Welcome to the In Touch podcast with Charles Stanley for Friday, January 31st.

Does your life resemble a roller coaster?

Well, the good news is we don't have to be at the mercy of circumstances.

Today, you'll hear a simple principle from the Bible that can help you overcome the ups and downs of life.

I'm afraid that for most of us and most Christians,

the idea of living a roller coaster up and down life,

off and on, hot and cold, in and out,

has been accepted as the normal Christian life.

This is just the normal Christian life.

But I don't believe that's what Jesus taught.

It's something not what the apostle Paul taught. It is not the teaching of the Word of God. Does this mean that somehow we'll be

able to stretch it all out and balance it all out? No. Does it mean that things will ultimately get

better? No. Could get worse. But you see, here's the difference between the believer and the

unbeliever,

that you and I have tapped into the inexhaustible resource of a supernatural somebody who is God in the person of Jesus Christ to make it possible for us to live in the midst of these

ever-changing circumstances without that. So Paul says, here's the secret. So I want to say first of all,

that overcoming these ups and downs of life is a learning process. Paul said it was true for him.

It's true for us. Secondly, it is a learning process that will ultimately lead us to peace

and contentment in our life when we learn to respond in the right fashion.

And the apostle Paul is saying, I've learned the secret. He says the secret is very simple.

In fact, it's so simple, most folks are going to just trip right over it.

So I want to give you that as a little warning right now that when I show you and when I share with you what Paul is saying, don't say, oh, it can't be that simple. Let me ask you a question.

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