Encouragement for Every Season of Life - Part 1

Dr. Charles Stanley: All of us are going through changing seasons of life and we need some anchor, something to encourage us when those seasons of life become very negative, very hurtful, very discouraging, and oftentimes very hopeless and at times we feel very helpless. Is there some principle? Yes, there is. It is the faithfulness of God. And not only has He promised it to His people in the Old Testament and the New Testament, He’s promised to be faithful to every single one of us because He is by nature a faithful God.
Guest (Male): Welcome to In Touch, the teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley. It’s easy to acknowledge and praise God for His presence in the good times, but we should also praise Him for His enduring faithfulness when life is hard. Learn to see your circumstances through the lens of scripture in part one of Encouragement for Every Season of Life.
Dr. Charles Stanley: Just as we have changing seasons in nature, we have changing seasons in our own life. And if you think about it, we have spring and summer and fall and winter and all of them have different characteristics. We don’t have one long continuous spring or one continuous summer but changing seasons in our life and changing seasons in nature and oftentimes we forget the fact that we have those seasons in our own life. Naturally, when it comes to time, we have infancy and childhood and youthfulness and young adulthood and mid-adulthood and the latter years of our life. And so it is also when it comes to the circumstances of our life, we have seasons in our life. We have seasons, for example, of productivity when we feel like we’re getting ahead in life and accomplishing and achieving and then there are those seasons when we feel like we’re just standing still and things are not getting anywhere or it could be that we feel like we’re going backwards or we’re losing. There are those seasons in our life when we are feeling happy and contented and everything is sort of going our way. Then there are those seasons that are not so happy and not so contenting. In fact, they are very discontenting and oftentimes full of frustration. And the question for us is this: Is there some principle or is there some truth in the word of God that will encourage you and me in those difficult trying times when the seasons of our life seem to be in the negative case? Is there some scripture, some principle in the word of God that works through every single season of life? Or do we have to fumble through the Bible and find one truth for this season, one truth for that season, another principle this season, another principle this season, or is there one single principle? Somebody says, "No, because when I think about all the different seasons of life that I go through or have been through in life, surely there isn’t one single principle in the Bible that’ll take care of all of those." I am here to tell you today, yes, there is. There is one single principle that will see you through, sustain you, and encourage you in every single changing season of life, no matter what. And that’s what I want to talk about in this message: encouragement for every season of life. Whether it is seasons of time or whether it is seasons of circumstances, we’re all going through them. And the question is, is there a principle? Yes, there is. And I want you to turn if you will to the book of Lamentations that’s Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel. I want you to turn if you will to the third chapter and I want to read one single verse or two verses here really, two verses of scripture here. Listen what he says beginning in verse 22 of Lamentations chapter three: "The Lord’s loving-kindnesses indeed never cease, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness." What is the one single principle in scripture that God will use to absolutely sustain us through every changing, moving season in our life? And that principle is the faithfulness of God. The faithfulness of God is the one single principle that’ll see you through every changing season, no matter how deep, no matter how dark, no matter how despairing, no matter how depressing, no matter how hopeless, no matter how helpless, no matter how good things are. There is a single principle that will encourage you through every single one of them. When you think about the faithfulness of God, it simply means this: that God always does exactly what He says He will do, that He keeps every single one of His promises. When you think about what He’s like and you think about all of His attributes, think about His faithfulness. His faithfulness means that He’s constant, He doesn’t change, that He is reliable, that He’s unwavering, that He’s unfailing, that He’s trustworthy, that He’s steadfast. He never fails, He never falters, and He never forfeits. Whatever God says He will do, He will always do it. He’s faithful in good times, He’s faithful in bad times because you see it is His very nature to be faithful. And we read in that text, He says, "Great is Thy faithfulness." And that is the writer’s way of saying when he looks at the faithfulness of God and what is involved in the fact that He’s an unchanging, never-ending, and always reliable God, how great is the faithfulness of God that it covers every single season of life. I want you to turn if you will to Deuteronomy chapter seven. And in this particular chapter, God through Moses is telling His people, reminding them, in fact He’s warning them about what could happen and may happen when they get into the promised land which He promised them and now they’re heading in that direction. And so He speaks through Moses and He reminds the people that they’re a holy people. So He says, beginning in verse seven of Deuteronomy chapter seven: "The Lord did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any of the peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But because the Lord loved you and kept the oath which He swore to your forefathers, the Lord brought you out by a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Know therefore that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God, who keeps His covenant and His loving-kindnesses to a thousandth generation with those who love Him and keep His commandments." And so when you look at that verse of scripture, you realize that He’s simply saying, "Here’s what I