How to Keep Going When the Going Gets Rough - Part 1

Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Wednesday, May 14th. God uses adversity to strengthen and grow our faith. Here's part one of how to keep going when the going gets rough. The last time you felt like you couldn't put one foot in front of the other, emotionally you were exhausted and spent and there was no place to turn, no one to talk with, nothing you could do, what was your next thought?

What was the next idea that came to your mind? I mean, the going had gotten so rough, you just didn't know what to do next and felt maybe there wasn't anything you could do about your circumstances. All of us at times in our life have those feelings.

Now, to have them is not necessarily unusual. It is how we respond that makes the difference. Is it possible when times really get rough and we look down that long tunnel and there's not one ray of light on the end of the tunnel, is it possible to keep going when the going gets rougher and rougher and rougher? Is there anything that you can do when it gets so rough, all of your energy is spent, emotionally you're exhausted, is there anything you can do to be assured that you can keep going as rough as it may be until you become victorious over those rough times? There is and the answer to that is found in the fortieth chapter of Isaiah and the title of this message, How to Keep Going When the Going Gets Rough. So the part we're going to begin with begins in verse 27 when the question is asked, Why do you say, O Jacob, and assert O Israel, My way is hidden from the Lord? That is, God doesn't understand what's going on in my situation and the justice do me escapes the notice of my God. He doesn't see that I'm being mistreated. Do you not know, have you not heard, the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth does not become weary or tired.

His understanding is inscrutable. He gives strength to the weary and to Him who lacks might, the Bible says He increases power, energy and strength. Though you, that is young people, grow weary and tired and vigorous young men stumble badly at these times, yet those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength. They will mount up with wings like eagles.

They will run and not get tired. They will walk and not become weary. Notice all the words used in that passage, weary, tired, lacking strength. Over and over and over again He uses the words tired and weary. Now usually when we think of being tired and weary, we will interpret this passage of Scripture as relating to being physically tired and physically weary. But there is a weariness and a tiredness. There is an exhaustion that is far more telling on us, far more painful than physical weariness and tiredness. When you become emotionally, when you become spiritually, when you become mentally tired, when your emotions are spinning exhausted and you've used not only your emotional energy which is always there, but you've begun to tap your emotional reserves. And finally they're depleted. Friend, that's the time when you begin to look at the tunnel and you see nothing but darkness and blackness and no hope, no assurance, no confidence.

And all of a sudden, once in a while, they may grip you, even though you're a believer, this awesome sense of fear. What do I do next when I am emotionally spent, physically worn out, don't have any place to go? How do I even cope with life? How do I deal with tomorrow? What do I do about these decisions?

How can I confront those about me? How can I even get up and go to work when the bottom is dropped out and the bottom of the bottom is nowhere to be seen? How could even God expect me to keep on going when my circumstances are beyond my comprehension? God, where are you? Don't you see what I'm facing? Don't you understand how I hurt? Don't you feel what I feel? If you really love me, God, why don't you show up?

Why don't you change my circumstances? Why don't you do something, God, if you're a God of love, how do you expect me to keep on going when the going gets rougher and rougher and rougher? Well, I want us to look at this passage in the light of this title, how to keep going when the going gets rough. And let's just talk about the rough going for just the moment when the going does get rough.

What about it? You say, well, I don't know why the going should be so rough if I'm a believer. My friend, listen, you and I live in a world that at this moment is to some degree limited only by God under the power of Satan. You and I live in a world that is geared against believers, against righteousness, against peace, and against harmony. There's all kinds of stress and difficulty going on. So that rough times, difficult times, those times of great pressure, discouragement, and disheartment are really a part of life regardless of whether you're a believer or not.

So they're never going to change. The only thing that can change is that you and I learn to properly from God's viewpoint respond to these rough difficult times in such a fashion that even though we may suffer and even though we may get blooded in the battle and scarred, we will still come out victoriously and even in the rough times the smile is no longer fake but it is real and legitimate because it is based on an inner confidence, an inner assurance that is real and genuine and that motivates and energizes us every day of our life. The times do get tough. Now the question you and I need to ask here is why do times get so rough in our life?

