Charles Stanley Daily Devotional 19 December 2025 (In Touch) Friday Message
Charles Stanley Daily Devotional TOPIC: Learning From Adversity
TODAY’S SCRIPTURE: 2 Corinthians 12:7-10
What should we do with our pain when God doesn’t remove it? How can He be a God of love and yet not come to our aid?
Today’s passage gives us insight into a painful event in Paul’s life. We don’t know what the “thorn in the flesh” was, but his account of what he learned through that experience is an amazing example of three things God teaches us through adversity:
- God is sovereign over the situation. Ultimately, He is the one who allowed the difficulty and the one with the power to end it.
- God prioritizes the spiritual. Paul wanted physical relief, but the Lord was working for his spiritual good. Whatever God allows to afflict believers is designed to protect them from sin, produce holiness, and equip them for faithful service.
- God’s grace is sufficient. The Lord gave Paul both the grace to endure and strength in his weakness.
Once we understand the Lord’s sovereignty, priorities, and sufficiency, we can respond to our afflictions as Paul did—with gladness (James 1:2-3). When Christ’s strength is perfected in us, we can be content in whatever difficulties God allows in our life. The Lord’s unwillingness to give us relief is not neglect. Rather, it is evidence of His surpassing love, which seeks our eternal good.
Bible in One Year: Hebrews 7-9
THOUGHT FOR TODAY: In every moment of pain, the Lord provides the grace we need in order to endure.
Dr. Charles F. Stanley was the founder of In Touch Ministries and a New York Times best-selling author. Throughout his ministry, he demonstrated a keen awareness of people’s needs and provided Christ-centered biblically based principles for everyday life