When (Not If) Disaster Comes

Dannah Gresh: Would you like to live a life completely free of hardship? Maybe not, says Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth.

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: Without pressures and trials, we will become weak and fragile. We will not be able to withstand the pressures of life! [An interpreter translates her words into Spanish.]

Dannah: This is Revive Our Hearts with Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth, author of You Can Trust God to Write Your Story, for April 30, 2020. I’m Dannah Gresh.

You know, Nancy, it feels like just yesterday you and I and more than six-thousand other women were in Mexico for the third international True Woman conference.

Nancy: Yes, in a sense it feels like yesterday; in another sense, so much has happened since then! We came home from that conference into self-quarantine . . . and then a shelter at home order from our government officials, and we haven’t been out much since!

But you and I have both been actively involved in ministering digitally from our homes to our Revive Our Hearts listeners. Thinking back to that conference, what a huge encouragement that was! And, I’m so thrilled to report that, as far as we know—now weeks later—none of the women who attended that event has contracted the coronavirus.

There were some who had trouble making it back to their countries (they came from twenty-six different countries), but even in that process of weeks, it was so beautiful to see the body of Christ step up and show hospitality to these stranded sisters in Christ.

Dannah: And, Nancy, one of the messages that you gave at that conference was all about staying rooted and steadfast in the midst of trials.

Nancy: Yes, Dannah. Months ago when we planned the messages, the titles, the themes for this conference, I assigned myself the topic “Trusting God, Staying Steadfast in Trial.” None of us had any idea of some of the trials that were about to unfold in our world. Even as I’ll share in this message, I didn’t know some of the trials that were about to unfold in Robert’s and my lives. 

But the Lord knew! He was preparing me. He was preparing us. He was preparing the women at that conference for what was about to happen in our world.

Dannah: You know, even as you were delivering this message, there was a holy sense of hush in the room. I feel as if probably because the news media was beginning to talk about where we were going with this crisis. Women knew these words mattered. They matter very much, and they’re so appropriate for all of us today, and so we wanted to share this message with you.

Of course, Nancy, you’re speaking through a translator during this message.

Nancy: Yes, this isn’t a message we would typically air on Revive Our Hearts because it’s got both the English and the Spanish alternating. My dear friend, Patricia de Saladín, who’s also “my voice” in our Spanish-language program, Aviva Nuestros Corazones, was standing at my side. So I would say a line in English, as you’ll hear, and then she would translate into Spanish.

So this is a different format than we typically have on Revive Our Hearts, but I think it will give you a sense of what it was like to be there in the audience that day at Mujer Verdadera, the True Woman conference in Monterrey, Mexico.

Dannah: Let’s listen. Here’s Nancy and Patricia.

Nancy: If you’re not rooted in Christ [Patricia translates after Nancy’s phrases throughout], and in the truth and in His Word, then when trials come into your life, you’re going to fall apart. We all have trials! You have trials, you have friends who have trials, and if you don’t have any trials now, you will have them. So that’s why it’s so important that we become rooted in Christ and His Word! Pray with me if you would. 

Oh Father, the God of all comfort, the God of all peace, the God of all grace, the God of all hope, I pray that You would encourage the hearts of my sisters and in these next moments open our hearts to see your purposes in our trials. I pray in Jesus’ name, amen.

So we’re going to talk this afternoon about how to be rooted in trials, how to be steadfast in trials, how to persevere in trials. You can look at nature and see the importance of being rooted when disaster strikes.

Patricia and I have just been talking about how the island nation of Haiti has lost ninety-eight percent of its trees. The trees have been cut down; they call it “deforestation.” As a result, there has been widespread erosion. The topsoil has been swept away. 

In January of 2010, Haiti was struck by a powerful earthquake. It was 7.0 on the Richter Scale! It caused incredible damage and suffering! When the earthquake hit, the ground moved! Now, normally, when disaster strikes, the roots of trees help protect the land. But in this case there was nothing holding the loose earth in place. And so the earthquake triggered massive mudslides and landslides.

And then hurricanes came, and it was only made worse! What happens when disaster strikes your life? It may be a relatively mild disaster, maybe it’s a headache, a flight that’s cancelled, a difficult boss, a good friend who moves away. Or maybe it’s an earthquake . . . a 7.0 on the Richter Scale.

