Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Monday, February 3rd. God promises that his followers will have enough grace to carry any burden he allows. Stay with us to learn how to live with life's loads. There are some loads that God allows in the human life that all the praying and all the fasting and all the pleading and all the begging in the world will never force God's hand to remove that load. There are some things God will not remove.
There are some loads that he has no intention of removing. And what we have to distinguish is what is it that God is willing to remove and what is that he's not willing to remove? What is the purpose of God by allowing us to walk through life with some loads that seem to be heavier than we ought to have to bear? And sometimes we tell God it's not fair, it's not just, look at him, look at her, they don't have to bear things like that. And I don't know what the circumstance is in your life today, but this I'm sure, that many of you have already come to the place in your life where you've said, if there is a God, he wouldn't put up with this. If there's a God of love, he'd release me from this.
If there were a God of kindness and mercy like you Christians talk about, God wouldn't allow me to go through this. You're telling me that for the rest of my life this is the way I've got to live? You mean my circumstances won't ever change? You mean that God says this is my circumstance for the rest of my life? And this is the way I'm to look at life and this is the way I'm to suffer?
You mean he won't change my physical situation? You mean the emotions that I'm facing right now and the situation that I'm in that I can't believe that God's going to change it if I pray? You mean to tell me there's some things God's going to force me to live under the rest of my life?
Yep, that's what I'm telling you, because it's the truth. And let me give you an example in 2 Corinthians chapter 12. If you'll notice in verse 7, Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelation, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, to buffet me to keep me from exalting myself. Concerning this, that is, this particular situation, I entreated the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And that doesn't mean he got unsaid his prayers three times at night.
He entreated the Lord more than likely in fasting and praying, waiting upon God. And the Lord's response was, My grace is sufficient for you. My power is perfected in weakness. Most gladly, therefore, I will boast about my weakness that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore, Paul says, I've learned that I'm well contented with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties. For Christ's sake, for when I am weak, then I am strong.
Let me ask you a question. Is there something in your life that you've entreated God to remove, that he won't remove? Are you bearing a load that you'd like for God to release you from? And sometimes it seems the more you pray, the heavier it gets and the more pressure you feel. Is there something that God is dealing with you in your life? And all you can talk to him about is the pressure and the unfair circumstance and the unjust situation by which you have been trapped. And so you're having to respond.
Well, listen to what Paul said, because I want us to notice two or three things. You see, some of these loads come from different directions. Sometimes we do what? We load up ourselves. We carry loads because we bring them upon ourselves. Sometimes there are loads that come because of somebody else's reaction in life.
And we oftentimes suffer. Sometimes it's straight from the devil and sometimes it's straight from God. Sometimes it's from God through others. And as Paul said, there was sent to him a messenger of Satan to buffet me, to keep me from exalting myself. Now, Paul understood why God allowed him to suffer. He says, because God knew that what I received, if God didn't deal with me in this fashion, I would be useless. The pride and the egotism and the knowledge and the wisdom. He said I'd be useless to God. So Paul's explanation was that God allowed it into his life in order to keep him a useful vessel.
Let me ask you a question. If you had to have the choice of having the burden and the pressure and becoming the person God wants you to be, or having it released and doing your own thing, which would you honestly rather have? Usually in the present we want it released. We want freedom, we want victory from any kind of burden that God. In fact, he always responds when you and I pray in one of three ways, what are they? Yes, no, and wait. And usually we want what?
Yes, we want it done right now. And God doesn't always do it right now. Paul understood why God had allowed this in his life. He says a messenger to keep me from what? From exalting myself. Now, God is under no obligation to always tell me why he keeps it there. You say, well, if I just knew what God was up to you, all of us would like to know exactly what God's. If I just knew what God was up to, then I believe I could take it.
You know what God wants us to do? Learn to bear it, even when we cannot reason why God allows it there. And my friend, I'm aware that some people are hurting very deeply, hurting far deeper than I could fully understand, with situations that appear to be hopeless and helpless.
And as they look down life, they look down this long tube and look so black at the other end. And their response to life is, why keep trying? Why keep going when things just don't ever seem to change?
