Life Principles to Live By

A Message from In Touch Ministries

Do you ever wonder what God is doing in your life?  Do you wrestle with doubt when your prayers seem to go unanswered?  Almost every believer can relate to the struggle you may feel during challenging times.  While the Christian life is an amazing adventure, it is not without suffering at times.

Even in the midst of difficult seasons, we can be grateful for the wisdom and encouragement found in God's Word.  Over the years, Dr. Stanley has discovered biblical lessons that have helped him navigate the challenges of his life and ministry.  It is our pleasure to share these Life Principles with you on the enclosed bookmark (see below).

Of course, these principles are not shortcuts to knowing God or replacements for in-depth Bible study.  And there is no substitute for a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.  However, we pray these Life Principles will become tools that God will use to teach you more about His character, draw you closer to His heart, and bring powerful transformation to your life.  May God bless you as you obey Him and leave all the consequences to Him.

Twelve Principles to Live By
by Dr. Charles F. Stanley

1.  Our intimacy with God--His highest priority for our lives--determines the impact of our lives.

2.  Obey God and leave all the consequences to Him.

3.  God's Word is an immovable anchor in times of storm.

4.  The awareness of God's presence energizes us for our work.

5.  God does not require us to understand His will, just obey it, even if it seems unreasonable.

6.  You reap what you sow, more than you sow, later than you sow.

7.  The dark moments of our life will last only so long as is necessary for God to accomplish His purpose in us.

8.  Fight all your battles on your knees and you win every time.

9.  Trusting God means looking beyond what we can see to what God sees.

10. If necessary, God will move heaven and earth to show us His will.

11. God assumes full responsibility for our needs when we obey Him.

12. Peace with God is the fruit of oneness with God.

13. Listening to God is essential to walking with God.

Faith-filled Fragments

                      by Jalisa Wenger - Used by permission

With mother-eyes I see a multitude—

Five thousand hungry, longing to be fed.

The daily needs that dance across my list

Stare hungrily—they’re underlined in red.

I need to cook and laundry simply waits.

The children need their mother’s listening ear.

While spiders spin their webs above the door,

I pause to give a hug and dry a tear.

If I could soothe the pain of grieving friends…

Or meet some pressing need across the sea…

“Two hundred penny worth” —so small a sum—

When measured with the surging needs I see.

“Today I come with loaves and fish, dear Lord.

In faith I lay them in your able Hands.

For with Your blessing, they will grow

To meet—and far exceed—the crowd’s demands.

I give out jobs so each child has a part

In making dinner special for their Dad,

And while we work we sing their favorite songs

Then make a list of reasons to be glad!

"I want to reach and help the poor I can,"
I muse while hanging laundry on the line.
"But is the good I'd do in other lands
More noble than within these walls of mine?"

Twelve baskets full of fragments by my side.
I pause a moment to reflect and rest.
"Oh, Lord, I never dreamed of such as this!
In serving You, how richly I've been blessed!"

The Vow

I might not ever scale the mountain heights
Where all the great men stand in glory now;
I may not ever gain the world's delights
Or win a wreath of laurel for my brow;
I may not gain the victories that men
Are fighting for, nor do a thing to boast of;
I may not get a fortune here, but then,
The little that I have I'll make the most of.
I'll make my little home a palace fine,
My little patch of green a garden fair,
And I shall know each humble plant and vine
As rich men know their orchid blossoms rare.
My little home may not be much to see;
It's chimneys may not tower far above;
But it will be a mansion great to me,
For in its walls I'll keep a hoard of love.
I will not pass my modest pleasures by
To grasp at shadows of more splendid things,
Disdaining what of joyousness is nigh
Because I am denied the joy of kings.
But I will laugh and sing my way along,
I'll make the most of what is mine to-day,
And if I never rise above the throng,
I shall have lived a full life anyway.

-by Edgar A. Guest

Five Lessons from Elisabeth Elliott

Used by permission

November 5, 2015 by Susie Hawkins 8 Comments

Few women have had an impact on the kingdom of God as has Elisabeth Elliot. Her remarkable insights and words of wisdom continue to shape us, even after her death and years of illness. Here are just five truths I have gleaned from her devotional book “A Lamp for My Feet.” Published in 1985, it remains on my list of books I regularly re-read.

