What Is Your Perspective?

Series: Breath of New Life

Leslie Basham: What is your perspective when you're in the middle of a difficult situation? Here's Nancy Leigh DeMoss.

Nancy Leigh DeMoss: As long as what we want most is relief from the pain, we have made an idol out of our own comfort. When we want more than anything else the glory of God, then God will redeem the situation.

Leslie Basham: This is Revive Our Hearts with Nancy Leigh DeMoss. It's Thursday, April 10. This week we've looked at the biblical story of the Shunammite woman. God allowed her and her husband to have a child in their old age, but then that child died. A servant tried to perform a miracle by laying the staff of Elisha on the child's body, but nothing happened. When the prophet of God arrived on the scene, he refused to give up. Here's Nancy, reading from 2 Kings 4.

Nancy Leigh DeMoss: "When Elisha came into the house, there was the child, lying dead on his bed. He went in therefore, shut the door behind the two of them, and prayed to the Lord" (verse 32-33). No public spectacle, no big service, no great demonstration of power, just Elisha and the dead boy and God. He shut the door.

There are some hopeless situations represented in this room, in your family and in mine that are never going to change until we pull away from the crowd, and we get with the Lord--and shut the door and pour out our hearts to the only One who can do anything. What did he ask God? I don't know. What did God tell him? I don't know.

But I know what he did next. It seems likely to me that he was responding to what God put on his heart as he prayed. He went up. He didn't put his staff on the child; he put himself on the child. He "lay on the child, and put his mouth on his mouth, his eyes on his eyes, and his hands on his hands; and he stretched himself out on the child, and the flesh of the child became warm" (verse 34).

The apostle Paul said to the Thessalonians, "We loved you so much that we were willing to give you not only the Gospel, but God." If you don't give the Gospel you haven't given anything. "But we were willing to give you not only the Gospel, but our very lives as well." That's the Gospel incarnate, the Gospel in flesh--saying, "I'm not only going to give you my message, I'm going to give you myself."

And hand-to-hand, body-to-body, face-to-face, leg-to-leg, life-to-life, he lays himself on the child. The Spirit of God breathes through the man of God and breathes life into this dead body--not all at once. There's a process. We want it just quick and done--three steps, fix your marriage, restore intimacy, fix your kids, get them back right with God.

If it doesn't happen that way, we just live without hope. But not Elisha. The flesh of the child became warm, but the child was maybe comatose. I don't know, but he still wasn't functional. "He returned and walked back and forth in the house, and again went up and stretched himself out on him; then the child sneezed seven times, and the child opened his eyes" (verse 35).

This is a picture of revival, hope reborn. "And he called Gehazi and said 'Call this Shunammite woman.' So he called her. And when she came in to him, he said, 'Pick up your son.' So she went in, fell at his feet, and bowed to the ground; then she picked up her son and went out" (verse 36-37).

By the way, the story doesn't end there. Chapter 8 tells a lesser-known account of how famine came to the land for seven years. The woman and her family had to move to the land of the Philistines for seven years. Maybe she was a widow by this time. While they were gone, they lost their house. They lost their property. When they came back seven years later they were once again in need of restoration.

Isn't that like life? It's not a once-and-for-all victory. There's process. There's another crisis. There's another need. It looks different this time. There's a new chapter once again. God used the king time to bring restoration of her house, her lands. Restoration is what revival is about. We have a redeeming God, and He is redeeming lives. He's redeeming homes. He's redeeming marriages.

He's rescuing people, not just relieving them of the pain. As long as what we want most is relief from the pain, we have made an idol out of our own comfort. When we want more than anything else the glory of God, then God will redeem the situation. Maybe the pain will intensify, but God will redeem the situation, bring hope out of death.

I got an e-mail--so many stories I'd just love to tell you, but let me just read you this paragraph from a woman who has been a part of our radio recording audience for much of the last year. She and her husband have some serious issues in their family dating back to the families from which they came.

They came into marriage with tons of baggage, lots of issues. They came to know the Lord. They really worked at building a Christian marriage, but there are just lots of hurts and problems and issues in their marriage, with their parent/child relationships. She came to me at one point and began to pour out her heart. This is a couple that is very active in Christian ministry, but behind the mask--behind the pretense, behind the scenes--there was this huge wreckage.