And the truth is, when I look at my circumstances, they can't seem to change. So for me to reason, figure and try to manipulate God, to work it into my theology so that I'll have a nice little pat answer for every little thing. That's not the way life is, friend, because all of life experiences do not fit into my little theological pocket over here that explains everything. There's some things you can't explain. And you see, there are some people who must explain everything or they feel that something's wrong with their faith. Oftentimes, the believer who cannot explain what God is doing says the problem is you don't have faith.
If you had enough faith, God would correct this when that is not the solution. But look at the response that Paul had here. He said, God having shown him this, that God said to him in response, my grace is sufficient for you, for power, strength is perfected. It reaches its maximum point of potential when I feel the very weakest. He says, therefore, I've learned to gladly boast about my weakness. He says, I'm tickled to death about that because that's when the power of Christ dwells in me in the very fullest.
Now, let me ask you a question. When you and I experience some load in life, and they're not all permanent for sure, sometimes they're temporary, what is their response? First of all, we want a reason why you're doing this, God. If we can't figure that out, then we pray, Lord, would you please release me from this, remove this from me? And God doesn't remove it. So, Lord, at least, Lord, you can release the pressure so I don't feel what I feel. So, He doesn't do that.
So, what happens? Now, watch this, because unbeknown to us sometimes, when God allows us in circumstances and situations and we pray and we plead and the pressure's down, He doesn't release it. Right beneath the surface of all this, there begins to be this little thin layer of resentment that begins to grow.
We pray with our lips and we tell Him how much we love Him. But deep down inside of us, we think, but God, why not? And then that resentment keeps growing and if we're not careful, a little thin layer of bitterness grows.
So that you could even preach the Gospel or sing the Gospel or serve the Lord and you may be publicly successful. But my friend, if there's a little layer of that deep down inside, resentment and bitterness, God, why don't you change my circumstances? Why have you allowed me to be in this situation? Why can't you do something? Why don't you do something? What happens if we're not careful and we want God to have a quick solution to all of our problems and do it right now?
Let's get rid of all the circumstances and let's start all over again, real fresh and real new. And God, if you will, here's what I'm going to do for you. You know what? God's not interested in what you're not going to do for Him.
He's interested in what He is in the process of doing in us. And His response to the Apostle Paul, and listen, if you put it on the line of deserving. And more than likely, Paul may have begun his prayers like this, Lord, you know this thorn in my side? If you just release me, I'm telling you, God, listen, there won't be a square inch of the known world I won't cover. I'll preach the Gospel to everybody who crosses my path.
He could have made God a thousand promises and God just writing all those down, so to speak, and say, yes, Paul, that's right. You know what? You know what's going to make all that come to truth? I'm going to leave the pressure there. And because I leave it there, you're going to be able to do everything you promised to do.
We think taking the pressure off will make us more successful. And God knows keeping the pressure on will make it possible for us to accomplish what He wants us to accomplish. You can't manipulate God and make God do anything. He does what He chooses to do. So you can't come to Him saying, OK, God, I've resigned to your will.
No, that's a verbal resignation. But we come to Him in our heart and say, Lord, I don't know that you're wiser than I am. And so I accept what you have placed into my life. And if you never remove it, fine.
And if you choose to remove it, fine. But while I'm in the process of bearing the load, all I want to know, God, is that the pressure is molding and shaping and making me the man, the woman you want me to be. That's the important thing. Listen to God's reaffirming, reassuring word in this one simple passage. Verse nine, Paul says this is the way God responded to him when he said, Lord, sometime this load gets a little heavy. He said to him, my grace is sufficient. So God said, Paul, I am personally involved in helping you bear that load. He said, not heavenly grace, my grace is sufficient for you.
Let me ask you a question. Have you ever been under the load that God wasn't under there with you? What did Jesus say? Come unto me, all you that labor and are heavily laden down. You're carrying a big load. And I'll give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me. I'm meek and lowly in heart.
You shall find rest unto yourselves. He didn't say, I will remove the load. He said, I'll teach you how to live under the yoke, under the load.
But I remember this. He says, I'll be there under there with you. In the Old Testament, the Psalms. When the Bible speaks in this beautiful, beautiful affirmation of what God is willing to do in your life and my life, if we'll just trust him and lay it all before him. Listen to what he says in Psalm fifty five, twenty two.
