Welcome to the In Touch podcast with Charles Stanley for Thursday, October first. God is active and at work in both good times and bad. Adjust your perspective to see your circumstances in a new light. In part one of encouragement for every season of life, just as we have changing seasons in nature, we have changing seasons in our own life. And if you think about it, we have spring and summer.
And fall and winter, and all of them have different characteristics. We don't have one long, continuous spring, a one continuous summer, but changing seasons in our life, and changing seasons in nature. And oftentimes, we forget the fact that we have those seasons in our own life. Naturally, when it comes to time, we have infancy, and childhood, and youthfulness, and young adulthood, and mid adulthood, and the latter years of our life. And so it is also when it comes to the circumstances of our life, we have seasons in our life.
We have seasons, for example, of productivity, when we feel like that we're getting ahead in life and accomplishing and achieving. And then there are those seasons when we feel like we're just standing still and things not getting anywhere. Or it could be that we feel like we're going backwards. Are we losing? There are those seasons in our life when we are.
Feeling happy and contented, and everything is sort of going our way. Then there are those seasons that are not so happy, and not so contenting. In fact, they are very discontenting, and oftentimes full of frustration. And the question for us is this: Is there some principle, or is there some truth in the Word of God? That will encourage you and me in those difficult, trying times when the seasons of our life seem to be in the negative case.
Is there some scripture, some principle in the Word of God that works through every single season of life? Or do we have to fumble through the Bible and find one truth for this season, one truth for that season, another principle this season, another principle that season? Or is there one single principle?
Somebody says no, because when I think about all the different seasons of life that I go through or have been through in life, surely there isn't one single principle in the Bible that'll take care of all of those. And I am here to tell you today: yes, there is. There is one single principle. That will see you through, sustain you, and encourage you in every single changing season of life, no matter what. And that's what I want to talk about in this message.
The listen, encouragement for every season of life. Whether it is seasons of time or whether it is seasons of circumstances, we're all going through them, and the question is: Is there a principle? Yes, there is. And I want you to turn, if you will, to the book of Lamentations. That's Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, and I want you to turn, if you will, to the third chapter.
And I want to read one single verse or two verses here, really, two verses of scripture here. Listen to what he says, beginning in verse twenty-two of Lamentations chapter three: The Lord's loving kindnesses indeed never cease, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning. Great is Your faithfulness. What is the one single principle in Scripture that God will use to absolutely sustain us through every changing, moving season in our life?
And that principle is the faithfulness of God. The faithfulness of God is the one single principle that'll see you through every changing season, no matter how deep. No matter how dark, no matter how despairing, no matter how depressing, no matter how hopeless, no matter how helpless, no matter how good things are, there is a single principle that will encourage you through every single one of them. When you think about the faithfulness of God, it simply means this: that God always does exactly what He says He will do; that He keeps every single one of His promises; that when you think about. What he's like, and you think about all of his attributes.
Think about his faithfulness. His faithfulness means that he's constant. He doesn't change. That he is reliable. That he's unwavering.
That he's unfailing. That he's trustworthy. That he's steadfast. He never fails. He never falters, and he never forfeits.
Whatever God says, He will do. He will always do it. He's faithful in good times. He's faithful in bad times because you see, it is His very nature to be faithful. And we read in that text, he says, "Great is thy faithfulness." And that is the writer's way of saying, when he looks at the faithfulness of God and what is involved in the fact that He's an unchanging, never-ending, an always reliable God, how great is the faithfulness of God that it covers every single season of life?
I want you to turn, if you will, to Deuteronomy chapter seven, and in this particular chapter. God through Moses is telling his people, reminding them. In fact, he's warning them about what could happen and may happen when they get to the Promised Land, which he promised them. And now they're headed in that direction. And so he speaks through Moses and he reminds the people that they're a holy people.
So he says, beginning in verse seven. Of Deuteronomy chapter seven, the Lord did not set His love on you, nor choose you because you were more in number than any of the peoples; for you were the fewest of all peoples. But because the Lord loved you. And kept the oath which he swore to your forefathers. The Lord brought you out of by a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt.