Your husband has an affair. You find out he’s addicted to pornography. Your husband is verbally or emotionally abusive. Your son or daughter or grandchild is rebellious and runs away from home. Maybe you’re caring for elderly parents who have dementia. Or the doctor tells you you have a terminal illness.

I met a woman here when we arrived who told me that just weeks before her wedding, her fiancé died. That’s an earthquake! What happens to your life when disaster strikes? Now, the question isn’t whether a disaster will come, if a disaster will come. It’s just a matter of when it will come!

In fact, we see things getting worse and worse in our world—disasters over which people have no control. I think, by the way, that this coronavirus is going to make people more desperate for God, because there are no human solutions.

And in your life, crises will make you more desperate for God. I often tell women, “Anything that makes me need God is a blessing.” Can you just say that with me? “Anything that makes me need God is a blessing!” Let’s say it together. [they do, in Spanish] You need to remember that. Write it on your hand. Write it in your heart!

Now, I want today for you to just remember two points: Number one, if you are not rooted in Christ and His Word, you will not be able to withstand trials. Let’s make that more personal: if I’m not rooted in Christ and His Word, I won’t be able to withstand trials.

Point number two: If you don’t have trials, you won’t develop strong, deep roots. If you don’t have trials, you won’t be able to endure greater trials or hardship. It’s true in the physical realm. I have an elliptical machine at home. Do you know what that is? You walk fast . . . and you get nowhere! (laughter) 

The first time I got on the elliptical, I think I went ten minutes, and I thought I was going to die! I wanted to die! But I’ve done it many times since, and over time, my muscles and my endurance have gotten stronger. Now I can go longer, but it has taken some trials to do that.

In the late eighties and early nineties, there was a scientific experiment conducted in Arizona. It was called Biosphere 2. They created an enclosed, controlled, sterile environment. It was on three acres of land. It was supposed to be an ideal ecosystem for nature to thrive. But they ran into a problem with the trees.

At first, the trees grew faster than they normally would out in the wild, but then—mysteriously—the trees began to fall over. They collapsed before they were fully grown; they weren’t stable. The scientists finally figured out why. This perfect environment that they had created had no wind. Wind causes stress to the structure of the trees.

When the wind blows, it eventually makes the trees stronger. It makes them able to handle greater pressure. So without the wind, the trees became weak and vulnerable. Now, we would all love to live in a perfect environment, right? One with lots of sun, lots of money, lots of friends, good health, loving relationships—an easy, trouble-free life with no winds, no storms!

But here’s the thing: without pressures and trials, we will become weak and fragile. We will not be able to withstand the pressures of life. We need those winds pushing against us. The old-time theologian Charles Spurgeon said it this way, “The Christian is made strong and firmly rooted by all the trials and storms of life.”

You’re going to have trials. The question is, “How will you respond to them?” The Scripture tells us how we should respond to them if we could see them from God’s perspective. Patricia, why don’t you read those two verses?

Dannah: Patricia read these verses to the women at the recent True Woman conference in Mexico: first, Romans 5:3: “We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance.” 

And then James chapter 1, starting in verse 2: “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” 

Nancy: Doesn’t that sound wonderful!? We all want this amazing outcome! We want endurance; we want proven character; we want hope. But we want it without having to go through the afflictions and the trials, right? Here’s the thing. If you don’t have trials, you won’t develop strong, deep roots! Trials strengthen your roots. They strengthen your faith.

And that takes us back to the first point: if you’re not rooted in Christ and His Word, you won’t be able to withstand trials. Deep roots prepare you to face storms. Jesus illustrated this point in a parable. Damaras talked about it this morning. 

In Luke chapter 8, Jesus said, “A sower went out to sow his seed” (v. 5). And that seed fell onto four different types of soil. But I want to point out one of those soils. Scripture says, “And some [seed] fell on the rock, and as it grew up, it withered away, because it had no moisture” (v. 6). 

You see, on the surface, this soil looked fine. But what you couldn’t see was that under that thin layer of soil, there was a layer of solid, hard rock. So when the seed fell onto that shallow layer of soil, the seed looked like it was growing. It ended growing up quickly in the shallow soil.

It looked like it was flourishing. But because the soil had no depth because of that hard bedrock, the roots of that seed couldn’t reach out to find water, so the plant couldn’t develop a strong root system. That means that the results did not last. That plant soon wilted and died. 

The Scripture goes on to tell us that Jesus’ disciples asked him, “What does this parable mean?” and Jesus said, “The ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy. But these have no root; they believe for a while, and in time of testing [they] fall away” (v. 13). 

