Welcome to the InTouch podcast with Charles Stanley for Monday, July 27th. Does your life seem to be overflowing with uncertainty and insecurity? Jesus offers stability. Listen and learn how to find confidence in the midst of distress. The year was 1944 and I was in the eighth grade.
We were in a war, and we were fighting in the Pacific, and also. In Europe? It was a time of great distress and turmoil in this country. Many things were rationed, food and some clothes and automobiles and tires and all those kind of things. It was a time of great distress because many American young men were dying on foreign shores.
It was a time of great stress because people did not know what was going to happen because of all the things we were hearing about the war and how it was going on. And oftentimes, people would sit in the evening and listened to the news while they were eating dinner and It was a troublesome time because oftentimes they'd give reports of where this particular division was and what was going on in the fighting. One morning my social studies teacher walked into class and laid her books down and picked up a Bible and she said, we're going to do something different this morning. And She began to read. And I remembered thinking she's about to cry.
And then she told us that listening the night before, she'd heard the news and Her husband, was in a particular division which they talked about. They won a very bloody battle And she was afraid. And you know, I don't remember my teacher's name. But I have never forgotten that psalm. And how many times I've turned to it when I was going through some difficulty or some fearful time.
I remembered Psalm 46.
So I want you to turn to it, if you will. Because this is a wonderful psalm of encouragement. And I want to talk about confidence in the midst of our stressful times in life. going through distressful times. And this is a word of encouragement, and the psalmist says beginning in verse 1, God.
is our refuge and strength. a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change, and though the mountains should slip into the heart of the sea. Though its waters roar in foam, and though the mountains quake at its swelling pride. There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God.
the holy dwelling places of the Most High. God is in the midst of her. She will not be moved. God will help her when morning dawns. The nations made an uproar.
The kingdoms tottered. He raised his voice, the earth melted. The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our stronghold. Come behold the works of the Lord.
Who has wrought desolations in the earth? He makes wars to cease to the end of the earth. He breaks the bow and cuts the spear in two. He burns the chariots with fire. Cease striving and know that I'm God.
I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth. The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our stronghold. What a wonderful word of encouragement to us.
Now all of us experience stress in our life. And all of us go through situations and circumstances, and we think the stress is more than we can handle. And so we will do one of two things when we face stressful periods in our life. And so what I want to talk about in this message today is how to confidently walk through those difficult times that are so stressful, so distressing to us. And there are two ways that you and I can walk through them.
And I first of all want to talk about the most natural way. That is, what is the natural way to respond to stressful, difficult, troublesome times in our life?
Well, the most prominent way that we choose is to strive against them. And I want to define two or three terms, if I might. First of all, when we think in terms of stress, stress is pressure that we feel. It is either pressure that we feel sort of against us, or we are being tugged and pulled in two different ways. And then there is what we call distress.
which is sort of the same thing, except when I think about distress, I think about the fact that that stress has brought me to a place of real deep anxiety and anxiousness in my soul and pain in my feeling. When we think in terms of striving, striving means to contend with. Striving means to fight against. Striving means to put forth a strong effort towards something. And so when we think in terms of striving, the scripture says here, cease striving and know that I am God.
Well, what is the opposite of striving? The opposite of striving is what? Resting. That is, if I'm not fighting against something, I'm resting.
Well, you say, well, now, wait a minute, how can I rest in the midst of all of this?
Well, if I'm going to be able to rest, that means I must be able to trust him.
Well, you say, well, now, how am I going to trust God when I'm feeling all this anxiety and this frustration and I'm feeling all this stress and this pressure upon me? Every morning I wake up, and how am I going to deal with this? You say, well, cease striving, all right? Then so what? Then we say the opposite of that striving is resting.
Well, how am I going to rest?
Well, I'm going to have to trust Him. How am I going to trust Him? And this is the key.
Now, listen carefully. Don't miss any of this. Here's the reason. And here's the key. To being able to walk through all kinds of difficulty, hardships, stress, burdens, troubles, trials, difficulties, and at the same time, listen, and sometimes the pressure may be so strong.
stronger than you think you could possibly bear. But when you and I learned this lesson, when we put it to the test, when we practice it. Not saying that you'll do it the first time just right. When we begin to understand. The way he intended for us to live.
You know what? It doesn't make any difference what the devil throws at you. It doesn't make any difference how heavy the burdens may appear to be. It doesn't make any difference what appears to be the cause of that stress. God.
Almighty will enable you to triumphantly, victoriously, quietly, peacefully walk through that stress so that stress does not become distress, but it turns into an absolutely listen, indescribable. Immeasurable peace and inner quietness that you won't be able to understand. You won't even be able to explain it. You just know that when Almighty God says, He is our refuge, He is exactly what He promised.