Know therefore that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps His covenant and His loving kindnesses to a thousand generation with those who love Him and keep His commandments. And so, when you look at that verse of scripture, you realize that he's simply saying, "Here is what I promised Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and now I am keeping my promise. I am going to get you into the holy land, the land of promise." Look, if you will, in Psalm thirty-six for a moment. Psalm thirty-six, and notice what he says in this passage. Beginning in verse five, he says, "Your loving kindness, O Lord, extends to the heavens." Your faithfulness reaches to the skies, which is his way of saying.
That God's faithfulness is immeasurable. You can't put it in a box. You can't contain it. It is the very nature of an infinite God to be reliable, trustworthy, constant, unwavering, unfailing, and unfaltering in every single promise and every single thing He promises to do. Then, if you want to go to the New Testament, turn if you will to First Corinthians for a moment and look if you will in this first chapter.
There are many, many verses, but we're just taking a few here, and I want you to notice what he says.
So absolutely faithful in who he is, what he does, and how he goes about it. He says, for example, if you'll notice in verse nine, God is faithful through whom you were called into fellowship with His Son Jesus Christ, our Lord. Then I want you to go back to verse eight on purpose. I read it in this direction on purpose. He says, Jesus Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will also confirm you to the end, blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is His way of saying.
The God who saved you, He has confirmed you, and He is going to keep you all the way to the end. Not only this age, but all the way to the moment He takes you home and takes you to heaven. That is whatever God has begun in you and me. God is going to complete. Why?
Because He is a faithful God. He is not going to forgive us of our sins and save us on some basis other than the fact that He is a holy God, a loving God, and a forgiving God. He doesn't save us on the basis of conduct. Promises and behavior, because that would be altered. It would be up and down and changing.
He saves us, and he says, based on his faithfulness, he will confirm us to the end. He's going to take us all the way to glory.
Now there are lots of verses you and I can refer to concerning his promise to be faithful to us and to be reliable and so forth. One of the things he certainly wants us to do as a result of that is to trust him. And there are lots of verses in the Bible that we encourage to trust him. But turn back, if you will, to Psalm fifty-six for a moment. And in this fifty-sixth psalm, which is one of many, many psalms in which you and I are encouraged to place our trust in Him, listen to what He says, beginning in verse three.
The psalmist says, "When I am afraid, I will put my trust in You, in God whose word I praise. In God I have put my trust. I shall not be afraid. What can mere man do to me?
So." I want you to turn, if you will, to the sixty-second psalm and look, if you will, in verse eight. Another encouragement to put our trust in God's faithfulness. He says, "Verse eight: Trust in Him at all times, O people. Pour out your heart before Him." God wants us to trust Him, and of course, most of us know Proverbs three, five, and six. But in case you don't, you might turn there, and He says, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart." He says, "Don't lean on your own understanding, but in all your ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct your path." Acknowledging what about him?
Acknowledging His will for our life, acknowledging His trustworthiness—that He is a faithful God who is going to keep His promise to us, and He is going to do exactly what He promised to do.
So, when you think about the fact that all of us are going through changing seasons of life, and we need some anchor, something to encourage us when those seasons of life become very negative, very very hurtful, very painful, very disillusioned. Very discouraging and often times very hopeless, and at times we feel very helpless. Is there some principle? Yes, there is. It is the faithfulness of God, and not only has He promised it to His people in the Old Testament and the New Testament, He's promised to be faithful every single one of us because He is by nature a faithful God.
Now, somebody says, "Well, but now what's the basis of me believing that God is faithful?" What's the basis of me believing that he can be faithful in this season of life and that season?
Well, let me just give you four reasons for believing that is number one. You can trust him to be faithful because, listen, because he is by his very nature he is omniscient; he knows everything. I need to know that God is absolutely omniscient, which means this: that in whatever season of life you may be. Whether it's in your youthfulness, your early adulthood, those median years, or those latter years, or those very, very late latter years of your life, or no matter what you're facing in life, what your circumstance, what the difficulty, what the hardship may be, I need to understand that my circumstance is fully understood by an omniscient God who knows every detail of this season in which I'm going through. This season of pain, or hurt, a difficulty, a trial, because he's omniscient, he knows every single aspect of it.
He knew it before it happened, before it was going to happen. He knows all the details of it presently. He knows why he has allowed it to happen. He knows what's involved and why these things transpire in our life. He knows exactly where you and I are in every season.
He knows that we may be in the end of this season, the beginning of this season. He knows that we're in the middle of this one. He knows how much pain we feel, how much hurt we feel. He knows oftentimes that we may be tempted to doubt that he really loves us because of the intensity. Of what we are feeling, one of the bases by which you and I can believe that he's going to be faithful is this: that he's omniscient.
