He Cares

Dannah Gresh: Do you need to be reminded that God cares? Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth says that she does.

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: God is good, even when you don’t feel like He’s good. God loves you with a steadfast love, even when you feel like He has abandoned you. God is with you in this storm; He will never leave you!

Dannah: This is Revive Our Hearts with Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth, co-author of You Can Trust God to Write Your Story, for Tuesday, December 29, 2020. I’m Dannah Gresh.

Can you believe the end of 2020 is almost here? It’s been a strange and challenging year for many of us, but it’s provided new opportunities to trust God and shift our perspectives.

Yesterday, we heard the first part of one of the most listened to series in 2020, and Nancy will share the second part today. Recorded in May, here she is with part 2 of "Coronavirus, Cancer, and Christ."  

Nancy: And today as we did yesterday, I want to just have kind of a chat. I’m not a coffee drinker, but what I’d really love to do is just say, “Can you pull up a chair and let’s have a cup of coffee—socially distanced, of course!—and just talk about some of what I’ve been experiencing, some of what you’ve been experiencing or people that you know have over these past weeks.

We’re calling this short, two-day conversation “Coronavirus, Cancer (in reference to a journey that Robert and I have been on over the past few months) and Christ.” And it’s Christ who makes all the difference in the world—whether you’re facing coronavirus or cancer or any other symptom in this very broken world.

As we think about the weeks, months of this pandemic, I feel a lot of us have lost our equilibrium! There are so many things that have been lost: loss of normalcy, loss of routines, lack of touch, the anxiety, the mental health issues.

I know you have been in correspondence with a lot of different people on social media, on texting and emailing. Let me read to you few a things that women have said to me just in the last couple of weeks (some of these are social media posts; some of these are things that people said to me personally). 

This woman wrote, “Today was the second time in forty-six days I’ve seen someone I know!" And then she wrote, “Today is today fifty-one, home alone. Day fifty-two: I miss hugs!” And then she wrote, “It takes me hours to fall asleep. My anxiety and jumpiness rage when everything gets dark and quiet, and I feel extra alone and vulnerable. It’s just hard.”

On another day she wrote, “I’m tired; I’m just tired! I’m trying to see the Lord and His goodness and His plan in all of this. I know He’s there and up to something, even when everything really does feel like a wreck.”

I saw a post from another woman yesterday. She said, “Never in my life have I gone anywhere close to this long without seeing another human person! And I wonder why I’m not able to function normally?!”

I know we’re at various places in terms of lockdowns being lifted, and there may be more freedom where you are, but for some there is still—for various reasons—this isolation. 

Here’s another woman who wrote: “Weeks on end with no option for reprieve, when we were made for community and relationships, is a level of pain and stress I’ve never had to bear. Will I have what I need? I will be financially okay, though singles who are paid hourly may not be, but will I have supplies?” 

That’s something a lot of us have wondered, because there are some supplies you couldn’t get, even if you have a lot of money.

And then I got a text this morning from a mature Christian friend, and here is what she said. 

“Please pray for me. I’ve been struggling the past month to get my work done . . . business and around the home. I just can’t seem to organize myself and my time to manage all my responsibilities. I’m dropping lots of balls. I feel as though I am work and covid-information and emotionally overloaded. This morning it finally dawned on my why. My husband is here all the time!” 

Now, this is a godly woman with a godly husband, and they have a great marriage.

And she said, “Although part of me loves having him around, it means more relational time and more chatter and more clutter and more cleaning and more dishes and more of everything! Plus, I’m needing to do all the shopping and errands and care for my parents who are housebound because of the virus. Please pray for me to be able to recalibrate and order my priorities wisely . . . and for the emotional fatigue all of this is causing.”

And then she popped back on with another text a few minutes later, and said, “Oh, and my dog tore her ACL and had surgery yesterday. So I’m also caring for my pup!”

Oh my goodness! Wow! Maybe you relate to some of those posts, some of those texts. Wherever you’ve been, whatever your situation has been, there’s this natural pull of our emotions because of the uncertainty, the change, the not knowing about the “what ifs,” the stress, the disorientation, the frustration.

I had a friend pass me the other day and she just said, “I am so done with COVID-19! I’m done with it!” 

These are natural feelings, they are human feelings. Our humanness has been assaulted and we feel these things. So, coronavirus, cancer . . . these things up-end our world. And where is Christ in all of that? 

I took you yesterday to a passage that has been my go-to passage. There have been lots of them through this time, but two verses from Psalm 29 have been an anchor for my heart during these days.

