Does Jesus Still Take Your Breath Away?

Dannah Gresh: What do you hope others see about the way you live? Here’s Judy Dunagan.

Judy Dunagan: Ladies, how amazing would it be if we are remembered as someone who just sat at Jesus’ feet? Being known to sit at His feet? Being known to weep at His feet? Being known to worship?

Dannah: This is the Revive Our Hearts podcast with Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth, author of A Place of Quiet Rest, for Memorial Day, May 31, 2021. I’m Dannah Gresh.

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: Do you ever get so busy serving the Lord that you miss out on spending time with Him? If we’re not careful, even the busyness of good things, the busyness of ministry can distract us from the wonder of Jesus. Judy Dunagan is going to talk about that today, and we’ll look at the example of Mary of Bethany.

In the fall of 2019, Revive Our Hearts hosted a Sisters in Ministry summit. A number of women’s ministry leaders gathered at the headquarters in Michigan for a time of fellowship, teaching, and encouragement.

My friend Judy was at this event. She’s an acquisitions editor at Moody Publishers, and she served as a women’s ministry leader for several years, and she’s passionate about discipling women.

We’re sharing her message from that wintery, icy Michigan day—if you can imagine that here in May. And now, here’s Judy Dunagan.

Judy: One thing I want to share with you is that I tend to be clumsy. I trip a lot. My sweet husband will be walking down the street, and he’ll point things out and just say, “Watch out for this.” (laughter) I can’t blame it on old age. I’m going to be sixty in a month. It actually goes way back into my twenties.

One of my more epic falls was when my daughter was only six. I was taking her to her gymnastics class. We lived in the Detroit area at the time, and it was much like this kind of morning. Her little four-year-old friend was with us. I thought I was going to be the protector on this snowy, icy parking lot. I had their hands . . . and I’m the one who fell—flat on my face.

And the little four-year-old, my daughter’s friend, right away said, “Mommies don’t fall down!”

And my daughter valiantly defended me—almost offended—and said, “Oh, yes, they do!” (laughter)

One area that I continue to stumble on often is spending that quiet time with my Lord Jesus. As I’ve said, I’ve loved Him since I was just a little girl. But ironically, it was after I got very involved in a ministry in the Detroit area . . . I used to be on staff at Woodside Bible Church, heading up women’s ministries, and at that time, we had two campuses. I got into the ministry because I loved the Lord. I loved to be in the Word.

But this one particular Sunday morning, I was trying to get to our second campus between the services to make announcements about our fall Bible studies. I found tears in my eyes as I was driving.

I was alone in the car, and so I just said out loud to the Lord, “I miss You. I’m so busy serving You that I’m not even sure I really know You anymore. I know there’s more of You.” And I prayed what you could call a dangerous prayer. I said, “Will You make me desperate for You? I want to go deeper with You.”

And our God is very faithful. He started to answer that prayer just a few months later. Some of that was because of some difficult things that came into my life, but I became desperate for His Word.

So today, I just want to share with you dear women. Many of you are very busy in ministry, serving Him. Many of you are busy mothers, training your children about Jesus. And we’re just going to look back at what it means to fix our eyes on Jesus.

One of my heroes in the Bible is Mary of Bethany. What I love about Mary is we’re not told in the Word anything about her roles. We don’t know if she was married or if she had children, if she had a career. We’re not even told what she looks like. So often in the Bible we’re told if a woman is beautiful, and I just love that. All we know about Mary is about her heart for the Lord.

During that season when I was so busy and not spending time with Him, I heard a pastor at a mega church teach. He had just come back from a ministry trip in India, and he seemed discouraged. He began his message by saying that when he first found Christ, Jesus took his breath away. And now he was afraid that he was just out of breath serving Him. And I wonder how many of you here today feel that way?

And so, as we look at Mary of Bethany, I think we can see her as a great example. We’re going to first turn to the first glimpse of her in Luke 10, verses 38–42. If you have your Bibles, you can turn to that, and I’m going to read those verses.

Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to his teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, "Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me." But the Lord answered her, "Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her."

If you have your Bibles with you, underlined “who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to his teaching.”

We see here the first glimpse of Mary. I think she really didn’t know Jesus yet that well, and she’s just sitting at His feet, drinking in His teaching, getting to know Him.

We hear about Martha being distracted. The Greek word translated for distracted means “to be drawn in different directions, to be pulled or dragged away.” Again, I wonder how many of you feel that way right now, being drawn in many different directions or pulled or dragged away?

I love this quote from Catherine Martin. 

How do you develop a heart that is forever captivated by the Lord? It takes time with Him, listening to what He says. It’s simple, but very few do it. Lots of people talk about spending time with the Lord. You can read books about it. You can attend conferences on it. Those things will not give you a heart that is captivated by the Lord. Only one thing will fix your heart on Him—that is to stop. Turn your gaze toward Him. Sit at His feet. And listen to what He says.

I have some questions for you to ponder this morning.

What are the distractions pulling or dragging you in different directions and away from finding that alone time with Him?

How can we slow down and take time to sit at His feet in prayer and listen to His voice through His Word?

Jesus points Mary out, and He says, “Mary has chosen the good portion which will not be taken away from her.” Another version says, “Mary has chosen what is better.”

Rarely did Jesus point people out and say, “Look! Look at what she’s doing.” And I love that about Mary.

At our second glimpse of Mary, we’re going to look at John 11—if you want to turn to that—John 11, starting with verse 28. This is after Lazarus has died—you know the story—where Mary and Martha (Lazarus is their brother) call out and send word for Jesus that he’s sick. And by the time Jesus got there, Lazarus had died.

By now, Mary and Martha are most likely good friends of Jesus, as was Lazarus. You see starting in verse 17 that Martha rushes out when she hears Jesus is there and approaches Him and has some questions for Him. Then she goes back to the house to tell Mary.

When she had said this (Martha), she went and called her sister Mary, saying in private, "The Teacher is here and is calling for you." And when she heard it, she rose quickly and went to him. Now Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still in the place where Martha had met him. When the Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary rise quickly and go out, they followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb to weep there. Now when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet, [you can underline that—"she fell at his feet”] saying to him, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died." When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled. And he said, "Where have you laid him?" They said to him, "Lord, come and see." Jesus wept. So the Jews said, "See how he loved him!" But some of them said, "Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying?" (vv. 28–37).

This is our second glimpse of Mary, and we see her falling and weeping at the feet of Jesus.

One of the questions I have for you: Might you hesitate bringing your sorrows to Him? Do you really believe He cares and is trustworthy?

Soon after that prayer when I asked the Lord to make me desperate for Him, a few months later we had one thing after another come into our family. I just thought I was going to be taken under. I was pressing into the Lord. I was in the Word, and the only way at that time I could fall asleep was listening to praise music and keeping my thoughts captive to truth of the lyrics of the songs.

Well, one night I was ready to go to sleep. My husband was with me, and I said to him—and really, more, I think, to the Lord—“You know, I’ve been faithful to the Lord. I’ve been serving Him all these years. And all these things are going to take me under. This wasn’t supposed to be my story.” It was kind of a white-knuckle fist to the Lord, which is never a good thing to do, but He was very gracious to me.

So right after that, we went to bed. I put on my earphones. I had a new worship CD I hadn’t even listened to yet. And right in the middle was that old hymn, “Blessed Assurance.” So right after saying, “This wasn’t supposed to be my story,” the Lord had these words washing over me.

Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine.
O what a foretaste of glory divine.
Heir of salvation, purchased of God.
Born of the Spirit, washed in His blood.

This is my story; this is my song,
Praising my Savior all the day long.

