We are either in the process of resisting God's truth or in the

Charles Stanley, the steadfast preacher of the gospel, once declared with piercing simplicity: “We are either in the process of resisting God's truth or in the process of being shaped and molded by his truth.” These words strike like a hammer upon the anvil of the soul, leaving no room for neutrality. For in this teaching there is no middle ground: a man either hardens his heart against the divine, or he yields and is transformed. God’s truth does not stand as a passive stream to be admired from afar—it is a river that either washes us clean or against which we struggle in futility.

The origin of this saying rests in Stanley’s lifelong ministry, a ministry built upon urging believers to live not in half-measures but in full surrender. He knew that many walk the earth imagining themselves indifferent to God, neither for Him nor against Him. Yet his insight is this: even indifference is resistance, for to ignore truth is to reject it. The soul is always in motion, always being pulled—either it drifts further into rebellion, or it is drawn nearer to the shaping hand of the divine potter.

We see this vividly in the story of Saul of Tarsus, who resisted God’s truth with fierce determination. He hunted Christians, persecuted them, and imagined himself righteous. Yet on the road to Damascus, the divine light shattered his resistance. In that moment, Saul was no longer the resister but the clay, ready to be molded into Paul, the apostle who would carry the gospel to nations. His life is the living parable of Stanley’s words: man is always in a process—either resisting God’s truth, or being transformed by it into something greater than himself.

Stanley’s teaching also speaks to the daily battles of the human heart. We resist when we cling to pride, when we justify our sins, when we drown out conscience with noise. We are molded when we confess, when we surrender, when we allow suffering itself to shape us into humility and compassion. Resistance hardens the heart into stone; surrender softens it into clay. Both processes are invisible to the eye, yet they shape destinies. The man who resists grows more bitter with time, while the one who yields grows more radiant, more whole.

The meaning of this quote carries a warning but also a profound hope. The warning is that we cannot escape the power of truth; to resist is to diminish the soul, to lock oneself in chains. But the hope is that to yield is to enter into transformation, to be shaped by the hand of One who seeks not to destroy but to refine. Just as fire purifies gold, so does truth purify the soul that submits. No life is too broken to be molded; no clay too marred to be reshaped in the hands of the divine.

The lesson for us is simple and eternal: examine your heart and ask, “Am I resisting, or am I being shaped?” There is no third path. To live in honesty before God is to admit our resistance, to lay it down, and to invite His truth to work within us. This requires humility, the courage to confess weakness, and the willingness to be broken so that we may be remade. Those who resist may appear strong, but their strength is brittle. Those who yield may appear weak, but their strength endures, for it is rooted in truth.

Practically, this means setting aside time each day to let God’s truth examine you. Open scripture not as a ritual, but as a mirror to the soul. In prayer, do not only speak, but listen, allowing His voice to reveal where you resist. In trials, do not curse the hardship, but ask how it is molding you into patience, into love, into faith. Surround yourself with others who seek to be shaped, for community strengthens the process of transformation.

Thus Charles Stanley’s words remain a guide for generations: “We are either resisting God’s truth or being shaped by it.” Let us not be found among the resisters, whose hearts grow calloused with time. Let us instead yield, even when it wounds our pride, for in the yielding we are reshaped into vessels of strength, compassion, and light. And when our lives are finished, may it be said that we did not resist the hand of the potter, but allowed ourselves to be molded into something eternal.