Always come from Scripture. I like to pray and think about an incident or passage that bears some way on whatever the crisis is.

• When an unexpected death occurred, I spoke on 2 Kings 4 and the little widow who lost her husband and sounded as if she was losing her faith in a good God. Elisha has the answers and the widow ends up amply supplied.
  
  
• When the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, happened, I was in the air trying to get back home from Russia to Chicago. I stayed six days in Newfoundland on a Salvation Army floor. While there, I revisited 2 Corinthians 7, where the Apostle Paul is facing some general crisis and advises, "Because of this present crisis…"
  
  

1. Live single-mindedly—whether you're married or not.
   
2. Un-clutter your life—don't be engrossed in the things of the world.
   
3. Revel in God—in undivided devotion to the Lord.
   

All of this because the time is short and the days are evil, and Jesus is coming soon!

There's nothing like a good crisis to wonderfully focus our attention on what's really important! It proved a pertinent word to preach when I eventually got back to a United States in crisis.

It helps if you have experienced some crisis yourself! Don't use the chance to vent, but a small illustration may create the empathy you feel, the help from God you received—and you can make a bridge and a blessing of it.