Menu
In this episode, Charles Stanley explores the theme of guidance and direction, using the metaphor of a compass to symbolize how scripture can steer us through life's journey. He shares a personal story about the invaluable lessons he's learned from following the reliable direction of his own compass, and he passionately uses Proverbs chapter 3 as a scriptural guide to illustrate the eight directions God's path can offer in life. From finding peace and longevity to receiving divine favor, the passage offers immeasurable value to believers looking for spiritual direction. Throughout the discourse, he emphasizes the importance of trusting God implicitly. With anecdotes of family experiences and personal insights, Stanley encourages listeners to confront their fears and challenges with faith. Never does this compass of God lead astray, he asserts, neither in moments of joy nor in trials, thereby proving itself as the most trustworthy guide. Listeners are left with a compelling call to action: to let scripture serve as the unwavering compass in their lives that directs them to the right path, ensures fruitful days, and ultimately, secures God's blessings. By fully leaning into trust in the Lord, the faithful can experience the peace and assurance that only comes from walking the divine path laid out for them.
SPEAKER 01 :
Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Friday, January 24th. Are you unsure where to go or what to do in the months ahead? As you navigate this new year, be sure to rely on the only trustworthy compass for life's journey.
SPEAKER 02 :
I have in my hand a compass, and I have had it for 25 years. It has never failed me. It's always pointed north. Always pointed to the North Pole. So I can always tell by looking at this which direction I'm headed in. Now, if I put it in my pocket and I don't look at it, it doesn't do me any good. But if I will take it out and look at it, I will always know which direction I'm headed in. And I have been in some places a few times without it. I wish I'd had it because I needed it. And on one occasion when I was with a guide, I told him I thought we were heading in the wrong direction. He said, oh no, I've traveled this path many times and I know it's not the wrong direction. I pulled out my compass and I said, well, sir, either I have got to believe you or I've got to believe my compass. And I'm going to believe my compass because it never fails. Well, finally, he admitted that we were right. And so we finally got where we were going. And so when I think about this, it points in eight different directions. There's north and northeast and east. Then there's southeast and south. Then there's southwest and west. And then there's northwest. So there are eight different directions it's going to point me in. And just to know that I can trust it all the time is a great sense of security. And what I want to do in this message is this, and I want to talk about a compass for life's journey. And what I want to do is simply this, I want to take a passage of Scripture, one of the most important passages of Scripture in the Bible to me personally. Because right after I was saved, somehow by the grace of God and His goodness, I came across this passage of Scripture. And there are two verses primarily that God spoke to my heart about. And then after a few years went by, I realized that there was so much more here. And so what I want us to do is I want us to read this passage of Scripture, and then here's what we're going to do. I'm going to show you why this Bible and this passage of is an awesome guide for your life and mine. And this passage alone will always keep you headed in the right direction. And then when we talk about how it directs us, I want to talk about the value that following this, listen, this compass that never points us in the wrong direction. But listen, I want to show you the value of simply doing and following the compass. So I want you to turn, if you will, to Proverbs chapter 3. And I usually don't read a long passage of Scripture, but there are 12 verses in this passage. But it's a wonderful passage. And I would just encourage you, if you're at home or wherever you may be, to get your Bible and to read these 12 verses with us. They're precious verses. They're so full. They're so awesome. They cover so much of what every single one of us has to deal with in life. There's not a single person who will listen to this message who will not say, I needed to hear that. That speaks to my heart. Now, you say, well, I'm not even a Christian. But deep down inside when you hear what I'm going to say, you're going to have to say, yeah, I probably did need to hear that. So, beginning in verse one. My son, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments. For length of days and years of life and peace they will add to you. Do not let kindness and truth leave you. Bind them around your neck and write them on the tablet of your heart so you'll find favor and good report or a good reputation. In the sight of God and man, trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lean not to your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your path straight or direct your path. Do not be wise in your own eyes. Fear the Lord and turn away from evil. It will be healing to your body and refreshment to your bones. Honor the Lord from your wealth and from the first of all your produce, so your barns will be filled with plenty and your vats will overflow with new wine. My son, do not reject the discipline of the Lord or loathe His reproof. For whom the Lord loves, He reproves, even as a father corrects the son in whom he delights." Now, I believe this, number one, because it is Scripture. I believe it for the second reason, because I was saved when I was 12 years of age. Right after that, these two verses, trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lean not to your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge him and he will direct your path. Those two verses became like an anchor to my own thinking. And then as I began to read later on in life, a little later on, these other verses helped me to realize that here in one passage is a compass for living. And I can tell you, God can be trusted to be faithful. This passage will always keep you walking in the right direction. And oftentimes we have difficulty when God requires of us something that we see as difficult for us. And we say, well, God, but how? And because we can't figure it out, we don't trust him. And when we do not trust him in any area of our life, we're insulting God. What we're saying and what we're implying is this. He's not trustworthy. He says, I'm calling you to do this work. Or here's what I want you to say here. And we say, well, I just don't think I can do that. God, by his nature, would never call you to do something he will not equip you to do. He will not call you to give something he will not provide the resources for. He's not going to lead you into a lifestyle for which he has not equipped you in your gifts and talents and skills and abilities. Therefore, to deny him his rightful place in your life of trusting him, you are saying to him, I can't trust you. I don't believe you. Oh, I'd never tell God that. Your actions shouted to him. Think about, here's this righteous God who never makes a mistake, who loves you unconditionally, who will never mislead you, and you're telling Him. You don't believe Him? You know what it says? You've closed the compass. You've got it laying on your table beside your bed, or you have it on a desk somewhere in your house. You have the compass, but you're not reading it. It's one thing to put it in your pocket. It's something else to read it. And here's what you're going to find. Every single time, it's always trust, trust, trust. Trust in the Lord. Not necessarily trust in people. Trust in the Lord who is dependable and faithful. Trust in the Lord. Lean now to your own understanding. Listen, there are many things in your life and my life we can't understand. Many things that God would require of us in my own life, I can say, that I didn't understand at the time. Things He required of me that I was afraid to do. And so I had to come to the place of saying, am I going to trust you to bring me through this, though I don't see how, I don't feel adequate, I feel so absolutely inadequate to do this, am I going to trust Him or am I not? And so sometimes we waver back and forth, and we're wavering back and forth for different reasons. And I think about My grandchildren, some of them live in California, and I was out there two or three years ago. And so the first day I was there, they said, Gramps, as they call me Gimps. Then when they got a little old, they call me Gramps. I don't know what they'll call me when they get 21. But they said, we want to go for a hike. Well, they took me on a real California mountain hike, which was fun. We got home that night. They said, tomorrow we're going kayaking. You want to go? Are you going with us, Gramps? Yeah, I'm going with you. It's fine. So the next day, we head down to get into kayaks. And so my grandson said, Gramps, I'm riding with you. There's