Daily Radio Program with Charles Stanley - In Touch Ministries - Strengthening Our Wavering Faith - Part 1

Episode Date: October 3, 2026

Dr. Stanley teaches the most common reasons we waver in our faith during life's trials or periods of unanswered prayers. Donate: https://store.intouch.org/donate/generalSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to this weekend's In-Touch podcast with Charles Stanley. What happens to your faith when life takes an unexpected turn, when difficulty, loss, or disappointment sets in? In those moments, it's easy to waver, but you don't have to lose your trust in God. Today's message offers encouragement and practical insight in strengthening our wavering faith. The key to your whole Christian life is your faith. For example, that's how you were saved. That's how you have a personal relationship with God through his son, Jesus Christ. When you come to pray, there's always the issue of faith.

When it comes to healing and asking God for healing, there's always the issue of faith. In fact, your whole daily life is an expression of faith, either your unbelief, your doubt, or your faith. And yet, in spite of all that, and the fact that we know it, there's one aspect of our faith that all of us have to deal with continually. We don't like to deal with it. we'd like to eliminate it once and for all, but somehow we don't or we came. So I want you to turn, if you will, to James Chapter 1. And you'll recall that he's writing here to those who

are going through difficulty in hardship and persecution. And so having introduced it in the first verse, he begins the second verse by saying, consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result that you may be perfect and complete lacking in nothing. But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all men or women generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith without any doubting, but he who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind.

But let not that man expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, being a a double-minded man unstable in all his ways. Every single one of us has had the problem with wavering faith, because there's some things that hit us blindside or hit us right in the front. There are some things that you and I know that we need and we come to ask God for and we waffle in our faith. We say, well, now, here's what he said. Here's what I ask. I'm going to trust God. Hallelujah. Amen. About a half hour later, we say, oh, God, I hope you will. I'm a I hope you will. And so what happens?

We go back and you know what he says? He says, don't expect to get it. That's a pretty strong statement. I want us to examine for a few moments what causes us to waive in our faith. We have been saved by the grace of God. We have the Bible. We have the promises of God. We know what he says.

We know he's an unconditional loving God. We would agree that he's absolutely faithful. He's absolutely trustworthy. Then what in the world makes us weave and wobble and to and fro and wave in our faith. Why do we do it? Number one is this. If you and I are uncertain about what we're asking about, if we're uncertain about the will of God, if we don't have some promise from his word, and I don't say that you always have to find some promise, but if you and I are asking, making any request of God somewhere in the scripture, there is a promise that certainly would relate to what you're asking

for. Well, that's a sense of direction or finances or relationships or whatever it is. The promise is there. So if I don't know what the will of God is, and I'm saying, now, Lord, here's what I'm asking you. Then where do I start? Here's where I start. I start with this request. Father, here's my need. Here's what I'm asking for. I need to know what is your will about this. That's where I start. What's the will of the Father? Do I have a right to ask God to show me how to pray about a certain thing? Yes. Do I have a right to expect God to show me exactly how to ask him or what to ask him for? Yes. Does he want me to ask for the right thing? Yes.

Is he committed to showing us exactly what to ask for? Yes. Therefore, when I say, Lord, show me your will about this. How am I to pray about this? I'm not even sure this is what you want for my life. Show me your will. God is under divine obligation to show you his will about how to pray for that issue because he wants you to ask the right thing.

He says, asking it shall be given you, seeking you shall find, knocking it shall be open under you. Everyone who asks receives, he that seeks knocks on to the person, to the person who is searching out there, he says, God's going to open the door. God wants you to know, so first of all, you ask him. So one of the first reasons we waver is we don't know his will and we don't take time to find out his will.

We just hope it is. Listen, hoping, listen, just hoping that you're praying right, won't cut it, friend. If you want God to bless you, then stop long enough to find out what's the will of the Father in this. Number one, I need to know what God's will is. If I don't, I'm going to waver my faith. Second thing is this.

Second cause is that oftentimes human reason runs counter or is in conflict to our faith. There's some things that God would require of us that are absolutely not humanly reasonable. For example, give you a scriptural illustration first of all. You don't remember that when Jesus had barred Peter's boat and they were there close to the shore and he was standing in the boat and preaching and finally when they finished, he said, Peter, get your buddies together and let's go fishing. He said, we fished all night long. We fished all night.

We didn't get one single bite, throwing the net over, of course. We didn't get a thing. We're going fishing, Peter. Well, and I am sure this is what he must have felt. Well, he is the master. But I've been fishing since I was a kid. My daddy taught me to fish. And last night we fished all night and long, we didn't catch a thing.

