Growing In Our Adversity

Dr. Stanley teaches us to accept God’s purposes in adversity. But we must choose to view adversity as an opportunity rather than an obstacle. When we do that, we grow in our Christlikeness.

God’s Messages 💌

Today…….I am asking all my prayer warriors to say a prayer that may help others. So many people are hurting right now. Many are struggling with finances and need jobs. Some are facing foreclosure and don’t even know how they are going to make it from week to week..

Many are lonely. . Many are heartbroken. . Many are facing sickness and health is fading. . Some are dealing with difficult family members. Many have lost HOPE.. Tonight, let us put our prayers and faith together decree and declare breakthrough over our families. Financial miracles WILL take place. Jobs WILL be found. Our Bodies WILL be made whole & sickness WILL flee. Marriages and relationships WILL be restored. Family members WILL find Jesus. Heartbreaks WILL be healed. JOY WILL be restored and HOPE WILL be found. In Jesus Name. Amen!!!!!! Keep God First…….

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Charles Stanley, reaching the world with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Next on in touch, growing in our adversity.
When a child is born, we naturally expect that child to grow.
And so we look forward to when the child is walking, when he’s 2 or 5 maybe 13 and then 19 and 21 and 25 in Omego, because that’s the natural, normal thing to happen.
And when a child does not grow, we know we have a major problem.
Well, the same thing is true in the Christian life.
When you trust the lord Jesus Christ as your savior, the Bible says you’re born again.
So speaking of new birth, That is then we are to grow in our relationship to Christ.
We’re to grow in our knowledge and understanding of who he is and how he works in our life.
And we’re to grow in understanding of the difficult times we have and how we are to respond.
So when you look in the scripture, for example, the apostle Paul reminds us in this fourth chapter of ephesians in the fifteenth verse He says, but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects under him who is the head even Christ.
And then of course Peter says a similar thing in, uh, second Peter, and, uh, the last, uh, version of this epistle, uh, he says, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our lord Jesus Christ.
To heal me the glory both now and to the day of eternity amen.
So you you could go all through the scriptures and there are many verses in the Bible about growing.
And today, I wanna talk about growing in our adversity. We’re gonna have adversities in our life.
We’re gonna have those difficult times in our life, either They can become setbacks in our life or they can become times in which you and I grow into Christ’s likeness and grow into his will for our life.
So what I want us to look at is this, how do we grow in those times?
You can stop where you are in the midst of it blame god, blame someone else, and what you do.
Listen this this simple phrase. Don’t waste your sorrows.
That was if I’m gonna hurt, I don’t wanna waste them. I don’t like hurt.
I don’t like pain, but if I gotta have it, I don’t wanna waste it.
I wanna grow in it somehow in some way.
So, um, really growing growing spiritually during my hardship, my adversity depends upon 2 things, if I’m really gonna grow, and the first 1 is this.
My understanding of god’s purpose for it words, as a follow of Jesus, now if you never trusted Christ, as your savior, something you brought on yourself, and, uh, no doubt your suffering is because the Bible says the wages have sinned death.
And the Bible says that, uh, we will reap what we sow, but we’re talking about believers now.
Who are going through adversity in in their life. And so, uh, we are to understand god’s purpose.
So I want you to be sure that you jot these down because somewhere along the way you’re going to see yourself in 1 of these.
And 1 of the primary reasons here is that god allows adversity in life to get our attention.
We just go along in life and doing our thing and ignoring him And sometimes we ignore him after he tries to say to us in prayer or many other ways or through someone else What he wants us to do or what he wants us to think about?
We just ignore him. And so adversity comes along and all of a sudden, He has our undivided attention.
God, what are you doing in my life?
A second reason uh, which was certainly true according to the apostle Paul in his life, and that is to, uh, conquer pride in our life.
You’re doing really well and you’re getting along fine. You don’t have any time for anybody else.
In fact, uh, you think, well, why can’t you take care of yourself and and why are you having such a hard time?
And, uh, the apostle Paul said that the reason he felt it was god was helping him keep him from exalting himself.
God had given him so many awesome privileges and understandings in this twelfth chapter of uh-uh for second Corinthians beginning the seventh verse.
He’s 1 of the primary reasons is, uh, to keep him from becoming prideful and arrogant.
And if you’ll think about what is in the book of Romans and first and second Corinthians and galatians and ephesians and Philippians and all the rest, all that awesome wisdom you and I live by.
He said god sent him a thorn in the flesh to keep him usable lest he become prideful and arrogant and god could not use him anymore.
Then of course, uh, 1 of the reasons we have adversity is to remind us of our weakness.
If you think you know that you’re strong and you can handle it, and you move along in life and never think to ask god to give you strength and wisdom and direction for your life.
And what happens is, um, we think we’re we’re we’re adequate.
