The Swaying Battle of Faith

Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Friday, March 4th. Do you feel as if your life is like a little boat in a very big storm? Steady your ship by anchoring it to Jesus Christ. Learn how His strength can help you overcome the swaying battle of faith. Faith is oftentimes a battle.

I don't mean a battle against someone else, but a battle within ourselves, because there are times we face those situations and circumstances when we feel drawn this way on the one hand and this on the other. I know this is what God says, but I'm not sure this will happen in my life. I know this is what I believe, but right now this is what I feel. And so we feel ourselves being drawn from one direction to the other. And of course, because we are children of God, we're going to be growing in our life. And one of the areas, one of the primary areas that God is going to grow us up in is in the area of our faith. And that is the title of this message, The Swaying Battle of Faith. Well, there's a passage of Scripture that so beautifully demonstrates this. It is in 2 Chronicles chapter 20, and I want you to turn there if you will. And in this incident, which is about King Jehoshaphat, here is a good illustration, a good example of this swaying battle of faith and the basic things that are essential to level that out so that we are not just being pulled hither and yonder and to and fro.

Let me give you a little idea briefly of what's happening. Here is a good king, a righteous man who has led his people in the right way. He's brought Judah back to revival.

He's given the judges the instructions to be absolutely honest about everything. And so he's brought them into a wonderful relationship with their God as a whole nation. Well, in this life of Jehoshaphat and in his experience here, I believe this is the principle and here is the key to being able to stabilize our faith and we grow and become strong, able to believe God no matter what we face in life. Now, it's very evident. Look, if you will, in this 20th chapter. It's very evident in this third verse what happens here. Look, the Scripture says in verse one that these three groups of nations, they came, the Moabites, the Ammunites, the Munites. And suddenly Jehoshaphat gets this news, this great multitude, not just an army, but there's great multitudes coming.

Look at the response. Jehoshaphat was afraid and turned his attention to seek the Lord and proclaim the fast throughout all Judah. Now, what happened to him? Here's a godly man who's a king.

Here's what happened. Suddenly he hears this unexpected news. Three armies are coming. They're already in En Gedi, which is about 25 or 30 miles away. They're coming to attack on our weakest flank.

That is in this area that they were the weakest in their defenses and they're coming all three groups of them together. The first thing he felt was what any man would feel and that is suddenly there was uncertainty, insecurity, what shall I do, fear. And so the Bible says he felt this fear absolutely penetrate him.

So what happens? As soon as he heard it, he swung to the left. The pendulum swung.

What shall I do? Suddenly, having had experience with God and difficulty before, what did he do? He chose to bring that fear and subjection to trust in God. And the Bible says he immediately chose to seek the Lord.

Now, it was naturally what he felt was fear. All of his people, all of his nation, here they were being obedient to God, a godly people. And all of a sudden here come the enemies of God to attack them.

And they weren't all that prepared for that. And so but what happens? He says he turned to seek the Lord. He did the smartest thing, the wisest thing.

It is always the smartest, always the wisest. No matter what happens, when you and I hear that kind of news, no matter what's going on, that is always the right response, God. And so this fear and anxiety I'm certain came over him and it will come over you and me. But what we have to ask is this, Lord, how do I bring these natural feelings in subjection to your faithfulness as my God?

That is the key question. How do I bring these natural normal feelings of anxiety and fear and unrest, even maybe anger, whatever it might be, how do I bring these in subjection? Well, this is exactly what we want to talk about in this message entitled The Swaying Battle of Faith. Now, let's answer two questions at this point. Number one is, what is it that causes us to swing to doubt? What is it that causes us when we see these circumstances and situations? What is it that causes our faith to swing to doubt and we become weak?

What is it that causes this? Well, I want you to jot these down, because if you don't jot them down, Satan's going to steal them. I can tell you that.

He'll take them from you. And if you'll jot them down, then the next time this happens, you will know what's taking place and how to respond. And you'll be able to identify that the feelings that you're having, those feelings are like a red light that begins to flash, like an alarm that goes off. I am on the negative side. My pendulum of faith has swung over here to the doubt side, because this is the thing that is most paramount in my life at this time. All right, what moves me from the side of faith to the side of doubt? One of the first things is this. If I begin to focus on the circumstance and my emphasis is on appearances, how does this appear? What happens is it's always bigger, larger, greater, grander, more imposing, more threatening.

Upon first seeing it, it's always that way. And so one of the primary reasons our faith turns to doubt is because of that. We focus on the circumstances. The second thing is this, and that is, we begin to sense these feelings. That is, we give into our feelings of feeling weak. Listen, when you feel hopeless and helpless, you feel weak.

You may become physically weak. And physically, your body will respond to what your mind and your emotions are doing. That is, if your emotions are going through a real troublesome time, your body is going to bear witness of that. And so the physical body is going to respond. The emotional part of us is going to respond. Our mind, our whole being begins to respond. We begin to feel weak and we begin to feel out of sorts, out of control and helpless and hopeless and fearful and all those things begin to get generated on the inside of us as a result of that.