Now, what in the world is this all about? Look at what he says. He says here, That We are to know God.
Now Let me ask you a question. More than likely, you may be a believer. You've trusted Jesus as your Savior. You know that you're Christian. If I should ask you, tell me.
What do you know about God? God wants us to know Him because He knows that is the heart and the core. That is the real, listen, that's the bottom line of being able to walk through all kinds of difficult and stressful situations, no matter what form it may take, no matter what source it may be. The key, listen, to be able to walk through it victoriously with peace in your heart is to know this God. He says, cease striving and know that I am God.
Know that I'm not only your Savior, but your Master and your Lord. Know that I love you unconditionally. Know that the forgiveness of your sin cost me my only begotten Son. Know that I have attributes beyond mercy, but I'm a just God, that I am omnipotent and omniscient and omnipresent. that I'm a loving, heavenly Father, and that I see you as one of my children.
I have a will and a plan for your life. I want the best for your life at every situation. I will chastise with you when you disobey me. I want you to understand my ways and how I operate, what motivates me. I want you to know that I have the best in mind for you.
I want you to know that when you are hurting in pain, Suffering and difficulty, that if you allow me, I will turn that into something good for your life. I want you to understand the principles of the scripture. I want you to understand my word. I want you to know those men and women in the Bible and how I worked in their lives. I want you to be observant of me.
I want you to absorb me. I want you to be absorbed by my word. I want you to think the way I think. I want you to know what I think. That's what he means when he says, cease striving and know that I am God.
And listen how God describes himself. And remember, this is written to people who are going through a very stressful time. He says that the tumult that's going on around you, the threatening of war and so forth, is like earthquakes and tidal waves and war and violence and all these things. Listen to what he says. He says, here's the God you can trust in.
Watch this. Verse 1. He is our refuge. He's a place to which I can run. He is my strength.
when I am very weak. He is a present help. Thank God he said present. And notice what he says, in trouble, that means, the Hebrew means in tight places. When I get in a tight place and I feel the pressure.
And I feel the stress. He says, what? He says, he is a very present help when I'm in a tight place. Then if you'll notice what he says, Not only that, but he says in verse 7, he is our stronghold. And if you'll notice twice, he says, verse 11 and verse 7, he is with us.
Now what we have to ask is this. What do we mean by knowing him? We say, listen, not just to know about him, but to know him in a personal way.
Now, listen. If you know someone personally, you have a relationship with them. The better that relationship, the better you know them. When he says, cease striving and know that I'm God, the next question is, all right, how do I get to know him?
Well, let me ask you this. How do you get to know anybody? Number one. You spend time with them. That's the way you get to know someone.
He says, be still and know that I am God. The God you serve, I want you to know that I am God. I want you to know me as God. You spend time with them. And you know what?
No one knows what He knows. No one can do for us what He can do. There is no one who can quiet my spirit like He can. There's no one who can lift me out of a distressful moment just like that, like He can. Talking to someone else at times may help.
No one can enable you to rest in the midst of difficulty that's not going to go away. You can't shake it, you can't run away from it, you can't loose yourself from it, you're stuck in it. How do I live? But peace. and contentment and joy and indescribable joy when it appears to be that we're stuck in something.
I'll tell you how. When you know him, You can live in anything, believe me you can. Listen. I want to make this statement very clear. I'm not saying that you should live in a situation where you are being physically abused in such a fashion that it is dangerous.
I'd never say that. I'm talking about those things that other than that. Just because something's tough and hard and difficult. Neither am I saying that you should never walk away from something. If God tells you to walk away, you better get out.
God's not going to ever tell you to violate His Word. That's the key. He will never tell you to do something that violates the Word of the living God. How do I know him? You spend time with him.
How do I know him? Here's how I know him. I find out what he thinks. I will never know you until I find out what you're thinking. Because that's who you really are.
So how do I find out what God's thinking? I get in this book that tells me what he's thinking. Or I listen to a message, or read another book, or something that tells me how God is thinking. How does God think? How do I know him?
I observe. what God does in other people's lives. I observe also what God does in my own life. Because you see, one of the ways that we discover what God's like. is to watch what he does in our life.
and then some time will go by. We will turn around and we will say, God, What are you doing in my life? Help me to understand what's going on. You see, if I become observant, Of what God is doing in other people's lives, I will learn some things, some powerful lessons. I will learn how God thinks.
I will learn what God means when God says, This is what I want you to do.
Well, why would you ask me to do that? You see, I will understand who he is and what he's like when I begin to understand how God thinks. My friend, listen, you will never understand how God thinks until this word becomes something that you don't just read to say you read through the Bible, but that you begin to absorb. You begin to look between the lines and say, God, what were you saying? What were they feeling?
