In Touch Ministries

Dr. Charles Stanley: Paul said, I've discovered the most wonderful thing. When I think I can't go another step, God says, yes, you can, because, Paul, I am your energy. I am your strength. I am your wisdom, Paul. I'm everything. Did I not say to you, my grace is sufficient? Now let me ask a question. What is it sufficient for? There's only one word that can describe it: everything. Think about it. The grace of God is sufficient for everything. There's not a single solitary thing that you and I could ever possibly need that the grace of God has not provided.

Guest (Male): Are you feeling worn out from stressing over things that might happen tomorrow? Welcome to In Touch, the teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley. God knows your needs before you do, and he already has solutions for everything that you face. Stay with us now and learn how to rely on God's grace for times of trouble. Let's listen in to Dr. Stanley's message.

Dr. Charles Stanley: One of the errors that's going around today is that if you pray long enough and hard enough and if you believe enough, then God will change any and every circumstance of life. That change depends really on whether we have enough faith, or we pray long enough, hard enough, and intensely enough. If that's true, then there's one passage of scripture that we have to look at again. It's the passage that I want to look at today because I believe this is the pinnacle passage in all the Bible, the mountain peak passage when it comes to dealing with the grace of God in the light of how it relates to our pain, our suffering, our heartache, and our hardship that we endure in life.

All of us are going to experience those things. It may be physical pain as a result of some disease or some accident. It could be something even worse than that, and that's emotional pain because of a broken home, because of the loss of a loved one, because of loss of finances, because of circumstances and situations. It could take a thousand different avenues. There's all kinds of causes of pain.

But how does this grace of God, this goodness and graciousness of God, which he pours out toward us without any regard to our merit or our worth in spite of everything we deserve? What about this grace of God in our life in the times of pain and suffering? Also, what about those things that don't seem to change? Where is the grace of God when things don't change? Where is the grace of God when you've prayed and prayed and prayed and nothing happens? When your friends have prayed and you've prayed and you've obeyed God and trusted him and took your stand and claimed this and claimed that and claimed the other, where is God?

I'm sure that some of you who are listening are facing that very question. God, I've done everything I know to do, and nothing has happened. Listen to what the Apostle Paul says. You recall that God has been giving him these tremendous revelations of truth. He's understanding things he's never understood before, things that people have never understood before him. So he says in verse seven, beginning in verse seven of chapter twelve: "And because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet me—to keep me from exalting myself. Concerning this, I entreated the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.'"

"Most gladly therefore," Paul says, "I will rather boast about my weaknesses that the power of Christ may dwell in me." Then he says, "Therefore, I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong." I want you to jot down three statements, and then we'll talk about each one of them. I'm going to give them to you one at a time, and I want you to take the time to write them down because they're so very important. I want you to jot down this entire statement.

Grace is God's answer to my pain and affliction and circumstances of life when he may or may not choose to change my circumstances. God does not guarantee to change my circumstances, no matter how painful they may be. How many times have you and I come to God with some great petition that we had from him and said, Lord, now, God, I need an answer. Usually, here's what we say. God answers in three ways: yes, no, and wait. He can say yes. He can say no. And he can say wait. But then he can say what he told the Apostle Paul. He didn't say, Paul, no. He didn't say, Paul, yes. He didn't say, Paul, wait. You know what he said? My grace is sufficient for you.

The second statement I want you to write down is this. Grace is God's method of demonstrating his love and power in the midst of circumstances which he may or may not change. It is God's method of demonstrating that. Now, the intensity of Paul's situation was the terms he used here. Look at this. He said first of all, he said there was given to me a thorn. Then if you'll notice he says, he uses this word four times. In verse nine he says, he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness. And again he says, therefore I boast about my weakness. Verse ten, therefore I'm well content with my weakness. And then he says in the latter part, for Christ's sake, for when I am weak, then I am strong.