And so there's going to be that second thing. A third thing is this, and that is our interpretation of what we see and what we hear. Oftentimes, the way we interpret a thing is not the way it is at all. But if I interpret it on the negative side, if I see, well, this leaves me hopeless, this leaves me helpless, this leaves me empty, there's no way I can come out of this. If I view it, that is my interpretation of those circumstances will certainly push and swing my pendulum on the side of doubt. Another thing that's important is, that will bring us to the side of doubt is the interpretation of others about our situation. Isn't it interesting that anybody can interpret your situation and give you a very concise, clear, brief answer of exactly what you ought to do and why in the world don't you do it? Well, if I were you, here's what I'd do. And oftentimes, they'll tell us to do the wrong thing, think wrong and wrong. Well, I wouldn't let nobody take advantage of me.

Well, here's what I would do. And what does that do? That gets us negative. That gets us out of sorts.

It gets us out of God's perspective and viewpoint. And then we got a double problem. Now we're just getting angry. Now we're just getting hostile. Before long, you'd be feeling that way toward God.

And so these are things that are a hindrance. Now, there's one other here that I want to mention. And that is that we hear the whispers of Satan. And he says, Why do you think God is going to do that? What makes you think God's gonna do that for you?

Look at your life. You mean that you think God can forgive you? You think God is going to save you? Why do you think God's gonna bail you out of this financial situation? You knew better. Why do you think?

And so what happens? Satan's all he's always got these whys. He's always isn't it interesting that Satan never says God's sovereign. Why doesn't Satan speak some truth? Because he's the father of lies. He made his own lies to create doubt and deception in the life of the believer to cause us to do what they cause us to have our pendulum swing over here, doubting God saying he is no longer trustworthy. You can't put your trust in him that honors the devil and dishonest God. And so I think when we think in terms of what causes it, we swing to the side of doubt.

All of those things are absolute major issues. Now, then what we have to ask is what about swinging to the other side? What is it that's going to bring my pendulum back on this side that I can say, I'm going to trust God in this situation, no matter what.

Now, before I get to specifics here, let me just give you these so you can jot them down. If your pendulum is swinging here, listen, one of the best ways to get it in motion in the other direction is to remember the promises of God. Remember the promises of God, no matter what you see, what you feel, no matter how debilitated you may feel. What you want to do is you want to remember the promises of God. What did God promise me in circumstances and situations like this?

That's feeding you reasons to doubt. God wants you to, listen, draw up from your well of spiritual truth those promises that you know that God has given to you. He wants you to draw from that well of spiritual knowledge that you have and to recall the promises of God. Thank you, dear Father.

Here's what you said. You said, be strong and of a good courage. Fear not, neither be thou dismayed, for the Lord thy God is with you where the server you go. Thank you, dear Father. So the first thing I want to do is to remember the promises of God. Second thing I want to do is to recall the very nature of God. When I begin to think about the character and the nature of God, it's going to get my pendulum swinging in the other direction, because then who becomes the focus of my attention? God becomes the focus. When I think about who He is and His power and His might and His strength and His love, then my focus has moved from that which is negative to that which is powerful, to that which could cause me harm to the one who loves me with all of His divine heart. So what I want to do is I want to remember His promises.

I want to recall His nature. And then I want to ask God, Lord, I want to see this from Your viewpoint. How do You see this? Now you see oftentimes what we look at and see as a mountain God sees as just a little mole hill. What we see is a tragedy He sees as an opportunity to demonstrate His power, to show us how to bring us through something triumphantly and victoriously.

We want to see it from God's perspective. Well, I want us to look at this passage now because I think it's so very important that we understand what's happening here. Now, what's happening in this prayer? There's something happening in this prayer that I think is a real key to our diminishing the swinging pendulum of doubt and keeping it over here on the faith side. Because what's happening is this man's faith is growing because of his prayer.

Now look what I want you to see. There are two things here that are absolutely essential in order to keep this swinging pendulum where it ought to be over here. Number one, listen, is a God-centered prayer. This is a God-centered prayer. Look at this sixth verse again now. O Lord, God of our fathers, art thou not God in the heavens? Art thou not ruler over all the kingdoms of the nations? Power and might are in thy hands so that no one can stand against thee. In that verse alone, God is the subject of that verse, not their problems but God.

Now here's what I want you to see. You cannot be in the doldrums facing some difficult situation no matter what the need may be and pray like this. God, you're the God of the heavens. That means you rule over all the earth.

You have power over all the nations. You understand our needs. You understand our hurts.

My God, you know exactly where we are. You're the God of love and goodness and mercy toward your children. You can't stay in the dumps very long talking to God like that.