But god knows how to weaken us and he reminds us of our weakness Listen to this, not in order to keep us weak, but in order to remind us who is the source of my strength.
The source of our strength is almighty God.
And sometime we need to be reminded of that, and he knows exactly what to send into our life to remind us of that.
Then, of course, 1 of the reason he sends adversity in our life and allows it is in order that you and I may hate sin.
Now the Bible says the wages of sin is death and author of the scripture sin has its penalties.
And there is suffering, heartache, there is adversity as a result of sin.
And so god naturally allows the adversity of sin into the person’s life who is choosing to sin against god.
And he allows the suffering to come. And we we know the principle. We quote it often.
We reap what we saw more than we sow, later than we sow, And as a result, we are going to feel the impact of sin in our life.
And so then of course, He allows it in our life to demonstrate his faithfulness and sometimes we go through adversity and things are really tough.
It’s really bad. Maybe you alone, for example, or you having a financial issue, uh, in all of that, and what happens?
God demonstrates his awesome faithfulness when you and I have no other place to turn.
That we look to him. We rely upon him because he is a god who is faithful.
That means he’s dependable. He’s trustworthy.
He’s always there in every single circumstance of life in which I need him no matter what.
So we understand what his faithfulness is about when we’re in our greatest need.
Now we we said understanding god’s purpose or adversity. And secondly, uh, what’s the proper response?
I have to see it from god. In other words, anything that comes watch this now.
You’ve trusted Jesus Christ as your savior, the Holy Spirit’s coming to your life to live to ruin the reign.
Therefore, he gives you guidance. He should say, I’ll guide you with my eye upon you.
I’ll teach you in the way we should go. So he’s doing that.
So, therefore, when I come to the word and I’m thinking about what’s happening, so how do I view this from god?
Because god has something in mind that I know is best.
And so we we we will quote our favorite verse. 1 of our favorite verses.
God causes all things to work together for good.
To those who love him, the those who called echo in this purpose, you’ve surrendered your life to him in Christ.
He says, he’ll cause something good to happen.
And if you’re in the word of god, and this is why I say, you you should read some portion of the word of god every day.
Because sometimes it’s just exactly. It’s just it’s just tailor made for you.
Because he knows what’s going to happen that day. And so our response ought to be something like this.
God, what’s your goal for this in my life? I know you don’t just let these things happen.
What’s your goal? And I learned a long time ago, if I if I’m gonna hurt And if I’m gonna have pain, I’m gonna suffer about something, glean the most I can out of it, squeeze every bit of truth I can, Let me learn something that’s worth the pain I’m suffering.
Now don’t forget that. Lord, let me learn something that is worth the pain that I’m going through at this particular time.
And then you surrender your will to him. And that’s that’s always the right okay, god.
I don’t understand maybe fully, but I yield myself to you whatever you have in mind, god.
I know has to be good for me. Because I’m 1 of your children. So I’m trusting you.
I’m I’m gonna lay it down before you.
I’m gonna believe that you know what’s best for my life and that you have the best plan for me, whether I understand it or not.
So I’m gonna surrender myself to him. And then rest by faith in his faithfulness.
Lord, I don’t understand it all. I wish I did, but I don’t.
But I’m gonna rest in your faithfulness.
And his faithfulness means that he is trustworthy in every single situation.
He will do exactly what he promised to do.
For example, you’re you’re saying, I don’t know what to do, where to go in this area.
And he says, I’ll guide you with my eye upon you.
I will teach you in their ways you should go. Do you believe he’ll do that?
Do you believe that god is faithful?
Then going through adversity, I can rest in his faithfulness that he’s going to do what he promised to do, that in this given situation, this circumstance, Though I don’t like it, though I’m hurting, though it’s painful, though I misunderstood, or whatever it might be, I’m gonna trust you.
I’m gonna rest in your faithfulness that you are going to bring me through this in a way that’s pleasing and honorable to you.
Then a second thing I would say is this.
Some biblical truths that affirm the idea that god’s goal for adversity is our spiritual growth.
So think about that. Some biblical truths that affirm this idea that god’s purpose in our adversity is our growing.
And, um, if you’ll think about this, It is god’s most effective way for deepening our faith and commitment to him.
Because it’s when we go through trials that we are forced to either I’m gonna trust him or not trust him.
And I’m going through some trial And I trust him, and Satan may come in and say, you know, who do you think you are?
God’s not gonna answer that. That’s, you know what, You you just, you might as well face it.
You’re finished with whatever’s going on in your life. No. God’s gonna be faithful to you no matter what.
And so, uh, it’s just 1 of those tools that god uses to strengthen our faith and our commitment to him.
And then what happens You you you go through a difficult time and god answers your prayer sets you free and you praise the lord.
And what happens? Watch this carefully.
When he has visited you in some form of adversity, and he brings you through that.
