Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Thursday, May 15th. Would you like to know how to handle adversity?
Well, today's podcast focuses our attention on how to help you keep going when the going gets rough. 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. 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. 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, the 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. But if my focus is upon the rough times and not the reality of Christ living within me, I'm going to want to give up. I'm going to be asking what they're asking. God, if you're God, why don't you do something? And we can get angry and hostile even toward God out of desperation if we don't learn to respond properly. Look, if you will, in verse twenty nine. He says the strength of God's available.
Listen, verse twenty nine. He gives strength to the weary. And what he really says in that passage, he gives abundant strength to the weary. Doesn't God give everything in grace and abundance? He gives strength to the weary.
That is, whether you're emotionally or physically worn and exhausted and you've hit rock bottom and you're not too sure you can go. He says he gives strength to the weary to him who lacks might and power and energy to keep going. He increases it. He says the most vigorous of young men not fall, but stumble how badly. Yet, he says, those who wait for the Lord will gain the strength. They will mount up with wings like eagles.
They will run, not get tired. They will walk and not be weary. How many times you take your Bible and go through the book of Psalms alone, what does he say? He says, I will go in the strength of the Lord. The Lord is my strength and my refuge. What did Paul say?
He said, I can do all things through Christ who is continuously energizing and strengthening me. Few men ever suffer the turmoil and the stress and the pressures and the tensions and the persecutions that the apostle Paul had. And yet he lived in this state of ongoing victory. He knew how to live and to keep going when the going was so rough and some cities he went to, they were there waiting to start their persecution when he got there. He suffered physically. He suffered being tired emotionally.
He suffered in every way. But Paul learned a great lesson, which he has shared with you and me. So God offers an answer. He offers a solution. He says they will walk and not become weary.
They will run, not get tired, or they will run and not faint. Now, here's the key. It's one thing to see God and all of his power and great might and glory. But the question is, how do I get this energy inside of me? How do I, when emotionally exhausted, when my nerve endings are all showing and it doesn't take anything to tick me off and the slightest thing will trip me up? How do you live when there seems to be nothing left and something has squeezed you till there is nothing left? You mean to tell me that God can get you going when all the going seems to have been gone?
Yes, he can. I want you to jot these four things down. Listen to what he says in this passage. And you see, we're the ones who want to make it complicated, not God.
God is going to make it complicated. Listen to what he says in this passage. He says, when we can become weary, tired, worn, exhausted, and there isn't any way else to turn. He says in verse thirty-one, yet.
I mean, when we're looking at the bottom, we don't want to undecide the bottom. God says yet. God's yets are yets of hope. Listen, yet those who are wise enough to wait for the Lord, to wait upon the Lord, they will man up with wings like eagles, run and not get tired, walk and not become weary. What does he mean by waiting upon him?
Here's what he means. To wait upon the Lord is, first of all, to commune with him. That is, you just carrying on a conversation with him, sharing with him how you feel.
What's going on in you? And allowing your focus to be turned, trained and intensified upon the God of the Scriptures. Communion with him. The second phrase, quietness before him. Lying, kneeling or sitting quietly before him. Just focusing your attention upon him and just listening. What is God saying? Thirdly, trusting in him. Trusting in him because he's the trustworthy, omnipotent, available God whom you can trust.
And the fourth phrase is expecting from him, anticipating from him, expecting from him. Now listen, to wait upon the Lord, I could give you multitudes of illustrations in my own life and the lives of others. Friend, I want to tell you, what I'm sharing with you works. It doesn't work sometimes.
It works every single time. Now God's way is for us to learn the principle so that every day we are learning what? To go in his strength and in his energy by doing what? By taking time before we begin the day to commune with him, to sit quiet before him, to trust in him and to expect from him. How do I get God's energy flowing in my life? Now, let me tell you the snare of this thing. You see, you're not feeling wonderful today and flat knocked out tomorrow emotionally or physically. But you see what Satan does? Whatever the reason the rough times may be in our life, whether we brought them on, and usually that's probably what it is, Satan's harassment, or something someone else has done to us or is doing to us, or maybe God has led it for a purpose, whatever the reason.
