Join Charles Stanley as he delves into a transformative approach to handling stress and anxiety through the timeless wisdom of solitude. Learn how Jesus and the Apostle Paul managed life’s pressures and find inspiration in Stanley’s own journey toward stress-free living. This episode thoroughly examines the distinction between solitude and loneliness, emphasizing the vital role solitude plays in fostering a relationship with God. Whether you’re overwhelmed by life’s demands or seeking a renewed spiritual connection, this conversation offers practical insights and spiritual encouragement for embracing solitude as a conduit to God’s peace and strength.
Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Friday, August 29th. Do the current events of your life have you uptight and stressed out? Let’s discover how being alone with God is crucial to handling anxiety.
SPEAKER 01 :
Stress is a killer. I wonder what brings the most stress into your life. Is it your family? Maybe some friend? Maybe it’s your job. Maybe it’s your health. Maybe it’s the direction of our nation. But when you look around, there’s just stress everywhere. There’s conflict. There is distress about all kind of situations. And I want to give you a solution that I know works. It’s a solution that God has provided for every single one of His children. How do I know it works? Number of years ago, I was a pastor of this church at that time, and I had three television programs, and doing all the things a pastor has to do, like visiting the hospital and going to see people who are this, that, and all kind of situations and circumstances. And went to the hospital three times in that year. Each time I went, they’d give me all these examinations, couldn’t find a thing. I kept telling them, I’m not sick, I’m tired. After the third time, I began to realize this isn’t something that somebody’s done to me. I’ve done this to myself. I brought on all kinds of stress trying to do more than God intended me to do. And I explained it away by saying, you know, I’m healthy and I’m strong and therefore I ought to do all the, I’ll take advantage of every opportunity that comes my way. Well, that’s not even biblical. And so, after a period of time, I was out for three months. And my son Andy and I went to a little island off the coast and we walked around that island for about six weeks. And he took a court out of school. And we’d sing and we’d pray and I’d cry. And all the time, I didn’t realize what was going on. Finally, I did. If I hadn’t, I probably wouldn’t be standing here today because stress is a killer. And God taught me something that I’ll never forget. And probably the only reason I’m standing here now is because I know it works. And I want to share it with you. And all I ask you to do for your sake is to listen to this message when it comes to the kind of stress that we’re talking about here. And so, let me title this, God’s Stress Remover. So what is it? I want you to turn to just one passage of Scripture, because I’m going to turn to others, in the fourteenth chapter of Matthew. And you’ll recall that this is one of those occasions in Jesus’ life when He was going through some stressful times. And think about this for a moment. Jesus knew how to deal with stress. And think about it. When He was walking around, there were always crowds around Him. Please come here. People are sick. Somebody’s died. I’m blind. All the things, continuous pressure upon the Lord Jesus. How did He manage to handle all that? You say, well, that’s Jesus. That’s not me. Listen carefully. You can stand it. Stress can come your way and you can handle it if you handle it in the right fashion. And I’m here to tell you, I know it works. It’s worked for me for many years after I had to have God pin me to the wall to teach me a lesson that I should have learned earlier than that. So, this is one of those occasions and what’s happened here is that Jesus has fed the five thousand and that was an enormous task. And the Scripture says in the twenty-second verse of the fourteenth chapter of Matthew, Immediately he made the disciples get into a boat and go ahead of him to the other side while he sent the crowds away. And after he had sent the crowds away, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray, and when it was evening, he was there alone. Now, that’s just one occasion. He says, for example, in Mark, the first chapter, about the thirty-fifth verse, that Jesus would get up early in the morning and go out in the mountain by himself and talk to the Father. And if you look at his life, most of the time after some dramatic situation occurred, he was by himself alone up in the mountain somewhere talking to the Father, just being quiet. And the Apostle Paul, when he got saved, what did he do? He said, I didn’t go to Jerusalem to talk to the saints and ask them what they believe. He said, I went to Arabia. He got alone with God. So, you say, well now, what is this that absolutely gives me a sense of freedom that I don’t have to live under stress? It’s a, listen, it’s a single word, but there’s more to it than that. The word is solitude. Now, there’s a difference in solitude and being alone or lonely. Loneliness, which all of us have felt at some time or the other, is an anxiety brought on by a feeling of being disconnected. to your friends or family or children or somebody, whatever, out of touch. It is a loss of intimacy or belonging. Listen, if you’re separated, out of touch, no belonging, a feeling of drifting alone in a