a place for two people, each one. So I'm riding with you. I said, well, fine. So they sort of talked it among themselves. And since he was the oldest, riding with Gramps. So, we get there, about five minutes before we get there, he says, Gramps, have you ever ridden in a kayak before? Listen to his response. I said, no. He said, Dad, I'm going with you. Now, I didn't blame him really. I didn't blame him at all. But he wanted to make sure, in other words, he had faith in me until he found out I had no experience. But let me tell you about my awesome granddaughter. She said, younger than he, she said, Gramps, I'll go with you. So, we get in the kayaks and we're about a hundred yards out in the water and it's crystal clear. It's just beautiful. You can see the bottom. It's very deep. So, she's up in front and I said, Lenny, how you doing? She said, Gramps, to be honest, I'm petrified. But she went anyway. And you know what? I thought about the times when God's required something of me. And I've sort of felt petrified. But you know what? I did it anyway. And I can tell you in all these years that I've tried to live by this passage of Scripture, not one time has He ever misled me. Not one time in the most difficult, frightening, trying things of my life has He ever failed me to keep me headed in the right direction and in the process blessing me for it. Now think about this. I want you to see the value. And all these eight values are right here. The value of following the compass. Here's what he says. My son, do not forget my teaching. Let your heart keep my commandments. So, here's what he says. One of the first values is length of days and years of life and peace they'll add to you. He says, listen, you want your days to be more productive? You want your years to be more fruitful? Listen, do you want the best of what God has to offer? You think about how many people waste so much time in a given day. And if I call somebody and I say, what you doing? Well, I'm not doing anything. My first response is, well, then you need to get busy. Because before we get off this phone, some of your life is already gone and you wasted it. We should, listen, we should be busy about the right things in life. Does this mean we don't ever take a break? No, I'm not talking about that. But what I want you to see is this. He says, when you follow this compass, here's what you can expect. Length of days, years of life, they will add to you. Are you saying to me that I'll live long if I obey God? I can't guarantee that, but I can tell you one thing. More than likely, more than likely you might. One thing I can say is this, life will be better if you follow the compass. So he says, first of all, your days and your years are going to be better. The second thing he says is, listen, accompanying those days and years, he says, and peace they will add to you. Listen to this. That doesn't mean that our life is just going to be full of everything is just fun and wonderful every day. It means some days are going to be, some days are going to be. Here's what he says. When the days are difficult and painful, there will be this peace, this sustaining peace, this overwhelming sense of comfort and assurance. My God is walking with me through this. When you walk his path, you follow his compass. What does he say? He says length of days and years of life and peace they're going to add to you. Then notice what he says. Not only that. Every one of these makes it valuable for us. He says, You will find favor and good repute in the sight of God and man. Think about this. Do you want the favor of God in your life, personally? Do you want the favor of God upon your family? You want the favor of God in the life of your children? Do you want the favor of God bestowed upon you? When you follow the compass, what happens is, he says, listen, we have the favor of God. That, listen, that means the good things of God. God's plan, His provision, His best comes our way. And now we can handle it, why? Because we're on the right path, doing the right thing. Then if you'll notice, trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lean not your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, He will direct your path. One of the values of following the compass is He will direct your path. He'll make it straight. You know what? You can't choose a better path than God's path. This compass is going to lead you, listen, to do the right thing every time. And what's going to happen is he's going to give you direction. Do you think God would withhold direction from you when you need direction in your life? If you stay with the compass, listen. There's not a single area of your life, and I repeat this, where as you need direction, God will give you direction from this compass if you will meditate upon it and read it. Let it soak into your mind and heart. Another value is this, and that is, listen to what he says, healing of the body. Do not be wise in your own eyes. Fear the Lord and turn away from evil. It will be healing to your body and refreshment to your bones. Healing to your body. Are you saying to me that I'll never get sick if I obey God? No, I wouldn't say that. Are you saying that I will be healthier if I follow this compass? And the answer is absolutely yes. God did not make these physical bodies to live with bitterness, hostility, anger, resentment, depression, and all the rest. He says, listen, if you follow this compass, It will be healing to your body. You can't deny this. Do not be wise in your own eyes. Obey God. Fear the Lord and turn away from evil. It will heal. Listen, it will be healing to your body. And the next value, listen, in the same verse, and refreshment to your bones. What does he mean by that? It means, listen, God will, he will energize you, refresh you. And I think about how many people get up every morning, oh, oh, I've got to get up. It says something to me about either their job, their attitude, their emotional state. Why not wake up excited about the day? You say, well, you just don't know about my day. God does. And I can tell you this, when you're walking His pathway, you're following His guide, you're going to be healthier, you're going to be excited, you're going to have some goals out there in your life. You know what's going to happen? You're going to have divine energy. Here's a promise from God. I know this, whatever I need to do in a given day, I'm going to have what it takes to do it to the best of my ability because he says, and refreshment to your bones. Look at this value. Father's plenty. Look at this. Verse nine, honor the Lord from your wealth and the first of all your produce. So your barns will be filled with plenty and your vats will overflow with new wine. Here is a promise from God. When you and I follow this compass, what this means is there will always, listen, always be enough. He says, so your barns will be filled plenty. Meet your needs. Look at this. Your vats will overflow with new wine, which means I'm not only going to have what I need, but God, because of His will and purpose for our lives, is going to give us enough to share with somebody else. You see, if you trust Him, what you do is you set yourself on the path of blessing. And listen to this last value. The last value is this, a Father's loving correction. You say, I don't want that in my life. And you know what? You get off the path. Every single one of us get off the path. When I had my eye surgery and I couldn't read for a solid month, One verse of Scripture can be a single verse for about three and a half weeks of it. I thought, God, what's my thinking? And I prayed and I prayed and I prayed. And I quoted as many verses as I knew to keep God's Word in my mind and heart. I wanted to keep hearing from Him and it had to come from within me because I couldn't read it. And then got some CDs with the Scripture on them so I could fill my mind and heart with the Word of God. We'll get off the path if we don't stay with a compass. Now look at that. An eightfold sense of direction, and every single one of us need them. An eightfold blessing that follows. The assurance. He shows us how valuable it is to follow His compass. I don't know where you are in life, but this much I know. Our Heavenly Father has planned the best for you. And in one single passage of Scripture, He will guide your life in the right direction, no matter what you're facing. And the awesome value, listen, fruitful days and years, and His approval, and His peace, listen, And all the things that he promises here, his direction for our life and healing from our body and divine energy and the Father's plenty and he'll be there to correct me when I need it, to protect me from doing the wrong thing. There's no compass like this one. And if you take the compass and lay it down, what you're doing is you're positioning yourself to get off the path. And I want to challenge you I want to challenge you to read the Scripture over and over again. Let it be the compass of your life to keep you on the right path so that you'll have God's absolute best blessings for your life for the future. It's a choice you make, and I trust that you'll make a wise choice.