“Thy List Be Done” – His List, Not Mine

Women always have multiple lists going – shopping needs, errands to be run, answering emails or correspondence, calls to be made, prayer lists, etc. Inevitably, we will have interruptions and won’t accomplish what we hoped. The lists get longer instead of shorter! Elisabeth experienced that frustration on more than one occasion and wrote, “Because God is my sovereign Lord, I was not worried. He manages perfectly day and night, year in and year out, the movements of the starts, the wheeling of the planets, the staggering coordination of events that goes on on the molecular level in order to hold things together. There’s no doubt that He can manage the timing of days and weeks. So I can pray in confidence, ‘Thy list, not mine, be done.'”

“Wastelands”- Don’t Look for Shortcuts

At some time we all experience “dry, fruitless, lonely places.”  Using Exodus 13:17, Elisabeth points out that these times are not wasted for the Christian. “God did not guide them by the road towards the Philistines, although that was the shortest….God intentionally took them by way of the wilderness toward the Red Sea. “If they had gone their own way, they would have missed the deliverance from Egypt’s chariots when the sea was rolled back. Lets not ask for shortcuts. Let’s keep alert for the wonders our Guide will show us in the wilderness.”

“Volunteer Slaves” – Serving with Joy

Our service to Christ is in the sense of a volunteer slave, or a servant who loves her master with all her heart. It is not “forced labor,” but the “purest joy when it is most unobserved, most unself-conscious, most simple, most freely offered.” Don’t minimize the service in small acts – cooking a meal, consoling a discouraged friend, forgiving a failure. “Let me not imagine that my love for You is very great if I am unwilling to do for human being something very small.” Ouch.

“Apportioned Limitation” – Accepting Your Field of Service

God sets limitations on “the scope of our work”, in that He has appointed us to a certain “sphere”. “We will keep to the limits God has apportioned us” (2 Cor. 10:13). Jesus did that – becoming a baby, a growing child, an adolescent, a man, each stage “bounded by its peculiar strictures, yet each offering adequate scope in which to glorify His Father.” God is glorified when we work in the place He has set us. “Let me not covet another’s place or work or glory”

“First Be Quiet” – Learning Silence

“Our hectic lives involve many changes, and changes require decisions, and decisions must often be made in the midst of a multitude of confusions.” Instead of constantly asking others’ advice, Elisabeth suggests practicing quietness. She points out how Jesus deliberately sought solitude during the non-stop days of His ministry. “The more hectic our lives become, the more necessary is this quietness.” When it is not possible to get away to a place of solitude to pray for a day, then “do not speak about the decision to anyone but God for forty eight hours at least. Just hold it before Him alone. Keep your mouth shut for two days. Pray. Listen. Seek his counsel.” Or this, “Sit before Him for fifteen consecutive minutes in silence, focusing … on Psalm 86:11, ‘Guide Me, O Lord…”

What have you learned from Elisabeth?

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Filed Under: Spiritual Growth

Susie Hawkins

Susie lives in Dallas, TX with her husband OS Hawkins. She is the author of "From One Ministry Wife to Another: Honest Conversations on Connections in Ministry". She has 2 daughters and 6 grandchildren, keeping her life full of craziness and joy.

Lessons from Grandma

by Jennifer Clarke - ADivineEncounter.com 

Used by permission

My Grandma died last Friday.

In a way that felt too fast. Like I had been cheated out of “goodbye.”

But also in a way that was merciful. Like for her sake, I was glad she didn’t linger. Or suffer.

It’s not lost on me how blessed I am to have been close with three of my grandparents. Many people never know theirs at all, having grandparents who die early in their lives, or who are separated by distances too great to be crossed on a regular basis.

It turns out I’m doubly blessed, because not only have I known my grandparents, but I’ve also had grandparents worth knowing. My grandparents are among the very best people I’ve ever encountered.

And so in Grandma’s memory, I’d like to share twelve lessons from her. Lessons she taught; lessons she lived; and lessons that will continue to impact me as I look back fondly on her life and her legacy.

Life Lessons from Grandma

1.)Lavish people with grace. Grandma was overflowing with true graciousness and a genuine love for other people. People of all ages flocked to her, finding in her presence unconditional love and kindness. She was quick to forgive; quick to overlook offenses; and quick to give people the benefit of the doubt.

2.)Leave people better off than you find them. The small gestures Grandma offered people made a world of difference in their lives. Sometimes it was the glow of her contagious smile or a warm hug. Sometimes it was a hot meal (preferably a bowl of pinto beans with a side of corn bread). Often it was a nice, long chat or a handwritten note. Notice there’s nothing terribly profound on this list. There didn’t have to be. Grandma’s consistent displays of unconditional love in very ho-hum ways had an effect on people that was far from ho-hum.

