God’s Promises

Dannah Gresh: Sometimes we need a little perspective to remind us that this life is not all there is. Here’s Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth.

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: The key to surrender is realizing that you are just in a tent here. This is not your home. This is not permanent. We are strangers. We are exiles on the earth. Our citizenship is in heaven.

Dannah: This is Revive Our Hearts with Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth, author of Surrender: The Heart God Controls, for Wednesday, June 1, 2022. I'm Dannah Gresh.

What's an altar? We talk about it like it's the front area of a church sanctuary. What did it mean for those in the Old Testament? Why did they build altars? We'll start to get a picture of this biblical concept as Nancy continues in a series called "Surrender: Facing our Fears."

Nancy: We've been talking about Abraham and his wife, Sarah. Abraham, the father of those who believe, who take the promises of God seriously and are willing to stake their lives on God's promises.

Now, Abraham came to be known by his contemporaries as Abraham the Hebrew. You find that reference in Genesis chapter 14, verse 13. The word "Hebrew" means "stranger" or "alien" and from the perspective of the people who lived in the land of Canaan, Abraham and his wife, Sarah, were always something of misfits. They didn't really belong. They were strangers. They were aliens.

But that was okay, because this couple understood that everything that this world offers is temporary at best. So their ultimate citizenship wasn't here on this earth. They were living for an eternal home, and that was what made them willing to live as pilgrims, as strangers, as aliens, to not fit into this world and this world system because they had an eternal home for which they were headed.

We read this concept in Hebrews chapter 11, that great story of the men and woman of faith beginning in verse 13. The Scripture says that all these different Old Testament saints, "these died in faith, not having received the things promised but having seen them and greeted them from afar and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth."

Listen, if you put roots down too deeply into this earth, you'll have a really hard time when God asks you to surrender something that you hold dear. The key to surrender is realizing that you are just in a tent here. This is not your home. This is not permanent. We are strangers. We are exiles on the earth. Our citizenship is in heaven.

And the writer to Hebrews goes on to say in Hebrews 11, verse 14, "For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country that is a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God for he has prepared for them a city."

So Abraham and Sarah, along with others listed in this great chapter of faith, were willing to risk everything this world considers essential—homeland, reputation, position, possessions, their family, their relatives, prestige—in order to be eternally secure and to gain the blessing of God. And that's exactly what happened. Though he was an alien on earth from earth's perspective, from heaven's perspective, Abraham was called the friend of God.

Abraham the Hebrew, the alien from earth's perspective, but from God's perspective, heaven's point of view, Abraham, the friend of God.

The development of Abraham's extraordinary relationship with God can be defined in terms of a series of surrenders that Abraham made to God over the course of his life. Each of those surrenders was based on a revelation of a covenant-keeping, promise-keeping God.

Now, as Abraham made those surrenders, I think one of the most distinct symbols of Abraham's life was this thing called an altar. On four distinct occasions at four distinct stages in his pilgrimage, we are told that Abraham responded to God by building an altar.

You read about the first one in Genesis chapter 12:7 at Shechem. And then the next verse between Bethel and Ai, Abraham built altars in response to God.

And then in chapter 13:18 at Hebron, he built another altar to God. At each of these altars, he was saying, "Lord, I've heard what You said. I've heard what You reveal to be true about Yourself. I've heard Your promises, and I just want to respond to You by saying, 'I believe Your promises. I receive Your promises. I surrender to You and to Your control my life and everything that matters to me.'"

That's what those altars meant. He erected those altars. They were a silent symbols of surrender and faith. God has promised. God is faithful, so I trust Him, and I surrender to Him.

The fourth time on a mountain called Moriah, this man who was called the friend of God, built yet one more altar. Genesis chapter 22 tells us about how on that altar at God's clear yet incomprehensible direction, Abraham placed his own son, the child of the promise, Isaac, the longed for, the long-awaited child. God said, "Offer him up." And in that moment of supreme surrender and faith, Abraham said, "I trust You, God. I trust Your plan. I trust Your purposes."