universe of uncaring people, feeling of isolation, inner emptiness. That’s what real loneliness is about. So, we’re not talking about that. But Jesus was alone at times, like all of us have been. So, let’s look at solitude for a moment. Solitude means to be alone, separated from others. I choose to be alone. I choose to be separated. I choose to be apart from. I choose to withdraw from. Loneliness is painful. And all of us have probably experienced the pain of loneliness. Loneliness is painful. Solitude is not painful because we choose to be alone. So, when I think about choosing it and I think about, well, what’s that all about? What happens when a person gets alone with God? Now, I want to clarify something. We’re not talking about getting alone to pray and have a Bible study and read the Scripture. No, just getting alone with God, period. We live in a very stressful age everywhere you turn. Discord, conflict, all the rest. There’s a way to deal with it. And the way to deal with it is to deal with it God’s way, and that’s what we’re talking about. So, think about it in this way. Why would God even want us to be alone with Him? We’ve sinned against Him. Why would He even want it? There are two primary reasons for it. And the first reason is relationship. Now, I want you to think about something. There is only one thing God created that he could have a personal relationship with, and that is a human being. That makes you very, very special. He doesn’t relate to elephants like he relates to us. He doesn’t relate to mountains and snow and hail and storms and typhoons and all those things he has control of. He doesn’t relate to any of that. He relates to you and me. in a very personal way. He said, let us make man in our image. What kind of image was that? It was an image of spirit, soul. Let us make man in our image. Why did God say that? Because He desired to have fellowship with us. And you are a creation of God. And therefore, because you’re a creation of God, you’re here, and His ultimate primary purpose was to have fellowship with you. He doesn’t need anything. He doesn’t need any of us to do anything. He can get it done without us. So why did He create us? He created us to have fellowship with us. Watch this. He created us in order to reveal His love and His truthfulness and the comfort and all the things that He does for us. That’s what it’s all about. He doesn’t need us. And so His desire is to have a relationship with us in which He can express love and goodness and kindness and mercy and provision and protection and all the rest. So that makes every single one of us special, that God made only human beings with whom He would relate to for all eternity. So that’s the primary reason. And that is, He desires a relationship with us. And solitude is the way that relationship becomes a reality in a person’s life. So, if you think about solitude, you say, well, does that mean that if I’ll just get by myself, God will do this, that, and the other? No, it’s more to it than that. But I just want you to see, first of all, that He created us the way He created us for fellowship. And you remember in Second Corinthians, as well as Romans five, He makes it very, very clear, His attitude toward us in this fifth chapter of Romans. Listen to what He says in this particular passage. He says, For one will hardly die for a righteous man, though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrated His own love toward us. Listen, and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. That makes us very special. Now, why would He die for us? He could create anything. Because when He looks at you, He desires to have a relationship with you. And how can He have the kind of relationship with you that He wants if your mind is always on something else? You’re always busy doing this and busy doing that. You’ve got a schedule that’s jam-crampacked. We’ve all been there. And most people will tell you, for example, well, I just don’t have time. If they say, well, I’d like to have you come to visit my church. Well, I just don’t have time. Sunday’s the only day I have off. Don’t have, listen, they’ll say, I don’t have time for God. created me, who sustains me, who loved me, who died for me, I don’t have time for Him. Foolish, empty, ignorance, sinful, ungodly, unthankful, lack of gratitude. But it’s true in the lives of many people. In fact, it’s becoming true of more and more people who say they don’t have time for God. Now, that’s just one purpose. There’s a second purpose for solitude. Not only is it a relationship, but the second reason is it’s preparation. You and I have the privilege of getting up every morning and spending time with the Lord. And let me explain what I mean by that. When I say not necessarily reading the Bible, it’s not a Bible study and it’s not a prayer meeting. Your primary purpose is to do what? To experience the presence of Almighty God. The sovereign God of the universe who will convey Himself to you, reveal Himself to you, make Himself known to you in the most awesome fashion, just you. And solitude is part of all that. None of us know what tomorrow holds. And so, how do we want to start tomorrow? How do we want to be able to live peacefully, confidently, boldly, productively, fruitfully tomorrow? By starting off the day with the One who will give us guidance and direction, enable us in every single way. Well, what does He want first? He wants you. Just you alone. No telephones at all. No computers. And no doorbells. And no this and no that and