In Touch Ministries

Guest (Male): How do you know what God wants to do in your life until you let him do it? Until you position yourself to be blessed. What is that position? Godly living and steadfast faith will get you everything God has for you.

That makes it pretty simple. Somebody says, "Well, how do I get the blessings of God?" Godly living—that is living in obedience, that's the routine of your life, that's what you desire in life—and steadfast faith, trusting him.

Guest (Male): Does your faith resemble a swinging pendulum? One moment you're trusting God, the next you plunge toward doubt and uncertainty. If you're wondering if there's a way to stop the endless instability, then stay with us for today's edition of In Touch, the teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley. You'll hear four clear steps to maintaining consistent trust in the Lord in part three of When Our Faith Wavers.

Dr. Charles Stanley: The title of this message is When Our Faith Wavers. I want you to turn if you will to James chapter one, because in this passage he deals with this very idea and brings us to the realization of how very important it is that our faith be solid, steadfast, strong, and certain.

In James chapter one, he's writing to some people who have been scattered and they're suffering persecution, difficulty, and hardship, and hard times. He begins by saying, "James, a bondservant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes who are dispersed abroad: Greetings. Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials."

That doesn't even make sense, that when you're in difficulty, hardship, and trial, you're supposed to be joyous about it—only if you understand the truth, only if you have faith to face it. "Knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing."

Whatever God is requiring of us, whatever God says we're to do, he fits us for the task. We're best fitted for the task by going through these difficulties and hardships in life and trusting him through them all. He says we need wisdom to know how to trust him.

With that in mind, he says, "But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all people liberally and he doesn't upbraid them, he doesn't come back and say, 'Well, why didn't you do thus and so?' But," he says, "they will be given to him generously. But he must ask in faith without any doubting."

For the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven by the winds and tossed. He says, "Don't expect to receive anything from God if you're coming to him continuously doubting him, wavering back and forth."

So with that in mind, let's ask the question: What does he mean when he talks about this idea of back and forth? That is, what do we mean by wavering faith? Simply what he says: Faith that says, "I know he can. I think he will. Maybe he will. Yes, I believe he will. Well, I'm not sure. Well, I certainly hope so. Well, I think so. I know he's done it in the past, but I'm not sure."

How many times have you prayed and asked God for something, absolutely sure what you were asking for was the will of God? You said, "Yes, Father, I just want to thank you for that. I want to thank you for the assurance that I'm going to receive that." Then an hour later, you're thinking, "Well, I certainly hope God answers my prayer. I've prayed and I'm reading the Word. I certainly hope he does."

We do not realize how often we waver in our relationship to God. We waver in our prayers. We waver in our faith. One moment we're saying, "Yes, I believe he will." The next moment we're not quite so sure. Why is it back and forth and back and forth?

Now watch carefully, I want to clarify something. There are some circumstances in our life where, on the one hand, you may be more prone to waver in one circumstance than another, that is in one request than another. For example, when you're praying for God to save one of your loved ones, somebody who's lost, living in sin, it may be you may find yourself wavering a little bit.

When somebody says, "Well, do you believe that God's going to save them?" "Well, I certainly hope so. Well, I'm really praying he will. Yes, I think he will. Well, I'm not sure." So for you, it may be praying for someone else's salvation. For someone else, it will be healing. You see someone who's sick, someone you love and you're praying for God to heal them.

"Are you confident he's going to?" "Well, I'm not sure. I'm praying that he will. I certainly hope he will, but I'm not certain he will." So we find ourselves wavering. Sometimes God will show you his will and it's so crystal clear. Instead of accepting it and moving in that direction, you waver. You say, "Well now, Lord, how can I be really sure? It seems to be certain and everything looks like it, but now why would you make it so clear to me?"

So we waver back and forth. Now, there are some things we need not waver about. There are some things that are just absolutely dead certain. What I want to talk about in this message is this whole issue of when you kneel to pray or however you pray, and you come to your Heavenly Father who loves you unconditionally and who's made this awesome promise.

