Relying on the Lord Day by Day

Leslie Basham: Here’s Nancy Leigh DeMoss:

Nancy Leigh DeMoss: Before we begin today, I want to take a moment to say a huge thank you to every listener who has responded to the current matching challenge for new Revive Our Hearts supporters. Some friends of the ministry have been matching all first-time gifts, and we’re so grateful that those gifts have been able to be doubled.

That challenge has been an important part of the overall goal we’ve been sharing with you this month. We’ve been asking God to provide at least $350,000 between now and May 31 so we can close our fiscal year in a healthy position. That amount will help sustain the daily broadcast as we enter into the summer months, and it will also let us know whether we can ramp up the initial efforts we've launched to make the broadcast available in the Spanish speaking world.

So if this ministry has been a blessing to you and you’ve not yet given towards this month's goal, would you ask the Lord what He would have you give during this important time. Thank you so much for your prayers, your encouragement and your support of this ministry.

Leslie: This is Revive Our Hearts with Nancy Leigh DeMoss for Thursday, May 26, 2011.

Nancy: Well, if you’ve missed any of the past several programs, you want to be sure to go back to ReviveOurHearts.com and look those up. You can read the transcript, you can listen to the audio. We’ve been having a really moving conversation with Kim Jaggers who found herself through a series of painful life circumstances as a single mom.

Kim, welcome to Revive Our Hearts, and thank you for being willing to share your story. I know that many of our listeners have been really moved as they’ve heard you share so honestly out of your journey.

Kim Jaggers: Thank you. Thank you for allowing me to be here, and I greatly appreciate the opportunity to talk about Jesus.

Nancy: He really is the focus and the core of everything I’ve heard you talk about. It all goes back to Him. He has been the one who has been your life before you lost your husband, who took his own life, so you had a complex series of issues to work through there. At the time, as you’ve shared, you had a three-year-old child and a one-year-old child who was seriously ill and had just been through life-threatening surgery. As I am hearing that story I am thinking, "I don’t know how anyone can get through a series of circumstances like that if they didn’t have Christ."

Kim: I don’t think you could, because like I said, there is nothing in me that is strong. I am truly the baby of babies and He, Jesus, carried me through it. He proved Himself true to every word in His Bible. He is very real and an ever present help in times of trouble that we’re all going to face. Different things are going to come our way, but Jesus will never leave us; He’ll never forsake us. He can and does bring beauty from ashes.

Nancy: Which doesn’t mean there won’t be trouble. In fact, He’s promised that He will be with us in the midst of the troubles. As we’ve heard it said, God’s peace is not absence of problems, it is the presence of Christ in the midst of the problems. And that is really what you’ve been experiencing over these last 15 years.

Kim: That is so true and what I still experience on a daily basis when things come at me and at my family, He is still enough to sustain us when all else seems to fail us.

Nancy: Now I know that those who have been listening to the story, we kind of left them hanging about your little guy Ben, who was in the hospital and who had just been through major surgery. He had been sick the whole first year of his life. Our listeners want to know what happened to Ben. Can you update us and just fast forward and tell us what’s happened with him.

Kim: Ben has continued to improve. At that point, his T-cells were not working and all of a sudden (the doctors still have no explanation) they started working. God has continued to do miracles for his health but also in his life because Ben loves Jesus with all of his heart. He is an amazing person who continues to teach me many things.

He is 15 years old now. He has played basketball for his middle school team. He is a very active, happy kid but still facing trouble and problems. We just had a very unexpected heart surgery a few months ago, but God continues to take care of us and show us even though things may not work out the way we had planned. We are constantly running back to Him for strength.

I’ve seen Him use the hard for good over and over again in my life and in my children’s lives. We were blessed to have a very godly man come into our lives several years after my first husband died. God has blessed us immensely with someone who loves Jesus even more than he loves me and there is nothing better than to be married to someone who has that kind of security in their own life.

Nancy: And your security has continued to be in the Lord, not in your husband, not in your children. It is a journey of continuing to trust the Lord to care for those that you love and to trust the Lord to care for you. But you have just kept going back to the things that you know to be true, which are:

• God is.
• God is faithful. 
• Christ is your Savior and your Lord.
• He loves you.
• His plans for your life are good.

You’ve just kept counseling your heart with the things that are true and not going back to that place you were years ago where your hope and your peace were dependent upon your circumstances.

Kim: Right. And it is so much richer. It is such a better life to live that way because life is crazy, life gets hard. Yet, we can have a constant peace, a constant hope, and a constant joy when we’re walking daily with Jesus.

Nancy: As I was hearing you share in the last program a passage came to mind that I am sure you’re familiar with from 2 Corinthians 1:3. Let me just read a few versus from that passage beginning at verse 3.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God (vv. 3-4).

