Wisdom for the Trials of Life - Part 2

Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Friday, April 1st. Seasons of hardship can be, well, hard. Get a fresh perspective on how God uses suffering and pain to accomplish good. Here's part two of Wisdom for the Trials of Life.

Now, I don't know what you're facing in life. Some of you are facing extremely difficult and painful, seemingly almost impossible things. But one thing I know for certain, what I want to share within this message is the truth.

Tried, tested, this is the truth. And if you listen carefully and be wise enough to jot down some of the things that I want to share with you, you'll make the next trial at least a little easier, better understood, and you'll be looking for God's goodness right in the middle of the most painful part. Think, if you will, beginning in James chapter one. He says, Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing, listen to this, I can only count it all joy when I know something, knowing that the testing of your faith is producing something profitable in you.

Endurance, the capacity to hang in there no matter what. Listen, and let endurance have its perfect result or it brings to maturity our Christian experience. And so He says, knowing these things, if I'm going to know them, I've got to stop and ask myself the question, God, what is your purpose? And He has some very definite purposes for allowing you and me to go through the trials of our life. So let's look to see what some of these purposes are. And the first one here is very evident.

Listen to what He says. Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith, one of the primary purposes for which God allows trials in our life is to test our faith. God wants our faith to be strong. And He wants to, listen, He wants the possibility and the potential of demonstrating in your strong faith what your God is able to see you through and able you to walk through and to work through and to survive and to come out victorious and to be blessed on the other side. God gets glory out of that. And so one of the primary reasons that He allows these tests and trials in our life is simply because He is in the process of testing our faith.

A second reason, second purpose for trials is to test our devotion to Jesus Christ. Now, once in a while you'll think, well, I'm doing fine. And then God sends a trial in your life and you think, God, how could I have compromised this? How could I have drifted so far? God, where has my mind been?

Where's my mind been in all this? You know what He's doing? Trial helped you to understand, to realize and brought to surface that your devotion to Him is weaker than you thought it was. There's a third reason, if you'll notice, that He tests us and that's this. He allows trials in our life in order to purify our life. He allows trials in life to purify us. That is, oftentimes things will be moving along and some trial hits your life and what happens? You cry out to God.

You get on your face and you begin to cry out to God, Lord, what's going on in my life? And one of the things He will do, He will point to something that you've ignored. Point to something that you've refused to deal with. Point to something that you've kept for yourself. Point to some area of your life that you've not surrendered, something you haven't yielded to.

So what does He do? Trials have a way of putting pressure on us way down inside that surface sins in our life or habits in our life or those areas of neglect in our life that God knows must be surfaced and dealt with if we're to become mature. And that's what this is all about.

Notice what He said. He said, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance and that endurance have its perfect result. That is, when these tests come so that you may be perfect or mature and complete, lacking in nothing. That is, listen, there is no peace in anyone's heart when the heart is not pure and there is no power in that person's life when their life is not pure. You don't have impurity and awesome dynamic Holy Ghost power. You don't have peace in your heart when sin is rampant or sin is enthroned in your life. It just doesn't happen. So people say, well, I just want peace in my God. I want peace, peace, peace.

Well, good. You start with purity. So if you're going through something and you can't figure out why things don't get better, maybe you need to look on the inside and say, God, is there something in your Word that I need to see that I haven't seen before? One of the reasons He allows these trials is because these trials give Him an opportunity to demonstrate His sustaining power for His children in tough times. And so the unbeliever watches you go through some trial and says, I don't understand how that can happen.

How can they be so strong? How can they go through this and somehow have a sense of peace and contentment in the midst of terrible difficulty? Then we could certainly say, without a doubt, one of the primary purposes for which He allows these trials is to produce in us Christ-like character. Christ-like character, that our conversation and our conduct and our character are Christ-like. That is, these trials help us to see that we cannot live the Christian life apart from Him, that it is Jesus Christ living on the inside of us. Listen, when you say, Christ is my life, what do you mean by that? What you must mean by that is this, that I have surrendered my will to Him. I want Him to have His way in every single aspect of my life so that it is no longer I that live, but it's Christ living inside this body.