SPEAKER 01 :
Thank you for listening to part two of A Compass for Life's Journey. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or InTouch Ministries, stop by InTouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of InTouch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.
Some seasons in life bring joy while others bring discouragement, but God is our everlasting refuge in all circumstances.
In this insightful episode, we discuss the rollercoaster that is life, with its many cycles of highs and lows. Drawing from Biblical wisdom, our conversation offers practical advice on maintaining a serene and consistent faith, regardless of the changes and challenges that life brings. Tune in to explore how spiritual responses can override emotional reactions, leading to a fulfilling and content life.
SPEAKER 01 :
Welcome to the InTouch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Thursday, January 30th. Are you facing some turmoil that just doesn't seem to go away? Today, you'll be urged to look to Jesus Christ for all the strength you need for overcoming the ups and downs of life.
SPEAKER 02 :
Life holds for all of us those seasons of ups and downs. That is, by ups, I mean those times when you and I are encouraged and things are going our way and we're happy and contented with our circumstances. And then those times when we are down, that is, we feel discouraged. disillusioned, disheartened, depressed, disenchanted with our circumstances. Things are going against us rather than for us. The question is, how do you and I respond with the ups and downs in life? We'll never be able to come to the place in life where we can just smooth it all out. Everything is going our way. In fact, when it is, isn't it strange how you and I respond? When we've been through difficulty and hardship and heartache and changing circumstances, and then for a season of time, everything sort of levels out for a little while and things start going our way, we think, uh-oh, something's going to happen because things are too good. And what we do is we begin to suspect the goodness of God. And God gives us those seasons when things are sort of light and things are a little easy. And then there are those seasons of ups and downs. How do you respond to the ups and downs of life? Well, that's what our text tells us about. And the title of this message is Overcoming the Ups and Downs of Life. And I want you to turn, if you will, to Philippians chapter 4. And in this fourth chapter, Paul gives us what he calls a secret to learning how to overcome the ups and downs of life. And beginning in verse 10, you'll recall he says, But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at last you have revived your concern for me. Indeed, you were concerned before, but you lacked opportunity. Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstance I am. I know how to get along with humble means and I also know how to live in prosperity. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Now, Paul is writing to the Philippians with whom he had a wonderful relationship. And all through this passage, all through this book, there is the word rejoice and joy over and over and over again because he had a wonderful relationship with them. And every time he thought about them, his heart, indeed was rejoicing. And what he's referring to in this passage is that beforehand, there were times when they would oftentimes send him gifts that helped him. Remember now that he's writing from prison. And then there came a season when they did not send him anything, not because they didn't care, didn't love him, or were not thinking about him, but for some reason they were not able to get it there. And so in response to that, he says to them, I want you to know in the process, I'm rejoicing in the Lord. He says, not that I speak from want, because he had not received the gifts. He said, I have learned the secret of being able to face the up and down circumstances of life without wringing my hands, without feeling discontent, without worrying and frustration and anxiety and fear. He says, I've learned a great secret in life. Now the question is, have you and I learned it? And you know, isn't it interesting that all through Paul's epistles, he deals with where you and I have to live. And we all have to live those changing circumstances of life. They're going to be there. And they're always going to be there because that's just the way life is. Now, I want you to see several things in this passage. And the first one is this. And Paul says it a couple of times. And that is... The whole idea of overcoming the ups and downs in life, number one, is a learning process. That's what Paul says, that overcoming the ups and downs of life is a learning process. And notice how he says this. He says, verse 11, I have learned to be content in whatever circumstance I am. He says, I also know how to live in prosperity. He says, I've learned the secret of being filled. I know how to get along with humble means. Paul says, I've learned some things. That is, Paul wasn't saved on the Damascus Road and then automatically know how to deal with all the changing circumstances of life. And so he says, I have learned it. It isn't easy to learn. It isn't easy to learn for the simple reason that First of all, you and I cannot foresee all the changing circumstances we're going to have to face in life. Secondly, not only can we not foresee them, most of them are out of our control. We can't control the ever-changing circumstance in our life. Sometimes it is naturally, purely spiritual warfare, something that Satan is doing in our life, and therefore we can't always control that. Sometimes it's difficult because we are so spiritually inadequate. Think about the people who are saved and who have the idea, well, as soon as I give my life to Christ and as soon as I surrender my life to Him and start trusting Him, God is going to level out all these ups and downs and everything is going to smooth out and I'm just going to pray and God's going to answer my prayer. Things are just going to get better and better all the time. Things are going to get sweet. One of these days I'm going to heaven. But how many people have said, You know, I thought when I got saved that things are going to get better. Things have gotten worse since I've been saved. Now think about this. No, they haven't been worse. Listen, if you're on your way to hell and you get saved by the grace of God and you're on your way to heaven, things can't ever be as bad as they were because you've changed your whole eternal destiny. But what happens is once a person is saved, God begins to do what? He begins to complete his goal for their life, which he says is to conform us in the likeness of his son, Jesus Christ. So what does he do? He gets that little sandpaper and he begins to work on us here and work on us there and discipline us here and discipline us there and cut this out of our life and add this in our life. We go through a stage and stage after stage of changes that go on that God is behind because he's in the process of conforming us to the likeness of his son and does not want us to reach some plateau where you and I get satisfied. And so you and I face a life that is constantly changing. For example, you light a fire. Every flame that rises is different. Every single time you look up in the clouds, every one of them is different. You've looked at them for hundreds and thousands of days in your life. You've never seen two skies the same. You've never seen two sunrises or two sunsets the same. Everything is changing. The economy changes. Our feelings change. Relationships change. Everything changes. Therefore, all of us are facing change. ever-changing circumstances in life. A man goes to his business this morning, things are super. Next week, they're not so good. All of life in your spiritual walk, everything is just going great. You're reading your Bible and praying and God's answering prayer and everything is just going fine. All of a sudden, you hit one of those dry spells and you think, God, what happened? What happened? Last week, it was so good. This week, you're not in a thousand miles. When I pray, my prayers just sort of hit the ceiling, ricochet off the floor, off both walls, and all that happens is I seem to be hearing my own self doing the talking. So life is up and down. Now, does that mean that when life is up and down, a person is backslidden? Not necessarily, because life is by its very nature ever-changing, and everything around us is changing, and the only thing that's not changing is Christ. He's the only one. Our physical bodies are ever-changing. Our attitudes are changing. Feelings are changing. And so here we are. Now, for the Apostle Paul, if you'll notice, he says in this passage, he says, I have learned. He says, I know. He says, I have learned. I know. He says, I have learned the secret. Now, think about this. The Apostle Paul also had to learn some very valuable lessons in life. And so, therefore, we can expect to learn something. If you'll think about it for just a moment, what happened in Paul's life? On one occasion, he says, after he was saved, that God led him out into the desert, and there for a season of time, God gave him these tremendous, awesome, extraordinary revelations about himself. And so... Paul had to let all that digest in his life. He says, in fact, it was like being caught up in the third heaven. He said, in fact, some things God said to me, I'm not even sure that I can say. And here he turns right around and talks about the downtime. That is the time when God allowed him to be buffeted by Satan, a thorn in the flesh, that no matter how much he prayed and how much he pleaded with God, God would not remove it. And Paul is simply saying here, he says, I have learned the secret not to allow the ever constantly changing