Standing in the Storm

Welcome to the InTouch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Friday, October 11th. Are you facing one of life's storms and you feel that God is calling you to weather it patiently? Stay with us for motivation to stay in place and leave the consequences to God. There are two passages of Scripture. When I think about my own life, I think about these two passages have anchored my soul. One of them anchored my soul in the very beginning of my Christian life and somewhere along the way I came across this passage.

It's always been the one I've gone back to over and over and over again since I was saved, not very long thereafter. That's in Proverbs chapter three, verses five and six, and most of you know that by heart, don't you? Trust in the Lord with all your heart.

Lean not to your own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct thy path. Anchored my soul to seek God's direction and have absolute assurance that He would show me what to do.

Well, the second one came later in life because the storms in my life began later in life. And so the second passage is like the passage that God sort of anchored me to when difficulty and hardship began to come in my life way back yonder. And that's found in Psalm 62. And I want you to look at that, if you will, because that's what I want to talk about this evening. Only a very short portion of this passage. But I want us to read this 62nd Psalm and just want to talk about a couple of things here. And then we'll talk about the background, what's going on here.

And then let me just make a couple of applications. I love the way the King James begins this passage because it says, My soul, wait thou only upon God, for my expectation is from Him. The New American says, My soul waits in silence for God only. From Him is my salvation.

He only is my rock and my salvation, my stronghold. I shall not be greatly shaken. How long will you assail a man that you may murder him, all of you, like a leaning wall, like a tottering fence? They've counseled only to thrust him down from his high position.

They delight in falsehood. They bless with their mouth, but inwardly they curse. My soul, wait in silence for God only. For my hope is from Him. He only is my rock and my salvation, my stronghold.

I shall not be shaken. On God my salvation and my glory rest. The rock of my strength, my refuge is in God. Trust in Him at all times, O people.

Pour out your heart before Him. God is a refuge for us. Men of low degree are only vanity. Men of rank are a lie. In the balances they go up.

They're together lighter than breath. Do not trust in oppression. Do not vainly hope in robbery.

If riches increase, do not set your heart upon them. Once God has spoken, twice I've heard this, that power belongs to God. And lovingkindness is thine, O Lord, for thou dost recompense a man according to his work. It's that first verse. My soul waits in silence for God only. From Him is my salvation. I want to look at this passage scripture in light of this theme, and that is, standing in the storm. Because all of us are going to face storms in our life of different kinds.

They're coming from different directions. And I think probably what was going on in David's life when he wrote this is probably somewhere in this particular part of his life. You'll recall that he was anointed king by Samuel when he was only about sixteen years of age. He was thirty years of age when he became the king.

So approximately fifteen years having been anointed king, nothing happened. Except what happened was he entered into a period, a very, very stormy season of his life. Because his friend Jonathan's father was Saul, King Saul. And the scripture says that King Saul, becoming jealous of David, said to Jonathan and to his servants, I want you to kill David.

This immediately put Jonathan and David at a very disadvantage because they loved each other dearly. And so beginning early in those years, David had to run for his life. So not only did he ask his servants to kill him, but on one occasion, he himself tried to kill David by throwing a javelin at him and he missed him. Then what did he do? He mounted his troops and he said, find him and kill him. For the next number of years, David hid out in caves, going from one place to the other, hiding out, trying to escape King Saul. Finally, in a battle, King Saul was injured and finally committed suicide. At the age of thirty, David became the king. Those were very, very stormy years of his life.

They weren't the only stormy years, but they were very stormy. Listen to what he said. He said, my soul waits in silence for God only. I believe that one of the most important keys, one of the most important principles to be found in the Word of God anywhere is this simple principle, learning to wait upon God. Now, I can remember different times in my life when I have discussed waiting upon the Lord with people, even pastors, even staff members and so forth. Their idea was, what you waiting for? Why do you want to wait?

Let's get on with it. So let me put it this way. Most people's idea of waiting is just sitting around and doing nothing. That is not what the Bible means when the Bible speaks about waiting upon the Lord. Waiting upon the Lord is not sitting around doing nothing. Waiting upon the Lord, and I think when I think in terms of, in fact, lots of verses in the Bible that speaks of waiting.

A number of them in the Psalms, for example, one of my favorite ones in Isaiah. We're talking about an active, positive, that is, there's something active going. This is positive action. That is, if I choose to wait upon the Lord for something, that is a positive, active decision. I'm not doing nothing.