Now watch this. I want you to see the word cast your burden upon the Lord and he will sustain you. That word burden is also translated that can be translated gift. Now think about this. What turns God's burdens into God's gifts?
My right response. When I respond properly to God's pressure, then God's burden becomes my gift. God's load becomes an expression of God's love. He says, my grace is sufficient. Now, listen, he says, I'm personally involved in what you're suffering. Secondly, he said, I am presently involved in that. He said my grace was sufficient, shall be sufficient.
What? My grace is sufficient. When you and I feel the load, the very heaviest, he says, I am personally and presently doing what?
Powerfully involved in energizing you, strengthening you, undergirding you, equipping you, empowering you, making you sufficient that you can take one more step. When you think it's all over and I can't go one more day and I can't say it one more time and the last step has been taken, God says, my grace is sufficient for you to take one more step. My grace is sufficient for you to live one more hour. My grace is sufficient for you to see the situation through one more day.
There will never be a time when God's sufficiency runs out. He says, cast your burden, which when he gets through becomes a gift. He says, cast your burden upon the Lord. What does Peter say?
Does he not say almost the same thing? Cast your cares upon the Lord, for he cares for you. Listen, he says, my grace is sufficient. That means there's always plenty of it.
Let me ask you a question. Could you ever come into any kind of a situation in life that God proves inadequate to help you through it? You say, but I feel so inadequate.
That's the whole key. Paul says, when I find myself feeling the most inadequate, the most helpless, and I don't have any other way to turn, when I think, God, I can't bear this load another day and I give up in absolute desperation and hopeless failure. He says, I become energized with the supernatural power of the sovereign God who put this universe together. And when I think I can't, that's when I seem to take the longest leaps. And when I think it's all hopeless, that's when my hope gyrates the most. When I think every last bit of energy has been expended and there's no more to expend.
My reservoirs all filled instantaneously once again. Here's the problem, friend, in the society in which you and I live. It's strength that implies success in the kingdom of God. It is weakness, which is the avenue of God's power. And you see, I don't know what kind of load you're living under, but I can tell you this.
I know who is under there with you. My grace is sufficient for you. Listen what he said. He says, because the power of God is perfected. That is, it reaches its summit, it reaches its zenith, it reaches its pinnacle when? Not when I am exercising my strength and bearing up in my understanding and my knowledge and my wisdom. But when it's all over with me and it's done and I'm flat out and there's no place to go and no place to turn. That's when he says the supernatural power of God reaches its pinnacle of expression.
If that be true, let me ask you a question. When are we the most valuable to God? Upright, strong, moving or flat out? Helpless and hopeless. Paul said, I learned that in those moments when I've been knocked down and the count's already been taken. He said, I've learned that in that moment, that's when I start shouting.
Hopelessly and helplessly down and out, I begin to shout. He says, because I've learned that's when I experienced the greatest demonstration of the strength of God. What is it that God has allowed in your life that you'd like to get rid of? Somehow He won't release you from it? You've prayed, cried, begged, pleaded, fasted, you've gotten your friends to do the same and somehow it's there. Whether it's in your body or in your family or in your business.
What is it that somehow He just doesn't seem to release? But He keeps saying to you, my grace is sufficient for you. I don't know where you are and what you're facing, what you've been through and the trials and the heartaches and the burdens that you feel today are absolutely beyond your comprehension or your help. I want to tell you, whatever it is, it is matched with the grace of God.
And if you will allow Him into your life, my friend, He will not only see you through it, He will be with you in and through it. There's a little song somebody wrote a long time ago and there's a phrase of it that I want you to listen to. It's real simple, but it describes so perfectly what we're talking about. And listen to these words and see if you ever felt like this. When we have exhausted our store of endurance, when our strength has failed ere the day only be half done. We're only half the way through.
When we reach the end of our hoarded resources, there's nothing else left. Our Father's full giving is only begun. Because you see, His love knows no limit. His grace knows no measure. His power knows no boundaries, has no boundaries known unto men. And then He concludes it by saying, But out of His riches, out of His infinite riches in Christ Jesus, He giveth and He giveth and He giveth again. God's grace will always match the load you have to carry. Thank you for listening to Learning to Live with Life's Loads. 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.