We began to talk and pray. As we first talked, the fault was all her husband's. Then God began to bring this woman to a spirit of repentance and recognition of her own need in the marriage. The eyes of her heart have been opening. She's begun to focus on God's call to her as a wife--how to love her husband through his issues, how to respond to him in times of anger and violent tendencies, how to speak the truth to him in love. We've talked lots of times. It's not been easy.

She wrote me an e-mail recently, and she said, "My husband and I have come so far in the past year. Nancy, at the point when I had lost hope--which I hate to admit because that means I had lost hope in my God--at that point, hope has been renewed in my life. These last few months (since the New Year) have been the happiest in my entire life. I finally have real hope. I'm experiencing true joy. I wake up with an excitement that I've never known."

This is a woman who had deep sadness and pain in her eyes most of the time in the early months that we talked. She said, "I can't wait to see what God will do today. God has blessed me so much. I have a wonderful husband. My kids are awesome. I love my home. What more could I want? I've never been so content in my life."

There's an old Gospel song. It's often used in the context of evangelism--"Rescue the Perishing." Let me close by quoting the third stanza of that song. I think it has a bearing on what we're talking about here. I would offer it to you in wherever you are with your marriage, your children, your extended family.

I ask you, "Is it well with you? Is it well with your marriage? Is it well with your children?" If to any of those questions you have to answer, "Not really," then let me give you this word of hope:

*Down in the human heart,
Crushed by the tempter,
Feelings lie buried
that grace can restore;

Touched by a loving heart,
Wakened by kindness,
Chords that were broken
will vibrate once more

So, what are we to do? Rescue the perishing; care for the dying"¦Jesus is merciful; Jesus will save.

Leslie Basham: Nancy Leigh DeMoss has been giving us hope. Maybe you can relate to the woman who felt distant from her husband and children, and you need some new life in your family. We'd love to pray with you, and I'll give you the address in just a minute so you can write to us.

We also recommend that you read the book Growing a Spiritually Strong Family by Dennis and Barbara Rainey. They offer ten practical activities for you and your mate that will nurture your family's faith. Each chapter is only a few pages long so you can read it even during a busy season of life; but it's packed with solid advice. It's available at ReviveOurHearts.com for a suggested donation of $10, or get more information by calling 1-800-569-5959.

When you contact us, would you consider making a financial contribution to Revive Our Hearts? There is so much in the media that discourages you from being faithful to your family. If you believe in the ministry of Revive Our Hearts and appreciate the way we call women to remain faithful to their husbands and children, we need your support. Here's Nancy to tell us more:

Nancy Leigh DeMoss: I received an e-mail recently from one of our listeners who said, "Thanks for being a blessing to me and so many other women." Then she proceeded to tell me how a good friend of hers, a sister in the Lord, listened to a tape of the series we aired on Revive Our Hearts sometime ago. After she listened to that tape and read the book we offered on that program, this woman remarried her husband that she had divorced a number of years ago.

My heart was so stirred as I read this story. I just couldn't help but say, "Thank You, Lord for the lives You are touching." Here's a marriage, a home, that's been rescued, salvaged because God has allowed us to air this program every weekday on more than 240 stations throughout the United States.

We couldn't be buying that airtime, we couldn't be on those stations, we wouldn't be seeing this kind of transformation taking place in the lives and marriages of women--if it weren't for a faithful group of people who are supporting Revive Our Hearts each month with their financial gifts.

For those who have given, I want to say, "Thank you, thank you!" That marriage being salvaged is the fruit of your investment. If you've been blessed by this ministry, but you've never made a financial contribution, let me ask you to pray about sending in a gift today so that other lives and homes can be impacted even as this one was.

Thank you so much for your financial partnership, for your prayers--we need those more than anything. By God's grace, and as long as He continues to provide the resources, our heart is to continue sharing this message with women throughout the United States. Thank you for being a part of making that possible.

Leslie Basham: You can send your donation to Revive Our Hearts. Tomorrow we'll hear the story about a girl who lost her mother at age 11. While living with a cruel and abusive stepmother, God taught her something powerful about love.

Revive Our Hearts with Nancy Leigh DeMoss is a ministry partnership of Life Action Ministries.

*"Rescue the Perishing" by Fanny J. Crosby.

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