Lies Women Believe About God, Part 4

Series: Lies Women Believe About God

Leslie Basham: Complete this sentence: "All I really need to make me happy is____." What's the first thing that comes to your mind?

It's November 1 and you're listening to Revive Our Hearts with Nancy Leigh DeMoss.

What would it take for your life to be complete? A new car? Another child? A better job? If you got these things, would it really fulfill you?

All this week on Revive Our Hearts, Nancy Leigh DeMoss has been talking to a small group of women about the lies women believe about God, and today Nancy will be shedding some light on the popular lie that God isn't really enough. Here's Nancy.

Nancy Leigh DeMoss: You know that little chorus Christ is all I need, Christ is all I need; all, all that I need? We sang that at a conference that I was at recently. And you know, that's easy to sing when we're at church. But the question that crosses my mind is: Is He really all that we need?

One of the lies that many of us believe about God is that God is not really enough. Now, like many of the other lies we've been discussing, most of us would never say out loud, "God is not enough to meet my needs;" but the way we live reveals what we really believe.

When it comes down to it, so many of us don't really believe that God is enough--that His Word is sufficient to deal with my issues, my problems, my specific situation. We think it can deal with everyone else's, but does God really speak to my life? And then we feel that we need God's Word--plus.

We need our Bible and what it has to offer us, but we also need these six bestsellers from our Christian bookstore. Or we also need this tape or this message or this conference or this counselor or this therapy or this medication. We need God plus a whole list of other things that we think are important in life--plus good friends, good health, a husband.

Do we really believe that if we have God, we have enough? Or are we more like these women that have written to tell me how they were taken into bondage by this lie? One woman said, "God is not really enough." She said, in quotes, "I did not know I believed this," she said, "until I realized how much trust I put in other things and people. I thought I trusted God fully and kept telling my husband that we just needed to trust God, but then I would run to my friends to discuss our marriage or finances." What she is saying is, "I discovered by the way that I lived, that what I was really believing is that God is not enough."

Another woman said, "I've denied the truth that my relationship with Jesus will satisfy my longings. Through the way I live, I have shown those around me that I need things in order to be happy. I've been critical, complaining and irritable most of my life." The only difference, by the way, between that woman and some of us in this room is that she got honest enough to admit it.

She said, "I've been living this lie." She believed the lie, and what did it result in? She became critical, complaining and irritable. You see, we've said that every sin issue in our life can ultimately be traced back to believing a lie. And that when we believe something that's not true, we're going to end up in disobedience.

Over the last couple days, I was intrigued by a passage in Genesis chapter 29. Genesis 29 tells the story of Leah, who was the older of two daughters of the father Laban. Jacob comes into the picture. He falls in love with her younger sister, Rachel, who the scripture says was lovely in form and beautiful. She was an attractive woman. And, the scripture says Leah had weak eyes. Now, I don't know what that means; but apparently she was not as beautiful as her younger sister, Rachel.

So Jacob falls in love with Rachel, the beautiful one. And he makes an agreement with the girl's dad to work for seven years in exchange for Rachel as his wife. Laban deceives Jacob, if you're familiar with the story, and instead he gives--after the seven years of labor had been concluded, he gives Leah to Jacob as his wife. Then in exchange for another seven years of labor, Laban also gives Jacob the other daughter, Rachel, as his wife.

Now we come to Genesis 29:31 and there's a paragraph here that tells of Leah having a desperate search for love and fulfillment as a wife, longing for the approval and the acceptance of her husband. Verse 31 tells us:

"When the Lord saw that Leah was not loved, he opened her womb, but Rachel was barren. Leah became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She named him Reuben" (verses 31-32).

Now, the word Reuben in Hebrew sounds like the word that means "He has seen my misery." The name means "See, a son." She named the child, Reuben; and she said to her husband, "Look, I've borne you a son, someone to carry on your name, our family line. "For she said, "It is because the Lord has seen my misery. Surely my husband will love me now "(Genesis 29:32).

"She conceived again," the next verse says, "and when she gave birth to a son, she said, 'Because the Lord heard that I am not loved, he gave me this one, too. So she named him Simeon,'"(Genesis 29:33) which probably means "One who hears." She was trying to get the attention and affection of her husband and ultimately God's favor and approval, because in those days, childbearing was so connected to a sense of God's favor.

And the next verse says, "Again she conceived, and when she gave birth to a son she said, 'Now at last my husband will become attached to me, because I have borne him three sons.' "So he was named Levi" (Genesis 29:34) The word Levi sounds like the Hebrew for the word "attached." She's trying to find fulfillment and satisfaction through her performance.