no the other. All the things that jam and crowd us. He just wants you. So here’s what He wants. He wants us to open His Word in order to focus on Him. Not my needs at this point. I want to focus on Him. God, I want You to make Yourself known to me. Make Yourself real to me, God. I want to sense your presence.” That’s what He wants. He wants us to sense His presence in our life. And He’s so willing to reveal Himself to us if we’re willing to allow Him to do it. Now, I learned this the hard way, I guess. But my mind used to drift like yours would drift. But earlier in my life, I delivered newspapers and so I didn’t live in a big house. And so I found a place in my church where I could go down in the basement area. And I shut three doors before I got to this room, the Sunday school classrooms. And I could go down and just pray all I wanted to and be quiet and pray out loud if I wanted to and pray silently if I wanted to. And the important thing was I had no windows in that room because it was a basement. And I learned a very important thing. If I went in there and shut the door and closed all the doors between me, I was in there by myself and it was dark. It took me a while to catch on how important that was. But it became a habit in my life. And that is if I want to be alone with God, watch this, I have to eliminate distractions. How do you eliminate distractions? I see no light. I hear no sounds, just God in me. No sounds. If you close your eyes and you don’t hear anything, or your eyes can be open, but there’s no light, you have no distractions. If you want to learn to fellowship with God, who is holy and righteous and perfect and totally loving, You’ve got to get rid of the distractions. And Susannah Wesley had nineteen children, John Wesley and Charles Wesley, two great evangelists. So, she said when she wanted to get alone with God, with all that bunch of kids, she said, she just took her apron and threw it over her head. When they saw that, that meant get out of here and just leave her alone. She wanted to be quiet. So, let me ask you this. Do you have a place to go in your house that you can close the door, that there’s no light and no sound? You say, well, I don’t know that I think it’s all that important. Oh, yes, it is. And let me just say this to you. Don’t you think God deserves your undistracted, undistracted attention? When you, for example, let’s just say that you have a closet that just push the clothes on both ends or whatever it might be. Put you a chair and then get you a towel, cover up the bottom so there’s no light. Everybody’s gone to your house. You’re in the closet by yourself, you and God, and no distractions, not a ray of light. And I’ve always fixed my prayer rooms so that there’s absolute, total darkness. When it’s total darkness, And you don’t hear anything. You will be absolutely amazed how God reveals Himself to you in the most awesome fashion. Because you see, there’s no distraction. You don’t see it. You don’t hear it. It’s just you and God. And you meet Him there for that primary purpose. God, I want you to draw me to yourself. And I want you to say to me whatever you need to say. And so what happens? There’s stillness. There’s quietness. Just you and God. Because He loves you. He wants to be with you uninterrupted by somebody else. He wants your undivided attention. So let me ask you this. Whatever you may be facing in life, whether it’s health or something else, can you improve on being in the presence of Almighty God, who’s the great physician, the great provider, the great peacemaker, the great everything in the world that I need? And He says, I just want you with me. And that’s the most awesome experience. And I can only tell you about it. I can’t make it happen in your life, but I can just tell you this. It’ll get rid of your stress. You say, do you mean to tell me that I won’t have any more stress? I didn’t say that. I said, this is the way you deal with it. And so you go home this afternoon and you’re thinking about tomorrow and tonight you’re sitting there watching TV and all those crazy ads and you got to get up at five o’clock tomorrow morning. Why don’t you try just being alone with Him? Cut out all that stuff. This much I know, He wants us being alone with Him. It’ll make a difference in your health, make a difference in your relationships to other people. You’re going to have a sense of peace and joy and confidence in your heart that no matter what comes your way, when you get along with Him, He stills your heart, quietens your spirit, and makes you an overcomer, no matter what you’re facing in life. And then I would just say, there are many things, but when you practice solitude, here’s what happens. There is a greater strength from God. It’s inexplainable. A greater trust in God. It’s inexplainable. And a deeper relationship with God. That’s just a vital part of all of that. And I would simply ask you this. Do you want God’s best? This is the avenue. Do you want life’s best? This is the avenue. Do you want peace in the midst of storms and quietness and joy when turmoil is all around you? This is the answer. Because stress is a killer and solitude is a life giver.
SPEAKER 02 :
Thank you for listening to God’s Stress Remover. For more inspirational messages like this one, visit our online 24-7 station. And if you’d like to know more about Charles Stanley or InTouch Ministries, stop by InTouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of InTouch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.
