Telling the Truth

Announcer: Today, Jill Briscoe begins her message, “Waiting It Out” from the Triumphs in Trouble series and begins by examining the important distinction between acceptance and resignation in times of trouble. That teaching begins in a moment.

When life's storms suddenly come your way, how do you respond? Do you doubt God's presence, questioning his concern for you, or do you see storms as part of God's plan for your life and rest assured he cares for you and is in control of all things?

We want to help you trust in God's care and control in all the storms you face by sending you Jill Briscoe's message, “Weathering the Storms of Life,” as well as a set of 12 beautifully designed scripture cards to encourage you in troubled times.

“Weathering the Storms of Life” and the set of 12 scripture cards are our thanks for your gift to help more people experience life through the teaching and resources of Telling the Truth. So request your copy when you give today. 1-800-889-5388. That's 1-800-889-5388 or give online at tellingthetruth.org. Now, here's Jill.

Jill Briscoe: The topic for today is “Waiting It Out,” waiting it out helps for the long haul because suffering comes in different dimensions of time. Sometimes it's just five minutes, sometimes it's half an hour, sometimes it's an hour, a day, a week, or a month, or three months, and other times it's months and months and years and years and years on end.

I find myself in a suffering situation. I want to be through it with a sprint, as quickly as I can. I remember years ago the Lord saying to me, “But the greenest grass grows in the valley, Jill. The greenest grass grows in the valley. If you take off in this sprint, getting or wanting to get through this valley of trouble quickly, then you won't lie down in this valley. You won't wait in this valley. You won't see what is there for you in this valley. You won't nourish your soul in this valley. You won't grow in this valley.”

And the greenest grass surely, I have discovered in my little places of suffering, have been indeed in the valleys. And so, “On the Way to Soon,” it's a hard place to be and maybe some of you are on the way to soon. But nobody knows how quickly soon will be except God. And he doesn't tell.

His knowledge is not withheld to tease us, but to test us. Waiting for closure always dissolves or exposes the caliber of my faith. The intensity of my patience and trust, the shape of my character. But when I'm waiting for some particular painful something to be over, there's bound to be some bright well-meaning saint who lovingly and often with ill-conceived satisfaction comes around to tell me how much deeper I'll be when it's finished.

I want to scream, “I don't want to be deeper. I want to stay shallow and have the hurt go away.” On the way to soon. Perhaps some of you are on that journey today. The Book of Job insists that suffering falls within the sweep of God's sovereignty and is part of fallen creation. We find Job reeling from the shock of his blackest day, yet in his darkest hours he utters some of the brightest words of history, words that perhaps can help us when our night comes.

If you remember, we saw him doing two things: accepting adversity and trusting in trouble, trusting without feelings. Those are the two areas that we've dealt with so far, and we will revisit those areas too before we're through in this series. Let me talk about the difference for a moment of accepting the fact you're on the way to soon.

Accepting the situation, settling down in it, lying down in this valley, and resignation. There is a difference between acceptance and resignation. Resignation belongs to, probably, most of the major religions of the world apart from Christianity. Fate. You cannot move fate. It's a fatalism that is a deadening thing. Resignation says, “It's all over for me.”

Acceptance asks, “Now that I'm here, what next, Lord?” Resignation says, “What a waste.” Acceptance asks, “In what redemptive way will you use this mess, Lord?” Now, can you see the difference? There is an active participation in the journey to soon that Christ can bring into our suffering.

Acceptance can then become the springboard for action. We can dive into the deep end, into some adventure as Elizabeth Elliot did, although I'm sure not one of us here would have the courage, the tenacity, the ability to do what she did. However, before suffering comes, we might find ourselves paddling in the shallows, scared of getting wet.

After suffering has been, to our amazement, many of us discover we can swim, and we just never knew it. So we accept the adversity, not resign ourselves to it, and then we begin trusting him in the trouble without the feelings. And then we begin to wait it out. Job 23:10 says this, “He knows the way I take. When he's tested me, I'll come forth as gold.” And there's the word, the time word again, when. He's in the when, the now, the being tested bit.