It was a relinquishing of everything he held dear. Because embodied in that child was all of Abraham's hopes and dreams and aspirations and his future and everything that he had longed for. Everything that God had promised him was bound up in the life of that child and when God said, "Give up that child," it didn't make any sense at all. But Abraham was a friend of God. He was a stranger and an alien on this earth, and he said, "Okay, God, I trust You."

We know that God spared Abraham's son. But the test had been passed. God knew that when Abraham laid his precious son on that altar, prepared to plunge the knife into his chest, that Abraham himself was on that altar. All that he was, all that he had, it was all God's.

I want us to notice that all of those earlier altars of sacrifice and surrender and faith, each one of those had been preparing Abraham for the moment when he would be called upon to make the supreme sacrifice.

Can I suggest that you won't be ready to make that ultimate sacrifice that God asks of you if you haven't all along the way been saying, "Yes, Lord" in the more everyday, mundane issues of life. You see, with each previous act of surrender, there had been established in Abraham's heart the trustworthiness of God and the trustworthiness of God's promises. He had been getting to know God.

And so when Mount Moriah came, Genesis 22, Abraham had a track record with God, and that's what enabled him to step out in faith and surrender. And likewise, each small step of surrender you take, it may be just getting out of bed in the morning when the alarm clock goes off and getting up in time to spend some time with the Lord in His Word and in prayer.

That's a small surrender; it's an altar you built. It's not a big deal. But as you make that small act of surrender, as you build that altar, every step of surrender that you take confirms that God is worthy of your trust and prepares you to trust Him with bigger surrenders that may be required down the road.

You see, altars speak of sacrifice, of devotion, of surrender, of being consumed. They speak of a life that is wholly given up to the one for whom the altar is built.

In some of our churches we have a place, a location, an object at the front of the sanctuary that we identify as an altar. We don't light fires and offer literal sacrifices on those places, but they are intended to serve as visible reminders of what should be a spiritual reality for every child of God. The hymn writer put it this way, My heart an altar and thy love the flame, offering up ourselves in full surrender to God. 

So the surrender points that Abraham and Sarah faced over the course of their lives are probably similar to some that you have faced in your life. For example, I think about Abraham and Sarah being called to leave their hometown, the place where all their family was, the place where they had grown up and leaving family and friends behind.

Maybe you have had to do that, to leave what was comfortable and familiar and to go to a new city where you did not know a soul. You did it because you thought, This is what God wants. Your emotions were screaming, You can't do this. But faith said, "Trust God. Step out and do it."

Abraham surrendered the best land option to his nephew, Lot. There were times when you have been asked to make a choice to sacrifice your own interest for the sake of others. If you are a mother, you do that every day. You make sure your children's needs are met, that they are fed, that they are clothed. I've seen so many mothers live this sacrificial life, putting their children's interests, their husband's interests ahead of their own. We you do that, you are walking in the steps of Abraham and Sarah and their faith.

Then that time came when Lot was in a backslidden condition and Abraham took on this massive military machine to rescue him from his captures.

Well, there may be times when you have to stay involved and pursue the heart of a mate, a son, a daughter, a parent who has a rebellious heart and is far from the Lord, and God is calling you to stay involved, stay engaged, stay in the pursuit in that relationship. When you do that, you are making a surrender and you are walking in faith. You are building an altar of sacrifice.

When Abraham refused to accept the spoils of war from an ungodly king, there may be a time when you have to turn down a lucrative offer because you know it's not pleasing to the Lord. You have to trust, God is going to meet my needs, even though I'm not willing to take unethical shortcuts to receive this benefit. So you say, "Thanks, but no thanks. I turn it down."I

I think of Sarah living for twenty-five years after God has promised them this multiple seed, this progeny, these children and grandchildren for generations to come. But for twenty-five years she has no children, living with infertility. I know there are women who love God with all their hearts and are walking by faith and are surrendering to God and their hearts are longing to have a child, and yet God has not chosen to bless them with a child.