circumstances in my life to cheat me out of what God has provided. So what I want us to discuss in this message is how, how do you and I face those ever changing circumstances in life? How do we face them victoriously? How do we face them without being blown like the ship in a storm this way now and that way here? How do we live the kind of life by which our life is not like a roller coaster? Up today, down tomorrow. Up today, down tomorrow. And so many people's spiritual walk is probably best described by a roller coaster. We're up and then we're down. We're off and then we're on. We're in then we're out. We're hot, then we're cold. And so the Christian life is just like that, which says that our testimony could not be very strong because what we imply by the way we're living is that God is good sometimes, sometimes He's not. The Christian life works sometimes, sometimes it's not. That is, you can trust God sometimes, but sometimes you cannot. That is not the life that God intended for us to live. And so Paul deals here in this passage of Scripture, one that all of us know by heart, at least one of those verses, with a very practical, down-to-earth question. And that is, how do I live? not ever-changing, not thrown and tossed with every wind that blows, but how do I live with a sense of stability and strength and inner quietness and peace in the midst of those times when my circumstances are always changing, when my circumstances may become more intensely painful, and when things may not ever change around me? And some of you are living in that kind of a circumstance, in that kind of a situation. You're living day by day, facing, living, experiencing situations that at this point looks like they'll never change, that no matter what happens, God seemingly is not going to change them. And you ask yourself the question, God, how can I abide this? How can I be sustained in this? If my circumstances never change, how can I survive these circumstances? And some people would say, well, my circumstances aren't up and down. They're all down. That's where you happen to feel at this moment. But my friend, God never intended for us to live a rollercoaster experience in life. And all of us have at some time. And probably that's where most people are. And so this is what Paul is speaking of here when he says, I have learned a secret. And that secret is he learned how to respond to these ever-changing circumstances. Now, all of us face them. And as I said before, we're not going to ever reach any area or any spiritual plateau in our life where our circumstances are not changing. What we want to know is this. How do I live in those ever-changing circumstances without being tossed to and fro and becoming anxious and fretful? Overcoming these ever-changing circumstances of life is a lesson to be learned, and that's what Paul says in this passage. The second thing I want us to notice here is this. Not only is it a lesson that you ought to learn, but it is a lesson that we ought to learn which leads us to peace and contentment in life. Overcoming the ever-changing circumstances of life will lead us to a life of peace and contentment. That's what God has for His children. And so as we think about how Paul had to experience this, let's think about it for just a moment this way. He says, if you'll notice, I know how to get along with humble means. I also know how to live in prosperity in any and every circumstance. I have learned the secret. And he says, if you'll notice, he says, I've learned to be content. Now think about this. Can you be content when you have needs? Can you be content when things are down? Or do you get depressed, dejected? Do you become despondent and despairing? Do you get fretful and anxious, hard to live with, hard to live around? Probably, if it is, one of the primary reasons is you're making an awesome mistake. The mistake most believers make, and that is, we choose by just normal habit to respond to life out of our feelings. We respond emotionally rather than spiritually. How do we feel? That is, when somebody says something about us that hurts us, what do we want to do? Our emotions get all entangled in that, and so we want to respond in defending ourselves or blaming someone else. You see, if you and I live on the basis of our emotions, how we feel, we will never be able to live a stable life. We'll never be able to live with an inner sense of quietness and peace and confidence and assurance when everything around us is falling apart. One of the greatest opportunities of witness we have is that when everything around us is falling apart, we don't fall apart. When everything around us is steaming and stewing, there's an innocence of quietness and peace. Some of you are living in a home relationship in which things are very, very difficult. And your natural response is to emotionally fight back or to emotionally blare back or to emotionally respond in antagonism and hostility and anger. But God says you don't have to do it. Where you work, oftentimes, there's pressure put upon you that you don't appreciate, that you think is unfair and unjust. How do you respond? It makes no difference what's going on. God says that He will enable you to respond in such a fashion that even when it is intensely painful, when it is embarrassing, things are not going your way, and everything around you seems to be down. God says... You can be content in the midst of the most difficult, trying circumstance of life. Not just some of them, but in all of them. And so what Paul is saying here, he says, look. I've been in those situations where I was in need. I've been in those circumstances where I had an abundance. And he says, I've learned a wonderful secret. And the secret is this. He says, whether I have a little bit or much, it doesn't make any difference. I've learned the wonderful secret of being content in my ever-changing circumstance. And remember now, he's not writing this from the beach, but in a prison house. And he says, I am content even here being in prison. Now, When he says, I'm content, what is he saying? He says, here's what I mean by that. I have learned to live. with my circumstances in such a fashion that I'm not wringing my hands, I'm not irritated, I'm not discontent, I'm not unhappy, I'm not frustrated because I'm not able to fulfill my desires. You see, to be able to live in a situation where your desires and your needs are not being fulfilled and being able to live in that with a sense of inner quietness and peace and confidence is genuine contentment. Being able to live in a situation where my needs are not being met, but I'm not frustrated. I'm not discontent. I'm not hostile. I'm not angry. I don't want to blame anybody. That is a good sign of contentment. And Paul is saying, I have learned the secret that makes it possible for you in the most difficult trying times to be able to experience that. Now, you know, I don't know many folks like that. I don't know many people who can face these kind of circumstances and trying times in their life without responding in the wrong fashion. So what we have to ask is this, is it really and truly possible for us to face those kind of ever-changing circumstances and at the same time have an innocence of quietness and peace, and feel the presence of God in our life, and we're not wringing our hands when everybody else around us is wringing theirs? And to be able to live in the kind of circumstance where it's very, very difficult, you feel rejected, you feel the anger of another person, you feel the hostility, and somehow it doesn't get to you? Is it possible to live in a situation where there is financial need, and you don't see any way out, and yet... You're content with what God has? Is it possible to be in a circumstance where there is a tremendous amount of abundance, where there is great prosperity and great wealth, and you're not worried about keeping it? You're not worried about losing it? You're not worried about it being mishandled, but you're contented? You see, here's the situation. It makes no difference whether you have a great deal or have little or nothing. Discontent and strife and stress and anxiety and frustration, fear. Listen, those attitudes and those experiences are applicable to every single area of life. And people always looking for the greener pastures. They're saying, well, you know, if I had enough of this, boy, I'd be happy. Listen, the folks who have enough of it oftentimes think I was better off when I didn't have what I've got. And so everybody on this side of the fence, The grass looks greener over here. The folks over here that looks greener to them looks over here and says, oh, listen, the grass is green on this side. So everybody's looking at somebody else wishing they had somebody else's circumstances. But listen, if you could feel what they feel, sense their anxiety, their fears, their frustrations, their uncertain as you think, I'm not so bad off after all. But you see, when we look with a covetous spirit and we look, listen, from a human point of view, everything always looks better on the other side. It's not always better. In fact, most of the time, it's a whole lot worse than we think it is. Now, Paul says, but I've learned the lesson makes no difference what it is. He says, I've learned the lesson of being content. Now, look at this. Let's look at this passage. He says, verse 11, not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstance I am. I know how to get along with humble means and also know how to live in prosperity. Makes no difference which one it is. He says, I have learned the secret. So Paul says, it isn't something that everybody knows. He says, I've learned the secret. And the secret is something that is known only by a few. I've learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. He says, I have learned this tremendous secret.