Usually it starts off very small and it increases little by little. And you see, what happened was that little by little we became exhausted emotionally and on one occasion I got laid out, three months. You know who I could blame?
Nobody but me. Doing what I thought was right. Had the idea that God and I could do anything. And that's true, that is, if it's in God's plan.
But now if it's in your plan without him, no, you can't do anything. Absolutely wiped out. Going in my own strength, going my own energy, doing it my way instead of God's way, until God finally just melted me, broke me, shattered me, until physically I just couldn't go anymore. Wasn't sick.
Didn't have any disease. Nothing wrong with me except God just said, all right, see to it. Now, friend, listen to me. If you're living in sin today, physically you may be on top of the world, but I want to tell you what's happening to you on the inside. On the inside, the war that's going on in your emotions, the turmoil, the strife, the conflict.
You know what that's doing? It's wearing away. It's disintegrating you on the inside. And one of these days you're going to have a collapse of some sort. And you're going to wonder, well, what happened when I've been feeling so good?
I'll tell you what happened. The foundation of your life was being eaten away by sin, disobedience, and rebellion toward God. And you will become physically exhausted because your emotions are already spent. What is God's answer to that? God's answer, my friend, is first of all repentance of sin. God's answer is dealing with yourself.
God's answer is dealing with your attitudes and your actions. First of all, if you've never trusted Jesus Christ as your Savior, if you want to deal with this hopeless, helpless feeling you have, you just go ahead and tell Him the truth. God, I am hopeless. I'm hopeless to save myself.
I'm hopeless to help myself. And I'm coming to you, trusting you to forgive me of my sins based on the sacrificial, supernatural, all-sufficient, atoning death of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of my sin and receive His forgiveness. And then, then remember that when you receive the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, the Bible says the Holy Spirit comes into your life. So that every single believer, now watch this, every single believer is already indwelt by Jesus Christ. Now within Jesus, He said all power is given unto me in heaven and earth. The supernatural power and energy and strength of God is abiding in you and me. It is there. You see, Peter failed time after time until the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost and indwelt him.
Everything about him was different. Why? I'll tell you why. Not because he was looking up and getting something from up there, but because he began to understand that the Holy Spirit living within us, when you and I tell God, and it is this simple, when you and I say to God, God, the going's getting tough, and Lord, I'm not sure I can keep going, and Lord, I'm so discouraged at this point. The moment you and I are willing to look to Him, the omniscient, omnipotent, all-sufficient God and say to Him, Lord, I cease to live in my strength. My emotions are spent today by faith. I am receiving your physical strength and your physical energy. And Father, today by faith, I am receiving here and now your emotional energy and strength and fortitude to keep moving. God, if you're not my energy, it's all over. I'm trusting you.
I'm believing you. I am receiving it from you. And my friend, listen, if you will exercise your faith, having God within you releasing energy, releasing power, releasing strength, deepening you, equipping you, it is absolutely amazing how that physically and emotionally that will surge through your very being something that is absolutely human, unexplainable, and what it is is this. It is God releasing himself through you. Listen to what Paul said. He said, I've been crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not I, but now Christ lives within me. Listen, Christ lives within me. When Christ who is your life shall appear. Christ lives within me and the life which I now live, Paul said. He says the life which I now live, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Christ who is my life. Christ in me. No longer I, but Christ living in me and through me.
It is the life of Jesus. Listen to what he said. Those who wait for the Lord, who look to him and depend totally upon him for strength and energy, whether emotional or physical, they will gain new strength. And isn't it interesting how he said this? You and I would have said, walk, run, soar.
But here's what he said. He said, when you and I want to wait upon the Lord, we'll soar like an eagle. You know what Jesus is saying to us here through this passage? There are times when the going gets so rough that God's going to take you right out of it. And when you look to him and tell him, God, all my energy is spent. All my going is gone. And as you and I say, all my get up and go has already been got up and went. And I am left exhausted. And God, I can't. And when God knows, my friend, you've had enough.