One of Warren Wiersbe's books is called, “To Be Renewed.” In that he says this, “God never wastes suffering. Trials work for us, not against us. God permits trials that he might build character into our lives.” Some of you say, “I knew it. I knew she was going to get around to that.” Don't you hate that? Don't you hate it when you know that what is happening to you is, in fact, to bring some Christian character into our lives?

Perhaps we've been like a jellyfish. God wants to put us some backbone into our Christianity. God permits, he says, trials that he might build character into our lives. Then he says this, “He can grow a mushroom overnight, but it takes many years and many storms to grow a sturdy oak.” I like that. Do you want to be a mushy mushroom? Yes? That's my reaction too. I would rather be a mushy mushroom than a mighty oak, Lord, because I know it's going to take many storms to build a mighty oak.

You know, in Job chapter 38, there is twice, it says this, “God answered Job out of the storm. God answered Job out of the storm.” Now he does. He speaks to us out of the storm, out of the storm. He wants to see us a sterling oak. He wants to see sterling character in our lives. Come back with me to Job 23. I want to read the whole piece here, verse 8.

He's saying, “If I go to the east, he isn't there. If I go to the west, I don't find him. When he's at work in the north, I don't see him. When he turns to the south, I can't catch a glimpse of him. Where is he?” he says. “But he knows the way I take. When,” there's the word, “he's tested me, I will come forth as gold. My feet have closely followed his steps. I have kept to his way without turning aside. I have not departed from the commands of his lips. I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my daily bread. I've treasured the words of his mouth.”

God spoke to him out of the storm. You getting the picture? It's the words of his mouth as he speaks to us out of our storm, on the way to soon, when we're in suffering, that become our treasure of darkness. The treasures of darkness are the words of the Lord out of the storm, in our pain, in our suffering. I think of a good biblical illustration of this when Lazarus died.

You know, he just got sick and the two sisters, Mary and Martha, sent an immediate message to Jesus. They had seen him heal people. They knew that if he came quickly, he could heal Lazarus however sick he was. They waited, looking down the road. One of them kept waiting, looking down the road and the other kept looking after Lazarus, I'm sure, and he never came. Remember? And Lazarus died.

Jesus didn't even come that day, or even the day after he died, or the day after that. He came the day after that, three days after he died. When he came, both the sisters were so hurt and so bewildered that Mary, of all of them, both of them, sat still in the house. She couldn't even face Jesus. Martha, however, true to her character, got up, rushed to where Jesus was, knelt at his feet and said, “If you'd been here, my brother wouldn't have died.”

“Where have you been?” Just like Job. You know, “If I go to the east, you're not there. If I go to the west, I don't find you. When you're at work in the north, I don't see you. When you turn to the south, I can't catch a glimpse of you.” Jesus said to her, “Ah, but I know the way you take. When I've tested you, you're going to come forth as gold, Martha.”

Where's Mary? They sent for Mary. Mary came then, said exactly the same thing, “If you'd been here, my brother wouldn't have died.” Then he raised Lazarus from the dead. What they discovered was that God spoke to them out of that storm. What he said in essence was this, “If I had come, you would have known that I was the great healer, but you knew that already. And because I didn't come, you discovered something greater, far more precious, a treasure of darkness.”

You've now discovered I'm the resurrection and the life.

Announcer: More teaching from Stuart and Jill Briscoe is coming up, so stay with us. Did you know you can find more life-giving content from the Briscos at tellingthetruth.org and on the Telling the Truth app? There, you can sign up for daily devotionals, watch videos, read vlogs, and access a variety of other resources to help you experience life. While you're there, you can also request this month's featured resource as thanks for your gift of support to help share the abundant life Jesus offers with more people around the world. Visit us online or download the app today and experience life with Telling the Truth. Let's go back to Jill for more teaching.

Jill Briscoe: You know, there are things that you did not know before, you will know on the way to soon. You will discover that he's going to give you a treasure. As Job says, “I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my daily bread.” By the time Job is finished, he has treasure upon treasure upon treasure of what God eventually says to him out of the storm.