Listen to this. In Mark 11, listen to what he says. "Whatsoever things you desire when you pray," watch this now, here's what he says, "believe that you have already received them," past tense, "and it will be granted to you." You say, "Well, now wait a minute, that must be a mistake." No, it's not a mistake. Listen. "Whatsoever things you desire when you pray," he says, "when you pray, believe that you have received them already."

That's the tense of the verb. You have already received them and what you believe is already yours will be granted to you. That is perfect faith. The Bible talks about little faith, great faith. Jesus said, "Why are you of little faith?" He talks about great faith. In James, he talks about the perfection of our faith.

The perfection of our faith is that I can walk away believing that it's as good as done because God said it and I believe it and I have no basic reason for doubting that he's going to do what he says. How many times is that true in your life? I'm not saying that you and I should come to every single situation, first time we pray, just say, "Yes, God, thank you very much, perfect faith, I'm moving on."

Sometime that's not the way it's going to happen because depending upon what you're asking God for, depending upon the direction you're asking for your life, depending upon what God has challenged you to do—which may be something that seems to be the most difficult thing God's asked you to do—you may find yourself wavering.

If you can't come to him with confidence, you cannot live in peace in the Christian life. He's the source of our peace and if my relationship with him is not right, it's not going to be there. Now, somebody says, "Alright, what I'm listening for is I want to know how to correct this." You don't want to miss these. Now listen carefully. This is the way you correct wavering faith.

Number one, here's what you do: you ask yourself the following questions. Number one, where do these doubts come from? Where are these doubts coming from that I'm feeling causing me to want to waver? First question. Second question: Has God ever failed me in the past? Very important question. Has God ever failed me in the past?

Third question: Has he not promised to meet all my needs, whether it's financial or abilities and skills and talents to do this job? Fourth one: Did he not give me the Holy Spirit to live within me to enable me to do whatever he requires of me in life? Now you can sort of shorthand that a little bit. Did he not give me the Holy Spirit to enable me? Period. You got that.

Number five: Did he not promise to be with me, listen, at all times? Yes. Number six: Is anything too hard for God? And what's the answer? No, right. Is anything too hard for God? Now watch this seventh one, very, very important. If you listen, say amen. Listen to this. Is this one of those forks in the road? Whatever I'm facing.

Is this one of the forks in the road in which my unbelief could cause me a lifetime of regret? Is this one of those forks in the road in which if I respond in unbelief, doubt, waver, it could cost me a lifetime of regret? Now these are very sobering questions and that's why if you want to overcome those doubts, you start with asking yourself those questions.

By the time you get through with those, you're going to be challenged to trust him. Now, the second part of this correction is not only to ask yourself those questions, but secondly, and that is to meditate upon God's Word. Now listen carefully, here's what I mean by that. If you find yourself wavering, you get in the Scripture and you ask God to show you a passage of Scripture that will help you.

A passage of Scripture that relates to something you're facing at that time. You say, "I don't know where to turn." God does. God will lead you to a passage of Scripture and you'll think, "My, my, my, that's exactly what I needed to read." Well, after a while you stop being so surprised at that and just thank him for it. Meditate upon God's Word.

Listen, how do you learn God's ways? Get in the Word, reading the Word, seeing what it says. How did God work in his life and her life? How's he going to work in my life? What happens is, reading the Word of God does what? It instills within your mind the very thoughts of God. When you begin to think the way God thinks, you know what? You begin to act the way God acts.

You begin to believe what God says. Meditate upon his Word. The third way to overcome this issue is this, and that is to recall his past faithfulness to you. How many of you can look back and say, "Many times in my life or even one time, God proved to be absolutely unfaithful to me." Nobody has ever been able to say that honestly.

You know why? Because it's one of his attributes, that God by his very nature is a faithful God. Listen, he takes delight in answering our prayers. He says, "Listen, delight yourself in me, I'll give you the desires of your heart. I'll give you the desires of your heart." I remember sitting up in the bed one morning and thinking, "Okay, I'm going to think this through."