Yes, yes, master, we're going fishing. because he was human. I mean, he knew all about fishing. And here's Jesus coming along in the morning. Probably wasn't the best time to fish anyway. The only difference was when Jesus says, oh, boy, you're going to get a big catch, no matter what's happening. So what happens? He wavered in his faith. Now, every Sunday, many of you come to church in your own church, and you've never settled the issue whether to trust God or not. Oh, yes, I have. Well, prove it. Well, I've been saved. Well, that's pretty good. Well, but why do you have a struggle every Sunday? Well, the reason I struggle every Sunday is because you talk about tithing,

and you're telling me that it's reasonable for me to take one penny out of every dime and give it to God, and nine pennies are going further than ten pennies. No way. Prove that, for example, you say, well, I make $100, and you're telling me if I give God $10, my $90 are going further than $10. I can, it's a human reasoning. I can prove it won't work. If I go to the store and something costs $100 and I give in $90,

he's going to say, no deal. So don't give me this reasonable stuff that tithing my income is reasonable. I never said it was reasonable. There's nothing about it. It's reasonable. I agree. Human is not reasonable. But I challenge any person alive who has ever tied their income

to deny the fact that you do far better financially when you trust God. with one-tenth of your income or more, your 90% is going further every single time. And I would challenge anybody and I've been tithing and giving more than a tithe. Since my first job, which was 13 years of age, I made $4. From that moment on, under this present day, I've always given God more. And I can tell you, when you put it on a piece of paper and try to add that and subtract it, it never works. Here's what I want you to see.

if it didn't take any faith. Here's what happens. When you and I trust God, do you know what happens? The sovereign, omnipotent, almighty, all-knowing God, who is sovereign of this universe, when you and I trust him, he, listen, he gets involved in whatever I'm dealing with and in his awesome power provides the need no matter what. You see, that's why it doesn't have to be reasonable.

The Christian life is not reasonable. ask a question. Can you reason this one out? How can one die two thousand years ago and a cross? And you, two thousand years later, be absolutely totally forgiven of your sin, have absolute totally eternal security when one man back there that you have never met, never seen him, he died two thousand years ago, and today you're forgiven of your sin. That doesn't even make any sense, except that he's God. There a lot of things don't make any sense except that there's God. And so when you think about how he operates, God enables us in whatever circumstance we're in. It doesn't make any sense a greed.

Just to remember that. It's not even supposed to make sense. It just works because God's in it. He can take whatever you give him and multiply. When in need give, if you feel lonely, then what do you do? You give yourself to someone else. you reach out to be a friend. When you are hurting, you reach out mercifully to someone else who is hurting. When you're despondent and you're depressed, you reach out to some of you say, well, that's hard,

that's hard to do. Right, I understand it's hard to do. Whatever we give, it shall be given back. As you see, this is how wise God is. He didn't say, give money, give this, give that. He said, give and it shall be given you. Good measure, listen, good measure, press down, shaking the together, press down. What is he saying? You're going to get more than you give. That's the way God operates. Not reasonable. So, if I wait till I can reason it out, my faith is going to waver because I'm saying, God, how you're going to, I don't understand how you're going to do that. I know that's what you said, and I believe what you said, but so our faith waivers. A third reason that it'll waver is this. And that is when our feelings overshadow or overcome

our faith. Now, most people have the biggest problem with our faith in this whole area. of feeling. For example, somebody says, well, yeah, I've asked the Lord to show me, well, are you trusting? Well, I, you know, I just, you know, to tell you the truth, I just don't feel worthy of God answering my prayer. You'll never be worthy. Forget it. So feelings of unworthiness. I'm telling you, feelings are total disaster because they change continuously, not daily, but moment by moment. Listen, if you go by your feelings, your faith is going to wobble all over the place. Then I think also in terms of wavering faith, I think about the fact that when we fail to see God at work in our circumstances, so somebody says, well, you know, I asked God,

I got on my knees, and I got the word out, and I prayed, and I said, Lord, here's what you said, I'm trusting you, I'm believing you, and so what happens? Then we don't say anything happen. And listen, most of the time, in big issues, God does. doesn't work real fast. And so what happens is because you and I can't see him at work, because we don't see the end result. Well, you know, if I get to see how it's going to turn out, no, here's the problem. The problem is this. No one in the Bible does it say that I'm to live by sight. I am to live by faith. And the whole issue of faith is I can't see. Now, what does the Bible say? The Bible says that you're not to walk by faith, not by sight, not by feeling, two real,

obstacles to fully trusting God are sight and our feelings because we like this idea of, I want to feel that God's going to do it. I've had lots of answers to prayer that I didn't feel anything about. I just said, God, here's what you said. I'm trusting you for it. I'm going to believe you for it, no matter what I see and what I feel. And so oftentimes we are waiting for God to show us the end result. He's not going to do it. Most of the time, 99.9.9% of the time, God is going to make us wait and lead us one step at a time, and then oftentimes, listen, when we least expect his answer, there it is, looking right at us. Now that leads me to something else, and that is one of the primary reasons that we waver in our faith is because we listen