That’s like he has increased the strength of the foundation of your life in your faith in him.
Because you can look back and see, well, god you brought me through that. Thank you, Lord.
And you brought me through that, and you brought me through that, and you brought me through that.
This is why you and I meet people who are very, very strong in their faith that they’ve been through all kind of things.
Why? They’ve responded in the right way and recognized that each experience they went through was like adding to the foundation of their enduring faith that will be there and last through the last days of their life.
That’s who he is. So think about this also.
Uh, the area in which we’re experiencing the most adversity is the area in which god is at work bringing us to spiritual maturity.
The area of our life in which we’re experiencing the most adverse today.
If I should say, how many of you today are going through some form of adversity?
All you know somebody who is. Everybody’s hand probably go up. Well, ask yourself the question.
Uh, what’s god’s goal in that? What’s his purpose in that?
God is in the process not only of helping us understand, but he’s maturing us deep down inside.
It isn’t something we’ve just read or heard. There’s a spiritual godliness. There’s a spiritual maturity.
There’s a spiritual strengthening that goes on in our life that nobody else sees and isn’t something you necessarily feel until You know when you feel it?
The next time you hit 1 of those bad times and you test it and you tried and then you realize Well, thank you, Jesus.
I don’t feel like I used to feel. Uh, somehow I can see how you’re in this.
We mature on the inside invisibly, but not invisible to god.
And so it’s the will of god that we continually grow in our Christian life more and more.
And it’s going to be determined by 2 things. 2 things, either that I see all this hurt and pain as an opportunity between god and myself to to grow in my Christian life Oh, I see it as an obstacle.
Listen. Jesus living within you through the Holy Spirit.
Is there to teach and give understanding and enable you help you strengthen you in your relationship to him, to grow, to become stronger, have deeper understanding.
And listen, to grow in our loving relationship to almighty god. It’s an opportunity, not an obstacle.
It’s only an obstacle when I see it as an obstacle rather than opportunity, and I suffer the consequences of unbelief.
And have to face it.
So how do you face adversity in your life?
Just think about it for a moment.
Believing that god is in it And that he’s gonna be with you in it, and he will walk with you through it every single day.
Necessarily brings you through. Now, if you’ve never trusted Jesus as your savior, let me tell you for him.
I don’t know how you think you’re gonna live in this world and this life without Christ.
And be happy and have joy and peace in your life you’re not going to.
You may be trying to cover up your adversity and people do.
With alcohol, drugs, sex, money, and on we could go.
None of that can satisfy the human heart.
Only a personal relationship with god through Jesus Christ and you can say anything you want to say about those things and how necessary they are.
No. They’re not. The 1 thing that is absolutely necessary for life, there are peace and joy and happiness and contentment Even in difficult trying adversarial times, it’s a personal intimate relationship with Jesus Christ, which begins the moment you’re willing to confess your sinfulness and say to him, tell him his best you know how that you do believe that is death on the cross, the shedding of his blood brought about your forgiveness.
Now understand, listen carefully. God’s only begotten son Jesus came into this world for the primary purpose of laying down his life in order that you and I could be saved, and 1 of these days go to heaven.
And on the cross, he bore your penalty and mine for all of our sins and the sins of the whole world.
He was crucified And the shedding of blood was the shedding of his life.
That was god’s requirement that the sinless perfect virgin born son of god.
Send into this world for the purpose of dying for our sins.
Went to the cross, died on the cross and paid your sin debt in full completely.
And as a result, when you accept him as your personal savior, your sins are atoned for for all eternity.
Now, Let’s take the cross out of the scene.
And you die and face god.
It’s you and your sins standing before Holy God.
And listen carefully. You have no claim. You have no excuse.
You can’t come up with enough good works that say you deserve it because the truth is none of us do.
But it’s Jesus and his death at the cross that Pedro sin dead in full.
And if you die without him, it will be an eternal mistake.
And I want to encourage you whatever adversity you are going through to recognize.
That isn’t god being against you.
That’s god putting pressure on you, so you’ll turn to him and have the gift of eternal life.
And father how grateful we are, that your gift of eternal life is large enough to include everybody in the entire world.
And your love is great enough to include everybody in the whole world.
And we humble ourselves before you and acknowledge.
It’s not because we deserve it, but because you love us.
That we have the gift of forgiveness and cleansing.
So I pray today for those who are going through Some adversity in their life.
That their first response or their response having heard this will be to turn to you.
And ask you to give them wisdom to help them understand what they’re suffering in Lord, this world is full, filled, running over, jam, cram, packed with adversity.
Show those of us who are believers, followers of yours.
How to be a blessing God to those about us in Jesus’ name.
Amen.