SPEAKER 01 :
Thank you for listening to Overcoming the Ups and Downs of Life. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or InTouch Ministries, stop by intouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of InTouch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.
In a world where hostility towards faith seems to be ever-increasing, understanding how to navigate this harsh reality is crucial for believers. In this episode, we explore timeless biblical principles for dealing with conflict and persecution with steadfast faith. Listen in as we delve into the teachings of the Apostle Paul, and unpack crucial strategies for maintaining focus on the divine even while facing adversity. Learn to see life's challenges as opportunities for personal and spiritual growth through powerful examples from Scriptures and insights into godly strength and perseverance.
SPEAKER 01 :
Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Wednesday, January 29th. Hostility seems to be increasing everywhere. But what should you do when it's your faith that triggers aggression? Today, we discover what the Bible teaches about responding when we are persecuted.
SPEAKER 02 :
None of us really like conflict very much, or we don't like persecution for sure. But in the world in which you and I live, if you and I live a godly life, we are going to face conflict and we are going to face persecution. It may be persecution on your job, and I hear this all the time, a persecution at home, a persecution in your schooling, among your peers, but it's there. And those people who sort of go through life and never have any enemies and everybody just loves them to death and never ruffle into waters, here's what God says. And I want you to turn, if you will, to 2 Timothy chapter 3. Because 2 Timothy chapter 3 is a warning, and no one is more of authority on how to deal with persecution than the apostle Paul. So he says in this third chapter of 2 Timothy, beginning in verse 10, he Paul said to Timothy, he said, now, but you followed my teaching, my conduct, my purpose, my faith, my patience, my love, my perseverance, my persecutions and sufferings, such as happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, and at Lystra, What persecutions I endured, and out of them all the Lord delivered me." He said, now, you have followed me, you have watched me. And he says, I'm sure, I hope you've learned some things. And indeed, he says, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. You say, I don't like persecution. Well, I'm sure Paul didn't either. But the truth is, if you and I live a godly life, I didn't say if you're a church member, Or if you just want to be sort of a nice kind of a Christian, whatever that is. But he says, if you live godly in Christ Jesus, you can expect conflict and persecution in your life. Because you and I are living in a world system in which there are two opposing forces, godliness and wickedness. And you and I see the results of that all around us and the evil and the crime and the violence and bloodshed that goes on. He says, if you live God in Christ Jesus, you're going to suffer persecution. So what I'd like to do is I would like to share with you about five principles that are absolutely essential if you're going to face conflict and persecution, whether it's by one person or by a whole group of people, because I know these things work. The first thing I learned when I'd get in the prayer room and I'd think, God, I felt so desperate and so all alone oftentimes. It's like the Lord said now. You view everything that happens to you as coming from me. If you will view everything as coming from me, this will protect you from being bitter, resentful, hostile, angry. It will prevent you from wanting to take revenge or be vengeful in any way. You see every single possible thing coming from me. No matter who it is, if it's people whom you have great faith in, that you've loved dearly, and they've deceived you or have turned against you, you see them as my instruments to work in your life. Because I have something bigger in mind than they think. And that they are not in control. I'm in control. God says, I'm in control. All I want you to do is to see every single thing. Everything coming from me. And everything that looks like an enemy. He says, I want you to see it as an instrument of mine. Remembering what I said. I am engineering all your circumstances for my glory and your good. Now, you're going to have to trust me. And I think this is the first time in my life that the Lord really impressed upon my heart these three words, just trust me. So the first principle I want to share with you is this, and that is view everything that comes to you as coming from God. Now, the second thing is this. And that is to keep your focus on the Lord. Now, you say, well, I've heard you say that a thousand times because it's that important. You've got to keep your focus on the Lord. Now, the reason I say that is because If you don't, you're going to react. If I keep my focus on the Lord, then I'm not looking around me and I'm not listening to all the stuff. I want you to go back to Isaiah 41. You remember what he cautions us here when we're afraid and we're being persecuted and we see ourselves outnumbered or really being harassed by people or situations. Listen, if you will, to verse 10 of Isaiah 41. Do not fear, for I am with you. Do not anxiously look about you. That is our greatest temptation when we are persecuted or we have enemies or we have opposition, and that is to look around us. Now, what happens is this. When you look around you, Satan will blow up and exalt and amplify everything that looks like it is opposition. He wants you to think it's worse than it is. And so, God doesn't want us looking around at our opposition. He wants us to look at Him, to keep our focus on Him. He says in this passage specifically, do not anxiously look about you. Now, why did He say anxiously? Because He knows that looking about us and listening to the voices of our enemies, it's going to make us anxious. And anxiety is fear. It's very important you learn to focus your attention, rivet your mind on God, and not anxiously look about you, or you will become fearful if you begin to anxiously look about you. For example, David saw oftentimes when he was talking about his own life, he talked about the Lord being his strength, and his mind was set on God. When he went to fight Goliath, what do you think he was thinking about? He wasn't sizing up Goliath. If you look at his speech, his whole speech is about God. the God of Israel, the God of Jehovah, the God of this earth, defending the name of God. He wasn't focusing on Goliath until the moment when he ran toward him with the right stones. The third thing I would say, the third very important principle, is to rely upon the strength of God. Now listen carefully. When there is conflict, warfare, and persecution, there is a natural drain on your physical, emotional, spiritual energy. It is natural because it is something that is going on all the time. You wake up thinking about it. You go to bed thinking about it. During the day, you're thinking about it. And I remember oftentimes studying. It's like Satan would just harass me with the possibilities of what would happen in the future and all these things. But then I began to realize that's why pastors run. They run out of strength. When you go through the book of Psalms, 57 times in the book of Psalms, the word strength is used. And David, of all people, understood what it meant to rely upon the strength of Almighty God. Now, I want you to go back and let's start, if you will, in Psalm 18. I want you to turn to Psalm 18. Then I want to tell you something that I want you to ever forget. Psalm 18. Your enemies are looking for the first little sign of fear in your heart. And friend, when they see that, they will come after you like a herd of cattle on a run. All they're looking for is the first sign of fear. They know you have weaknesses because all of us do. They're looking for fear. I want you to look at these verses. Beginning, and I'm going to take you through a number of them. In the 39th verse of the 18th Psalm, David said, For thou hast girded... dressed me with strength for battle. God, you've dressed me up with strength for battle. How did he get dressed? Focusing upon God, relying upon his Father, looking to him as his strength. Turn to the 28th chapter. I'm going to take you through a number here. 28th chapter and verse 7 and 8. He says, the Lord is my strength and my shield. Listen, he's not only our strength, but he's our protector. He's the one who shields us from the volleys of the arrows of the enemy. My heart trusts in him and I'm helped. Therefore, my heart exalts. And with my song, I shall thank him. The Lord is their strength and he is a saving defense to his anointed. God is our strength and our defense. Now, I want you to turn to a verse of Scripture in Psalm 31, a very important principle here. David is talking about his physical body, but I want you to listen because I want you to notice something here. He says in verse