How did you work in Abraham's life, in Moses' life, in David's life, in Daniel's life? How did you work in Paul's life? How did your son operate? He certainly was not striving. Jesus could walk through the most awesome hardship and difficulty and trial in life.
And what? There was this overwhelming sense of inner peace and quietness. You know why? Because Jesus was never striving with his Father. He knew him.
He says, If you've seen me, you've seen the Father. I'm the Father of One. No strife, no contention, no war, no conflict, no striving. He had an absolute perfect relationship. If I'm going to get to know him, I've got to spend time with him.
I've got to find out how he thinks. And then you know what? If I'm going to know him, I've got to be able to tell him how I think. Lord, this is what I'm thinking, this is the way I see it. This is what's going on in my life.
I've got to be open and transparent. Then you know what, if I'm going to know him, I've got to be able to listen, not just tell him what I think, then I've got to take time to listen, to hear him respond to what I think and how I feel. And you say, well, now, God never spoke to me audibly. He doesn't have to. He's greater than that.
Don't limit God to speaking audibly. God knows how to speak. Listen, straight from His spirit, straight to your spirit, and bypass anything that is audible. He is an infinite God. Be still, he says, and know that I'm God.
To know this God is to know, listen, the most important thing I will ever know. is to know the God of the Bible. And therefore, listen, if that is the most precious of all knowledge, then I should spend more time learning something about who he is than wasting time. Wasting precious, valuable time. Listen, when you and I die, we're going to leave this world and everything that's in it.
Everything I've learned that applies this world will make a bit of difference. When we and I stand in the presence of God, everything we have learned about Him, everything we have learned in our personal experience with Him, it will all be important for all eternity. What is this life? But listen, it is a brief period of schooling to discover who this God is we're going to spend eternity with. Think about it.
Eternity are we going to spend with him. If you love someone, love your husband, your wife, or someone you love dearly. You could probably say, you know what? I'd like to spend eternity with this person because I love them so much.
Well, I'll tell you something, you're going to spend eternity with God. And this is the time to get to know him. The truth is If I'm going to live with peace, if I'm going to live without striving, I am going to have to learn who is this God? What is He about in my life? As I think about, for example, the people in the scriptures, and this is where we learn a lot about God.
Think about this for a moment. Think about where you find Moses. You find him in the wilderness. Where did you find Jesus?
so often. Up in the mountains. hawking to the Father. Where did you find the Apostle Paul? In Arabia, alone listening to God.
John on the Isle of Patmos, banished by the Roman Emperor, banished to the Isle of Patmos alone to be with God. My friend, listen carefully. I cannot tell you. I can tell you, but I cannot tell you effectively enough. The Most important.
moments in your life and my life. The moments that not only help me to understand who God is and what He's like. but the moments that most quieten my spirit. The moments that can cause all the rush. and the hurray.
and the stress and the distress. and the frustrations and the fears and the anxieties that absolutely dwindle into nothing. Are those moments And stillness. in quietness And allowing my trust level to to reach its pinnacle to be able to say, Father, I lay that down. Thank you, dear God.
I don't have to handle that. Thank you that you said you are my refuge. You're my strength. You are my ever-present help in trouble. You are my stronghold.
You're the one to whom I can run. You're the rock upon which I stand, absolutely immovable. You're the shield to protect me. You're my deliverer in every single battle of life. You know when you and I get our best glimpses of Him?
When we get quiet. And we get along with him and we just say, Father, I want you to show me yourself. And even when you've been through a very difficult storm, When you find yourself in great distress and turmoil, If you want to step out of that quickly, Here's what you do. You remind yourself Don't strive against this. Just get still.
Rested in him. Trust him to handle this for you. Our omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent God who says, listen, He is my ever-present help in time of trouble. He will enable me. to face this confidently.
courageously Victoriously. in such a fashion that I will come out. Knowing him better. deeper in my love for him and my relationship to him. and with a perfect peace.
that is absolutely beyond comprehension. And listen. You and I have two choices in life. One of them is not to get rid of stress. and distress in life.
Had two choices in life. Either? I'm going to strive with the things that I have to deal with in life. Oh, I'm going to rest with the Lord. Rest them in his hands.
It doesn't make any difference what it is. He can handle it. I'm your refuge. I'm your rock. I'm your horn.
I am your deliverer. I'm your stronghold. I'm your fortress. He can handle it. So the question today is simply this.
Which choice will you make? Will you strive with life and do it yourself apart from God? Will you strive with life? Even though you're a Christian, Because you don't know him, it won't take time to learn who he is and what he's about. Or Uh Will you just rest it with Him?
And trust him. Listen. He can handle. Anything. You give him.
Thank you for listening to Confidence in the Midst of Distress. For more inspirational messages like this one, visit our online 24-7 station. And if you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or InTouch Ministries, stop by intouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.
