Learning to Trust Again

Leslie Basham: Here’s Nancy Leigh DeMoss reading from a letter she received from a young man who knows how important mothers are.

Nancy Leigh DeMoss: “The only time we got to spend with our mother was when she was home from work, but she was worn out and could only sleep. My sisters and I would play in and around her bed when she was home. We could have played anywhere else in the two-bedroom apartment or even outside, but I realize now that we played in mom’s bedroom when she was home because it was our only way to be close to her, the only time to be with her.”

Leslie Basham: This is Revive Our Hearts with Nancy Leigh DeMoss for Friday, November 25th. On this day after Thanksgiving, we’re going to celebrate Mother’s Day. We’ll hear about a young man who never got to spend much time with his mom and didn’t trust women at all. But God got through to this man while in prison. Here’s Nancy to get us started.

Nancy Leigh DeMoss: I hope that you’re enjoying this weekend. I’m so thankful that in our country we still have an extended holiday to celebrate Thanksgiving. It really is probably my favorite holiday. It’s the one I put the most emphasis on. By the time you get to Christmas . . . I love the Christmas story, but I’m not really crazy about the panic and pressure and all that stuff that goes on in the month of December.

So I really take time to savor Thanksgiving Day, Thanksgiving Weekend and to reflect back on God’s blessings and His mercy in my life and in our ministry over the past year. And as I think about what God has done in our ministry and for our ministry over the past year, here are some of the things that are high on my list as I look back over the year 2005.

I’m so thankful as we’ve had many recording sessions and conferences for the way that God has ministered to my own heart as I have studied the Word and prepared, and how God speaks to me through His Word so that I can minister His Word to others. I just want to tell you, I hope you get a blessing out of Revive Our Hearts, but I get the greatest blessing.

I thank the Lord for the privilege He’s given us of conducting conferences, three major Revive Our Hearts Conferences this year in Naples, Florida; Lynchburg, Virginia; and Memphis, Tennessee. Many of you prayed for us as we had those conferences. Some of you attended those conferences.

Then I’m thankful for the privilege to record radio programs. This past year we’ve, by God’s grace, been able to be on the air 260 times. What a gift that we have Christian radio in this country, and what a privilege we have to have over 500 radio stations and outlets that partner with us in this ministry. We’re thankful for them.

I’m thankful for the resources that the Lord has allowed us to develop and make available to people. Some of you remember this past year that we released a set of resources related to The Princess and the Kiss—a resource that mothers can use to help their daughters learn moral purity. We’ve had great response to those resources and many of you are teaching your daughters using the Life Lessons from the Princess and the Kiss.

Then another resource the Lord allowed us to release this past year is called Seeking Him. Remember how we took 12 weeks of radio time? This was something I was really scared about doing on the front-end. I thought, “Will people hang in there with us as we seek the Lord for revival for 12 weeks?”

But they not only hung in, they went through the book; they went through the study. There are still small groups all across the country doing that study—seeking the Lord for revival. And God is reviving the hearts of His people. That’s a blessing.

I thank the Lord for the staff God has given us here in Little Rock at FamilyLife Today, the production team, and the staff at our headquarters in Michigan who serve so faithfully, and others around the country who help in different ways. What a blessing they are! God’s provision for the ministry has been so gracious.

And then, I’m thankful for the changed lives, the revived hearts. And representative of that, I want to read to you a really precious letter I received earlier this year. It stands out as one of the highlight letters of the year that we received. I want to share it with you. I hope it will be a blessing and encouragement to you.

We usually get letters mostly from women. This one comes from a 26 year-old male prisoner. Here’s what he wrote to say:

Dear Miss DeMoss,

I don’t know if you will actually read this because I know that most letters are read and responded to by staff writers, but I write this letter to you and to all of the women under your ministry (that’s why I’m sharing it with you).

I’m writing to thank you for you have given me two very important things that I have never possessed as far back as I can remember. I’m 26 years-old. I have come to the Lord in the last couple of years. I’m taking a program to get an Associate’s Degree in Theology right now and hope to someday have a Master’s of Divinity. The Lord is doing some wonderful things in my life, and I hope to someday serve Him full-time.

Miss DeMoss, before I began listening to your program, I had little to no trust for women and very little understanding of what a true woman of God was. On both my mother and my father’s side of the family, my grandparents had all been divorced and remarried, some more than once.

My grandmother on my father’s side used her alimony to open up two topless clubs in the seventies. My mother met my father in one of his mother’s clubs, and eventually they married. They divorced after this, and my mother was married two times and divorced two times as well in the years that followed.

My mother was a working woman. When my sister and I were children, she worked two jobs full-time to support us. I realize the great responsibility she had as a single mother. I realize how much she loved us and still loves us. But she didn’t know the Lord and because of that, it was hard on us all.

When we were six and eight years old, the only time we got to spend with our mother was when she was home from work. But she was worn out and could only sleep. My sisters and I would play in and around her bed when she was home. We could have played anywhere else in the two-bedroom apartment or even outside, but I realize now that we played in mom’s bedroom when she was home because it was our only way to be close to her, the only time to be with her.