When you surrender that longing to God, when you offer it up to Him and you say, "Lord, I trust You to fulfill Your purposes and to know and to do what is best for my life." And you surrender that desire to Him.

I think of Sarah submitting to a husband who sometimes made wrong decisions. We read about that in Genesis 12 and Genesis 20 but 1 Peter 3 comments on her obedience, and it says that she trusted in God, not ultimately in her husband. And because she trusted in God, she did what was right and what was right was to obey her husband, but as a result she was freed from fear. And when you submit to your husband, trusting God even when your husband makes a decision that looks wrong, and may be wrong . . . And isn't that hard if it is a decision that affects you or your family. There's a fear that says, "I've got to control. I've got to take over. I've got to keep this from happening." And God says, "Trust me. Let me be God. Let me work in that man's heart. Let me change the king's heart because the king's heart is in the Lord's hand."

When you submit to God-ordained authority, you're saying, "Lord, I build an altar of sacrifice, surrender and faith."

And even if it comes to (what for a mom must be the ultimate sacrifice) giving up the life of a child that you consider dearer than your own life. If you know that you have been walking with God and your life has been in a pattern of surrender to him, then even in that moment . . .  I think about my widowed mom who had to face the loss of a twenty-two-year-old son in a car accident. No, it has not been easy, and yes, it has been hard. But ultimately she has had to come to that point of saying, "God, I trust You. You don't make mistakes. You know what You are doing."

When it comes to those uncertainties that keep us from walking by faith, that keep us from surrender, that keep us from making those sacrifices, like Abraham, we have what the Scripture calls great and precious promises, promises from God's Word, promises that powerfully counteract our deepest fears and reservations. And if we trust those promises and we trust the God who made them, we consider Him faithful who has promised, we will be given courage to make every sacrifice that He may ask.

Dannah: Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth will be back in just a moment. She's been pointing us to the promises of Scripture. If you want to really understand what those promises are, I want to invite you to check out the booklet 50 Promises to Live By. Dwelling on the promises of God in these pages will help you face your fears and live a surrendered life. You’ll find that resource on our website, ReviveOurHearts.com. Or, if you’ve never given to the ministry before and you’d like to support Revive Our Hearts for the first time, you’ll receive a copy of 50 Promises to Live By, along with this month’s featured resource, a booklet titled Facing Our Fears: Finding Him Faithful. We’ll tell you more about how you can get these resources at the end of today’s program. Now, let’s get back to Nancy as she shares how the desire to control can interfere with living a surrendered life.  

Nancy: I think one of the biggest fears that we have as women—and it's also one of our biggest needs—is that of relinquishing control, letting go, not having to manage the entire world ourselves. I think many of us work ourselves into a big mess sometimes because we have to make sure that everything around us is functioning just right.

We have this fear that is really fueled by Satan himself that if we let go, if we relinquish control, that everything is going to fall apart and that it's all going to be out of control. It's our fears I think that often keep us just clinging and hanging on, and ultimately those fears and that hanging on are so self-destructive.

But the enemy lies to us and he convinces us that if you live a life of surrendering everything to the Lord, if you don't hold back anything from the Lord, if you relinquish control to Him, you're going to be miserable.

We've talked about the four categories of fears: provision (will I have what I need?), pleasure (will I be happy?), protection (will I be safe and will the people I love be safe, my children, my mate?) and personal relationships (will my relational and emotional needs be met if I just let God have His way in my life?).

What we don't realize on the front end of those struggles is that not until we do let go and surrender and relinquish control do we find ourselves with the fullest possible provision, pleasure, protection and personal relationships.

We settle for something that is far less than what God intends for us if we insist on trying to fill those empty places of our hearts ourselves, rather than letting go and letting God be in control and letting Him fill us with what He wants to give us. That's why it's so important that we fill our minds and our hearts with the promises of God; that we get to know God and get to know His promises.