The seed is the Word of God. These people hear the Word; they receive it with joy; they have an enthusiastic response. They look like they are spiritually responsive; they look like they’re productive, but they have no depth. They have no root system. There’s no moisture; there’s no root. When they face trials and tribulations, they wither and fall away. There is no lasting fruit.

You see, plants need roots in order to grow and thrive. And roots need moisture. Those roots, whether it’s a root of a tree or a root of a plant, they reach out to the water under the surface. And Scripture speaks of the water that waters our spiritual roots; it’s the water of the Word of God. It’s the living water of Christ. It’s the water of His Holy Spirit.

And so Psalm 1 tells us, “Blessed is the man who delights in the law of the Lord, who meditates on His law day and night” (see vv. 1–2). The Word of God is moisture; it causes our roots to grow and flourish. And Scripture says that kind of person is like a tree that is planted by streams of water. He’s rooted. 

This tree, “yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither” (v. 3). In times of tribulation and trials, this tree stands firm. He says, “The wicked are not so, but [they’re] like chaff that the wind drives away” (v. 4). They’re not rooted. You can tell when someone falls away from Christ in times of trials that they didn’t have roots.

We are utterly dependent on the life of God within us to make us rooted and steadfast in hard times. Jeremiah 17 says it this way, “The man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the Lord, He is like a shrub in the desert” (vv. 5–6). What is a shrub? It has shallow roots, no moisture.

And the Scripture says that kind of person “shall not see any good come” (v. 6). But the next verse says, “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream” (vv. 7–8). The roots are getting moisture. That means the roots become deep and strong.

And listen to what happens next]: “[He] does not fear when heat comes” (v. 8). He does not fear when trials come. “And [he] is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.”

Dannah: Well, I don’t know about you, but I would rather be like a healthy tree planted by water than a shrub in the desert! Our host, Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth, has been showing us the value of trials, the value of difficulties, in the life of someone who’s rooted in the Lord.

Nancy, we’re going to hear the rest of your message tomorrow, but you just mentioned something that I’d really like to highlight. You were talking about being strong when the storms hit us, and you said the coronavirus is going to be a storm. That was in early March, when most of us in the United States were just learning about COVID-19 and how it was going to impact our lives.

So, I think you were right. It’s been a storm here for all of us!

Nancy: Yes, it sure has, and not just for us here in the United States, but all around the world. I think we have yet to see how long the ramifications of this storm will last. But here’s one thing we do know: We can rest assured that our Captain will help us navigate these rough waters as we keep our eyes fixed on Him.

Dannah: Amen! And one way to keep our gaze locked onto Him is by reminding ourselves that God is both completely in control and completely good. That’s something, Nancy, that you and your husband, Robert, wrote about in your recent book You Can Trust God to Write Your Story.

Nancy: Yes, it’s interesting, when we wrote that book last year, we had no idea of some of the storms that were going to be coming in our lives, in this ministry, and in our world. I found myself in recent weeks going back and preaching to myself the very things that we wrote about in that book, because it really is true that you can trust God to write your story!

Dannah: We’d love to send you a copy of this book as a thank you for a gift in support of Revive Our Hearts. Now we know that many of us are facing some financially insecure times, and so you might not be able to give right now. I want to encourage you that one thing we could use from you is your prayers.

But I know some people will be able to give, and we need you. It doesn’t matter how much you give; your donation right now means so very much to us. We need your prayers and your donations to continue this ministry.

It’s really simple to give. Online, you can visit ReviveOurHearts.com. Click or tap where you see the word “donate.” And if you’d rather use the phone, just call us at 1-800-569-5959. And whether you call or make your donation online, be sure to ask for the book on trusting God by Nancy and Robert Wolgemuth.

Nancy: Thank you, Dannah, and thank you for your prayers and your support during this crucial time. Tomorrow, we’re going to go back to that conference in Mexico. You’ll hear what I shared at that event about a storm that was just beginning to brew in Robert’s and my lives, and I’ll share with you has God has been faithful to us in our journey, as I know He will be in yours! 

I hope you’ll join us tomorrow. I’m Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth.

Dannah: And I’m Dannah Gresh. Please be back for Revive Our Hearts.

Revive Our Hearts, with Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth, wants you to be ready for the time when—not if—hard times come. Our program is an outreach of Life Action Ministries.

 

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