Now there is a lot of comfort in those verses, and I think that describes, Kim, what I’ve seen in you, and that is that you have been through a lot of affliction. Manny of those things that you’ve shared over the last few days would cause other people to just lose it in total despair. You’ve been through some very dark, deep, and difficult waters, but in your affliction, you have found Christ to be a comforter to you.

You have found Him to be a very present help in time of trouble, but it is not just for you. God has given you His comfort in your affliction so that you could turn around and minister God’s comfort to others who are afflicted. I think that God intends that for all of us, so that the hard things we go through, the challenges, the failures, that as He gives us His grace and His mercy and His peace and His comfort, that we cannot just receive those for ourselves, but we then become channels to give that to others.

You went through that season of time we talked about in the last program as a single mom desperately needy, exhausted, not able to manage life on your own, and you found God’s people came to minister grace to you in so many practical ways that you shared with us. But as God has restored you and has given you a husband and brought you into a broad place again, God put a burden on your heart for other single mom families, as you call them. He is using you to minister to others in the same ways that others ministered to you when you were a single mom. Tell us how that burden began to develop in your own heart.

Kim: God allowed me to walk that hard road. Because of that, I saw how difficult it is to be a single mom. It is extremely hard to try to be mom and dad and breadwinner and provider and comforter and fixer of boo-boos and all the things that role entails when you’re the only one there. But also during that time, He continued to show Himself to be enough. I so have a heart now that others will see; that others who are in difficult circumstances and especially single mom families and single moms will see the same God who carried me can carry them. The same God who can take hard and bring beauty from it can take their situation and bring beauty from that. The same God who wants the best for my children wants the best for her children. 

There is a place to run to and that is to Jesus. When we run to Him and when we follow Him, when we obey Him with everything we have, then we can experience peace when things are not fixed, when the circumstances are still ongoing and hard. We can trust His promises to carry us through, and not only us. You know, He says He is faithful to a thousand generations of those who love and follow Him (see Deut. 7:9).

So when we make a decision as a single mom that we’re going to lead our family toward Jesus Christ, that we’re not going to follow the world, that we’re not going to follow our emotions but we’re going to follow Him with everything we have. We can expect and trust that God will do a mighty work in our lives and in our children’s lives and our children after them. So that is my heart and my burden that others will run to Him and find Him faithful, just as I did, because He is so good.

Nancy: Can you remember some point at which you looked around and realized that God had really met your needs but that there were needy people around you, other single moms, that you had a heart to reach out to?

Kim: I remember speaking to a group of ladies and there were seven single moms there. I was just reminded of how hard it is it walk into a church without a husband, how hard it is to look around and see other intact families and feel like a failure, to feel like people were looking at you differently. So God gave me such a burden for the Body of Christ to reach out just like my church had done, to reach out to these families and to be the hands and feet of Jesus in those hard situations and for single moms to come to the church. A lot of studies will say that less than 5 percent of single-parent families are connected to the Body of Christ.

Nancy: Hold on, I just want you to say that again because that went by a little quickly; give us that stat again.

Kim: Less than 5 percent of single-parent families are connected to the Body of Christ, connected to a church.

Nancy: What an incredible mission field.

Kim: There is an unreached people group right in our back yard of every church in America.

Nancy: You don’t have to go anywhere to find that mission field.

Kim: Right. It is women you know. She’s your waitress; she’s the person at the check-out. You pass them all the time, and they are struggling just to get by, and so many of them do not know the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. They do not know the blessing and the benefit of being part of a body of believers.

Nancy: They have different stories. Some of them are single moms as you were because of the death of a husband, for some it is a divorce, some are single moms who have never married, and you’re finding that more and more. So there are a whole range of backgrounds and stories, but they are still facing this challenge of raising kids without a dad in the picture. So God has used you in the context of your local church to start a ministry to single mom families. It is called The Well. Why did you call it The Well.

Kim: Because it is a place to get living water; that you will never grow thirsty again if you come and drink of the One who truly satisfies.

Nancy: Which takes us back to that story in John 4 about the woman at the well who was desperate. She didn’t know what she was desperate for, she just knew she was desperate. And Jesus said, "If you come to me, I will give you living water." And she said, "That is what I want." She came looking for water and found Christ. So you’ve called this ministry in your church The Well. How do you minister to single mom families through that ministry?

Kim: We have an outreach once a month that is a free dinner and free childcare and then a time of encouragement from God’s Word. From that, it allows us to connect to these families. Then we try to go in and minister to them. They get a devotional from me that I write. They get a weekly email devotional as well. We have a single mom Bible fellowship group that meets. We have men in our church who are working to mentor the kids, especially the sons from single mom homes. We also are developing teaching just for the children because children from single parent families experience different things when they think about God the Father as opposed to their earthly father. We try to help them understand that difference.