You know what he'll do? He'll let you mount up with wings like an eagle. And you'll soar like a mighty eagle. And if you'll study an eagle, you'll be absolutely amazed.
How many times in why God mentions the eagle so often? An eagle a mile up can spot a rabbit. An eagle can spot a quarter at 200 yards. An eagle can fly 100 miles an hour. Imagine there's an eagle diving on something he sees a mile away as small as a rabbit.
Diving. And in those tremendous talons, picking it up and taking it back to his nest, the strength and the might and the furor of an eagle. He says, like an eagle, you will mount up with wings like an eagle. And then he says, but there are times when the pressure's on and you're not going to be taken out of it. But the pressure's there and you have to keep moving and you have to keep moving quickly because the circumstances.
Listen to what he says. They will run and not get tired. Won't get worn out.
Why? Living out of the energetic strength of Almighty God. And then there are times when the way demands patience. And you can't run. And you have to walk. And you have to go slowly. And God's victory through your circumstance is not one leap of the wing.
It isn't one gigantic running race. But it is that plodding moment by moment, day by day. He says, and they will walk and not become faint hearted and give up along the way. Now what is he saying? God is not saying he's going to deliver us from rough times. He says the key to rough times in our life is our response.
And what is that? Waiting upon the Lord. Communing with Him. Quietly before Him. Trusting in Him.
Expecting from Him. If I need to fly, I'll have the wings like an eagle. If I need to run, I'll be able to run swiftly.
If I only need to walk, God will allow me to be able to walk patiently and slowly if necessary, without losing heart on the way. Let me ask you this. When the going gets rough in your life, how do you respond? The bottle? An affair? An escape? An accusation?
Rebellion? Or my friend, would you be so wise enough to tell God beginning today, Lord, you know how tough it is. You know how many tears I've shed. And how many sleepless nights I've experienced. And how futile and hopeless and how hurtful I have been. And how much rejection I've experienced. And God, you know how often I've doubted. How many times I've wanted to give up and quit.
How many times I've wanted to check out, but Lord, beginning today, I'm looking to you. Is that inexhaustible, ever-present, always available, all sufficient, divine, supernatural energy? I'm looking to you to allow it to flow and to release it in my life so that all I need to do, Father, I will have the energy and the strength to do it with joy, confidence, and assurance. My great God who holds the worlds in His hands, most of all, holds me there gently, loving me, taking care of me, providing for me the strength that I need so when the going gets rough, I'll keep going and I'll be able to smile all along the way.
Isn't that really what you want for your life? Well, you can have it if you're willing, first of all, to tell the Lord Jesus Christ that you're placing your trust in Him for the forgiveness of your sin. And from this moment on, you take your hands off your life. No longer your strength and your energy, but now it's going to be His. And you're willing to allow God, listen, either to so work in your life that He lifts you above it and beyond it and you soar away. Or that if He keeps you in it, you're going to walk in Him and in His strength. Father, thank You that You did not leave us here to do it ourselves, to walk in our own way, to live in our own strength, to exercise life out of our own energy, but Your own. And You said it through the Apostle Paul so beautifully, we can, we will, we shall do all things. We shall follow Your will, walk in the rough times because of the strength that is ours in Christ Jesus. And we ask today, Father, in Jesus' name, for multitudes of people who feel that times are too rough, that it's rougher than they can stand, they're not quite sure they can go any further, that You'll sink the truth of this message, of Your loving, genuine, intimate concern, the availability of Your energy and power, ready to overflow abundantly if we are simply willing to wait upon You, communing with You, quietly before You, trusting in You and expecting from You, it will flow. And my Father, my prayer today is let it flow that You may be glorified in every single one of us in times of difficulty, heartache. When the times get rough, may the reality of Your presence be dramatic in our life is our prayer in Jesus' name.
Amen. Thank you for listening to part two of How to Keep Going When the Going Gets Rough. 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.