nine, "'Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I'm in distress. My eye is wasted away from grief.'" My soul and my body also, for my life is spent with sorrow. And David certainly had a life of sorrow. And my years with sighing. And listen to this. My strength has failed because of my iniquity, and my body has wasted away. Now, what I want us to notice here, he says, my strength has failed because of my iniquity. God has promised to be your strength and my strength in any situation, in every situation. He says, a tower of strength. But here's what sin will do. Sin will cause you to doubt God's strength in your life. You may be absolutely dead right in what you're standing for. You may be absolutely perfectly correct. But the reason we have to walk obediently before God is because sin tampers with our faith. And tampering with our faith tampers with our assurance and confidence of the strength that God's going to give us. And so that's why when you and I are going through difficulty and hardship, we need to walk in obedience to Him or Satan will harass you. God's not going to do this. He's not going to strengthen you. He's not going to protect you. And what happens is if you look within and say, well, I have been disobedient to God. What happens is Satan will have a heyday in your life. Even though God... It's going to strengthen you, and God is going to see you through it. It may be that in a moment of temptation or trial, you said or did something you should not, and you failed God. That doesn't mean that he's not going to give you a victory, but here's what it means. It means that you are going to suffer the loss and the feeling of failure and the fear, and this is where the enemy will get you. If they sense fear in you, they attack. And so that's why David said, you know, the Lord is his strength. And he said in this verse, he says, my iniquity has made me weak. And whereas sin will weaken our physical bodies and weaken us emotionally, most of all, it weakens us spiritually. And you don't want to be weak when you're facing the enemy. God is our strength. And even though He is our strength, something happens in our thinking and our emotions, and we begin to feel or sense or experience fear, even though the strength of God is there, we will sense fear and Satan will take advantage of that. So, when we think about these principles and we think about the fact of relying upon Him as our strength, that is absolutely essential. Listen, because it is a natural, normal drain upon you when you're being persecuted or you're in conflict. Fourth principle. Fourth principle is this, is to realize that you're fighting a spiritual battle. Now, the question comes, how do I know if it's a spiritual battle or not? Here's how you can know. Does this battle have any effect upon the work of God? whether it's your own personal testimony or your church or whatever it may be. Does this battle, does this persecution, this strife, this conflict, does it have any relationship to the work of God? Well, when people attack their pastors and churches and so forth, they think, well, we're just doing this and we're going to save our church. It is spiritual warfare. And what you have to ask is when you come to being attacked in some situation, in your job, in your schooling, or whoever your enemies may be, you have to ask yourself several questions. Number one, am I in God's place? Are you serving? Are you in your vocation? Are you where you ought to be? That's the first question. Am I in God's place? Secondly, you have to ask yourself this question. Is my stand... Scriptural, is this an opinion I have? Is this just my lifestyle? Is this just something I like? Is this a prejudice of mine? Or is this a scriptural stand I'm taking? And that is a very, very basic question. Thirdly, what is at stake if I leave or if I stay? What is at stake, if I win or if I lose? And if it's a spiritual battle, there's a great deal at stake because of your influence and your witness to other people. The fourth question is, how will other people be affected if I win or lose this battle? Or how I respond in this persecution? Because you see, sometimes winning isn't running somebody else away. Winning is being able to endure it and suffer it and keep moving without defending yourself or blasting someone else or taking out vengeance on someone else. Winning oftentimes is just standing firm silently when it's necessary and to test them on the witness of God is strengthened. And what you have to ask is this, am I going to be glorified in this or is God going to be glorified? Now, some people always give you the credit, but you and I both know whether it is God who's being glorified or it is something that we want glory for. So, recognizing that we are fighting a spiritual battle. And, of course, you know Ephesians 6. He says, be strong in the Lord. Put on the whole arm of God that you and I may be able to stand. And he didn't say launch an attack on your enemies. He said stand. God is our fighter. He is the one who does the battling. And so we have to be careful that we don't try to manipulate circumstances. Then, when I think about how that works in a person's life, I think about how we feel, and my feeling has always been, and my conviction has been, if I am in God's place, you don't give up no matter what. It doesn't make any difference how dark it looks, how absolutely futile it looks. Never, never, never give up. If you're in God's place, doing what God has called you to do, standing upon the truth, then you should never give up. Now, you know, back in the olden days before we had radar and all kinds of communications, when those sailors sailed out on those ships that today we would think would never make it anywhere... They run into all kinds of storms because they had no way of warning. Here's what they would do when it was a real bad storm. They would take rope and lash themselves to the mast of the boat. So when the storm hit and the waves hit and washed them all around them, they wouldn't be washed overboard. And so when the storms were really bad, they just lashed themselves to the mast. Well, I believe that's a perfect example of what God wants us to do when we're in the battle. And that is we are to be in such oneness with him, to lash ourselves to God himself until the storm subsides. So when you and I think about storms we go through and persecution, all the rest, it is a spiritual battle, but we never have to walk through a single one of them by ourselves. He says, I will never leave you nor forsake you. Last principle, expect to be victorious. Satan will harass you, tell you there's no way in the world for you to win, that you're going to crumble under this weight, that you're going to be harassed, that you're going to be ridiculed, you're going to be thrown out, you're going to be this, you're going to be that, you're going to be the other. He'll just work you over something terribly. Expect to be victorious. So, I can expect to win every battle because not of our strength, our wisdom, our knowledge, our know-how, our experience, none of that, because God is sovereign. And because He's sovereign, He has absolutely every single thing in perfect control. And whatever He allows, He is going to turn it for your good and mine. But if you believe, now think about it, if you believe that you are the victim of people and circumstances, then what you're saying is that people have more control of your life than God does. I'm here to tell you right now, I wouldn't preach five minutes if that were true, because Where does that leave God? Where does it leave the believer? If we're the victims of this and the victims of that and the victims of the other. God allows some things in life I don't understand, some things I don't like maybe, or things that I wouldn't allow if I were God. But you know what? When Paul said, we are more than conquerors, what that means is that when you and I come out of the battle, we have more than we had when we went in the battle. We have a greater view of God, greater understanding of Him, a greater understanding of His grace. We understand the omnipotence of God. We understand the ways of God. We begin to understand that He's sovereign. And no matter what anybody says, does, thinks, or how they act, no one can tamper with absoluteness in power, absoluteness in wisdom, absoluteness in knowledge and understanding. God is absolutely sovereign over every single solitary thing. Now listen, when you come to that conclusion and you really and truly believe that, you know what happens? You get absolutely free. You know why? If you believe He's sovereign, you've committed yourself to Him. What do you have to worry about? Nothing can touch you except what He allows. Your responsibility and mine is to obey God, not to manipulate the circumstances or run or hurt. That's not our responsibility. Our responsibility is to obey God and trust in this wonderful, loving, sovereign Father to take care of us. If you lay those five principles in your mind and your heart, every time you get challenged, if you abide by them, you will win every single time.