And you know what that does? It builds character, Christian commitment, Christian understanding, Christian knowledge, Christian depth. That's what it does. Paul in the New Testament in Romans 5:2-5 says this, “We rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.” You see, the Christian has hope, he doesn't resign, he accepts because in his suffering, then he has given the Christian hope, confidence in a God who's going to be with him in it.

“Not only so,” says Paul, “but we also rejoice in our sufferings.” We also rejoice in our sufferings because we know that suffering produces perseverance and perseverance produces character. And character produces hope. And there it is, all round up together, Job's joy. “When he's finished testing me, when I'm through the other side of the valley, when the storm stops, when the rain ceases, I will come forth as gold.”

Gold character. God uses situations like this, part of our life on this fallen planet to do this to us and in us. So while we're waiting it out, we can know what's happening. Hopefully this will bring you a little comfort to know what's happening, and why he's allowing it to happen, and why it's going on and on and on and on, and you don't see him active in the situation.

Now there is a little bit of comfort to be gathered from the fact that you know what it is. You know because the scriptures tell you, all sorts of places, not just in this particular one, that God is making you a sturdy oak. In the knowing, there is a little bit of comfort. The end result is the golding of your character. Now, that's what God's going to do with you and me. That's what he wants to do. He wants to gold our character and display that character to the universe, says in the New Testament that he wants to put down the principalities and power in shame because he's going to display the glory of his saints.

And that's what he was doing in heaven at the beginning of this Book of Job. He was saying to Satan, “I'm going to show you how gold Job is, and that's going to do you more harm and give you more pain, Satan, than anything else I could do. He's going to trust in me, he's going to believe in me, whatever happens to him. You'll see.” Of course Satan did see. So he's after our golding, if you like.

That really means in practical terms that our Christianity has got to be so real in our lives, it's worth living for and it's worth dying for. It's worth living for and it's worth dying for. That's gold character in a nutshell. Now another biblical example of all of this is Daniel. In Daniel chapter 8, there's a very familiar little story.

Daniel had three friends. Their names are Shedrick, Meshack, and to bed we go. That's how I used to teach the children. Their names are Abednego. And they, like Daniel, served God, Jehovah, Elohim. However, they were captives, they were slaves, they were probably made eunuchs. They were brought into the service of the king. They were trained to a high degree to be rulers and teachers. They were the brightest of the converts, the princes of Judah.

They stood up to the test that they were put in very, very well until at one point the king decided to make a golden image of himself and have everybody worship him. Those that would not worship him were to be thrown into a fiery furnace, if you remember. Of course, they could not do this for they would not bow down to any graven image. That was one of the tenets of their Ten Commandments, the tenets of their faith.

And so they resisted the king's decree, and those who were jealous of them in the realm had great delight in telling the king that these three young men were not bowing down to the golden image that the king had made of himself. So the king said, “Bring them to me.” The young men were brought to him, and he asked Shedrack, Meshack and Abednego, “What are you doing?” He couldn't believe it. “Why won't you do this?”

They answered, “Oh Nebuchadnezzar, we don't need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we're thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O King.” And then they said this, “But even if he does not, we want you to know, O King, we won't serve your gods or worship the image of gold you've set up.”

Well, shall we say this did not please the king very well? Nebuchadnezzar was furious with them and he told them to heat the furnace seven times hotter so that when they were bound and thrown into it, the people that threw them into it were all killed with the heat from outside the furnace. That's how hot it was. King Nebuchadnezzar, who was standing with his people a little way off, looked in and waited for the quick death of these men.

Suddenly he jumps up in amazement, and he said to his advisers, “Weren't there three men we tied up and threw in there?” They said, “Certainly, O King.” He said, “Look! I see four men walking around in it, unbound, unharmed, and the fourth looks like the son of God.” He then approaches and he says, “Shedrack, Meshack and Abednego, servants of the Most High God, come out, come here.”