Four times he talks about his weakness. Because of this thorn in his side, because of this stake, he said, I feel so inadequate and so weak. Probably Paul was physically weary at times. I'm sure he had to be to do what he was doing. Physically weak, emotionally weak, and strained oftentimes. Listen, no matter how much you trust God, that kind of continual harassment by his enemies over and over and over again, day after day after day, it certainly had to get to Paul once in a while.

Yet he says in spite of all of that, in spite of that, he says when I am the weakest, something happens on the inside of me. All of his travels, he says his weakness, he entreated God three times. So here is his way of picturing the intensity of what he was dealing with. Yet something happens here. He says God demonstrated in this bad circumstance his love toward him in the fact that he told him why. He says, now Paul, the reason my grace is sufficient for you and the reason I'm leaving this here is because, listen to this, I love you, Paul. And I value my purpose far greater than I do your comfort and your ease and your pleasure and the healing of what you're feeling.

Let me ask you this. Are you willing to suffer for God's sake and the sake of other people? Are you willing to hurt if you know that your hurt is going to bring healing to someone else? Are you willing to experience pain if your pain is going to be part of the perfecting of someone else's spiritual walk? Are you willing to bear burdens which you know will result in someone else's burden being lifted? Are you willing to hurt when you know that that hurt is going to be a part of somebody else's healing? You see, the truth is just we're just real selfish, to be honest.

We'd rather pray for somebody else to be healed, for somebody else's needs to be met. We want to give to them and pray for them, but just leave me out of the hurt triangle, God. Just leave me out of that cycle. I'm willing to give. I'm willing to pray. I'm willing to just, Lord, you name it, I'll fast. Anything, just leave me out of the cycle. What we're saying is God, I want to be a spectator on somebody else's hurts. I want to be a spectator on somebody else's pain. Lord, just I'll send it by mail.

God says no. There are times when if I want to accomplish my purpose in your life, you're going to have to hurt. And you're going to have to suffer. And you're going to have to bleed. And you're going to have your thorn. How long is it going to be there? Nobody knows that but God. God isn't going to always tell you and me the reason. You may ask a thousand years why, and God will never tell you. God's going to allow some things in your life and my life we'll never be able to answer to our satisfaction on this side. So what am I supposed to do? Just doubt God and get angry and have a big pity party about how unfair and unjust he is?

Or am I going to be wise enough to say, okay, God, I don't have to know why. All I have to do is know how to respond. And I know that if you allow this in my life, you've got a purpose that's got to be fantastic. It won't be the same purpose as it was in Paul's life, but it's going to be good. You know why? Because God is a good God. And the only way a holy, loving, righteous God treats his children is lovingly. That's the only way he treats us. You say, thorn love? Yes. Because more important, listen to this, more important than what you and I feel is what we know. That's so much more important than what we feel.

Feelings come and go, but what we know is like a rock. It's solid. It keeps us hanging in there when things get tough. He says he demonstrated that love toward him by telling him why. He also demonstrated that love toward him by empowering him in these circumstances and situations. Paul said, I've discovered the most wonderful thing. When I think I can't go another step, God says, yes, you can, because, Paul, I am your energy. I am your strength. I am your wisdom, Paul. I'm everything. Did I not say to you, my grace is sufficient?

Now let me ask a question. What is it sufficient for? There's only one word that can describe it: everything. Think about it. The grace of God is sufficient for everything. There's not a single solitary thing that you and I could ever possibly need that the grace of God has not provided. God's love and goodness and mercy and kindness toward us: ready, willing, able if we will draw upon it. If I look at my circumstances, if I think about what I've lost and what I need and what I ought to have, that's one thing. When I look to him, it is absolutely amazing what happens.

And I can tell you, the grace of God is the dearest to me. He is the most intimate with me, the closest to me, the most meaningful to me, the most blessed to me, the most loving to me, the most indescribable to me. When I hurt the most, he is the greatest. And you know what? You'll never learn that till you hurt enough. And if you want life, ease, comfort, and pleasure, you can go through it that way, but you'll die ignorant because you will have missed the greatest wisdom and the greatest knowledge in all the world. And that is what happens when you walk with God over the mountain tops, through the valleys, deep, dark, dark valleys.

