The Power of Solitude - Part 2

Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Thursday, January 25th. It may seem illogical, but the busier you are, the more you need to make the time to be alone with God.

Today's podcast highlights the power of solitude. We live in a very real, corrupt, carnal world that's working against most of what we believe and working against our very physical bodies. And I believe in this message if you'll listen carefully. God will show you how to deal with stress in your life. He will help you to overcome one of those very, very painful causes of distress in your life.

Now think for just a moment. If you go back in the Old Testament for a moment and think about some of the old saints of God that He brought into solitude, that is, He took them from where they were, brought them to Himself, kept them alone to Himself for a season of time. Think about how many times you now read the Psalms. David is going through all kinds of difficulty and hardship and pain. He's running from Saul and running here and running on to trying to put things together.

And his life is just in one big turmoil continuously. How many times does he say to us things like this? But know that the Lord has set apart the godly man for Himself.

Meditate in your heart upon your bed and be still. And be still and know that I'm God. He says be silent. Off and on, up and down, all through the Psalms we sense this man's heart. And he exposes his heart.

He's so very transparent. Now what is God's purpose for calling you and me to Himself, for desiring to want you alone with Himself? What's God's purpose for that? Well, the primary purpose is very clear, and that is God desires to fellowship with us. He desires our fellowship, and He desires us to be in fellowship with Him, to love Him, to listen to Him, to learn from Him, to adore Him, to praise Him, to worship Him, and to share who He is and what He is. God desires to love us and to express that love. For example, if you think about the creation, we've turned to this verse many times in Genesis chapter 1 verse 26.

What does He say? He says, Let us make man in our image, in our likeness. You realize that you're the only person, the only thing in the world, so to speak, that God created like Himself. He created nothing else in the world in which He would say after our likeness, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. No other image like Him. He made us the pinnacle of His creation, the summit of His creation. The ideal of His creation is mankind. Why did He make us like Himself?

Why did He say like us, in our likeness? Why did He create man in His image? Because He created us to love us, to fellowship with us, to draw us unto Himself.

Listen, to do what? To enable us to be able to grasp at least a little bit of how awesome He is, how great He is, how glorious He is, how gracious and loving and kind and good He is. God could have created the entire world and left man out. What animal would have experienced or understood the greatness and the power and the might and love of God? What other part of creation could love Him back, thank Him, show Him gratitude, praise Him, worship Him and adore Him?

Now we may say the stars of the heavens sing the glory of God, but the truth is they're inanimate things. There may be sounds and noises, I don't doubt that, but only mankind, only men and women, children, can really and truly relate to God in the way He wants us to relate to Him. And so His primary purpose is fellowship. And so for Him to fellowship with us the way He wants to, He wants us to Himself. He doesn't want us along with. He doesn't want to share us all the time with someone else. He wants us to Himself.

He wants to express Himself, give Himself, share Himself. He wants to adore us and love us and express that to us. And we say that Jesus said, For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes that he will not perish would have everlasting life. And then He says in Romans chapter 5 verse 8, that God loved us even while we were yet sinners. Christ loved us and poured forth His love upon us. He's a loving Father who's chosen to love you. He wants to spend intimate time with you, which is something the world does not possibly understand.

And tragically enough, not many believers understand that. Why would God want to spend time with me? Because He's a loving Father and you've trusted Him as your Savior.

You're one of His children. He desires fellowship with you. But there's a secondary purpose.

The secondary purpose is preparation. Sometimes God will use those periods of solitude when you're alone with Him to get you ready for something. He knows exactly, for example, of what you're going to have to face. He knows the difficulty and hardship of tomorrow. When you get up tomorrow and go to work, He knows what you're going to face.

You think about how many people get up in the morning, they're dressed, they have their plans, they get in their car, they drive them to the expressway, have an automobile accident and die instantly and never are able to live out that one day. God knows exactly what tomorrow is all about. He knows what tomorrow is full of in your life. He knows how you're going to respond. He knows what you need to be prepared for. So what does He do? In those times of solitude, listen carefully, when you're just being alone with Him, and you see, it isn't just a matter of reading the Bible and praying.

I'm coming to that in just a moment. But as you are quiet with Him, God in a very wonderful, awesome, divine way prepares our hearts, our emotions, our minds for things that we're going to face in that day. That's His desire, preparation for the day. But not only that, He prepares us for tomorrow, the next tomorrow. He prepares us for battles that we face, disappointments we face, discouragement in times. He prepares us for those times of rejection, those times when we are mistreated or accused or persecuted, whatever it might be, or times when we feel like we're, that the great fear grips us. God prepares us for it.