I began to sort of go back as far as I could in my life and begin to think about things that I had asked God for and important issues that would come up and ask myself the question: Has there ever been a time that God did not give me the request of my lips? I could never say to you that God did not answer this or that or the other. He may have said wait, probably many times.

Or he may have said, "I've got something better over here." And listen, I want what's best. Did he say no, period? There may have been some little insignificant thing that I was immature in asking, but I'm talking about the issues of life. He delights in answering your prayer. He delights in growing you up. He delights in giving you the desires of your heart.

Listen, he delights in doing what? Demonstrating to you how much he loves you, how much he cares for you. Why should we waver when he's so willing to do so much? And then I would say the fourth one is this. So first of all, ask yourself the questions, get in God's Word, begin to meditate on it, recall his faithfulness to you, and then the fourth one is this: and that is courageously choose to trust him.

Now watch this. There will be times when trusting God takes courage. You don't see your way clear. You don't see that you can. You're feeling those inadequacies, but you come to the place of saying, "I've got two choices. Either I'm going to waver and back off and wonder what I missed in life because I didn't obey him, or I'm just simply going to courageously trust you and leave all the consequences to you. You're God. I'm going to believe you no matter what I feel."

And you know what? Think about this. Would God look down upon your life or look at your life and see that you are struggling over something? That you desire to do his will? That you want to be obedient to him? That you desire to bring glory and honor to his name? Then somehow because there's a little struggle here, and yet you courageously and boldly just say, "God, I don't know what the results are going to be but I'm going to leap and trust you."

Do you think God would let you down? Absolutely not. Listen, the bigger the task, the more courage it takes, the greater God's blessing in your life. God wants to get involved in doing what he desires to do because he has a big purpose in my life. It's a matter of a choice. Now let me just simply say this to you. If you're not a Christian, none of that's going to work.

He hasn't promised to do that for those who've denied him, who are unbelievers. You say, "Well, that brings up a big question. You know, I've thought about receiving Jesus Christ as my Savior. I do believe there's a God. I sort of do believe in God. My grandfather believed it, my grandmother believed it, my parents believed it, surely I must believe it."

Not necessarily. What I want you to do is get honest with yourself and listen. One of the struggles you're having is a struggle to believe. Watch this. It's a struggle to believe that Holy God will look down upon your life today, look into your heart, see your sin, your disobedience. You may be a prisoner in prison, incarcerated because of something horrible in your life that you did.

You say, "How could God ever forgive me for what I've done?" Or you may be someone who's just about wasted your life and you say, "How could God ever forgive me?" Or it may be something in your life that you've done that you just don't think God could possibly forgive you for. I want to say to you, listen. Don't listen to Satan's lies.

Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came into the world to die on the cross for sinful human beings, which includes every single one of us. Listen carefully. You cannot have committed a sin greater than God's redemptive plan. You cannot commit a sin that is so great it was not covered by the blood of Jesus Christ at the cross.

Listen, no matter what you've done, how long you did it, where you did it, to whom you did it, yourself or whoever it might have been, you come to him asking for forgiveness of your sins based not on your character, your attributes, or your goodness, your promises, but on the shed blood of Jesus Christ at Calvary.

You believe that Jesus Christ died in your place for your sins and you ask him to forgive you of your sins. He says if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness and make us a brand new creature in Christ Jesus, making us a child of God, reconciled, justified, declared righteous.

Listen, brought into the family of God. No matter who you have been, that's who you can become. Your big struggle right now is faith. You come to the issue and somehow you begin to back off because of what you've done, because of who you've been, and I want to say to you, you can't name a sin that wasn't covered in the cross.

All he wants you to do is to place your trust in him and let him transform your life and equip you to live a godly life. Or you may be a believer and you say, "You know what, you've nailed me to the dot." I didn't nail you, God did. This is his Word. What you're saying is this: "I feel like you've just torn me apart." I couldn't tear you apart, I wouldn't dare do that.