They came out, and everybody gathers around them, obviously. They saw the fire hadn't harmed their bodies, nor was a hair of their head singed, and their robes weren't scorched, and there was no smell of fire on them. Nebuchadnezzar said, “Praise be the God of Shedrack, Meshack and Abednego, who sent his angel and rescued his servants. They trusted in him and defied the king's command and were willing to give up their lives rather than serve or worship any God except their own God.”

Then he goes on to decree that anybody that doesn't do the same will have their heads chopped off and their houses be made a dunghill. You know, he was one of those sort of guys. Couldn't please him. However, what a story! What a story! Here we have a furnace. Here we have three people put in the furnace. They're going to come out as gold, as we saw them come out as gold.

He's making you the shape of Christ. Christ was gold. God's gold, and that's what he wants to do with us. When I think of Daniel's three friends, God saved them in it before he saved them out of it. I don't think they would have minded if they ever came out. I mean, they had the fourth man in there. So have you and so have I.

When you're walking around in the furnace of your affliction, you have the fourth man with you, who is indeed the angel of the Lord, Jesus Christ himself. He will take off you in the furnace the things that have bound you before you ever were thrown in. Prayer is going to be developed as much as our character is going to be developed. Our potential in prayer has never even begun to be exposed until suffering comes our way. It's sad, isn't it?

Suffering has to come before we'll ever really get down to praying. You know, have you ever heard somebody say, “Well, there's nothing else we can do. We'd better just pray”? It's the last thing. But it's the thing that we definitely are forced to do when suffering comes. There is no question about it, Job teaches us much about prayer.

For example, there are 42 chapters of his prayers, and he never heard God answer one of them until we get to the end of the story. He just kept praying. That's a very simple lesson. If you are on the way to soon, keep going, keep praying. Keep praying, even if you can't see him in the north, and the south, and the east, and the west, even though he seems to be busy answering everybody else's prayers but yours. Keep praying.

Job's three friends kept telling him that, “God is answering our prayers. God answered my prayers. God answered my prayers.” And Job is saying, “Well, he's not answering mine.” But he kept talking to God. All the way for 42 long chapters. How long this trial of Job last? We don't know. But we do get a feeling it was a pretty long haul, a long time. The hardest thing is to keep on praying. The easiest thing is to stop.

Where are you in the story today? Maybe you're on this journey to soon. Are you saying, “Not soon, now, Lord”? Would you be able to say today like the three men in the fiery furnace, “Deliver me in this, Lord, whether you ever deliver me out of it or not”? Would you be able to say to him, “When you've tested me, I will come forth as gold. I will cooperate in this process, Lord. Help me to see the redemptive way you and I can turn this to your account. And I'll be yours. I'll work with it. I'll work with you. I'll let you work with me, that you may get the glory.”

Announcer: Thanks for joining us today here on Telling the Truth. We pray today's message has helped you to experience life in all its fullness through Jesus Christ. When life's storms suddenly come your way, how do you respond? Do you doubt God's presence, questioning his concern for you, or do you see storms as part of God's plan for your life and rest assured he cares for you and is in control of all things?

We want to help you trust in God's care and control in all the storms you face by sending you Jill Briscoe's message, “Weathering the Storms of Life,” as well as a set of 12 beautifully designed scripture cards to encourage you in troubled times. In “Weathering the Storms of Life,” Jill teaches from the Gospel of Mark, examining the disciples' experience in a sudden storm to address the issues of suffering and faith, challenging you to examine your belief in God in the midst of trouble.

Her teaching and the scripture cards will encourage you as you discover how you can be sure of God's love for you and his control over every circumstance, no matter how sudden, severe, or unexpected. “Weathering the Storms of Life” and the set of 12 scripture cards are our thanks for your gift to help more people experience life through the teaching and resources of Telling the Truth. So request your copy when you give today. 1-800-889-5388. That's 1-800-889-5388 or give online at tellingthetruth.org. Thanks for being here today. Come back again for more biblical truth to help you experience life. Join us next time on Telling the Truth.