SPEAKER 01 :
Thank you for listening to When We Are Persecuted. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or In Touch Ministries, stop by intouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.
Explore the various ways believers can respond to divine silence, from questioning God respectfully to embracing the opportunity for deeper intimacy through trust and anticipation. Stanley encourages listeners to continue unwavering in their prayers and interactions with God, emphasizing that such quiet times can lead to personal and spiritual growth. Find guidance and comfort as you learn to respect God’s timing and plans, opening the way to a more profound relationship.
SPEAKER 02 :
Welcome to the InTouch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Tuesday, January 28th. How do you feel when the Lord is quiet and seems so far away? Today's podcast reminds you that even when God is silent, He's still faithful.
SPEAKER 01 :
God is sometimes very silent, and it's difficult for us to accept it, especially when we are hurting. I think that's the most painful time if you're physically hurting and And nothing's going on. It's very, very discouraging. Well, does He have a purpose for it? Yes, He does. Is there a certain way you and I ought to respond? There is a better way. And so, how do you respond? Do you take advantage of it? Do you learn something from it? Or you just let it go by and say, well, you know, I went through one of these circumstances and God didn't answer my prayer. He just ignored me. Now, somebody says, well, you know, I want to know about God speaking to me, not being quiet to me. But there's a whole aspect of God's silence that is very, very good. And what causes us to be perturbed sometimes and impatient and wonder why and question a lot of things about God, I want you to see that His silence is very, very good. So, how do we respond when He's quiet? Now, everybody doesn't respond the same way. But so, how do you respond when you're talking to Him and God is silent, you come to Him with some request and you don't hear anything? Do you just get up if you kneel and pray? And you know, when I think about this, and that's just my own personal opinion, so I'm giving you that. A person who never kneels before God has a problem. You can't kneel before holy God. who's the creator of the universe, the sovereign of all things, you can't kneel before Him? Is that pride? I think it is. That's my personal opinion. But I think if you'll search the Scriptures, and I think if you'll think about who it is that you're before, you're before Almighty God, and you can't kneel, there's something wrong with that. So, how do we respond? Well, sometimes we are very disappointed. Well, God, I, here's the verse I, here's the verse You gave me, Lord, and here's what it says, and I'm taking it Your Word and nothing's happening. Another reaction is we get discouraged. Well, why should I pray? God isn't answering my prayer. And remember what we said, when you don't feel like He's listening, don't stop. That's the key. Don't stop praying and talking to God because you think He's silent, not listening. Remember what we said. Because He's silent doesn't mean He's not listening. And so, there's a very specific reason. So, sometimes it's discouragement. Then, of course, one of the things that happens is this, that people get confused. They say, well, now wait a minute. Here's what God says and I'm praying and He's not answering my prayer. And then sometimes a person begins to doubt. Well, I wonder, where is God? And I'll tell you what happened to me this weekend. I went to see a doctor about my foot. And so, I got to talking to him a little bit and got him into a conversation. And I said, well, tell me what's going on in your life. And he began to tell me what's happening in the past. He's down in the dumps and things weren't working. He said, I was driving along and I just said, I don't know if anybody's out there, but if you are, do something. Well, now here's a desperate cry of a man who was empty, was not a Christian, didn't know what to do, didn't know where to turn. He just cried out, if there's anybody out there, do something. Show up. The next day, something happened in his life that was just wonderful, and from that point on, Now, after we chatted and I came back the second time we got to talking, he started talking about how God was doing thus and so in his life. I can't wait to go back and see him again. Because already he was so open. But I think about a person being so totally out there, away from the things of God, and not knowing what to think or how to feel. And his prayer was, if there's anybody out there, Do you realize how blessed you are that you know Jesus Christ as your Savior? How blessed you are that you know God? And so, people respond different ways. And then, of course, a lot of people, if God's silent, they feel guilty. Now watch this. God didn't answer my prayer? Must have done something wrong. God must be displeased with me. You see, listen to this. Every time God's silent doesn't mean you've sinned. Every time He's silent doesn't mean you're guilty. Every time He's silent doesn't mean He's just shut heaven up, not going to pay any attention to you. And so, sometimes a person feels very guilty. And then, of course, there's the feeling of being angry. God, here's what's happened. I asked you to fix this and you haven't done it. And so then one of those feelings that people get sometime is being very separated from God. He's distant. That's a bad feeling. You ever felt that? God's distant. He's out yonder somewhere. You know He's there, but He's distant. You don't feel that warmth, that intimacy that you felt before. And then I think one of the reactions is this, and that's fear. Has God deserted me? Has God just left me? Have I committed, and this is what I hear, have I committed some unpardonable sin? And the answer to that is no. Why am I not getting through? And so there are all different kinds of responses that people have, but the question is this, and that is, how should you and I respond when God is silent? So let's think about some ways we should respond, and the first one is this. We should ask Him why. Somebody says, well, you should never question God. Oh, yes, you can. And let me just say this, when you question God, God does not get upset. He's not going to punish you. If you need any evidence at all, what about what Jesus said on the cross? My God, my God, why have You forsaken Me? That gives us the privilege and the pattern. You and I have the right to question God about anything. Because remember this. It doesn't bother Him. It doesn't antagonize Him. It doesn't get Him upset. And it doesn't cause Him to feel bad toward us. Remember this, He understands us perfectly. He knows what motivates us to question Him. He knows why. And so, one of the first and right responses that you and I can ask Him why and not expect any punishment. The second one is this, that as we said, His silence doesn't mean that He's inactive. In other words, if you come to Him and ask Him about something and ask Him to show you His will for your life, what usually happens at the end of that period of silence is exactly what you were concerned about is exactly what He does. But it has to be in His timing. You see, when you think about how you should respond, you should remember that His silence does not mean He's inactive and that He's doing something good in our life. A third thing is this, and that is, We should respond by trusting Him. And if you go to the forty-sixth Psalm, for example, and here's a verse that's translated a little different in different passages. But you and I probably know it best by, Be still and know that I'm God. And in the American Standard Version, that verse says, cease striving and know that I am God, which is the same thing. It's just a different way of saying it. Cease striving and know that I'm God. How am I to respond? How am I to respond? I'm to respond not with anger and doubt and fear and frustration