Don’t let your fears, your heartaches, or troubles overwhelm you – focus on the One who has control over everything. Dr. Charles Stanley offers encouragement and a personal example from his “In the School of Faith” series. See more: http://bit.ly/ITMsof4. In Touch Ministries, 2012. For more messages from Charles Stanley, including this week’s broadcast, go to www.intouch.org/watch
the more you focus on your difficulty
your hardship or even your pain when
you’re suffering the more you focus on
is what happens the bigger it gets
well I mean I’ve been going through this
and I’ve been going through that and if
your friends listen to you and say oh
I’m sorry I feel so sorry for you the
more pity they give you the bigger it
gets and the bigger it gets the more you
doubt God and so the issue is focused
and I think when I think of focus I
think of many instances in the Bible but
one of the primary ones is Daniel and
the Lions Den and so the Bible says he
slept with the Lions all night if he’d
have been focused on Lions he would have
been sleeping
he’d have been over the corner someone
for all crouching down hoping that they
wouldn’t see him or something and it
brings me back to my most favorite
illustrations when God just did
something for me in one of the most
difficult times in my life
it probably was was up to the very top
and that this lady came to see me and
she said I want you to have lunch with
me and then I want to take you up to my
apartment and show you something what
she was about seven to something and I
was thirty something I felt pretty safe
and so so we ate lunch and I went to see
her and I was going through a very
difficult time at church they were doing
that best try to get rid of me and so
she we walked in she said I don’t sit
down I want to show you something walked
over and showed me this picture of
Daniel in the lion’s den and she’s
sitting that son I want you to tell me
what you see so I said well and I can
still remember looking that picture I
see this line over here looking up and
this woman looking down and see the
bones and so I thought they were
everything this little lady get positive
thought about and I said she said oh do
you see anything else
I said no she said if you’ll notice and
then the picture had all these lines and
Daniel had his hands behind and he’s
looking at this ray of light she said
what I want you to see is Daniel doesn’t
have
on the liens but on god it was like god
hug me that day because from that moment
on all of my fears disappear all of my
uncertainties and a lot of other things
probably disappeared because she got my
focus right when you focus on the
trouble in the heartache and the burden
of the pain it gets bigger and we feel
less confident less significant and
overwhelmed because remember this daniel
was looking at omnipotence who created
alliance he could shut the lion’s mouth
he got to kill everyone I’m in a second
he just let him hang around while Daniel
went to sleep that night and before he
probably went to sleep and when he woke
up he went up and looked up and disor
minding of God that he was where he was
because he had obeyed God and yard
delivered him God always operates on the
basis of principles not on the basis of
feelings and how we feel so on
principles for example the simplest one
is we reap what we sow more than we sow
later than me so God always operates he
does never change that and so for
example one of those principles is obey
God leave all the consequences now that
means I’m gonna do what he says I will
let him take care of the consequences
God always acts for example he says one
of those principles is that God acts in
behalf of those who wait for him and so
if I’m going to act on the basis of
principle then I know I’m gonna be
heading in the right direction doing the
right thing because God operates on
principles and that’s the reason you and
I can learn how to relate to him because
if I don’t understand his ways then I’m
gonna say God what are you up to
well he’s just up to doing and being who
he says he is and so you could come up
with most any problem and I believe give
me a little time and I could come up
with a principle to say if you’ll obey
this principle watch what happens
because God wants us to obey Him and
listen leave the consequences to him let
me ask you a question is there any
consequence of your obedience God can’t
handle right none he handle every one of
them well if I obey Him and leave the
consequences to him here’s what happens
I’m gonna be able to have peace and a
sense of joy and confidence and
assurance it doesn’t make any difference
what’s going on because he’s in control
and if I’m obeying him he started taking
care of it because listen the only thing
that can happen in your life it’s what
God allows if you’re a child of God what
he allows he allows for reason I may not
like it and they’ve been lots of times
I’ve told him I didn’t like it and you
know what he said
nothing nothing he just let me hammer
away with it and deal with it until I
finally said yeah you’re right I don’t
like this I know you’re right that’s
what your word says and even though I
don’t like it I want you to have your
way no matter what when you’re living
with guilt in your life are you living
with sin in your life you’re gonna have
a very difficult time trusting God
because sin short-circuits the power of
God in the person’s life