I've surrendered my mind, my heart, my soul, my spirit, my will, everything to Him so that now He can live in your life and live out through your life, the life that He would live if He were living today in your circumstances, this is how He would live it. Christ-like character is not something that you and I pile up over a long time, a period of time doing good, but it is the allowance of the Spirit of God, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself to live it out through us. That is an act of faith.

And that isn't something that just comes sudden and like that. We have to be wise enough to understand, first of all, we can't live this life apart from Him. He never intended we do it.

Christ-like character, listen, is our expressing through our conversation, our conduct and our character the very life of Christ Himself. And so that's one of the reasons that He sends trials. What's He doing? He's sanding and sifting and sculpturing and doing whatever's necessary, polishing us up.

What did He say? He said, He predestined you and me to be conformed to the likeness of His Son. So what's He doing? He wants us looking like Him, but in our character, sounding like Him in our conversation, acting like Him in our conduct. So what happens when trials come? God uses those things to do just that. And then one more reason He sends trials in our life, this is not to say it's all of them, but one of the other reasons is that trials equip us and make us usable in the kingdom of God for the sake of others. Trials equip us, make us usable in the kingdom of God for the sake of others. And I want you to turn to 2 Corinthians for a moment and look in this first chapter. And Paul makes this so very, very clear of what was happening in his own life.

And this is what he says. He says, you know, here's the reason God allowed these trials. And certainly if anybody went through trials in their life, the apostle Paul did. And in 2 Corinthians chapter one, listen to what he says. He says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort.

Now watch this. Who, listen God, who comforts us in our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any kind of affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. He says, you know what God's up to in my life? God's allowing these trials in my life, comforting me in the process, teaching me these principles in order that I will be able to comfort and strengthen someone else.

So you'll hear people say, well, you know what? I just want to be used by God. Pastor, tell me, what can I do to be used by God?

Now usually people are thinking in terms of some place of service. Can I teach, sing in the choir, play in the orchestra? The issue is, you want to be used by God? You don't start with an action, you start with an attitude. If you want to be used by God, get ready to suffer. Get ready to hurt.

What did he say? He said, God has allowed these things in my life in order that I will be equipped and capable of comforting others. For example, you want to be used by God? Ask yourself the question, how much do you want to be used by God? Well, I want to be mightily used by God. Then get ready to suffer mightily. And that's not pleasant.

You know what? Look at Jesus. Look at the apostle Paul.

Look at all the saints in the past and all the saints through history. Men and women who've made the greatest impact upon humanity have been many women who have suffered the greatest. And we live in a world that we want it now. We want to be Christ-like now.

We want ease, comfort, and pleasure. We want to be sanctified now. We want to be holy now. We want all this now, now, now. And you know what? Let me just say now, now, now.

It's not going to happen that way. Hurt, pain, suffering, trials. But what do they do? They strengthen us.

They equip us so that God has some very specific reasons. And this is why he said, look, he said, consider it all joy. The word consider here is a financial term. That means evaluate it.

Evaluate your circumstances and act wisely. Wisdom is seeing things from God's perspective. If I see things from God's perspective and I apply the principles of Scripture, I'm going to come out right every single time. If I don't consider the source, if I don't consider the purpose and I face them all without considering the fact that God has a purpose in all this, then you know what, I'm going to come out negative and I'm going to lose my opportunity to be greatly blessed. Now, if the end results are to be right and I'm to view these things properly, I must be convinced and persuaded of the following ten things. If I'm going to come out, I have to be persuaded of these things, it's not going to work. So let me begin with number one. Number one, I must be persuaded that God is in control of the timing and the intensity of my trial.

It may last a day, a week, a year, ten years. I'm first of all, I'm persuaded that God is in control of the timing and the intensity of my trial. That means He has it all under His control.

That gives me a great sense of comfort right up front. He's in control. Number two, God has a specific purpose for allowing this trial in my life.

You say, well, wait a minute. Yes, because every single one of us who is a believer, we're His children and He's taking care of us. If you're not a believer, sorry.