promised Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and now I’m keeping my promise, I’m going to get you into the holy land, the land of promise." Look if you will in Psalm 36 for a moment. Psalm 36 and notice what He says in this passage beginning in verse five. He says, "Your lovingkindness, O Lord, extends to the heavens, Your faithfulness reaches to the skies." Which is His way of saying that God’s faithfulness is immeasurable. You can’t put it in a box, you can’t contain it. It is the very nature of an infinite God to be reliable, trustworthy, constant, unwavering, unfailing, and unfaltering in every single promise and in every single thing He promises to do. Then if you want to go to the New Testament, turn if you will to First Corinthians for a moment and look if you will in this first chapter. There are many, many verses but we’re just taking a few here and I want you to notice what He says, so absolutely faithful in who He is, what He does, and how He goes about it. He says, for example, if you’ll notice in verse nine: "God is faithful, through whom you were called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord." Then I want you to go back to verse eight on purpose, I read it in this direction on purpose. He says: "Jesus Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ who will also confirm you to the end, blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ," which is His way of saying that God who saved you, He has confirmed you and He is going to keep you all the way to the end not only of this age but all the way to the moment He takes you home and takes you to heaven. That is whatever God has begun in you and me, God is going to complete. Why? Because He is a faithful God. He is not going to forgive us of our sins and save us on some basis other than the fact that He’s a holy God, a loving God, and a forgiving God. He doesn’t save us on the basis of conduct, promises, and behavior because that would be altered, it would be up and down and changing. He saves us and He says based on His faithfulness, He will confirm us to the end. He’s going to take us all the way to glory. Now there are lots of verses you and I could refer to concerning His promise to be faithful to us and to be reliable and so forth. One of the things He certainly wants us to do as a result of that is to trust Him. And there are lots of verses in the Bible that we’re encouraged to trust Him. But turn back if you will to Psalm 56 for a moment. And in this 56th Psalm, which is one of many, many Psalms in which you and I are encouraged to place our trust in Him, listen to what He says beginning in verse three. The psalmist says, "When I am afraid, I will put my trust in You. In God, whose word I praise, in God I have put my trust; I shall not be afraid. What can mere man do to me?" So I want you to turn if you will to the 62nd Psalm and look if you will in verse eight, another encouragement to put our trust in God’s faithfulness. He says, verse eight: "Trust in Him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before Him." God wants us to trust Him. And of course most of us know Proverbs 3:5 and 6, but in case you don’t, you might turn there. And He says, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart." He says don’t lean on your own understanding but in all your ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct your path. Acknowledging what about Him? Acknowledging His will for our life, acknowledging His trustworthiness that He is a faithful God who is going to keep His promise to us and He is going to do exactly what He promised to do. So when you think about the fact that all of us are going through changing seasons of life and we need some anchor, something to encourage us when those seasons of life become very negative, very hurtful, very painful, very disillusioning, very discouraging, and oftentimes very hopeless and at times we feel very helpless. Is there some principle? Yes, there is. It is the faithfulness of God. And not only has He promised it to His people in the Old Testament and the New Testament, He’s promised to be faithful to every single one of us because He is by nature a faithful God. Now somebody says, "Well, but now what’s the basis of me believing that God is faithful? What’s the basis of me believing that He can be faithful in this season of life, in that season?" Well, let me just give you four reasons for believing that He is. Number one, you can trust Him to be faithful because, listen, because He is by His very nature He is omniscient, He knows everything. I need to know that God is absolutely omniscient, which means this: that in whatever season of life you may be, whether it’s in your youthfulness, your early adulthood, those median years or those latter years of your life or those very, very late latter years of your life, or no matter what you’re facing in life, what your circumstance, what the difficulty, what the hardship may be, I need to understand that my circumstance is fully understood by an omniscient God who knows every detail of this season in which I’m going through. This season of pain or hurt or difficulty or trial, because He’s omniscient, He knows every single aspect of it. He knew it before it happened, before it was going to happen. He knows all the details of it presently. He knows why He has allowed it to happen. He knows what’s involved and why these things transpire in our life. He knows exactly where you and I are in every season. He knows that we may be in the end of this season, the beginning of the season. He knows that we’re in the middle of this one. He knows how much pain we feel, how much hurt we feel. He knows oftentimes that we may be tempted to doubt that He really loves us because of the intensity of what we’re feeling. One of the bases by which you and I can believe that He’s going to be faithful is this: that He’s omniscient. By His very nature, He knows every single detail of where you are in your life at this moment, what you need, what you feel like you need, where you’re hurting, and what He knows is going to take to bring healing to your soul, to your spirit, to your body, or to meet your need. So one of the bases is the fact that He is omniscient. A second basis is the fact that He is omnipotent, that He is God Almighty, as the scripture calls Him, which means that He has all power. Now how do I apply that to my life? Because He is a faithful God and because