We looked at verse 10 of Psalm 29 yesterday; the context is some natural disaster—maybe a violent thunderstorm—but something that is earth-shattering, that is life-altering. And then, the passage says in verse 10, “The Lord sits enthroned over the flood; the Lord sits enthroned as king forever.” 

We saw when we looked at that verse how Christ is reigning. 

• He’s ruling.
• He is not absent. 
• He’s not under the flood. 
• He’s over the flood. 
• He’s sitting. 
• He’s not pacing. 
• He’s not panic-stricken. 
• He’s sitting as King forever! 

Crown Him with many crowns! He is the King who reigns forever!

Then we come to Psalm 29:11, the last verse of this psalm. It says, “The Lord gives His people strength; the Lord blesses his people with peace” (HSB). 

I see two different pictures of Christ in these two different verses.

In verse 10, “The Lord sits enthroned over the flood; the Lord sits enthroned as king forever.” You see this great King, Christ, who is ruling over heaven and over earth. It’s like this transcendent picture of the great, mighty Christ. I love that! And I need that in times like this.

But I also love the tenderness of verse 11: The Lord, that same Lord, that same reigning Christ, He is concerned about and aware of our weakness and our need! And He stoops down to do something about it: The Lord gives His people strength. The Lord blesses His people with peace.

How precious is that! Not just that He’s some distant, far-reigning, ruling Christ who’s transcendent and sovereign over the whole wide world—“He’s got the whole world in His hands!” I love that. I need that. But I also need a Saviour who draws near—a compassionate, tender Christ.

It says He gives His people strength. That implies that His people are weak. And it’s not just pagans—people who don’t know Jesus—who are weak. It’s His people. We are His people, but we have times when we are weak. There are circumstances over which we have no control. And in the midst of that, we see that His grace is sufficient for all our weakness.

You’ve heard me say many times over the years—and I’ve been saying it again recently—“Anything that makes me need God is a blessing!” We are weak, but He is strong. In our weakness we find His strength. So He gives strength to His people.

And He blesses His people with peace. In the midst of the chaos of this world, in the midst of the flood, in the midst of the storm, God speaks peace—strength and peace. These are the two things that the Lord gives His people. And these are the two things that God has been giving Robert and me during this time of coronavirus and cancer.

And over and over again . . . I want to give a testimony here, and you could do the same thing. We have witnessed God’s providential ordering of our circumstances. We’ve seen His timing in the way that the Lord let our Revive Our Hearts team go to Mexico and do the Mujer Verdadera conference with six-thousand women just before covid was unleashed and before the borders shut down.

We were able to minister to those precious women, and by God’s grace (as far as we know) not one of those women got sick with coronavirus. And then when we got back, we were told we needed to self-quarantine for two weeks. It wasn’t being required, but it was recommended, and that’s when we knew that Robert had this cancer that needed to be dealt with, this melanoma.

The Lord sent a doctor to appeal for us so that Robert could get in and have surgery when the hospitals were closing down. It’s a long story, but it’s a beautiful story. God was providentially intervening for us in the timing, in the circumstances of all of this that we faced. 

We’ve seen God’s provision, during this time, of masks and gloves and meals and groceries and a friend who volunteered to drive us home from the hospital in Grand Rapids after Robert’s surgery. We’ve seen God’s protection; we’ve seen His presence. 

And yes, in the midst of the unknowns and the uncertainty and the craziness, we have experienced God’s peace. How does God bless us with peace? Well, He is the God of all peace, and as we saturate our minds and counsel our hearts with truth, that Word of truth settles in like a warm comfortable blanket over our souls!

God has blessed me with peace during this turbulent season. He’s reminded me over and over again of truth I’ve shared with you over the years. That truth has come back to encourage and bring me peace. Let me give you an example.

The evening before Robert went to have his surgery, here’s a tweet I sent out on Twitter. I wrote, “Three truths that Robert and I are clinging to as we head to Grand Rapids early tomorrow for his surgery for melanoma.” 

And keep in mind, at the time we didn’t know how serious it would be, whether they’d be able to get it off. The outcome has been a really good one, but this is before we knew that. And I said, “Here are three truths that we’re clinging to as we head to surgery tomorrow.”

Number One: Anything that makes us need God is a blessing! Number Two: You can trust God to write your story! And, Number Three: Heaven rules!

Those three things are truths. I’ve told them to others countless times, but those are the truths that have been bringing peace to my own heart. I mentioned yesterday that Revive Our Hearts has been posting on social media some quotes from my teaching that we have re-aired recently—past series that we’ve brought back out of the archives because they’re timeless and timely.

