Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Pastor Charles R. Swindoll has devoted his life to the accurate, practical teaching and application of God's Word. He is the founding pastor of Stonebriar Community Church in Frisco, Texas, as well as the founder of Insight for Living, a leading program in Christian broadcasting since 1979 that airs around the world. Chuck has also served as president and now chancellor emeritus at Dallas Theological Seminary and has contributed more than 100 titles to a worldwide reading audience, books for which he has received the Gold Medallion Lifetime Achievement Award, twelve Gold Medallion Awards, and the Christian Book Award for Bible of the Year.

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

GETTING THROUGH THE TOUGH STUFF

W Publishing Group

Contents

Introduction......................................................................ixOne Getting Through the Tough Stuff of Temptation................................1Two Getting Through the Tough Stuff of Misunderstanding..........................17Three Getting Through the Tough Stuff of Anxiety.................................33Four Getting Through the Tough Stuff of Shame....................................47Five Getting Through the Tough Stuff of Doubt....................................61Six Getting Through the Tough Stuff of Divorce...................................77Seven Getting Through the Tough Stuff of Remarriage..............................93Eight Getting Through the Tough Stuff of Confrontation...........................109Nine Getting Through the Tough Stuff of Pain.....................................123Ten Getting Through the Tough Stuff of Prejudice.................................139Eleven Getting Through the Tough Stuff of Hypocrisy..............................155Twelve Getting Through the Tough Stuff of Inadequacy.............................171Thirteen Getting Through the Tough Stuff of Disqualification.....................187Fourteen Getting Through the Tough Stuff of Death................................207Conclusion It's Always Something!................................................223Endnotes 227

Chapter One

A favorite poem of mine is Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken." It speaks plainly of the importance of going the right way when tempted to take another.

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth; Then took the other, as just as fair, And having perhaps the better claim, Because it was grassy and wanted wear; Though as for that, the passing there Had worn them really about the same, And both that morning equally lay In leaves no step had trodden black. Oh, I kept the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back. I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.

Temptations come like Frost's proverbial fork in the road. We determine our destiny in how we respond. Take the wrong road and the end could be devastating. That's what makes our struggle with temptations so unbelievably tough. It's those consequences we don't want to face that haunt us.

But before we address our struggle, let's look at the temptation Jesus faced. Our journey begins with a critical juncture in His life. That scene is described near the beginning of the Gospel story written by Matthew. It's important you read the entire account to grasp the nature of this diabolical ordeal. Let its intensity grip you.

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after He had fasted forty days and forty nights, He then became hungry. And the tempter came and said to Him, "If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread." But He answered and said, "It is written, 'MAN SHALL NOT LIVE ON BREAD ALONE, BUT ON EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDS OUT OF THE MOUTH OF GOD.'" Then the devil took Him into the holy city and had Him stand on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, "If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down, for it is written, 'He will command His angels concerning you'; and 'On their hands they will bear You up, so that You will not strike Your foot against a stone.'" Jesus said to him, "On the other hand, it is written, 'You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.'" Again, the devil took Him to a very high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory; and he said to Him, "All these things I will give You, if You fall down and worship me." Then Jesus said to him, "Go, Satan! For it is written, 'You shall worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only.'" Then the devil left Him; and behold, angels came and began to minister to Him. (Matthew 4:1-11)

When Jesus Meets the Tempter

Matthew 4 opens at the commencement of Jesus's ministry. His official work had not yet begun. He was a thirty-year-old single adult. He had not yet called the twelve disciples. He hadn't delivered His first sermon. He had not even been criticized. He was young, inexperienced, and virtually unknown.

At His baptism in the chilly Jordan River, Jesus's message and mission were verified as God announced, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased" (Matthew 3:17). And with that the Spirit immediately whisked Jesus away to an unnamed wilderness. Alone and pensive, Jesus fasted for forty days and nights. When He lay weakened from lack of nourishment and languishing in the harsh desert elements, the tempter made his move.

Isn't that a clever strategy? The enemy knows exactly when you and I are most vulnerable. He knows to look patiently for that chink in our armor where we're most exposed. Satan waited until Christ seemed most vulnerable before he initiated a series of three grueling tests. Each became more intense than the one before.

The Nature of the Temptations

In the first temptation the devil taunted Jesus, who answered him with Scripture. Instead of backing off, Satan taunted Jesus a second time. Again Jesus met his adversary's test with the power of biblical truth. Undeterred, Satan persisted. He escorted Jesus to an exceedingly high mountain, tempting Him for the third time. Jesus's answer was a leveling reply, which came again with the force of Scripture. Back and forth it went. We call it interchange, a rhetorical device Matthew employed to make his point. Matthew wanted his readers to catch the force of Satan's relentless, repeated assaults, each of which was met by Christ's firm resistance.

Remember, Jesus didn't come as a conquering, warrior King storming the world with fireworks, flags, and fanfare. That's how you and I would come if we wanted to be king! Not Jesus. Matthew explains how Christ came as a lowly King to inaugurate a different kind of kingdom. He came silently and humbly, like a soft-footed servant, slipping into the darkness of earth's night without anyone noticing. He entered without pretense but not without purpose. He came to die ... to pay sin's penalty in full. His mission was the Cross, and nobody knew that more than Satan. The devil's strategy to thwart that mission was to take Jesus off point before His ministry even began. He hoped to trick God's Son into submission, using a three-pronged line of attack.

The first temptation was of a personal nature. The tempter slipped in and whispered in His ear, "If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread." At their feet were small, smooth stones, perhaps chips of limestone abundant in that wilderness terrain. Jesus had just completed forty days of fasting, and His body had...