I'm doing something that is very definite and positive. In the midst of a storm, for example, when storms come into your life, what do most of us want to do? We want to exit as soon as we possibly can.

We look for a way out immediately. Or when something hits us on the blind side, oftentimes waiting upon the Lord is about the most ridiculous thing that you could think about. But here's the wisdom upon waiting.

When He says, my soul waits in silence upon God only, why would David wait, waiting for what, when Saul is doing his best to kill him? Why would anyone just wait when things are difficult? I mean, let's get up and do something.

Let's make something happen. Well, if you understand that waiting upon the Lord means to pause until we get further instruction. That is, you don't move until you get some instruction from God. One of the wisest things you and I can learn is to learn when to act, when to stop, when to be quiet, when to wait until God gives us direction.

I think most people get in trouble in their life when they refuse to wait upon God because it is one of life's most difficult lessons to learn. Waiting upon someone I cannot see. Waiting when I don't hear anything. Waiting when I don't see anything going on, especially when everybody is shoving me along and saying that, you need to do something. You need to do something.

Let's get something going. And let me tell you something. When God doesn't tell you to move, you better not move. This is an absolute key critical principle of Scripture. My soul wait thou only upon God, my expectation is from Him.

So we're talking about something that is active, something that is positive. We're talking about staying at your present post until you get further instruction. Now what does that require of me?

Here's what it requires of me. If I'm going to learn to wait upon God, I've got to learn to listen to Him. If I don't know how to listen to God and how to hear Him, how am I going to know when to wait and when to move?

In fact, I don't think you can separate these two principles. Learning to wait and learning to listen go hand in hand. Because when will I know when I have waited and God is now ready to move or change a circumstance if I don't know how to hear Him? So that's why I say one of the wisest things we can do is to teach our children, instruct them how to listen to God, how to learn to be able to discern when God is speaking to them.

And it's not something they just thought about themselves. Now what is it I'm waiting for? Here's what I'm waiting for. In very simple verse, I want you to turn to keep this now. Go to Isaiah chapter sixty-four. What am I waiting for? What is it that, in other words, God says, wait, wait upon the Lord, trust also in Him.

You ought to underline this, mark it red, put a pencil around it, whatever you have to do. Listen to what he says. Isaiah sixty-four, verse four, For from of old they have not heard nor perceived by ear, neither has the eye seen a God besides thee, who does what? Who acts in behalf of the one who waits for Him. Oftentimes what we're waiting for, listen, we're waiting for God to tell us what to do. Equally, probably, as often we're waiting for God to intervene in our circumstance, whatever it is, to change the circumstance or to give me a different sense of direction. We're not just waiting around for nothing. We're waiting, listen, we're waiting for God to step into the circumstance and change it in a way that pleases and honors Him. It is difficult to wait, especially when you don't hear anything, when you're hurting, nothing is moving, you don't see anything going on, and of course all of us would like to shorten any time that God has set for us to wait.

He says, My soul waits in silence upon God only. Timing is very important in the eyes of God. And oftentimes when God's people did not move when He said move, moved ahead of Him, they got in trouble every single time. You can't stay out of trouble being ahead of God or behind Him. You will get in trouble one way or the other. And so what happens is oftentimes we become impatient because there are some very definite requirements about waiting upon the Lord.

What are they? I have to learn to be patient. I may have to discipline myself in some areas that are very difficult for me if I'm going to wait for the Lord. I'm going to have to learn to listen, discipline myself, be patient, but most of all I'm going to have to keep my focus on God.

If I get my focus off of God in the midst of the storm, you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to head out in some direction that looks good, looks right, and God hasn't said a thing. And so one of the keys of learning to wait is I just don't just sit around and do nothing, but I recognize I am actively obeying God.

I am on the pathway wherever He's going to lead me. And right now it appears that I'm not going anywhere, not doing anything, and everything is quiet and everything in me wants to act and move and change. And David said, My soul waits in silence upon God only. And I wish I could say that I've always waited in silence, but I haven't. And sometimes I've complained, cried out to God, and sometimes I probably would like to have yelled at Him, but I wouldn't have done any good. My soul waits in silence.

What does that mean? I bring myself to the position to be able to submit myself to an all-knowing, all-loving God and trust in His wisdom to know what is the best thing and when is the best thing without knowing what He's going to do next or why. He says God does what? God involves Himself in our circumstances. And those who wait upon Him, we gain the benefit of what God does when He gets in the middle of that circumstance and changes it, alters it, or strengthens us, enables us to stand no matter how hard the winds may blow. My soul waits in silence upon God only. It's not easy to wait. It's difficult to wait.