As they’ve posted those quotes, I’ve seen them, and I’ve been preaching to myself. I’ve compiled some of those quotes onto a document that’s available at ReviveOurHearts.com. But let me just read to you a few of those quotes that have been really sweet and helpful reminders to me, and have given me strength and peace in these difficult days.

Again, these are things I recorded years ago, and we’ve brought them back for this time. Here’s one: 

It may not seem that God is coming to our aid immediately, but He will come. Sometimes we have to go through the night first before we get to the break of day.

Here’s another one: 

God is good even when you don’t feel like He’s good. God loves you with a steadfast love even when you feel like He has abandoned you. God is with you in this storm. He will never leave you! 

I told that to women years ago; now I’ve been reminding myself of that truth. Here’s another one: 

Wherever trouble is present, God is more present! 

And this one: 

God uses events that turn our world upside-down to drive us to cling to Him. 

And here’s one when I recorded this years ago, I could never have imagined how timely this would be today!

As we face medical fears and economic fears, we can lean entirely on Christ as our fortress and our strength. 

We aired another series recently called “Hope for Uncertain Times.” And here’s what I said in that series: 

Don’t let the enemy steal your joy—regardless of what is going on in the world or in your personal financial situation. If we have Him, we are rich. We have everything we need, and we have reasons to rejoice. 

And then this one: 

Remember what God has done in the past. Rely on His character. Rehearse His promises. Refrain from taking matters into your own hands. Don’t let fear drive you to places God doesn’t want you to go!

And then, one more. Here’s something that I shared with the women in Mexico in March . . . and again, not knowing what was ahead with coronavirus and cancer. But I said to those women then—and I’m saying it to you and to myself today: 

God provides grace for every trial we could ever face. His grace is enough, no matter what! God is faithful; God is good. God loves us, and He can be trusted to write our story!

Well, how do we get strength? How do we get peace? We anchor our hearts in what we know about God and what we know about His ways. What we’ve told ourselves and others in years past, we remind ourselves of that when these calamities—these storms—come.

I was texting with a friend just a little bit earlier today. She was talking about some of the chaotic and catastrophic things that are happening in our own world and in her world. She has her own business, and she’s been basically without work in this season. She was just itemizing some of the things that have been really hard.

And then she said (and I love this, because this is where she landed), “All that said, I have pages and pages of answered prayers and gratitude notes in my prayer journal during this time! God is really pouring out grace upon grace!”

I’ve experienced that same thing, Robert and I have during this time of coronavirus and cancer, because we have had Christ in the midst of all of that. I wonder if you could say the same thing? Think back to the answered prayers, the gratitude notes, and how God has poured out grace upon grace in your life.

If you’ve not been making gratitude notes, now might be a good time to start, before you forget some of those blessings in the midst of these storms. 

And so, Psalm 29 tells us that God gives strength to His people and God gives peace to His people.

And aren’t those two things that our world desperately needs today? And yet, the world doesn’t know how to find it. It doesn’t know how to find strength when you’re weak, how to find peace when you’re living in chaos. That’s why the world needs to see those things in us! God gives His people strength, God blesses His people with peace, and the world needs to be able to see that in us!

Over these weeks, Robert and I have been praying for someone we know who is in the medical field. This friend actually came down with COVID and nearly died. Our hearts were so heavy as we were asking the Lord to, “Please, touch this person and provide strength and peace and healing!”

And, long-story-short, this person has recovered! A day or so after he got home, he called us and he was weeping. He was so grateful for our prayers, and he just wanted to say “thank you!” We’re still praying for this friend. We don’t know his spiritual condition, but we know that God is at work in his life. He was calling to say to us, “Thank you for being a source of faith and strength and prayer!”

Well, we’ve been quick to say to him and to others, “We don’t have any more strength or peace than anybody else, but Christ has been that to us.” We’re praying that this person and many others around us will come to find Christ as their strength and their peace in the midst of this crisis.

As we think about all the things our world is going through, and how the foundations of the world have been shaking, sometimes we feel like we’re losing our grip, like we just can’t keep holding on. And for some of the people for whom I read their comments at the beginning of this conversation, these were single women who have been alone and have felt intensely the isolation.

Maybe as you were listening to that, you’re thinking, I haven’t had a quiet moment since this whole thing started! Maybe you’re like my friend who said, “My husband is here all the time and I’m not getting anything done, and there are extra meals and . . .!” I’ve heard both sides of this from people, and at times you feel like you’re hanging on by your toenails: “I just can’t keep going!”