By his very nature, he knows every single detail of where you are in your life at this moment, what you need, what you feel like you need, where you're hurting, and what he knows is going to take to bring healing to your soul, to your spirit, to your body, or to meet your needs.
So, one of the bases is the fact that he is omniscient. A second basis is the fact that he is omnipotent; that he is God Almighty, as the Scripture calls him, which means that he has all power.
Now, how do I apply that to my life? Because he is a faithful God, and because he knows every single detail and has all power, I can rest assured that my God has adequate power to meet every single solitary need, to control and move the circumstances and the seasons of my life, and to supply every single need that you and I have in those seasons, and to enable us to walk through them with a sense of confidence. And assurance, knowing in our heart that while there may be snares along the way, He's going to see us through no matter what. He has the power to control every season of life. There's some seasons that you and I go through.
We think, "Well, God, you could have avoided that." He could have. But you remember what he says in Romans 8:28. He says, "Our God is engineering every single circumstance of our life for His purpose, His glory, and for our good." So think about it. Whatever season of life you and I are in, God is working out a purpose. It doesn't make any difference why you got there, how you got there.
God allowed it to happen in your life, and so He has something in mind. He could have just passed you through that. And you see, he also has the power to speed up the process in that season, slow down the process in that season. What is it that determines how fast you and I go through some season of life?
Well, I think it depends upon God's purpose for us. And if in His purpose He knows that this season needs to be prolonged. Then you know what he's going to do. He's going to arrange the circumstances of our life to prolong that season until he accomplishes everything he has in mind.
Now, all of us—certainly, I would—we'd like to take shortcuts on some seasons. Then we'd like to say, "Well, Lord, in this season, just forget the change business and just let it keep on going and going and going." But you know what? He says He's engineering our circumstances according to His good pleasure, His purpose, His glory, for our good. God is engineering every single season of our life.
Well. We said one of the bases is the fact that he knows all about it. Secondly, has all power to control, and there's a third, and that is God's omnipresence, which simply means this: that every season of life that you and I have ever traveled through, we have traveled through that season in the presence of an omniscient, omnipotent God. We have not traveled through a single season of life as a believer alone. We have traveled side by side.
We have traveled hand in hand. We have traveled in the presence of the living God, who said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you." No matter what the season may be, no matter how long, how short, how intense, how painful, or how easy, He says, "I'll be there." What an awesome, wonderful thought that God is so faithful. Listen, that no matter how far you and I may run, we are never beyond the reach of listen of a God. Who is full of loving kindness, tender mercy, and compassion, and those qualities in Him, and taught us absolutely never ceases. Great is Thy faithfulness, and we can sing that song.
And we can sing it with enthusiasm, with conviction. Great is Thy faithfulness. But I want you to understand that the reasons we sing that song is because not only is He faithful, but He wants that faithfulness to be a living reality in our life. It's one thing to sing it; it's something else to believe it. It's one thing to praise Him about it; it's something else to apply it to our life.
God, You're faithful. That means no matter what. You're going to be the same today, yesterday, tomorrow, and forever, which brings me to the fourth basis for believing that, and that is that His immutability—that is, that God is changeless. He doesn't change; He is the same God all the time. We change, things about us change, our seasons change, but there's something that does not change.
It's somebody. It's Almighty God, the same God who created Adam in all of His perfection. Is the same God who is watching over every single one of us. He hasn't changed. He hasn't aged.
He's not become younger. He's not become stronger. He's not become weaker. He's not become richer. He's not become poorer.
He is this absolutely changeless, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent God who is faithful to every single one of His children, no matter what, every season of our life. In that changing season, and oftentimes in those seasons, things change every day. We have surprises in our life that we don't plan on. Interruptions in our schedule, interruptions in our plans, interruptions in our dreams, interruptions in our ventures, and what's going on. God is being faithful.
So the basis of believing. And trusting him in every season of life is who he is. He is an omniscient, all-knowing, omnipotent, all-powerful, omnipresent God who never changes because it is his nature to be always everything that he is. He can't love you any more than he does, or love you any less. He can't be any better to you than he is, or any less.
He is doing and working in our lives according to his perfect will. Thank you for listening to Encouragement for Every Season 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.