For every fear we have, God has a promise. There's something about who God is and about what He has promised that meets us at our points of deepest fear. We've seen this over the last several sessions with Abraham and Sarah as they had to face many of the same fears that we do and had to live with a lot of the same real-life issues and worse in many ways.

 

Time after time God said, "Let Me show you who I am. This is Me. This is who I am. This is what I am like. These are My promises. I am your provision. I am your protection. I am your God."

As this couple built altars of surrender and faith, God came through. God was faithful. Even if we're not faithful, God still is. I see in the life of Abraham and Sarah and in our own lives as well that it really gets reduced to those two words: trust and obey.

Trust that God is who He says He is. Then step out and obey. Do what God is asking you to do. When you can't figure out how it's all going to work, step out and do it by faith. The more you get to know God, the more you can trust and obey.

So let's look today and in the next session at those four different fears and just examine some of the promises of God that counteract our fears, remembering that God wants us to experience provision, pleasure, protection and personal relationships. But He wants us to seek those things in the only place where they can really be found, and that is in Him.

So take this matter of provision, the fear of: "Will I have what I need?" We said, "What promise does God have to counteract that fear?" I think about that passage in Luke 12:22, where Jesus said to His disciples, "I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on."

Then we come down to Luke 12:28–30:

If God so clothes the grass, which is alive in the field today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will He clothe you, O you of little faith? And do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be worried. For all the nations of the world seek after these things. And your Father [that's the key, we have a Father, capital "F"] knows that you need these things. 

So Jesus said, "Instead of worrying and being fretful and anxious and fearful about your provision and where it's going to come from, trust that your Father knows and then seek His kingdom. Seek the things that matter to Him, and these things will be added to you. Fear not, little flock."

I love this verse. Luke 12:32: "Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom." God has a kingdom for us, and we're saying, "What am I going to eat? What am I going to drink? What am I going to wear? Where am I going to live?"

Jesus said, "Your Father knows that you need these things." He has promised in Philippians 4:19 that He will "meet all of our needs, according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus." He has said, "I want to give you everything." So what are the implications of that promise?

One, be content with what we have. Accept that what we have is what we need. Remembering that contentment is accepting that God has already given me all that I need for my present peace and happiness. That means if I don't have it, I don't need it.

Hebrews 13:5: "Be content with such things as you have, because God has said, 'I will never leave you nor forsake you.'" So if you have Him, how can we think that we will not have everything else that we need?

If God has given us Himself—He has given us His Son, He has given us His salvation—we have all of those promises, all of that provision. "Fear not, little flock. It's the Father's good pleasure to give you His kingdom," how can we become anxious and worried and fretful about where the next meal is coming from? Be content with what we have.

Don't worry about how our future needs will be met because God has promised, "I will meet your needs." Matthew 6. Luke 12. Jesus says, "Don't worry about these things." When we are anxious and fearful, it's because we're trying to control something that we're afraid may get out of our control. God says, "Let Me control it. Let Me be your provider." Trust. That means you can't worry, you can't be anxious, you can't get bent out of shape and wonder how it's all going to happen. Trust that God is going to provide.

I've been reading recently in the book of 1 Kings in the Old Testament and the story of how Elijah went to King Ahab and said, "The word of the Lord says that it's not going to rain. Neither dew nor rain for the next three years."

Then God said to Elijah, "Go to this brook, and I have prepared ravens to feed you."

Every morning and every evening, God sent birds to bring food to Elijah. Then when the brook dried up, because there was no rain in the land, God said, "I have prepared a widow in the town of Zarephath to meet your needs. Go there." And there was a whole story about how God had prepared this woman, who out of her own need, ministered to the needs of the servant of God. God provided for both of them throughout the duration of the famine. (see 1 Kings 17:1–16)

I think as I read that passage, "How many times does God want to supply our needs in supernatural ways, but we don't give Him the chance?" We're too busy trying to figure out how to manage on our own.