That hymn was written by Fanny Crosby, who’s another hero of the faith for me. Fanny was born a healthy baby, but then, due to a botched medical procedure, she lost her sight as just an infant. Yet, she grew to be this godly woman. She wrote the lyrics to over 8,000 hymns. She would say that she was grateful to be blind because if she hadn’t been, she would have been distracted by all the beautiful things, and she wanted to just fix her eyes on Jesus.

Don’t you love how my coming to the Lord and weeping . . . I was literally weeping at His feet that night. He met me with the lyrics of that beautiful hymn.

Well, the third glimpse of Mary that we see is in John 12, 1–8, and I’ll read that over us.

Six days before the Passover, Jesus therefore came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. So they gave a dinner for him there. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those reclining with him at table. Mary therefore took a pound of expensive ointment made from pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (he who was about to betray him), said, "Why was this ointment not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?" He said this, not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief, and having charge of the moneybag he used to help himself to what was put into it. Jesus said, "Leave her alone, so that she may keep it for the day of my burial. For the poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me."

Such a beautiful passage. This, of course, was after Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead. This gathering was just a day before the Triumphal Entry and just a few days before His death.

And here Mary comes into the room. Culturally, that would have been unheard of in a room full of men. And for her to just get down on her knees at the feet of Jesus and anoint Him, this was an act of worship. It was fragrant. This pure nard, they say, was probably worth a year’s wages. So it was a huge sacrifice for her.

We see her sitting at the feet of Jesus, getting to know Him, weeping at His feet, falling at His feet with just lamenting, which can be an act of worship, coming to Him with our heartaches; and then it crescendos with this beautiful act of worship.

Some questions to ponder:

Mary’s worship was costly, as it was both a financial sacrifice, and she was ridiculed. A question for us today: Has our worship of Him ever been costly for us?

Mary’s worship was also fragrant, filling her home. Does our worship for Him fill our homes with the beautiful fragrance of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control—the fruit of the Spirit?

After I was on staff at the church in Detroit, then we moved to Colorado Springs. There was an interim where I wasn’t busy on a church staff. That was when I had really precious time alone with the Lord again and could spend time in the morning. Then I was asked to be on staff there, and I was determined that I wasn’t going to get burned out serving Him and lose my breath serving Him.

But sure enough, I got to that point of being so busy serving Him . . . I don’t know if any of you can relate to this: Where you’re teaching on prayer, but you’re not really praying. Where you’re studying God’s Word, preparing for a message to teach, but not studying just to be with Him.

I went to my mentor, her name is Elaine. She’s about twenty years older than me. I was in tears and just really struggling with the ministry. She was just very calm, and she said, “Judy, I think you need CARA time.”

I said, “What’s that?”

And so she directed me to Mark 6:31—this beautiful verse that Jesus says to His disciples. “‘Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.’ For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat.”

So CARA is “Come Away and Rest A while”—C-A-R-A. So we dwelt in that Scripture together—this is what I love about mentoring. I’m in Elaine’s home, a woman in tears and someone twenty years older, just taking me to one verse.

And this was when the disciples had been really busy, and they come back excited to tell the Lord Jesus all that they had done. And He says, “You guys are really tired. You haven’t even had a chance to eat.” (I don’t know if some of you busy moms feel like that happens to you daily.) And so He says, “‘Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.’”

Well, they get in a boat. I think they’re literally trying to go rest, and they’re coming up on the shore, and the throng of people are there. So they get out of the boat, and then Jesus fed 5,000. And soon after that, He walked on water. So there wasn’t a lot of rest happening, but it was His heart for His men.

As we know, Jesus modeled very well for us as He walked this groaning earth to get away with His Father God and spend time with Him.

I’m at that season of life where I have new grandbabies, and so my heart on leaving a legacy is really tender because my parents have passed away in just the last few years. But, ladies, how amazing would it be if we are remembered as someone who just sat at Jesus’ feet like Mary? Mary of Bethany, she sat at Jesus’ feet. Erika, sitting at Jesus feet? Kristen, being known to sit at His feet? Being known to weep at His feet? Being known to worship?

