then people start making irrational or hysterical decisions about their careers because they believe rumors that have not been checked out.
Furthermore, we have an enemy, like Foxy Loxy, who is ready to move in and take full advantage of us at these times of panic. He uses fear to his advantage—to keep you from trusting God and to keep you under a cloud of discouragement.
So here’s another don’t when you’re facing tough times:
Don’t believe everything you hear or read, especially if it’s bad news. Make decisions based on truth and after much prayer.
Proverbs 14:15 says, “The simple believe everything, but the prudent give thought to their steps.” Discernment keeps us from believing everything and causes us to give thought to our steps. I recognized years ago that I tend to jump to conclusions far too quickly and I needed to be more discerning. So I simply began praying for discernment. I highly recommend that you do that as well, especially as you are facing tough times. You need discernment then more than ever.