I’ve grown up since those days. I’ve learned a great deal the hard way. The relationships I’ve had since my teens with various women have never once been healthy. It was one bad relationship after another that helped me decide at an early age to forgo all non-sexual relationships with women. This attitude only brought greater mistrust and deeper pain into my life.

Even after coming to the Lord (which you remember was just a couple years ago), I made the decision not to ever be married. I would tell myself when I thought about it that I was giving that up to serve the Lord, that all I needed was Him. But in truth it was because of the great mistrust I had for women.

I began listening to your program because of a testimony you had on a couple of years ago. I don’t remember the woman’s name. But she was an orphan who was badly mistreated, but clung in her youth to the word that God left her and overcame the trials of her life.

As I listened in the following days, I realized that your program was for women, but I decided to listen to you anyway. I try to get as much of the Word as I can, and I was curious as to what you were saying that was supposed to be just for Christian women.

Now, you have to understand that I had heard, read, and knew what the Word of God said to and about women and their roles in the church and family, but I had never heard a woman say it. To be honest, the more I listened the more astounded I became of the things you were saying in the 21st century. Does Miss DeMoss know it’s the year 2004? I’m laughing now, but let me tell you what else I heard.

Listening to you speak I began to hear the cry of a true woman who sought to glorify God with her life. As I listened to you speak on topics like holiness and righteous living, a tiny little crack began to run through that rock-solid belief that women could not be trusted and would only hurt me if I allowed myself to be taken in by one.

Today that crack is busted wide open. And now that it is exposed, I can deal with the things in my life that created those misguided notions. Since listening to you, I’ve also begun writing my mother again. Just as important as these two things, you have given me an example of what kind of woman I should be looking for when it comes my time to marry in the years ahead.

And having not only an example of what a woman of God looks like but a desire to be married to one, you have provoked me to become a better man because I know I will never be married to a woman with a godly spirit unless I have a like heart to do the will of my Father.

You have given me all these things, things that a mother should inspire in her son. Because of this I thought it an appropriate gesture to tell you these things and wish you a Happy Mother’s Day.

(I received this letter this past May, just after Mother’s Day.)

In my heart, you will always be one of my mothers in the Lord. I’m no momma’s boy, but I do enjoy hearing you speak so I will continue to listen to Revive Our Hearts now and someday in the future maybe I’ll have a wife who will listen with me.

Thanks for everything you’ve done for me and that you do for men and women all across the country.

P.S. Please pray for my continued victory in the Lord and future ministry whatever that may be. I’ll be getting out in only a few more years now.

Isn’t God good? God does restore the years of the locust have eaten. You know that young man and a whole lot of women whose hearts and homes have been deeply touched in significant ways by the ministry of Revive Our Hearts. It’s because God has given us a partnership in this ministry, not just me teaching the Word, but lots of people serving in lots of different ways to make this ministry possible.

Many of you pray for this ministry. You pray for me. I get letters from people who say, “I pray for you everyday.” People I’ve never heard of. Thank you so much. Let me just say, “Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!”

And people who support this ministry financially from the little child who sends a dollar or two or three to the widow on a limited income who sends just the little bit she has left over of her living, to some who are able to give much larger gifts. God knows the heart, and those gifts generously and gladly given are all blessed by God.

In fact, we’re thankful that this year for the fourth year in a row, we don’t know if this will be true other years, but this year the Lord has made it possible once again for us to have a matching challenge during the month of December.

That means that every gift given to Revive Our Hearts between now and December 31st, postmarked by December 31st, will be doubled. If you send $10, that will become $20. If you send $100, that will become $200. It will be doubled up to a total of $250,000.

The past three years people have written and shared what a privilege it has been to be a part of that matching challenge. Many ministries like ours receive a lot of their year’s income during the last month of the year. 

We’ve been so grateful in recent years for how God has during the month of December provided income that’s made it possible for us to continue reaching people with this message of revival—mostly women but also a 26 year-old young man sitting in a prison cell listening to Revive Our Hearts and hearing what it means to be a woman of God and how God has used that to penetrate, pierce, and shape his life.

Thank you for having a part in that. Thank you for helping to make it possible, and let me just say again, “A blessed Thanksgiving Weekend to you.”

Leslie Basham: That’s Nancy Leigh DeMoss inspiring us to be thankful and inspiring us to give. Would you help us with our matching challenge? You can donate by calling 1-800-569-5959, or visit our secure website, ReviveOurHearts.com.

Today Nancy told us about several exciting series we’ve aired over the last year. If you’d like hear The Princess and the Kiss or Seeking Him, you can visit ReviveOurHearts.com and order them on CD. You can also get information on Dorie: The Girl Nobody Loved. It’s the radio series that affected the young man in prison so deeply. Again, the web address is ReviveOurHearts.com.

Wouldn’t it be tragic if your children grew up to write the kind of letter we heard today, one that says, “You weren’t very involved with your children.” Next week we’ll hear from some moms who are making sure that letter won’t be written about them. Please be back for Revive Our Hearts.

Revive Our Hearts with Nancy Leigh DeMoss is an outreach of Life Action Ministries.

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