I’ve shared a little bit about some heroes in my life—Mary of Bethany, Fanny Crosby—and I have one more hero to share. Her name is Anita Bubeck, and it was my mother.

My mom was a pastor’s wife and saw that as her calling. She just served alongside my father. She was a mentor and a godly woman. She wasn’t perfect, but she was a precious gift to me.

When she was only seventy, she was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. It’s a horrific disease. She languished with that for fifteen years. My father was able to care for her in their home in Phoenix for fourteen of those years—just the last year we had to move her. My husband and I both work out of our home, so we could often go to Phoenix and help.

Well, we got the call one day that things were progressing pretty quickly—this was about four years before she passed away. We didn’t know if she was going to make it even through the week. My sister and I got on the plane with my husband, and we were there. It was the first time she didn’t know me, didn’t know my name, didn’t remember who I was. We had to bring a hospital bed into their home.

My sister and I were just cleaning up some of the clutter in the home, and there was a pile of newspapers in my parents’ room. And only by God did I notice this. There was a yellow sticky note on this pile of newspapers, and I picked it up.

I’m kind of stunned because it was in my mother’s beautiful handwriting (which had been stolen by Alzheimer’s about two or three years before). 

It said, “I’m fading away, but Jesus is keeping me every day.” And under that she wrote, “Hebrews 12:1 and 2”—just a reference.

Well, after she passed in 2013, I asked Daddy if I could have her Bible—it’s the one that had been in her assisted living. It’s one he gave her as she was dealing with Alzheimer’s. She had many Bibles with beautiful notes—she loved to take notes. But this one was almost child-like. Her name had been written at the beginning of the Bible. She had whited it out. I don’t know if she spelled Anita wrong and had re-wrote it.

And then I looked through it. Philippians 4 was a favorite of hers. She had written, “Praise the Lord,” and didn’t spell praise or Lord correctly. And she’ll write, “Amen.” I have this as a treasured gift.

Well, in the front of that Bible, she just wrote Hebrews 12:1 and 2 again. So I decided I needed to pay attention to these verses. (I call it my “sticky note legacy,” which is a pretty sweet legacy to have because of Alzheimer’s in my mother’s life.)

I just want to quote these verses over you. They’re from Hebrews 12:1 and 2.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders, and the sin that so easily entangles. Let us run with perseverance the race that is marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

How about those verses for life verses? We’re told to “throw off everything that hinders,” and women, let’s just do that. Let’s commit to do that together.

“Throw off the sin that so easily entangles,” which includes that sin sometimes of being too busy serving Him and not being with Him.

“Let us run with perseverance [together] the race marked out for us.” Now, that doesn’t mean being busy. I’ve learned that sometimes that running with perseverance means pausing and slowing down, getting some breath, spending time with Him.

And then, finally, “let us fix our eyes on Jesus.” I love this version because He’s the author and perfecter of the faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

Now, my heart for sharing today is not to put any guilt on any of you. This is not about, “Oh, I should have longer quiet times,” or “I should get up at 5 a.m. before my kids are up so I have time alone with Him.”

Ask Him how you can run to Him, how to find margin. That’s what I love about CARA time. My mentor said she was going to hold me accountable so I’d have a CARA day—“Come Away and Rest A while” day. I would tell her the date, and she’d pray for me. And what that day may look like, I know for some of you it’s harder with little ones, but just put it on your calendar—CARA.

And what I did (and I live in the mountains, which makes this easier for me) is I took my Bible, journal, worship music, and car and got into the mountains. And during that time when I was so burned out in ministry, the Lord just met me there in such a beautiful way through worship music and His Word, and reconfirming my calling.

So I encourage you to try that—maybe with friends or loved ones or spouse. Say, “Hey, I need a CARA day, and will you pray for me? I’ll be praying for you as well.”

Let’s pray together.

