Have you ever asked yourself, “Why must I endure difficulties at this moment in my life?” If we shift our perspective to one focused on growing during difficulties rather than questioning God’s decisions, we begin to see that God is trying to get our attention so that we can not only draw closer to but also obey Him. To elaborate on this, Dr. Stanley explains three important words—cleansing, companionship, and conformity—to emphasize that God wants to be close to us because He has a specific plan for each of our lives.
Well, here we are again,
waiting, watching, working,
and I certainly hope praying.
It’s very difficult for
all of us at this time,
especially people who are so energetic
and working and playing and
energized with their children.
Here we are stuck in our
homes or in our offices,
whatever it might be.
And yet God has a purpose for everything.
Sometimes we don’t
understand what that is,
but He always has a purpose.
And when I think about
what God has in mind,
one thing for certain,
He uses every difficulty
to draw us to Himself.
So ask yourself this question:
How close do you feel to God now?
Has this driven you closer to Him?
Or has it made you impatient,
wondering and asking the question,
“Why God, where are you?”
Well, I can tell you where He is.
He’s where He’s always
been, waiting for us
to give Him our full attention.
And I think about this
verse from Scripture,
“The secret things of the
Lord, our God belong to Him.
And we have to understand
and wait and watch and listen
to see what he has to say.
And of course we ask
ourselves this question.
Well, the Bible says in Romans 8:28,
“We know that all things, everything,
works together for the
good for those who love God
to those who are called
according to His purpose.”
Now we can quote that
verse, know it by heart,
and yet, when it comes to times like this,
we think, “God, what are you up to?”
God always has a purpose
for what He’s up to,
and we might ask the question,
“We’ve had it so good in this country,
is God pulling away from us the blessings
that he has bestowed upon us?”
Maybe because the way we responded.
We’ve certainly not responded
with gratitude and thanksgiving.
And it just might be
that He is allowing us
to suffer some things that
other nations have suffered
for years and years.
I think about the wars we’ve been through
and how it drove people to
pray and the difficulty
and the hardship people went through.
And I can remember even
then that we were afraid.
Well, whatever God allows
in your life, remember this:
When he says, “All things
work together for good
to those who love Him.”
Not just anybody but to those of us
who’ve trusted Jesus as
our Savior, He’s in charge.
He has our best interest at heart,
so whatever’s going on in
your life right now, remember
this. This is His commitment. He is in an
attempt to work something
good in this in our life.
So would you say that you’re
walking in the will of God,
in the right direction for
God’s will in your life?
Or would you say the
real truth is you need
to repent of your sins,
get right with God,
get back into the Word of God?
You’d have to say, well
you use to read the Word,
used to go to church, used
to do this, used to do that.
What about right now?
He deserves our attention,
so I want you to think about three words.
And the first word is “cleansing.”
He says in the 119th Psalm,
“David said, ‘Before I was
afflicted I went astray.'”
So what is He saying?
God says, “There’s a specific purpose
for some things He allows in our life.”
And I want to challenge you to stop,
get on your knees or whatever it might be,
get by yourself and ask God,
“Lord, what are you
saying to me personally?
Before I was afflicted, I went astray,
Lord, have I been astray?
Am I astray now? Has
anything changed since we had
to stay at home, since I can’t work,
since I don’t have the income I had?
I’m afraid I won’t have enough,
but what has that done for me?
And so the truth is, He
says if we confess our sins,
He’s faithful and just to
forgive us for our sins
and to cleanse us from
all unrighteousness.
You can make it right,
right now by asking God
to show you where you’ve been astray.
Where you’ve neglected him,
things you’ve just overlooked.
When’s the last time
you’ve opened your Bible?
When’s the last time you
sat down with your children
and said, “Let’s read the Word of God.”
Would you be ashamed to read the Bible
with your children since
you haven’t for a long time?
Forget it. It’s time to open the Word
of God with your children
and say, “Dad’s not opened
this Word before you.
I’m ashamed, I’m asking God to forgive me,
and we want to get God
back into our family.”
Cleansing is a big step.
Then companionship. What
about the time you’ve spent
with your family? Have you
spent it with your friends
to the neglect of your family,
your wife, and your children?
What have you been doing
with the time that you’ve had
the privilege of spending
it with your family?