So I want you to jot these down. Number one, sometimes it's because we make decisions and we bring the rough times on ourselves. Sometimes we make those decisions out of ignorance. We didn't know any better at the time.

Sometimes we make those decisions and we know when we make it. It is the wrong thing and we know the principle. Whatever man sows, you reap what he sows.

More than he sows, later than he sows. But in spite of that, we push the principle away. We blind their eyes to it. We close their ears to the voice of God and we go ahead and make the decision and so we find ourselves facing rough times. Sometimes it is because we are harassed by Satan.

Satan begins to harass us. It isn't because we've done something wrong necessarily. It isn't because we're living in sin. But Satan harasses you and the more successful you are in the Christian life and the more victorious you are, the more Satan is going to throw his fiery darts of doubt and frustration at you, attempting to distort your view of God and attempting to bring you to a point of discouragement in your life.

So sometimes it is because we make the wrong decisions. Sometimes it's because Satan harasses us. Sometimes it's because we refuse to listen to the voice of God. God wants to give us clear direction.

Now listen to me. Every time God speaks to you, He speaks to you ultimately in a fashion that will either protect you at the moment or He is teaching you, speaking to you, guiding you at that moment to protect you for or from or through something in the future. So sometimes we find ourselves facing rough times because we refuse to listen to the still quite small voice of the living God. Sometimes these things, these situations, these rough times are from God.

You say, well, hold it right there. You don't know what I'm facing. I didn't say that they were all from God. Now if you're a believer walking in the Spirit and God allows them, He allows them for a very specific reason. Sometimes even God sends us rough times. Is it not true that you and I grow the strongest and the deepest and oftentimes the more rapidly when we're going through those difficult times, those rough times where we don't see a way clear?

Now let me just show you something here. Don't blame God for the rough times. But remember this, that every single time God allows it, whether it is something we've done or something God chooses to send in our life, God is always there to take advantage of those rough difficulties in your life in order to teach you something that you would not learn any other way. I can look back in my own life and recognize it's been the rough times, the difficult times, the hurtful times, the times when I was thinking, My God, I cannot go one step further every single time I've ever told God that. It's like He always says to me, Yes, you can. Yes, you can.

Don't say that. You know you can. And I want to show you why we know we can no matter what the situation may be. Sometimes God sends them.

Now here's the reason He sends them. It is never God's plan that you and I live out of our own strength and energy, out of our own knowledge, out of our own resources. So I want to tell you, my friend, it is in the plan of God. Do you hear me? It is in the plan of God to at some point in your life, or often if necessary, at some point in your life, bring you to the point where all of your energy is gone, all of your strength is dissipated, and you just don't have any other place to go and nothing to do, and you think, Oh, what am I going to do next?

I want to tell you, you don't always bring that on yourself. Sometimes God brings us to our knees. You know why He does? He brings us to our knees in order to bring us to the realization that we need to exchange something that is earthly for something that is heavenly. Sometimes He wants to bring us to our knees in order to get us to exchange our earthly, feeble, wasting strength for God's divine strength. So that some of the reasons you and I find ourselves facing rough times and situations, it isn't all something we or others do to us. Sometimes it is the work of the living God, loving us, wearing us out, breaking us down, crushing us, molding us, leaving us helpless because He wants us to look in the right direction and to learn how to respond to rough times, no matter what the source of those rough times may be. How do we respond when those rough times come?

Well, we respond in one of several ways. Sometimes we want to rebel against our circumstances, blame God or blame someone else. If you hadn't have done so and so, if you'd have made the right decision, if you'd have done this, if you'd have done that, God, where are you?

That's what they were asking. They would say, My way is hidden from the Lord and the justice do me escapes the notice of God. God, you don't understand that I'm being mistreated?

Where are you? Have you forgotten me? Don't you know I'm down here? You know how many times I've prayed to you, how many times you've said in your word that you would protect us and care for us.

God, if you really love us, why don't you do something and do it now? And my friend, I'm talking about believers blaming God and rebelling against God for their circumstances, not understanding that God in the most trying, sticky, difficult circumstance of life, if I learn to respond properly, can change those rough times in the times of real growth and strength, conforming, shaping, sanding, sifting, sculpturing us in the likeness of Jesus Christ. One way is to rebel and to blame. A second way is to run. Just get out of the circumstance, just walk out.