Father God, I just thank You for Your lavish love for us. Jesus, what would we have done if You hadn’t come for us? Thank You for sacrificing Your life. Thank You for conquering the grave. We worship You as our King of kings and Lord of lords.

Thank You that You want to spend time with us. You want us to come and cast our cares onto You. You want us to just linger and to listen to Your Word.

Thank You for this privilege of prayer that we so often take for granted. Make us women desperate for You, women who run to You, who sit at Your feet and listen to Your teaching through Your Word, who fall at Your feet in sorrow and lamenting, and who worship You in a lavish way.

We worship You now, and we love You. In Your holy, magnificent, and very personal name I pray, amen.

Dannah: Amen. That’s Judy Dunagan encouraging us to live in the wonder of Jesus. Judy gave that message at our Sisters in Ministry summit not too long ago. And after she spoke, several of the women in the room took some time to share. I think their responses are going to resonate with your heart.

Woman: Judy, first of all, I was just putting my name in there, one who wept and worshipped at Jesus’ feet, and just to be known for that and not for anything that measures by worldly standards to be great, but just to be in His presence.

I just wanted to say, I’m scheduling a CARA day for December—and I’m texting you, Judy. (laughter)

Nancy: CARA day—“come away and rest a while.” It might be a CARA hour or a CARA half-hour or a CARA half-day. Erin?

Erin Davis: I’m Erin. When you stepped up there, I started to cry. The Spirit of God was just on you, and I’m out of breath—I’m just so out of breath.

I like looking for all these other ways to sustain myself and to be rested, and you just call me to what it is: just be with Jesus. So I just appreciate that about you.

And Judy, and I share a momma with Alzheimer’s, and she’s fading every day, but Jesus is holding her. That was sweet.

Judy: We don’t have the same momma with Alzheimer’s. (laughter) I just never heard Hebrews 12:1 and 2 in the same way after considering Mary sitting at Jesus’ feet, and then Jesus sitting by the Father where He weeps and prays for us, and He worships His Father. Just to see Him modeling it for us in the most perfect holy way, that was just so profound.

Woman: I will try to master the art of speaking while simultaneously weeping. My gran has had the greatest influence on my journey with Jesus, and she also has Alzheimer’s. I often say that she doesn’t remember to take her pills in the morning, but she can remember the Word of God.

I enjoyed you speaking about your own mother. It was such an encouragement to me to continue looking to Jesus and to go quickly to His Word always. That is the legacy that I want to leave. So I thank you so much. It was very precious. I will remember that always.

Judy: Oh, thank you. Pray for her.

Nancy: Did you notice that it’s in the presence of Christ and His Word that our hearts are made tender? Some are maybe just naturally a little more weepy or tender—especially when you’re really tired. But in the racing, the staying out of breath, our hearts tend to get hardened in that pace. But when we get to His feet, get into His presence, the busiest, most alpha-driven woman parts of us become softer and more tender. Right?

That’s who we want to be, but it’s in His presence that it happens. We’re just watching that happen in this room through a life message. This isn’t a woman who just got up and read us a recipe from a textbook. This is a message worked out, fleshed out in her life. That’s what’s powerful. Isn’t it? Anybody can get up and give notes and talk. We’ve all done that. But to have something that flows out of the overflow of your life, that’s what the impact is. Isn’t it?

So, Judy is one of the older women in the room. I don’t mean to keep harping on age, because I think that’s a bit artificial in some ways because there are younger women here who have maturity that’s amazing. And some of us older women . . . we’re not always really mature. It’s not just a chronological age.

But a woman who’s walked faithfully with God, who over the course of years, and the daughter of a mother who walked faithfully with God for long years, that’s what produces fruit and creates hunger and life. When Judy speaks, she’s soft spoken, but it’s pure milk of the Word. Isn’t it? It penetrates our hearts.