But every single child of God is a child of God in the family of God, in the kingdom of God. He's watching over us and so there is a specific purpose for this trial that you and I are facing in life. Number three, this trial is designed to meet a specific need God sees in my life. This trial that God has allowed is designed to meet a specific need that I have.

We may not know what that need is and more than likely we won't discover what that need is probably till it's all over and we look back in our life and say, oh Lord, I never saw that in my life. Number four, this trial is going to be, it's going to prove to be for my good if I respond in faith. This trial is going to turn out for my good. It's going to be profitable to me if I will respond in faith. That is, trusting God through it.

It can be profitable to me. Number five, this trial can strengthen my faith, making it stronger than it's ever been. This is my opportunity to prove that I can trust God, strengthen my faith. God will approve of my response.

And anytime our faith is strengthened, we're going to come out winning. Number six, this trial is an opportunity for God to demonstrate His power to sustain me under great pressure. God is demonstrating to me and to others His power to sustain me under great pressure. This is a wonderful opportunity for God as well as myself. This is an opportunity I have to demonstrate before those around me that my God is sufficient no matter what. To strengthen me through all of these things. Number seven, this trial is in the process of creating and developing Christ-like character in me.

I understand this is what God's up to. He's up to creating. He's up to developing my character. He's up to developing Christ-like character in me. Number eight, this trial will help me measure my spiritual growth. You say, well, how can a trial help you measure spiritual growth?

I'll tell you how. For example, let's say that the trial that you're facing today, if you'd have faced it five years ago, three years ago, maybe two, maybe a year ago. Could be six months ago. At that point, you look back in your life and think, God, I could never have handled this.

I don't know what in the world I would have done. But today, you feel strong enough in the Lord, having learned to trust Him. You know in your heart that you have grown in your spiritual life. You see, if your faith is no stronger today than it was ten years ago, there's something wrong.

Let me put it this way. Are there not things in your Christian life that today don't even faze you? That years ago would have just absolutely wiped you out. And I can look back and see in my own life, I've lived long enough, been through enough things in my life, that things years ago that used to just trouble me and just frustrate me and make me angry at what it might be. You know what? Same stuff comes along today and I go, it's the end of that.

Not even worth considering. You know why? Because I've had enough failures and enough successes to know that my God sees that as nothing. He has it under control.

Why should I worry about something He's controlling over here? You can measure your spiritual growth by your response to your trials. And I think that's one thing you need to remember because here's an opportunity for us to measure our spiritual growth.

Then, number nine, one thing I need to know and be convinced of. God will walk with me through every single step of this trial. Not one moment will I be without Him. Not one step will I be without Him.

He says, I'll never leave you nor forsake you. If you think about it from a wisdom point of view, what is it that you can't stand with Jesus Christ by your side, with His omniscience, His unconditional love, listen, and His unwavering compassion for you. You can stand anything Satan throws at you, anything God allows in your life.

As long as you know, listen, He's with you every moment and every step of the way. And then, listen, the tenth thing that I think we have to be convinced of and fully convinced of, and that's this. That by His grace and the enabling power of the Holy Spirit, we will not only survive, we will come out conqueror over this trial. By His grace and the enabling power of the Holy Spirit who lives within us, we will conquer this no matter what. Let me ask you a question, how will you ever understand how good God is until you come to the bottom rung of the ladder in your life? How will you ever understand what great things, personal things, intimate things God is willing to do for you in your life personally until you get to the place that only He and He alone is all you have to depend upon, stand on, and hold on to? You won't. It's when we go through the fire and God sustains us and brings us out and does not even smell of smoke, you can look to Him and say, God, you are every bit the God you say you are, the God the Bible testifies you to be, and now the God I know you to be.

You know what? Then this intimate personal relationship takes a great leap forward, and you'll be grateful for the day you trusted Christ as your Savior. And so I just want to say to you, if you are one of His and you apply these principles, something's going to happen in your life. In fact, it can happen this day. It can happen when this message is over and you finish listening, God will do something dynamic in your life.

But you've got to be willing, and if you're willing, He is sitting on ready. Thank you for listening to Part 2 of Wisdom for the Trials of Life. 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.