And so in times of trouble,
we have to think differently about things,
and that’s the reason God sends it.
He wants us to think
personally, intimately
about, “What I’m I doing with my life?
Is my life clean?
What about my time? How
am I spending my time?”
And, “Am I spending it
sitting in front of the TV,
or with my friends, or shopping,
or sports, or what is it?”
A good time for us to re-evaluate
how we’re living our life.
So, when I look around and
see what people are doing,
I can think very evidently,
“God, you have gotten our attention.
You have brought this plague upon us.”
People would say, “No, God
had nothing to do with it.”
“I don’t think so.”
For the simple reason you
look at at the Word of God.
And, look at the times
plagues have happened to other nations.
What has it done?
It has driven them to almighty God.
I believe that’s one of
the reasons this is here,
and we can listen to the
doctors and the scientists
and the politicians and
all the other people,
and yet, we have to listen to God.
I love this verse when it says,
“In the shadow of thy wings
is my refuge.”
So we don’t give up
hope, we don’t lose hope.
We keep watching and listening
and saying, “Okay, God, I’m trusting you.”
That’s what this is all
about: trusting God.
Asking, “Lord, what are
you trying to say to me?”
We should all come out of
this better men and women,
more faithful to God, more
faithful in his churches,
more faithful with our finances.
This is the time to
re-examine, to look around us,
to look at ourselves and
for the first time, maybe
in a long time, to be very, very honest.
And I think about all
of this that’s going on
and think about this question,
God may be asking us, “Am I not enough,
“Do you need all these things?
“Am I not enough? Am I not
enough that I’m your God,
that I’ve promised to meet your needs,
and yet you’ve been too
busy doing other things?”
Then there’s the third
word, and that’s conformity.
Conformity means to be made
in the likeness of Christ,
that God is in the process
of using all of this,
first of all, to get our attention,
and secondly, not only
to get our attention,
but get us into His word.
Get us into new relationships,
being sensitive to other people’s needs,
so He always has a purpose for it.
And when I think about what He says,
Because He uses all things,
everything, to get our attention,
to bring us into the likeness
of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Storms, difficulty, hardship,
pain, suffering, shape us.
And many people you and I know,
when they give that personal testimony,
they’ve been shaped in their
character by hardship and trial
and death and suffering.
So would you say that God
may be able, not only just be
able, but ready and
willing and not only that
but that He’s in the
process of shaping you?
Changing something about you in life
that needs to be changed.
Do you have the courage to ask him,
“Lord, whatever’s going on in
my life, you got my attention,
and I want you to shape me, Father.
Take out of my life
what shouldn’t be there.
Add what ought to be there.
Get my focus on my family,
get my focus on you, Father,
and not only upon my
friends and all the rest.”
We’re going to get through all of this.
But the one thing you want to be sure:
you have not gone through all of this
and that you remain the way you were.
This is an opportunity
for God to speak to you.
So therefore, you must be a listener,
willing to listen to almighty
God speak to your heart,
tell you what He wants to say to you,
and then stand back and
ask yourself the question,
Am I willing to make whatever
changes are necessary
to have made this virus
an advantage in my life,
not some handicap,
not something I’m going to
complain about for years and
years. But a time in
my life when I listened
to God for the first time.
A time in my life when I
not only listened to Him,
but I decided to obey God
and leave all the consequences to Him.
Don’t waste your sorrows,
don’t waste your trials,
don’t waste your heartache,
don’t waste your suffering.
Turn all of that, by turning
yourself over to Jesus Christ,
surrendering your life
to Him, and remember,
that God works everything to our good
if we’re willing to listen,
willing to trust Him.
And that’s my prayer,
that you will listen,
that you will turn your heart toward God,
and that you will allow
this time to have been
one of the most advantageous
times in your life.
Listening to God and choosing to obey him.
So let’s pray together.
“Father, I pray today that every person
who hears this message
will be honest enough
to open their heart to
you, examine themselves,
be willing to yield themselves to you,
and let this be a new era in their life.
Be willing to walk out
of this virus saying, ‘Thank you, God,
for what you’ve done in my heart.
You’ve opened my eyes
and my ears to the truth.
Lord, here’s my heart, here’s my life.
I’m all yours.’ In Jesus’ name, amen.”