If the Word of God has shredded your excuses, thank him for it. Thank him for it because you're coming to reality. You're coming to face truth and now you can change. You can decide, "I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired of coming to God with this wavering faith, not knowing what's going to happen next and wandering through life and wondering why doesn't God bless me."

I'm sick and tired of that. I want things to change in my life today. I choose to courageously believe what God says and from this point on, I will attempt to come to him in prayer and believe what he says and refuse to accept all these excuses I've been giving. Then I'm going to stand back and watch God do his wondrous work in my life.

It's yours for the believing and the asking. Father, how grateful we are that you can take just human beings like ourselves, turn our lives into a blessing to you and to others, and experience the awesome blessing of knowing you in a more intimate way and understanding who you really are and what you really have in mind for us.

I pray that you'll sink this message deep in the heart of every single person who hears it around the world and accomplish your purpose for your glory in Jesus' name, amen.

Guest (Male): Regardless of how we interpret what's going on around us, today on In Touch, you're reminded that God is always faithful. Though life can certainly seem random and chaotic, the Lord has a master plan and our response to him should always be, "Your will be done."

To continue learning about maintaining faith in the Lord in difficult times, visit our website intouch.org. To hear this message again, follow the link to Today on Radio. And connect to our online bookstore to order a copy of Dr. Stanley's complete message, When Our Faith Wavers. That's at intouch.org. You can also call or text 1-800-INTOUCH.

If you prefer to write, our address is In Touch, Post Office Box 7900, Atlanta, Georgia, 30357.

Dr. Charles Stanley: Does your leisure time help or hinder your spiritual growth? Gain insight on how to pay attention to your entertainment choices coming up in today's Moment with Charles Stanley.

Let your time and your schedule and everything about you revolve around this: that you and I are to develop and continue to develop this ongoing, intimate, wonderful, exciting, satisfying, indescribable, wonderful, incomparable relationship with a personal God.

Guest (Female): Dr. Stanley devoted his entire life to helping us get closer to Jesus as we all want to do. You can learn how at charlesstanleyinstitute.org.

Dr. Charles Stanley: In Touch Plus is streaming on Local Now, featuring all the best of Dr. Charles Stanley. It's good to have strong convictions based on the Word of God. He's working out things that you and I would never know about in our future. In Touch Plus, your streaming network for quality Christian programming 24/7. Now watch this. In Touch Plus, streaming free on Local Now.

Guest (Male): You're listening to In Touch. TV, movies, and your cellphone, all major sources of entertainment. Hear how Christians can make wise choices in a Moment with Charles Stanley.

Dr. Charles Stanley: Well, I think two things. First of all, you have to avoid things that you know are not profitable for you to watch. And secondly, even when you're watching a program, you have to be asking yourself and looking at it from a spiritual point of view. What are they really saying to me? What are they trying to convince me of?

What is the message that's going on? How does this compare with the teachings of the Word of God? If you learn to sift everything through the grid of the Holy Spirit in your mind and your heart, then very quickly you're able to say, "I don't want to listen to that. I don't want to watch that. That's not true. That's totally opposite from what the Word of God teaches," and in that way you pick and choose.

In other words, there have been times when I used to go to the movie, I'd just get up and walk out. I'd think, "You know what, I don't want this in my mind if it's something that I didn't think it was going to be that way." You have to ask yourself the question: Do I want that thought in my mind? Do I want that thought in the life of my children? We have to just be willing to say, "You know what, this is not profitable, it's not wise, and I don't want you thinking about something that will harm you now or ultimately." Yes, walk away.

Guest (Female): Stop by intouch.org for tips on making wise choices that fit the Christian life. Coming soon on In Touch, no one can obey their way into God's family, but he does expect that those who receive his salvation are motivated to follow him. I hope you'll join us again to hear how believers can experience the joy of obedience. Join us again 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.