Welcome to the In Touch podcast with Charles Stanley for Friday, October 24th.

God will allow us to go through pain if that's what it takes to mature us.

Today, you'll see what can happen when you try to escape your trials instead of looking for God's lesson.

Why is it that you and I resist God's breaking process in our life? Remember what we

said? The process goes something like this. He targets the area in your life, which he knows is hindering

what he wants to do in your life. Then God arranges the circumstances or allows them to be arranged in which you feel the pressure. Then he chooses the tools. It may be somebody and may be something financially. It may be a relationship. He chooses the tools. He governs or controls how much pressure is to be placed upon you, and he also controls

the time. Now, when you know I think about that in our own lives, why do we resist him? Well,

probably for this reason. Some people are very strong. They're strong personalities. They have a very forceful will. Some people are emotionally very strong. They can take a lot of heat, a lot of persecution, a lot of criticism. They can take a lot of rejection. They can do without a lot of

loving. And then some folks are very strong-minded. They know how to manipulate, weasel their way out.

They can figure out how to deliver themselves even from God's breaking process in their life.

The pressure turns on, they get busier.

They've sent some setback and some failure,

and their sense of self-will, self-determination,

their pride and rebellion just motivates them to go on and on.

And in spite of everything God does, they just keep on moving on.

That's what Jonah did. Just think what happened. God sent him a storm, threw him overboard,

swallowed him up, spit him out, had a revival, sent him a sunstroke. Nothing he did. All he said,

I want to die, but I don't want to be

obedient to God. My friend, listen to me carefully. Some of you have already drawn yourselves a

circle around you. You've said, I'm not letting anything in this circle, but what I want.

Not even God. Now, you've not put in those terms, but that's what you've

said. Or you've drawn a line and you've said, this is committed as I want to be. This is as committed

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