And that’s just an important lesson about ministry. It’s not just the natural giftedness, not just the preparedness. Giftedness is a gift from God, so it’s a good thing. And preparedness is a good thing. But if you have it without a life message, without a heart that is speaking out of overflow, then the impact is going to be far less in the long run.

The quote about being out of breath—can you just give us that quote again? Because I think some of us are wanting to make sure we remember that.

Judy: Yes. It was a pastor who said it, and it was about praying to the Lord. He said, “When I first chose to follow You, you took my breath away. And now I’m just worried I’m just out of breath serving You.”

Nancy: Does Jesus still take your breath away?

You see this in marriage, by the way. You have these early stages, early phases where that man takes your breath away, or he tells you, “You take my breath away.” And that’s a sweet season of love and attraction and fascination. It’s precious.

But in marriage, in motherhood, in ministry, in vocation, in all of these ways, what once took our breath away can get to the place where it just . . . we’re just out of breath and not breathing deeply, not remembering, not cherishing, not flourishing because we’re not cherishing. So it’s back again at the feet of Jesus.

Now that doesn’t mean that every waking moment your husband takes your breath away or Jesus takes your breath away. But if you go long seasons of time without having that sense that he is really precious, I mean, your husband or Jesus, or what He’s called you to do . . . When you lose the wonder and just become breathless, that’s a sign that you need to get back to the feet of Jesus to remember who we are, whose we are, why we do what we do.

Thank you, Judy, for ministering grace.

 __________

And what a sweet time that was back in the fall of 2019 as a few dozen women’s ministry leaders gathered together with our team in Michigan to talk and pray and dream and challenge each other in our walk with the Lord. I hope the Lord has used today’s message to quicken your awe for who He is.

In the midst of distractions, demanding tasks, and constant pressures, we want to invite you to slow down, to drink deeply from the well the life that Jesus gives and to thrive in Him.

Dannah: Yes. In fact, that’s why we bring you teachings like today’s message from Judy. Every podcast, every radio broadcast, every book, devotional, resource—anything we produce is designed to help women everywhere experience the freedom, fullness, and fruitfulness in Christ.

Nancy: We’re so grateful for listeners like you who have been impacted by this ministry and who faithfully support Revive Our Hearts—that includes our Monthly Partner Team. I just want to say, if you’re one of those Partners, or if you support this ministry from time to time, thank you so much. I want you to know that this ministry would not be possible apart from your generosity.

Well, during the month of May, we’ve been sharing about an important need as we prepare for the summer and expand our outreaches in the fall and in the coming year. Our budget year ends today, May 31, and we’ve been trusting the Lord to provide $750,000 this month. We’ve been trusting the Lord to provide a significant amount this month. If you’d like to get an update on where we are with that need, you can find a progress bar on our website, ReviveOurHearts.com.

In these last days, as we close one budget year and tomorrow begins a new one, would you help Revive Our Hearts by praying that the Lord would meet the total need this month? And would you ask the Lord if He would want you to give a special gift to help meet that need? You can make a gift today by visiting us at ReviveOurHearts.com, or just give us a call at 1–800–569–5959.

We look forward to the opportunities ahead to bring women like you gospel hope and encouragement for day-to-day life.

Now, over the rest of this week, we’re going to hear the amazing story of Laura Perry, a woman who formerly identified as a man, a transgender. She’ll share how God gripped her heart and helped her to see the woman He created her to be. It’s a moving story, and it’s a really important one as we see so much confusion today around this whole issue of gender and gender identity. You’ll definitely want to hear this amazing, powerful testimony from Laura Perry over the next four days.

Dannah: Well, today being Memorial Day, you might have the day off from work to remember those men and women who’ve died serving our country. With some of that extra time, maybe consider how you could spend some time at the feet of Jesus today.

I hope you’ll be back tomorrow for Revive Our Hearts.

Revive Our Hearts with Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth challenges you to sit in the wonder of Jesus. This program is an outreach of Life Action Ministries.

All Scripture is taken from the ESV.

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