A woman wrote recently and she said, "I really want to be at home with my children, but my husband has lost his job, and I've had to go out to work to provide for our family."

I don't know this woman. I don't know God's will for her life. What I'm going to say is not particularly in response to her. But in general my thought is, as I think about the ways and the word of God, is it possible that by going out into the marketplace rather than waiting on the Lord that she and her husband missed an opportunity to see God provide for their needs in a supernatural way that would have allowed her to stay in the home and fulfill her heart's desire to be with her children?

I'm not saying that critically. I'm not saying across the board how God does it in every situation. He may not send ravens to meet your family's needs. But I'll tell you what, He could. If that's what God needed to do in order to meet the needs of your family, He would. You see, that's not just the God of the Old Testament. We have a God today who is a supernatural provider—Jehovah Jireh, the Lord our Provider.

How many times do we not get to see God bare His arm and do what only God can do because we're still trying to be in control? So we have His promises. We're to be content. We're not to worry about how our future needs will be met. Then when we have a need, rather than fretting or striving or manipulating, what are we to do? Simply ask Him to meet our needs and ask in faith, confident that if He knows this is a need, He will provide it.

I have a new screensaver on my computer that says, "Pray about it!" I'm just being reminded as that thing goes across my screen that as I have needs, and I'm fretting and fuming and fussing, why don't I just pray about it?

Ask the Lord. Tell Him what your needs are. "Don't be anxious for anything. In everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God" (Phil. 4:6). Then you will have the peace of God that will control your heart and your mind.

I've had the privilege of serving with Life Action Ministries, a revival ministry ministering to the heart of the local church. Most of the staff in that ministry raise their own financial support as missionaries. It's been an incredible thing over the years as I've watched many children grow up in that ministry to see those kids watching God provide month after month, supernaturally at times, to meet the financial and material needs of their families.

One of those families who has been with the ministry for longer than I have, they raised all three of their children in this way of just trusting God to supply their needs month after month. Those kids went through Christian college debt free. God provided when they needed the funds. When the kids graduated, the funds weren't there any more.

They've had to be content with less than what most people would think they need to be content, but that's been part of trusting the promises of God. The father in that home wrote recently and told me what a joy it was to see one of his sons now, who is in his early thirties and who is now a missionary with his children overseas serving the Lord, and that son wrote his dad and said, "Dad, I learned that I can depend on God to meet our family's needs because of what I saw when I was growing up as you trusted the Lord to meet our family's needs."

So as your children are growing up in your home, that doesn't mean you have to be a missionary to walk by faith, but as you have needs in your family, do your children see you praying, asking the Lord to meet those needs? That should just be a natural response. But what is our natural response instead? Worry and fret and fuss and fume. Instead, tell the Lord, trust His promises and then watch and see how God provides.

Dannah: Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth has been showing us how trustworthy God’s promises are. When we really know and believe His promises, we can learn to let go of control and fully surrender our lives to Him. When you give a gift of any amount to Revive Our Hearts this month, you’ll receive a copy of the new resource, Facing Our Fears: Finding Him Faithful. This booklet will help you study the promises from God’s Word and learn to live without fear as you surrender every part of your life to Christ. You’ll find content taken from Nancy’s book, Surrender, along with exclusive bonus material to help you apply these concepts in practical ways.

And if you’ve never given to the ministry before but would like to support what God is doing through Revive Our Hearts, now is the perfect time. With your gift, in addition to the Facing Our Fears booklet, you’ll also get a copy of Nancy’s booklet, 50 Promises to Live By, that I mentioned earlier. Just visit ReviveOurHearts.com to make your gift, or call us at 1-800-569-5959, and be sure to request your resources.

Tomorrow we'll discover one of the byproducts that often comes from surrender and sacrifice—happiness. Please be back for Revive Our Hearts.

Revive Our Hearts with Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth wants you to experience freedom, fullness, and fruitfulness in Christ.  

*Offers available only during the broadcast of the podcast season.