And I want to challenge you to ask yourself, when you face some difficult situation, you come to God, what is the emphasis of your prayer? Is it the circumstance? Do you tell him about it? You describe it.

You tell him how awful it is, how bad it is, how long it's been going on. In other words, is that the emphasis or God? Thank you that you, because you're an omniscient God, you understand my sermon. Because you're an all-powerful God, you have the power to deliver me.

And on and on. You see, what you're doing is you are glorifying God. You're magnifying God. You're praising God in your prayer. You're exalting him. And friends, you can't praise and magnify and exalt God and him set up in heaven and ignore it. I'm telling you, I believe that stirs the heart of God like nothing else. God, we are hopeless and helpless apart from you.

We trust you because of who you are. God-centered praying. That is one of the keys of getting this pendulum off the doubt side onto the believing side because it happens.

And we don't even realize what's happening. So it is God-centered praying. But there's a second very important thing here, and that's this.

It isn't only God-centered praying, but the second thing that's important is waiting upon the Lord. Now, here's what happened. When Jehoshaphat heard that news, the natural normal thing for him to do would be to get busy trying to figure out how to defend themselves. That's the natural normal thing. When something hits us like that, that's sort of what we do.

We want to know, what can I do? But the right response, always the right response. The Bible says he turned to seek the Lord. God, what do you want? It was in his waiting upon God in prayer and crying out to God. It was in that time God was preparing Jehoshaphat to hear the answer and to believe God's answer because I'm here to tell you, he never fought a battle like this before ever. You don't fight battles by sending your army out, telling them they're not going to have to fight and sending the choir out to sing and praise God in front of them.

That's not the way you end battles. What was God doing then in this prayer meeting? Not only was he building this man's faith, getting his pendulum back over here where he wanted it, but what's he doing? In his prayer, he's building his faith to strengthen him, to get him ready to be willing to hear and believe the answer because the answer was going to be so bizarre, so absolutely unnatural that, listen, no man in his naturalness would ever have accepted it. Now, the first part of it, we can, look, he says, the prophet said, look, verse 15, listen, all Judah inhabitants of Jerusalem and King Jehoshaphat, thus says the Lord to you, do not fear or be dismayed because of this great multitude for the battle is not yours, but God's. Then he says in verse 17, you're not even going to need to fight in this battle. All you need to do is to station yourselves and stand and see the salvation of the Lord.

Now, that was totally opposite of everything Jehoshaphat had ever done in a battle. Now, what made him listen to this prophet? What made him listen to this prophet was that while he was crying out to God and waiting upon the Lord in prayer there in the temple, God was getting him ready. He was, listen, he was moving his viewpoint from military might to divine might, from military might to divine might, from fighting to standing, from doubting to trusting.

He was moving his mind gradually. What you and I have to understand is that God doesn't suddenly change everything we think. And that's why that prayer, God sent him praying and, listen, waiting upon the Lord. And as he waited and as he cried out to God, this prophet stood up and said, listen, this isn't your battle, this is God's battle. Well, fine, how does he want us to fight it?

That's not the issue. You're not going to fight it. You're going to stand still and watch God's salvation on your behalf. The Bible says when they heard that and he announced that, I mean, those folks, they praised God, they fell on their faces praising the Lord.

Now, it is in that time of prayer God sent him praying and waiting for God's timing that he was able to hear what God said, do what God said, the way God said it and the time God said it. Now what happens? So they march out singing and praising God and giving thanks to him for his kindness and goodness and love is everlasting.

And you know what happens? Listen, this is how absolutely important it is. Their absolute obedience to him set the enemy in such disarray and confusion, they rose up to fight and they were fighting each other.

And the Bible says they absolutely, completely annihilated one another in verse 23 and so that when Judah came, all they could find in verse 24 were dead corpses lying around and not a single solitary one had escaped. This message is so important to your and my daily life. This is where we're living. We're living with circumstances and we're living with difficulty and living with hurts and living with all kinds of troubles and trials and tests through our faith. How do we deal with these things? By God-centered praying. We bring them to a holy God, to a righteous God, to an omnipotent God and we bring them there and listen, we wait upon him for his direction. And I think one of the reasons that people get themselves deeper and deeper and deeper in trouble because they pray and run off, listen, a quick prayer and run off and do what they decide to do even before they prayed, which they did in their praying, said, God, would you please bless us? I cannot tell you how absolutely important, absolutely, listen, unmistakably important it is for you to read the Word of God and get the principles and the promises of God in your heart so that when you're tested and tried, you can recall them, you can tell God about them, you can talk to God about who he is, you can rest in who he is, you can wait upon him, you can trust him, you can believe him that he will tell you exactly what to do and when he tells you something to do that seems to be off the wall, none of your friends or your enemies would believe that that has any possible reason of success whatsoever. You obey God no matter what. And my friend, you cannot lose obeying God. Thank you for listening to the Swaying Battle of Faith. 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.