He knows every single detail and has all power, I can rest assured that my God has adequate power to meet every single solitary need, to control and move the circumstances and the seasons of my life, and to supply every single need that you and I have in those seasons, and to enable us to walk through them with a sense of confidence and assurance, knowing in our heart that while there may be snares along the way, He’s going to see us through no matter what. He has the power to control every season of life. There are some seasons that you and I go through, we think, "Well, God, you could have avoided that." He could have. But do you remember what He says in Romans 8:28? He says our God is engineering every single circumstance of our life for His purpose, His glory, and for our good. So think about it. Whatever season of life you and I are in, God is working out a purpose. It doesn’t make any difference why you got there or how you got there. God allowed it to happen in your life. And so He has something in mind. He could have just passed you through that. And you see He also has the power to speed up the process in that season, slow down the process in that season. What is it that determines how fast you and I go through some season of life? Well, I think it depends upon God’s purpose for us. And if in His purpose He knows that this season needs to be prolonged, then you know what He’s going to do? He’s going to arrange the circumstances of our life to prolong that season until He accomplishes everything He has in mind. Now all of us, certainly I would, we’d like to take shortcuts on some seasons. Then we’d like to say, "Well, Lord, in this season, just forget the change business and just let it keep on going and going and going." But you know what? He says He’s engineering our circumstances according to His good pleasure, His purpose, His glory, and for our good. God is engineering every single season of our life. Well, we said one of the bases is the fact that He knows all about it. Secondly, that He has all power to control. And there’s a third, and that is God’s omnipresence, which simply means this: that every season of life that you and I have ever traveled through, we have traveled through that season in the presence of an omniscient, omnipotent God. We have not traveled through a single season of life as a believer alone. We have traveled side by side, we have traveled hand in hand, we have traveled in the presence of the living God who said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you." No matter what the season may be, no matter how long, how short, how intense, how painful, or how easy, He says, "I’ll be there." What an awesome, wonderful thought that God is so faithful. Listen, no matter how far you and I may run, we are never beyond the reach of a God who is full of lovingkindness, tender mercy, and compassion, and those qualities in Him and toward us absolutely never cease. Great is Thy faithfulness. And we can sing that song, and we can sing it with enthusiasm, with conviction: great is Thy faithfulness. But I want you to understand that the reason we sing that song is because not only is He faithful, but He wants that faithfulness to be a living reality in our life. It’s one thing to sing it, it’s something else to believe it. It’s one thing to praise Him about it, it’s something else to apply it to our life. God, you’re faithful. That means no matter what, you’re going to be the same today, yesterday, tomorrow, and forever. Which brings me to the fourth basis for believing that, and that is His immutability, that is that God is changeless. He doesn’t change. He is the same God all the time. We change, things about us change, our seasons change, but there’s something that does not change, it’s somebody, it’s Almighty God. The same God who created Adam in all of his perfection is the same God who’s watching over every single one of us. He hasn’t changed, He hasn’t aged, He’s not become younger, He’s not become stronger, He’s not become weaker, He’s not become richer, He’s not become poorer. He is this absolutely changeless, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent God who is faithful to every single one of His children, no matter what. Every season of our life, in that changing season, and oftentimes in those seasons things change every day. We have surprises in our life that we don’t plan on, interruptions in our schedule, interruptions in our plans, interruptions in our dreams, interruptions in our ventures, and what’s going on. God is being faithful. So the basis of believing and trusting Him in every season of life is who He is. He is an omniscient, all-knowing, omnipotent, all-powerful, omnipresent God who never changes because it is His nature to be always everything that He is. He can’t love you any more than He does or love you any less. He can’t be any better to you than He is or any less. He is doing and working in our lives according to His perfect will.
Guest (Male): You’re listening to In Touch, the teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley. If you’re a believer, God is at work in your life, whether it’s obvious or not. He’s always with you and He promises to sustain you as you rely on Him. Stop by intouch.org to find many online resources that’ll help you recognize God’s hand working in and through even the most desperate situations or go back through this lesson at the link to today on radio. And if you’d like to have a copy of this message, you can find it over at the store. The title is Encouragement for Every Season of Life. Again, you’ll find these resources at intouch.org. To call or text, the number is 1-800-IN-TOUCH. To write to us, address your letter to In Touch, Post Office Box 7900, Atlanta, Georgia 30357. Tough circumstances often teach us what it really means to trust God. Hear a personal example coming up in today’s moment with Charles Stanley.
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Guest (Male): God uses believers’ experiences to shape their faith. Listen to a personal example in a moment with Charles Stanley.
Dr. Charles Stanley: I can look back and see those times that I have been anxious. I remember here I’d stood up and said, "We are not going to the bank, we’re going to trust God for this." Then my whole reputation so to speak was on the line, and all these folks were following me and trusted me. And I remember I’d been studying that morning.