You see, He is so willing to change our days and give us a sense of confidence and assurance and peace in our heart and contentment that no circumstance in life can ruffle us. It's like living unstung and unruffled and unshaken no matter what. That's the power of solitude. Now, the idea that many people have is this, that solitude means Bible study and prayer. No, solitude doesn't mean Bible study and prayer.

Because here's what can happen, and people don't even realize this is what happens. If I get up in the morning or at night or sometimes and I think, well, I'm going to spend some time with the Lord and I get in the Bible and I start reading. Well, you know what? I can tell you, I get so fascinated by some things I'm reading, the next thing I know, I'm making notes.

The next thing I'm thinking about, I'm thinking about, Lord, I need to share this with somebody else. And you know what? Now, listen carefully so you won't misunderstand me. I haven't forgotten God, but I forgot the purpose for which I began. You can get so enmeshed in studying it and reading it and finding out what's going to happen next and what does this mean?

Then you know what? You can have a big time Bible study and miss what God's whole purpose is in solitude. A time of solitude isn't Bible study. Does it mean that you don't read the Bible at all?

No, because you may want to read a few verses to get your mind set upon Him and flesh out the world. But it isn't a Bible study time. Somebody says, well, but what about prayer time? What about my prayer time? Isn't that solitude?

Not necessarily. Because, listen carefully. Think about this. Have you ever told God anything in your prayer that He didn't already know? In other words, you've never informed God of anything.

He already knows everything. In fact, one of the reasons for solitude is God wants us to keep our mouth shut so He can say some things to us about what we need that we don't even know that we need. And I think about a verse in the Living Bible and I read it for my own personal private devotion so many times, not all the time, but listen to this verse.

I love this verse because here's the heart of God about every one of His children. Listen to what He says. Jehovah Himself is caring for you. He's your defender. He protects you day and night. He keeps you from all evil and preserves your life. He keeps His eye upon you as you come and go and always guard you. What an awesome, wonderful verse. What does God say?

He say, I love you. I'm caring for you. Every aspect of your life I'm interested in. I just want you to spend time. I want you to give me time. Give me time to reveal myself to you. Give me time to express my love. Give me time to build you up. Give me time so that we can connect, so that no matter what you face in life, you won't feel disconnected. You'll always feel connected with the Father. That's what makes it possible for you to face everything in life without stress and tension and fear and uncertainty, so absolutely connected with Him. Now with that in mind, you've got a question, so I want to answer it.

You say, I heard what you said. Now I'm one of those persons who knows all about loneliness. Now I've heard you say that solitude and loneliness are not the same. That loneliness we run from, solitude we run to. How do I get this loneliness into solitude? I'm going to tell you how.

If you listen very carefully, you need to write them down. Because you see, loneliness is painful. And a lot of us have been through loneliness. We know what loneliness is about. We know what being alone and feeling isolated and disconnected with someone's all about. But I can tell you, my friend, God can absolutely transform your loneliness into an aloneness that you will prize with all of your heart, because you're going to get a glimpse of the living God that is available to you that will transform your life. So how, how do we transform this loneliness into solitude?

Well, first of all, you give your loneliness a purpose. That is okay, so you're lonely. So you're having a pity party. You're going through a tough time.

And so you're just going to sulk in that and have a pity party about it all. Or you can say, Lord, I know that you have allowed this in my life. You've allowed this in my life for a purpose. I want to give this loneliness a purpose. And the purpose is, you want to teach me something. I can learn something from you. You can do something in my life in this situation, this circumstance that maybe you could not do any other way. So you want to give it a purpose. And so you're not just floundering and feeling victimized and your mind's not just on yourself and pull me, and if this, and if that, and if he, and if she.

That's not even the issue. The issue is you give it a purpose. Secondly, you view it as an opportunity to develop your personal intimate relationship with Him. View it as an opportunity.

Does that mean that there's no more pain? No, it doesn't mean that. But it means all of a sudden, your loneliness is turning into something that can be very profitable to you. There's a purpose within it. And secondly, it is an opportunity. It is an opportunity for you to spend more time with Him. It is an opportunity for you to learn to live undisturbed in your communion with Him. It is an opportunity for you to be able to grasp some things about God that you would not otherwise. It is an opportunity for God to draw you to Himself. Your two prayers He always answers. Show me the truth and draw me to Yourself. One of the best prayers you can, most powerful prayers you can pray when you're lonely is, God, draw me to Yourself.