and anxiety and all the rest, but I'm to respond by being quiet and trusting Him and knowing that in His silence He is working something good for my life. And at the proper time, the appropriate time, that whatever I'm concerned about, He is going to deal with because He promised to do it. He says He will, watch this, He will perfect what concerns us. God is personally interested in our life, and so we just have to wait and bide our time with Him. And I think about in this passage here with Lazarus and Jesus and Mary and Martha, what happened? What happened was this. And that is, Jesus had a schedule. Mary and Martha's schedule was hurry on over to Bethany because Lazarus is very sick. Jesus' schedule was a few days later. He'd been dead four days. Well, where were you? Why didn't you show up? When you come to our house, we feed you. You say you love us. We spend time together. And the most critical moment in my life, Jesus, you don't show up. And sometimes that's very, very difficult, that when He's silent, that my right response is I'm to trust Him. But that's one of the reasons He's silent to us, in order to teach us when we don't see our way clear, we don't know what's going on, and you're like you're in a capsule. And you can't correct the situation. You can't fix it yourself. And you're having to trust Him. Watch this. We don't like someone else controlling us, not even God sometimes. We don't like that. Unless God's controlling us and we're just happy as a lark doing. In other words, if everything's going our way and God's in control, praise the Lord. But when things aren't going our way and He's controlling us, we're not all that excited about it. He, watch this, and I'm saying some things over and over and over again. One of the primary reasons is His desire to build an intimate relationship with Him that is not based on what He gives us and whether He's on our schedule or not, but simply the fact of who He is loving us His way in His time. Well, so I'm to respond by trusting. And then, of course, I'm to respond by anticipating. Listen, anticipating a more intimate relationship with Him. In other words, I should expect that. I anticipate. In other words, if He's silent, God not only wants to do something good in my life, but He wants to draw me into a much more intimate relationship with Him than I've ever had. And our relationship to Jesus Christ should be and can be and will be as intimate and as satisfying as we're willing for Him to work in our life His way and His time. So, how should we respond? Anticipating that. Then of course, respect the right of God to be silent. In other words, He's not under any obligation to us at all. And so, I respect the right of God to be silent when He chooses to be silent. I don't have to know why, really. I will ask Him why. I will look at myself and see if there's something He wants to deal with. But God has the right to be silent. Well, we should respond in that fashion, recognize that. Then, of course, there are two things. One of the best ways when God is silent. It's to just get in the Word of God and start reading. Read where? It doesn't make any difference where. Wherever you choose to read. A good place to read, if you're not too familiar with some passages, is to start reading the Psalms. Start with number one, sixty-two, thirty-seven, thirty-four, thirty-five, you know, whatever it might be. Just start reading the Psalms and just say, God, I don't know what's going on, but I'm available, watch this, I'm available to listen, Lord. When you begin to read the Word of God, remember this carefully. The Holy Spirit who lives inside of you, who knows exactly what your need is, who knows exactly what's going on in your life, He is on the inside. And here's what happens. While you may not be hearing God say anything, the Holy Spirit is interpreting His Word to your heart. Now, I want to tell you just one other thing, and this is a real key. When God is silent to you, keep talking and keep praying. Keep talking and listen. Keep praying to Him. And look, keep reading His Word. Keep reading the Word, keep talking to Him, keep praying to Him, because here's what happens. Haven't you been praying and you felt like this wall was between the two of you? You know how to get the wall down? You don't get the wall down by saying, God, what's going on? You get the wall down, but you just keep talking. You just keep praying. You begin to read His Word. And what happens? You say, well, is it going to come down immediately? Not necessarily. But here's what I've learned a long time ago. You break through the silence sometimes when God has a purpose in mind. You break through by continually trusting Him in His silence, continually reading His Word, seeing what, how did God work in David's life and Moses' life and Daniel's life and Jesus' life. How did the Father work in all these lives? And I want to say one last thing. You know what He's up to? He's up to a personal healing. intimate relationship with you that'll set your Christian life on a level that's so far, far, far above what people think about as being a Christian. It isn't just going to church, reading the Bible and praying and giving money, or being kind or even witnessing to others. All those things are important. What He's after is that intimacy with you. That genuine love that comes from your life toward Him, that spirit of obedience. You see, intimacy implies what? A sense of oneness. The two of you are one. And I want to encourage you to make as your goal, set it as a priority, a fresh, new, intimate relationship with Almighty God through His Son, Jesus Christ. And that's the way it all begins. And you may say, well, I'm not a Christian. How does that work? I'll tell you how it works. Nothing works. Until you ask the Lord Jesus Christ to forgive you of your sins and tell Him that you're surrendering your life to Him and you're trusting in His forgiveness based on what He did at the cross of Calvary. You may not understand it all, but you know, He died and paid your sin, debt, and fool, and you're asking to forgive Him. The moment you ask Him sincerely, He's going to forgive you and give you wisdom and direction in your life. And here's what happens. Then He begins to open your heart to understand what we are talking about. But if you are a believer, I want to challenge you to do something. I want to challenge you that before the day is over, to get by yourself. And I want to challenge you to humble yourself before Almighty God. And get on your knees and acknowledge His Lordship in your life. And tell Him that you just want to be quiet. You want to be silent. And that He can say anything He wants to. Or He doesn't have to say anything. But you want to offer yourself to Him in silence. That whatever He may choose to say, you want to hear Him carefully. If you will practice silence before Him, listen carefully. Watch this. Anxiety, fretting, fuming, worrying, and all kind of other things is going to disappear. You know why? Because He's going to place something in you you can't buy. No doctor can give it to you. Nobody else can do it for you. He's going to give you a sense of Himself. that satisfies the deepest longing of your heart. It's yours for the asking. And Father, how grateful we are for Your love for us, and that You love us enough to want a personal relationship with us which is almost beyond our comprehension, because we are so unworthy of that. And yet when You saved us, You gave us a position that we could have that kind of relationship. And that is my prayer for every person who hears this message. Place a hunger in every heart for yourself. Not for what you have to give, but for just yourself. And I know that you'll satisfy that hunger. In Jesus' name, amen.
SPEAKER 02 :
Thank you for listening to part two of When God is Silent. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or InTouch Ministries, stop by InTouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of InTouch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.