He said, Paul, my grace is sufficient. And Paul had to come to this conclusion. When you're walking in the grace of God, you are invincible. When you're walking in the grace of God, unshakeable, unassailable. He says you're unconquerable in the grace of God because what are you doing? You're allowing Jesus who's living on the inside of you to express his power and his love and his goodness. And he's the one who's releasing all the emotional and spiritual and physical needs that we have that fit his purpose for our life. You can't lose with Jesus living on the inside. That's the grace of God.

Paul said, my grace is sufficient. Third statement I want you to jot down. God's grace is his provision for our contentment in times of pain and suffering. God's grace is his provision for our contentment in those times. You recall the song: "The soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose, I will not, I will not desert to its foes. That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake, I'll never, no never, no never forsake." That's the grace of God. And he says not only that, but my grace is going to provide a contentment in the midst of this.

Now here's an amazing thing. Look at this. This last verse, verse ten, says, "Therefore," because of what God had said to him, he says, "Therefore, I'm well content with weaknesses, insults, distresses, persecutions, and difficulties, for Christ's sake." He says, "Because when I'm weak, then I'm strong." Now think about this. This is what you and I would say. We would say, wait a minute. It is the absence of insults, persecutions, hardships, trials, and suffering. The absence of those equals contentment. Paul said, no. Wait a minute. He said, it is with insults, persecutions, hardships, trials, suffering, and pain. With these, he says, I have contentment.

We say, now wait a minute, Paul. No. It's the absence of these that equal contentment. That's not even rational. That's not sensible. That's not even common sense to say that insults, persecutions, trials, pain, suffering, heartache is compatible with contentment. You know why it is? Because the Christ who lives on the inside of you and me is greater than all of that. And when Jesus living within us is allowed to release his life through us, there is no insult, no persecution, no pain, no trial, no heartache greater than the provision of the grace of God within us to endure it and to endure it not whining, but triumphantly, victoriously, and joyously, no matter how intense the hurt and the pain.

You see, the Apostle Paul knew something when he said God said to him, my grace is sufficient. How do you describe the source of that contentment? It is Christ. Listen to this. It is Jesus within you. You say, well, how can I have, how can I experience that kind of contentment? Simply trusting in the life of Jesus within you to express through you everything he promised. You see, Paul's two key words, you can wrap up all of Paul's theology in this phrase: in Christ.

When you and I are in him and he's in us, all the grace of a God of grace is indwelling us, ready to be extracted. He wants us to live out of his grace, live out of his love, live out of his power. That's the source of everything that we need. And Paul says I learned something better than God changing my circumstances. I learned that the Christ who lives within me is greater than not only these bad circumstances, but those that may come, those that come in the future. God's up to something big in your life when he allows the thorn to remain, but the grace to supersede it.

Father, we love you and praise you. We bless your name. We thank you that you know everything we need. You know when we need joy, you know when we need pain, when we need heartache and suffering and trials. And we just want to thank you that you understand all of our needs and that you are touchable and feelable and that you are sensitive and kind and loving. That you're listening and you're waiting and you're ready to release in us everything we need in order to endure not with a whining, complaining attitude, but with great confidence and assurance that our witness and testimony, because that's what best glorifies you and honors you and exalts the Savior when we can rejoice in the most difficult of pain and suffering and heartache.

I thank you, I praise you, I bless you, I exalt you, Lord Jesus, that everything you promised, you're more than capable of keeping. That you've not contradicted yourself in all these promises and yet you leave the pain, but that you love us so much you want to teach us more of yourself than ease, comfort, and pleasure could ever teach us. But it is through pain and suffering and heartache and loss we learn life's greatest lessons. We learn to trust you, and we learn that you are trustworthy, adequate, and sufficient. And we bless you, dear Father, in Jesus' name. Amen.