You know what you're doing? You're saying, Lord, connect me. Connect me with You, dear Father, in such a fashion that whether I have anything else or not or anybody else or not, I have You.

And if I have You, I know that you're absolutely sufficient. Loneliness makes us feel disconnected. Solitude causes us to feel very connected, connected to the One who can fulfill every single desire of our heart, satisfy us and give us contentment in ways we could never imagine ourselves. So we see it as an opportunity.

A third thing is this. We view it as a divine appointment. So you come home to your little, small, empty apartment or your very palatial apartment, big one, or little house or big house or whatever the circumstance.

And so it's just you and what you own. Now you could wander around, turn on the TV and read a magazine or a book or something, or you could just say, Father, I just want to thank You for this wonderful time and you can see it as a time of an appointment with God. Here I am and I'm willing to listen and I want to listen. I want to hear you, I want to hear what you have to say. And my friend, listen, you say, well, I've never done that. How do I know it's going to work?

It's going to work. You have to start. And one of the things you have to get over is the fact God doesn't care. I'm not important. I'm not worth anything. Oh, yes, you are. You're worth so much He gave His only begotten Son for you.

The issue is, are you willing to make those alone times, those lonely times, make an appointment with the Father where when that, listen, and if you ever suffered loneliness, you can see it coming down the track. You can feel it coming. So you can just decide that you're going to have pain and you're going to have a fit and you just, things are just going to be better. You can say, Lord, I want to make an appointment.

I see what's coming down the track. I just want to thank You that I can spend time loving You, listening to You, learning from You and being drawn into a relationship with You, that nothing else in the world and no one else in the world will ever be able to match what will happen in my life. That's exactly what He's saying. Likewise, you can view loneliness as an expression of God's goodness. When you say, well, how can that be good?

Let me ask you a question. Is God in the process of giving you things that are not good for you from His perspective? It may not be good in your perspective in mine. A lot of things I don't think are good.

But you know what? When I read Romans 8, 28, I believe no matter what it is, it's good because God intends to turn it to good. That is, He will turn your loneliness into something good. Listen, if He draws you and He will draw you into His, in a relationship to Himself so deep and so profound, you wouldn't swap it for anything under God's heaven.

And you're going to realize that loneliness turned into, listen, solitude is not just good, it's absolutely indescribably fulfilling and contenting and wonderful. Likewise, view it as a time of spiritual schooling. God, what are you going to teach me? You see, He's always taking advantage of teaching us anything He possibly can. And when we're quiet and listening alone, being quiet and realizing that God has something to say to us, you say, Well, now, okay, so all that's true.

How do I get started? Well, let me just say two or three things. Number one, you have to make a decision. It isn't going to happen automatically. Number two, the decision must move into the form of a commitment. I'm committed. When these feelings of loneliness hit me, I'll recognize I have an appointment with the Father. He's getting ready to express something good to me. I'm going to listen to Him. I'm going to love Him. I'm going to learn something from Him. And so you recognize it. But what it is, it is a time of fellowship with Him.

Now listen carefully. The biggest price in learning solitude is separation. You may have to separate yourself from some people who want you at this time, that or the other.

You may have to separate yourself from some things that have absolutely grasped your attention and captured you. You have to decide what's the most important thing in your life. And solitude, time that you and I spend alone with Him has no equal in importance or effect, both mentally, emotionally and physically on the human body, the mind and the emotions. God desires that you and I live with a sense of contentment right in the middle of the fire.

He decides that you and I live with a sense of assurance and confidence and quietness on the inside right in the midst of the tribulation. Is He adequate? Yes, He is. Can He deal with the pain of your loneliness?

Oh, yes, He can. He can give you a sense of His presence. Listen, you can walk through the same apartment, through the same house, small or large, and no longer feel any aloneness whatsoever.

Why? Because you have secured in your relationship to Him a wonderful sense of His presence that is undisturbed by being alone and undisturbed by the frets and the cares and the clamor and the noise of the world. It is yours for the asking and for the willingness to pay the price. And Father, how grateful we are that we do not have to live like the rest of the world. While we can be very busy doing what you've called us to do, we can do so with a sense of confidence and assurance and quietness on the inside. And knowing that you have everything in your control. Even if we step out in those brief moments of our own naturalness, you're quick to remind us that we have you. And what else do we need? But we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.