Maybe you feel just totally weary and you think, Yes, I know Christ, and I know He reigns enthroned. I know He’s King; I know He’s Sovereign. I know He’s good; I know He’s faithful . . . but I’m losing my grip! And there are times when we wonder, Can I keep holding on?!

Well, I want to say to you that, at the end of the day, it doesn’t so much matter whether we can manage to hold fast to Christ . . . because we’re weak. What matters is that He has promised that He will hold fast to us, and that’s our hope!

Our friends Keith and Kristyn Getty popularized a song; it’s an old hymn, actually, that’s been set to new music. Keith and Kristyn have sung this at our True Woman conferences. They sang it not long ago on a Family Chat that we had with some of our ministry partners. I want you to listen as they remind us that, whatever comes into our lives, when we feel we can’t keep holding on, Christ is holding on to us! He has promised to hold us fast, and that is our hope in these times!

Kristyn Getty: 

When I feel my faith will fail, Christ will hold me fast.
When the tempter would prevail, He will hold me fast.
I could never keep my hold through life’s fearful path,
For my love is often cold, He must hold me fast.

He will hold me fast. He will hold me fast.
For my Savior loves me so. He will hold me fast.

Nancy: He will hold me fast! When we can’t hold fast to Him, we can be sure that He is holding fast to us! In this shaking, quaking world, that’s our one unshakeable, unchanging reality. And that’s what we need to counsel our hearts with in this time, that truth that in these times when we are shaking we can be confident that Christ will hold us fast.

I want to ask you today to receive that promise in a fresh way, and to say, “Yes, Lord, I believe that You will hold me fast through this time, through whatever I’m going through right now, and through whatever I may go through down the road—a week or a month or a year or ten years from now. I receive Your promise that You will hold me fast.” 

And so, Psalm 29 reminds us that "the Lord sits enthroned over the flood; the Lord sits enthroned King forever! The Lord gives His people strength; the Lord blesses His people with peace!" And that’s what I want to pray for you.

As you think about the circumstances, the storms you may be facing or perhaps that someone you love, a family member or a close friend, someone else is facing, I want to pray this over you and invite you to believe it by faith.

So, Lord, I pray for my friends, my sisters, brothers who may be listening as well. I pray, Lord, would You bless each friend who’s listening with strength? Would You give them strength in their weakness, and would You bless them with peace? Would You speak peace? You are the Lord of all peace. You are the God of peace and comfort. I pray that You would give peace and comfort and quietness and calm in the midst of the chaos. 

And Lord, we give You thanks for Your promises, for You are faithful. You are true. You are good, and you can be trusted to write our story in this season—coronavirus, cancer, whatever else may come. 

Thank You that, in the midst of it all, we have Christ! And You will hold us fast. We pray in Jesus’ name, amen.

You know, last year when Robert and I wrote You Can Trust God to Write Your Story: Embracing the Mysteries of Providence, we could not have imagined what 2020 would look like! And you would say the same thing. 

Trust God to write your story when it means coronavirus? Who even knew what that was a year ago? Trust God to write your story when it means cancer? Melanoma? When we first got that diagnosis, I had to go and “google” the word “melanoma.” I didn’t even know what it was.

So the story God is writing in our lives looks different this year than when we wrote that book last year. But I want to read to you an excerpt of what we wrote in that book last year and then hear it in light of circumstances this year. Here’s what we said: 

God is sovereign. His ways are unfathomable. Only He fully knows why He does what He does. And whatever He does is purposeful, good, and for our good. That is the message of this book.

As we sit here today, we have no idea what our future may hold. Our story is still being written, and He has not given us an inside track on what the next chapters look like. But our trust is in the One who holds our future, the author and the finisher of our faith!

That gives us freedom and peace, even when we can’t see what lies ahead. As we’ve listened to some of the painful stories dear friends have shared with us for this book, we can’t help but wonder what rocky paths we may yet be called to travel. 

We may yet face serious health issues, the loss of a mate and/or other crises known only to Him. [Can you spell COVID-19?] But we know He has been faithful in each chapter thus far, and we know He will be faithful in each one yet to come, and that His grace will be sufficient for wherever He leads us.

We don’t want to tell Him how to write our story. We trust Him to write our story for us. Above all, our desire is that our lives will showcase the beauty and the goodness of His story.” 