Then we read, "She conceived again and when she gave birth to a son, she said, 'This time I will praise the Lord.' So she named him Judah." Judah sounds like the Hebrew for the word "Praise." "Then she stopped having children" (Genesis 29:35).

Here's a woman who's in a frantic, desperate search for acceptance, approval. She wants to know that she's loved. She is always needing something more to satisfy her; and she comes to the point in her life where she says, "What God has given me is enough. I will praise the Lord. If I never get the love and affection of my husband, God is enough."

Do we truly believe that God is enough, or are we looking to other things and people to fill the empty places of our heart? What are some of those things that we try to use to fill up the empty places of our hearts? What comes to your mind--some of the things we look to for satisfaction? Help me out. Food? Okay. We've already read a testimony of that. And many times we're not eating because we're hungry, but because we're trying to fill up the empty places in our hearts.

What else do we turn to looking for satisfaction in addition to God? A husband? Relationships--with marriage? Children? Relationships with children? Acceptance? A friend? Achievement? Did someone say a job? That's the same thing, trying to get approval and recognition, satisfaction and love. "Looking for love" as a woman said recently "in all the wrong places." She acknowledged that that's what she had been doing. Do we believe that God is enough to meet not only our needs, but the needs of others that we love?

Listen to this letter that I received from a woman. She said,

I was only able to help a family member suffering from depression and alcoholism when I finally believed that God is the answer to all her problems. This realization changed the way I prayed for her and talked with her. She began seeking God and letting Him change her. I found such freedom in trusting God to meet her needs and mine.

You see how believing the truth that God really is sufficient will set us free? The truth is that God has made us in such a way that no one and nothing can fill the innermost longings and meet the deepest needs of our hearts apart from God Himself. I love that passage in Psalm 73 beginning in verse 23 where the psalmist reflects on all that he has in God. Here's what he concludes:

Oh God, I am always with you. You hold me by my right hand. You guide me with your counsel, and afterwards you will take me into glory.

I mean, when you have all those things, what more do you need? When God is with you, when He's holding you, when He's guiding you with His counsel, when He's promised you a future and a hope that takes you to glory, what more do you need? He goes on to say:

Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

Isn't that the bottom line here? This is where we need to counsel our hearts according to the truth. "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want" (Psalm 23:1). In Him, with Him in Christ we have all things. The truth is: God really is enough.

Leslie Basham: That's Nancy Leigh DeMoss reminding us that God is all we need. Nancy will be back in just a minute to lead us in prayer.

All this week, Nancy's been speaking on the lies that women tend to believe about God. If you've been challenged to re-think some of your ideas, we encourage you to get a copy of Nancy's book Lies Women Believe and The Truth That Sets Them Free. In the book, Nancy exposes eight areas of deception most commonly believed by Christian women: lies about God, sin, priorities and more. She then explains how we can be delivered from bondage and set free to walk in God's grace.

We have this book available in our resource center for a suggested donation of $17. You can order on our Web site, ReviveOurHearts.com. There you'll also find information on all of Nancy's books and tapes, a schedule of upcoming programs, and Nancy's speaking schedule. Again, it's ReviveOurHearts.com. And while you're on the Web site, you can order a tape of today's broadcast. It's part of a week-long series called "Lies Women Believe About God." The series comes on one cassette for a suggested donation of $5.

Perhaps you know someone who's been deceived about the goodness and sufficiency of God. You might want to order them a tape. You can also order by phone. Our toll-free number is 1-800-569-5959. We also have a free wall calendar we'd like to send you when you call in. This calendar is based on Nancy's book A Place of Quiet Rest and is filled with quotes from Nancy and scripture that will challenge you to pursue God through daily prayer.

If this series "Lies Women Believe About God" has sparked some questions in your mind or if it has brought about change in your life, we'd love to hear from you. 

Well, has God become your Mr. Fix-it? Do you find yourself going to Him whenever you have a problem, but forgetting about Him when things are running smoothly? Join us tomorrow on Revive Our Hearts when Nancy challenges the lie that God should fix all my problems.

Now, to close our time in prayer, here's Nancy Leigh DeMoss.

Nancy Leigh DeMoss: Father, we confess that we have a big need list, things we think we need in addition to you. And I thank you for those times when you strip us of some of those things we thought we couldn't live without so we can find out that Christ really is all that we need. We know that we'll perhaps never find out that Christ is all we need until He is all that we have. But I thank you that when He's all that we have, we will find out He really is all that we need. So we're content with You. You are our shepherd, we shall not want.  

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

Note: Special offers available only during the broadcast of the radio series.