Well, my friend, if you've never been saved, then you don't have any of that. All you have is your troubles and trials and heartaches and burdens and it's just you and them. You can go to drugs and alcohol and affairs and all kinds of pleasures and all kinds of riches, and here's what you'll find: still empty, still inadequate, still hurting, still full of pain, still full of sorrow if it's the loss of someone. You have nothing. But when you receive the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, you get everything.

And here's what he said: whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. And if I be lifted up, he says I will draw all men, women, boys, and girls to me. If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him would never perish but have everlasting life.

You can have the grace of God operating in your life moment by moment if you're willing to receive the one who is our grace, and that is Jesus, into your life by faith, by confessing your sins and telling him that you believe his death at Calvary took care of your sins and you yield your life to him as your Savior, your Lord, and your life.

Guest (Male): The only way to have the kind of peace and contentment that you heard about today on In Touch is to receive Jesus Christ as your Savior. Once you do, you inherit all the benefits that belong to a child of God. You can find out more about Jesus and what he did for you on our website, intouch.org, or listen to this message again at the link to today on radio. And to order a copy of Dr. Stanley's complete message, Grace for Times of Trouble, visit our online bookstore. It's also included in his teaching set called Grace for Today. Again, log on to intouch.org. Or call or text us. The number is simple: 1-800-INTOUCH. To write to us, address your letter to In Touch, Post Office Box 7900, Atlanta, Georgia 30357.

There is no line to wait in, no appointment to make. God is eternally accessible. Encouragement is just ahead in today's moment with Charles Stanley. The cross was not something that God gave us as a piece of decoration. The cross is the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ. But what is it about the message of the cross that can transform you every day of your life? In his book, The Gift of the Cross, Dr. Charles Stanley walks us through scripture to show us how to see the cross in a new light. The Gift of the Cross: order yours today at intouch.org/store.

Guest (Female): In our spiritual journey, we often have questions. How do I know God's will for my life? Does God hear my prayers? Why do bad things happen? The answers are found in the Word of God, but how do we know where to start? The free In Touch Devotional can help point you in the right direction with biblically based content from Dr. Charles Stanley. You'll gain insight and wisdom through daily devotions, Bible studies, and more. The In Touch Devotional, delivered monthly to your mailbox. Subscribe for free at intouch.org/daily.

Guest (Male): You're listening to In Touch. God is with believers wherever they are and wherever they go. Here's a moment with Charles Stanley. If we are walking in the spirit and the spirit of God is within us and Jesus is abiding in us and God is our Father, he wants this ongoing, continuing relationship. We're talking with him and fellowshipping with him and loving him and doing what? Enjoying his oneness. You and I don't have to enjoy intimacy with him only inside of a church building or only on our knees. We can enjoy that intimacy anywhere, anytime.

He wants us coming again and again and again and again. And that's the implication of that phrase: let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace and help, and help, he says, in time of need. We're to come often, and thank God we can come anytime. Don't have to make an appointment, and you know what? There's never a crowd. Don't have to wait in line. Always instantaneous access. That is one of the riches of the grace of God, that you and I have instantaneous access to his presence.

You can call upon him driving down the expressway, and all of a sudden somebody slams on brakes in front of you. I don't know what you do, but I do two things at the same time. I slam on my brakes and talk to God. Because listen, I may see what's happening in front of me, but what do I not see? What may happen behind me? You see, this God of grace so loves us he says, come on. He says, I want you to come. You have access. Come on. He is a God of grace, and he says his throne is the throne of grace. This is where he's dispensing love and goodness and mercy and kindness and forgiveness to his children. And while he is a holy God, and while we are to come to him in the sense of reverence and awe, we also come as sons to a father, daughters to a father.

A son or daughter of God is a person who's received God's forgiveness through faith in Jesus Christ. Trust in him today. Learn more at intouch.org. Has the good news of the gospel changed your life? Well, if this program has been part of that journey, please let us know. Next time on In Touch, Christians are new creatures in Christ. But what exactly have we been changed from and what have we changed into? Hear more about the transforming grace of God next time on In Touch, the teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley. This program is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia, and remains on this station through the grace of God and your faithful prayers and gifts.