And oftentimes this is the case. It's just getting too rough for me so I'm just going to walk out. And oftentimes that is a way of escape that brings upon great sorrow and heartache in the future. A third way is to head for the bottle, either the pill bottle or the whiskey bottle or some experience or some relationship or some affair, anything to help me get over what I am facing at the moment. That's the way, but it's not God's way. So you say, well, if that be true, then what is God's solution to this?

So let's look at this passage, if you will. How do we keep going when the going gets so rough? Everything in you cries out, I just want to quit. I just want to give up. I just want to bail out. I don't want anymore.

I can't take anymore. Now sometimes you may be in a circumstance, in a situation when you can walk away, when you can quit. There may be some in which you cannot. There may be some situations and circumstances in which you may need to walk away from. But I'm talking primarily about those circumstances in which we find ourselves as believers. I can make a choice to walk away. God may choose you to walk away from something, but listen to me carefully as you misinterpret. God will never lead you to violate a spiritual principle in order to deal with rough times.

Did you hear that? He will never lead you to violate a spiritual principle. So I want us to ask the question, what is God's way of being able to keep going when the going gets rough? Now it's very simple.

That is, the answer is simple, but the know-how is not quite so simple. So I want you to listen carefully. This is the way you keep going when the going gets sticky, prickly rough, and the whole hope of your future seems to be in ashes. How do you keep going when the going gets rough?

Now I want to give you a simple answer and then I want to explain it. You go in the strength of God. That's the way you go. You say, oh, I knew you were going to say that. I knew you were going to say that.

Well, wonderful. Let me ask you this. Do you know how to make it work in your life?

That's the key. Do you know how to get God's strength in your life when the going gets so rough? Or have you responded by rebellion and blame? Have you responded by wanting to check out of life altogether? Have you responded by blaming others? What is your answer? How do you respond when the going gets so rough? Well, I want us to look at two or three things under this particular passage.

Part of it is this. I want us to look at the awesome strength and power of God mentioned in this passage of Scripture because you see, at the end of a chapter dealing with God's omniscience that He's all-knowing, which we want Him to be when we're having rough times. Omnipotence, all power, which we want Him to have when our times are difficult. At the end of this chapter dealing with God's omniscience and omnipotence, there is this passage to remind us that the energy and the strength and the power that we need is available and how to make it ours when the going gets rough. If you'll turn to chapter 40 and look, first of all, the last phrase of verse 9 of this chapter says, Here is your God. Behold, the Lord will come with might, with His arm ruling for Him. Behold, His reward is with Him and His recompense before Him. Like a shepherd, listen to this, like a shepherd He will tend His flock. In His arm He will gather the lambs and carry them in His bosom. He will gently lead the nursing ewes.

Now listen, when the going gets rough, the first thing you and I need to do is to focus upon God. Who is this God? The Bible says that He's a God of great power and might. The Bible says He's a God who, listen, who involves Himself in your life and my life like a shepherd with His lambs. Now notice how He uses that phrase. He says in that passage, Like a shepherd He will tend His flock.

He's interested, He's involved with them. In His arm He will gather the lambs, bring them up to Him, love them, and reassure them of His acceptance. Carry them in His bosom. When they're too weak to walk, He carries them. He will gently lead the nursing ewes, those small lambs. He will gently lead them. When the going gets rough, He's there loving them, accepting them, tending for them, caring for them.

What is He saying? But when our going gets rough, listen, you say, well now wait a minute, I want to call on God but God's too busy for me when the going gets rough. He's got His big plan.

Now I want you to listen very carefully. My friend, you are God's plan. You are God's plan. All of God's great plans, according to the Scripture, involve you and me. We are God's plan.

We're a part of God's plan. God is personally involved, in on, up to, down on, in your circumstances, involving Himself in the difficulties and the strenuous pressures and tensions and doubts and fears and frustrations and temptations to hopelessness. He's in on everything that's roughing you up. He's in on it. He says, I will never leave you nor forsake you.

He's always there. Thank you for listening to How to Keep Going When the Going Gets Rough. For more inspirational messages like this one, visit our 24-7 online station. And 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.