to the negative counsel of other people. And so oftentimes we face it. And so oftentimes we face it. the situation or circumstance. First people think people who get on the phone. Let me tell you what's going on. What would you do? That is the worst thing you can do. Listen, everybody has an advice and everybody has an opinion. Now listen carefully, because most people have a hard time with this. God has a unique will for your life. His will for your life is not like his will for everybody, anybody else's life. You are a specific individual whom God created for the purpose of ultimately bringing him glory, but accomplishing something in your life and accomplishing something through your life and for you. Therefore, no one else knows the will of God for your life. That does

not mean that God cannot give people insight to give you wise, godly counsel, but ultimately, you've got to have an affirmation from God. Listen, if you make decisions based on what other people tell you, you're going to make the wrong decision most of the time because most people, in order to get your approval are going to tell you what they think you want to hear so they'll feel good and you'll feel good. That's why it's unwise. And so you may seek godly counsel, but even if you've sought godly counsel, listen, you want God to affirm that counsel in some fashion. And so if you wait and you just want to hear what someone else says, because you've heard people who says, now here's what I would do. They don't have any earthly idea what they would do until they're in your

listen, they've got to be in your shoes with your personality, with your emotional makeup, with your relationship to God, with your insider, your lack of insight, your knowledge, or your ignorance, and there's so many things involved in them doing what having you do what they would do, forget that. And yet that's what makes our faith way. Well, you know, I got in and I prayed and I asked all to show me, here's what I believe God said. But then, you know, I asked so and so, and they said, oh, God doesn't work that way. So, Lord, here's what you said, and I believe what you said, Lord. But then I went, I asked my best friend, and he said, man, you dreaming.

I don't want you to be disappointed. I said, don't ask God for something that you're not going to have, and then you get disappointed. Then it'll hurt your faith. Well, listen, they're destroying my faith by telling me that. And I can remember as a kid growing up, when I still remember how I went through that. And this is what happened. Happen to go to a particular church is legalistic.

And so I heard this stuff all the time that if you sin after you're saved, you're going to hell. Well, you know, at 12 years of age, I was saved, 13, 14, those teenage years, and I'd get on my knees at night and ask God to forgive me for whatever in my life had not been right that day. And then I'd remember what the pastor said, you sin against God, you're going to hell. So that sinned it, that shall die. I think, oh, whew. And then as I prayed, it's like I had this feeling, you're not going to hell. So I thought, maybe that's the Holy Spirit telling me I'm not.

Yeah, but this is what the pastor said. And as a kid, you know, I believe whatever he said, well, he said, I was going to hell if I sinned. And I know I've sinned and God, I'd get the Bible out and read me a few verses. And then I'd say, well, I'm not going to hell. Then I'd lie down and I'd think, yes, I am. I mean, I'm telling you, listen, my friend, if you go to a legalistic church, you're already in trouble. You're already in trouble. It'll cause your faith to waver.

Listening to that kind of stuff calls your faith to waver. Well, I think also, when I think in terms of one of the primary reasons is that we focus on the circumstance. Listen, you're going through some difficult and hardship in life. What happens when you look at your trouble? What happens to the size of your trouble when you look at it? It's bigger and bigger. More and more complex. The longer you look at it, the larger it gets, the more complex, the more difficult it looks.

You see, if I want my faith to be sturdy and strong, I need to get my focus on my father, not on my problem. If you don't keep it on him, here's what Satan will do. Satan will do everything in his power to cause you to keep it. keep your attention on the very things that destroy your faith. What we see, what we hear, what we feel. That's not the way God operates. Another thing I think is very important to remember here's this, and that is that when a person is ignorant of God's ways,

when a person doesn't know how God works, you're going to waver in your faith. Now, when you and I learn the ways of God, we can face anything in life, no matter what, remembering that our God is absolutely sovereign. He is in absolute control of our life. Only what he allows, only for his purpose, only for his timing. He can change any circumstance, any purpose, any direction, any time he wants to do it.

If I understand the ways of God, that's the whole issue of tithing. That's one of the ways of God. The whole idea of waiting upon the Lord for his timing. That's one of the ways of God. We could just go through the Bible. the ways of God are many, many, many ways, how he operates. So listen, when I understand, when I can grasp this truth that God allows hardship and pain and suffering for the purpose of purifying our heart, strengthening our faith, teaching us endurance, enabling us to walk

steadfastly in order to use us in a greater fashion, I understand that's one of his ways then I can face those difficulties in hardship and pain and suffering, what, with a sense of confidence and assurance and even joy amidst that because I know that the end result, I'm going to love the end result. Thank you for listening to Strengthening Our Wavering Faith. 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.