That’s what we wrote in that book called You Can Trust God to Write Your Story. That was our goal for our lives then, and it’s our goal for our lives today. It’s our goal for Revive Our Hearts. It’s our goal for you, that our lives, our ministries, will showcase the beauty and the goodness of God’s story.

Since we wrote those words, we have faced the coronavirus pandemic, faced cancer . . . and only God knows what next year will hold . . . and the next . . . and the next. But we are still confident that He is faithful, He is good, and He can be trusted to write our story!

Dannah: That was Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth giving the second part of that message, "Coronavirus, Cancer, and Christ." Since that series first aired in May, Nancy, you have an update on Robert’s health journey.

Nancy: I do, Dannah. What an eventful year this has been. As I shared yesterday, what we were experiencing back in May was just the first of what turned out to be two cancer diagnoses—you can't make this stuff up! 2020, what a year! But what a sweet year as we've experienced the Lord’s continued provision and grace and comfort and peace—what we've been talking about.

The words I said in this message months ago, I believe even more deeply today that they are true, that they are real, and that God gives strength to His people and blesses His people with peace.

We've had that as Robert has been through months of chemo. Praise the Lord, we've just had what we believe is the last chemo treatment, a week ago. We are looking forward to having another scan several weeks from now to confirm that Robert is cancer-free.

We don't have any idea of what 2021 is going to hold. I mean, a year ago, who could have imaged what 2020 would look like. As we come into a new year, I don't want to encourage you not to brace for the worst, to recognize there will be hard things in this coming year (maybe harder things for some of us than this past year). But what I want us to focus on is what I've found to be so precious in 2020, and it will still be true in 2021: Christ is King and He sits enthroned over the flood and that He rules, He reigns, He is sovereign, He is good, He is faithful. And He gives strength to His people when they are weak. And He blesses His people with peace, even when we find ourselves in the midst of chaotic circumstances.

That's what I have been clinging to over these past months. It's what I plan to keep clinging to through whatever the year ahead may hold.

Dannah: What a precious encouragement, Nancy, for all of us as we finish this difficult year. There are so many people like you and Robert who have gone through personal difficulty on top of a very difficult year. I just want to say "thank you" for being so transparent, for sharing these updates, for letting us pray for you and Robert, and for watching you believe that heaven rules.

Nancy: That reminds me. I just want to say how hugely encouraged Robert and I have been day after day, week after week, through the ordeal of this year. Robert and I have often looked at each other when we hear about people who are praying for us, people who have prayed for us every day, who have ministered to us in practical ways . . . We have been so blessed. We are going, "We don't deserve this." But we've been so grateful for the faithfulness of God through His people.

At the same time, here's another way we've seen God be so faithful: that is providing for the financial needs of Revive Our Hearts through a very difficult year. We've seen God provide not only for 2020, but now for almost twenty years—day after day, week after week, month after month, and year after year. And now here we are at the end of this year trusting Him again to meet us in a place of big need as we come to the end of this year.

Through this month we've been trusting God for 2.2 million dollars. That seems like a big number—and it is—but nothing is too big for God. He’s already been providing significantly. He provided us with a generous matching challenge to cover one million dollars of that 2.2 million, so that was a huge start! Then throughout this month, people have been giving to match that challenge.

We've seen Him work in some incredible ways already this month. We are trusting that in these last few days of December the balance needed, and even above . . . Our commitment is to be faithful in stewarding those resources and in using them to reach women around the world with the message that heaven rules, Christ is King, and He gives strength to His people and blesses His people with peace. 

So would you join us in praying for the remaining need to be met in these last few days of December? If you want to see where we are in that, you can go to ReviveOurHearts.com. We are keeping that updated each day. And if the Lord has made it possible for you to give a gift at this time, we would be so grateful. We know there are many ministries and many needs. We want you to give to your church first, and make sure their needs are met. But perhaps the Lord has provided an additional amount that you can share with Revive Our Hearts at this time.

You can do that by going to ReviveOurHearts.com, or by calling us at 1–800–569–5959.

Come whatever may—coronavirus, cancer, whatever other storms you or your family or our nation or this world may face in the months ahead—Jesus is King. Heaven rules! Thanks for your support of this ministry and helping us declare that message day after day throughout the world.

Dannah: Thank you so much. Let me say as we near the end of a pretty crazy year, I can't wait to say, "We made it!" Tomorrow, Nancy, will be sharing with us "How to Have a Happy New Year—No Matter What." She’ll help us know how to deal with anxiety and stress, and how to find joy in these chaotic times. I’m Dannah Gresh. Please be back for Revive Our Hearts.  

All Scripture is taken from the ESV.

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