3.)Prize your family. I can’t think of anything that was more important to Grandma, besides her faith. As a young woman, all she wanted was to get married and have babies. To the point that she defied her parents’ desire for her to go to college and eloped with my grandpa. Her family has been her priority ever since. She listened earnestly to each one of us, no matter our ages. She fed us generously with homemade cobblers and potato salad that no one else can quite manage to duplicate. She religiously sent birthday and anniversary cards letting us know how proud she was of us. She delighted in our company, in a way that left us feeling pretty special and very loved.

4.)Don’t be a snob. Yes, she prized her family. But she was the furthest thing from cliquish. In her eyes, there was no such thing as an outsider; only newcomers she welcomed with open arms – literally! She loved her in-laws just as much as her own offspring, and they couldn’t help but return the sentiments. Whether you were a cashier, a fellow church member, a neighbor, or the man who mowed her grass, you were greeted with cheerfulness and genuine interest.

5.)If you’re going to give a hug, make it a good one. 
Grandma gave hugs that left no doubt in your mind that you had been hugged completely; but even more, that you had been truly welcomed…accepted…embraced. With no prerequisites required and no strings attached. Her hugs were lingering, revealing that she had all the time in the world for you. Her hugs were firm, indicating that her regard for you was resolute. Her hugs were tight, as she clasped you in her arms even as she clasped you in her heart.



6.)Use your freedom. Heaven help you if you were a government official who made choices Grandma didn’t agree with! You’d be sure to receive a handwritten letter or two or a dozen during your term. Why? Because she took seriously her role as a citizen of this great country. She was part of a generation who is aware of the high cost of our freedom, having had many loved ones serve to protect it.

7.)Truth doesn’t change. She held firmly to biblical views of right and wrong, and she wasn’t ashamed to talk about it. Her heart ached for the moral decline of this country she loved so. She couldn’t comprehend how people could so defiantly reject God; reject morality; and reject the principles on which our nation was founded. In her mind, truth was absolute — unchanged by passing trends, and unfazed by passing time.

8.)Prayer changes things. Grandma was a prayer warrior. Here’s just one example: she prayed every day without fail for a granddaughter who had gone astray. I know it thrilled her heart and affirmed her faith to see the radical transformation in my cousin’s life over the past couple of years. She even got to see that granddaughter’s entire family reunited this past summer. This cousin will be the first to tell you that the prayers offered on her behalf are what made the difference in her life.

9.)You make time for what’s important. Grandma’s priorities were reflected in the way she spent her time — namely, God and people. Not being able to drive, she would’ve had a good excuse to sit out a Sunday service or two, and most certainly a Wednesday night prayer meeting every now and then. But she remained faithful in church attendance to the end, thanks to the church bus ministry and the kindness of fellow church members.

One example of Grandma’s prioritizing of relationships is the family reunion she and my grandpa established more than 30 years ago. As their children grew up and started families of their own, Grandma and Grandpa realized the need for a time set aside every year for reestablishing family bonds. And so for a whole week every summer the Angoves have gathered for some concentrated family time in a state park. The young cousins who grew up in the 80s look forward to bringing their own children to this much-beloved spot each year. It occurs to me that lots of families talk about wanting to spend more time together. But my grandparents’ decision to start this tradition decades ago reveal that they truly prioritized their family’s time together.

10.)Change can be good. I was doubtful when Grandma’s six children bought her a computer about a dozen years ago.  I didn’t know any elderly people who used a computer, and I couldn’t imagine Grandma having a desire to spend time learning how to use one. Much to my surprise, she became the queen of email in no time, relishing the lightning fast method of sending notes to her loved ones.

11.)Count your blessings. This was her favorite hymn and unofficial motto. She was an eternal optimist; even in the worst of times, she held fast to the belief that God was still in charge and that tomorrow would be a better day. Counting her blessings is what allowed her to see the best in others. Counting her blessings is also what prompted her to embrace the blessings brought by change, rather than being overwhelmed by the fears that plague so many.

12.)Point people to Jesus. And that’s really what it’s all about, isn’t it? At Grandma’s funeral, more than one person remarked that when they were in her presence, they had a distinct sense of being in the presence of Jesus. That’s how well she loved. How well she lived.

I can’t begrudge my grandma’s Savior for calling her to her heavenly home. After all, she wasn’t truly “mine.” She wasn’t even her own. She was bought with a price. (I Corinthians 6:19-20) And since I was bought with that same price, I can only look forward to the day when I’ll get another one of those hugs I’ll miss so much in the meantime.