But there's something about waiting. Here's what happens. When you and I begin to wait upon the Lord and we begin to listen to Him, here's what'll happen. It'll drive us to the Word of God. It will cause us to search to know the ways of God.

It will draw us into an intimate relationship with Him because our heart begins to hunger to know, God, what are you up to in my life? What are you trying to do? What are you trying to teach me? What do you want to accomplish?

What is your goal for me at this point in my life? And when you and I begin to ask those questions, what happens? God begins to draw us close and more intimately to Him. But if I'm out there running and hither and yon and trying to make something happen, I'm not asking God anything.

I'm just doing my own thing. When David said, My soul, my soul waits in silence for God only. From Him is my salvation. He's my rock and my salvation.

Now what kind of security do I have in that? Look what he says. Listen to what he says about our relationship to Him. He says, look, He says, From Him is my salvation. He's the only one who can save us in circumstances. He only is my rock, my salvation, my stronghold.

I shall not be shaken. Now what is He doing? He is quietly waiting for God's direction, waiting for God's intervention, waiting for God to move in His life in a way that He probably would not expect, would not understand what to do, but remembering what He said, that He acts in behalf of those who wait for Him.

So one thing for certainty. If I am waiting upon the Lord and trusting in Him and listening to Him, here's the thing I know, that my God is acting in my behalf to bring me through the storm to accomplish whatever He chooses or whatever He has in mind. So when I know that God is acting in my behalf, I can wait, I can trust Him, and I can know that if He's acting in my behalf, that means He's working circumstances that I do not see. They're invisible.

They're absolutely totally blind to what may be going on. On the other hand, I may see why and what God may be doing in the midst of the darkness, in the midst of a situation or a stormy time when something is there that I cannot remove or cannot fix. Now listen to what he says. He says, He's my rock, my salvation, my stronghold. He said, I'll not be shaken.

Then he talks about people against Him. And then he says again in verse five, my soul, as if he were saying it to himself, my soul, wait in silence for God on it. Don't budge until God gives you direction.

Then listen to what he says again. He says, for my hope is from Him. I don't have to give up.

I have hope in Him. He only is my rock and my salvation. There isn't anyone else I can turn to.

Nobody else can save me in this situation. There's nobody else I can rest upon. He's my rock. He's my stronghold. He will protect me. And he said a few moments ago again in verse two, He's my stronghold. He said, I will not be shaken no matter how hard the winds may blow. On God my salvation, my glory rests, the rock of my strength, my refuge is God.

I can hide in Him no matter what's going on. And so what is he saying? Here is David in a very stormy time in his life and he says, what's God's message to him? God's message to him is, David, wait. Just wait. Be silent and wait.

Don't move until I give you direction. Now, there are two very important things and they go together. Look, if you will, in verse eight. Go back to verse one now. My soul waits in silence for God only. And verse eight says, trust in Him at all times, O people, pour out your heart before Him. God is the refuge for us. If you and I are going to be able to stand in the difficult storms of life, there are two things we must learn to do. One of them is to wait in silence, trusting, patiently, believing, expecting, courageously, boldly waiting.

And secondly, trusting Him. That God knows what He's doing when He says wait. And that God will, listen, He says one thing He's learned, He said, look at that. Verse eleven, once God has spoken, twice I've heard this.

What's that? Power belongs to God. Now think about this. God says to you in a stormy time of your life, now just wait. Don't try to manipulate your circumstances. Don't rush out, just wait. And remember this, I'm going to be your salvation, I'm your rock, I'm your refuge, I'm your stronghold. I'm your hope. I'm everything you need, just wait. And trust me at all times because I will act in your behalf.

And when I act in your behalf, I will act in such a fashion that you will see a demonstration of my power because power belongs to God. What is He saying? Sometimes He'll say wait. And we have to wait.

We don't understand what's happening. We just wait. He will give us clear direction. He says the two things, this simple, very simple. If I learn to do these two things, I'll walk in the center of God's will. If I learn to wait, listen, and trust in the Lord with all my heart, lean not to my own understanding, in all my ways acknowledge Him and wait upon Him and trust Him to give me direction and guidance. I will fulfill God's purpose. We'll walk through the storm and the winds can blow and howl as if hurricanes and tornadoes mixed up together in your life. You know what He says? I will not be shaken.

Why? Because God has promised to take care of us. Thank you for listening to Standing in the Storm. 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.