Nancy: Because in many of those cases, they may have been abandoned by their dad and may have a view of God that is more like their earthly father than like the God we know in the Scripture.

Kim: That is exactly right. We are seeing divorces now occurring in the church more frequently than outside the church. This problem is, sad to say, a growing problem. So I think the church needs to be very intentional about walking into these families' lives to point them to the truth of who Jesus Christ is, who God the Father is, because the enemy would love nothing more than to pull that child away. We know that once a marriage fails, children are more likely to do drugs, they are more likely to have sex before marriage, and they are more likely to end up in prison. Every statistic, once that marriage fails, once there is not a man in the picture, our children are destined for failure.

Nancy: Apart from God’s grace and intervention.

Kim: Exactly right. God’s plans are different for these children than what the world’s is. Those children need the Body of Christ to minister to them, to be very intentional about ministering to these families because this is ground the enemy has been occupying for far too long. He has been getting victory, after victory, after victory in this area and the church can make a difference because God’s plans are totally different than what the enemy’s is for these children. We can be an instrument of God’s truth for these families.

Nancy: One of the things you’re doing as you minster to these women is helping them to see lies that they may have been believing and the truth that will set them free. In fact, that reminds me of a book.

Kim: A great book!

Nancy: Lies Woman Believe And The Truths That Set Them Free. You were showing me some of the things you teach these women. What are some of those lies that, particularly, single moms may be believing, that aren’t true?

Kim: One of the lies the enemy uses often with them is, "If I just find another man, if I just fill that role, then everything will be okay." So we want to help them understand that God wants you to find His man, someone that loves God even more than he loves you, because that is the only man who can love you as Christ loves the church, which is better than anything that a strictly worldly relationship could bring.

So many of them believe that God cannot forgive them, but He says that He is rich in mercy in Ephesians 2:4. So many of them believe that God doesn’t love them, and He says over and over that He is love. So what we try to do is help them take those thoughts captive just like the Bible says and compare them to what does God say, and then walk in that truth. That is where they find the freedom. We are seeing lives being changed. We are seeing women walk away from generational sin, from sexual strongholds, from drug addiction, from all sorts of things and walking in victory. We are seeing the difference not only for them but for their children as well.

Nancy: Because the truth really does set people free. I love this list that you have. We are making it available on our website, Revive Our Hearts.com. There is a PDF version you can download. You can print out; you can use copies of that article about the specific lies the enemy uses to deceive (not just single moms) many single moms and then see the corresponding truths that sets them free. So thank you for coming up with that list, and we want to make that available to our listeners.

We have a lot of single moms who listen to Revive Our Hearts, probably listening to us right now, who are connected to this ministry in different ways. But I don’t think in all our years on the air that we’ve ever done a program specifically dealing with the topic of single moms and some of the struggles that they face. So Kim, I am so thankful that the Lord had you come across our path.

I am hoping that there are two categories of people listening today. One is some single moms who are taking heart, taking courage, and really believing that God can minister grace to them in their situation. And if you missed any part of this series, let me encourage you to go back to our website and pick up the audio or the transcripts, because Kim’s story will be a great encouragement to you.

But I am also hoping there are some people listening who God is perhaps prompting their heart to consider getting involved in ministering to single mom families, and ideally in the context of your local church. So take that burden to the Lord, take it to your pastor and the elders, the spiritual leadership of your church, and ask them if that is something they would affirm, something that perhaps God wanting you to get involved in.

If you go to our website ReviveOurHearts.com, we’ve provided a link there to Kim’s ministry, The Well. It's the ministry of the church where you are connected, Kim. There is information there about how you are doing that ministry in your church, about resources that you’ve made that are available. You’ve shared with me there are some other churches starting to develop this kind of ministry and some are using your resources and others are developing their own. I know that you would be happy to connect with anyone who would like to get some more information about how to develop this kind of ministry in their own local church.

Kim: We would certainly be happy to help any church out there with the lessons we’ve learned and share everything we have with you. Our heart is for these families and we believe that you will be a blessing to them but also that they’ll be a blessing to you. So we want to encourage you and help you in any way we can to reach this unreached people group.

Nancy: Thank you so much, Kim, for sharing your life, your journey, your story and for the way that God is using you. I know I have been very touched, and I know our listeners have as well. I wonder if you would close our time today just by leading us in prayer and praying for single moms who are listening and then for churches and individuals that God wants to use to help reach these single moms. Let’s just lift this all up to God’s great throne of grace and ask Him to take what has been shared and to make it a real ministry in people’s lives.

Kim: Oh, Father God, I come before You, and Lord I lift up the families that are out there listening today. Lord, I know that You want to do a mighty work. Lord, perhaps there is someone out there who does not know You, who’s had a religion that has never changed her life, and she just needs to come to a real relationship with You. Lord,

I believe that the time is short and that You are coming back soon. I pray Lord, that You would just give us an urgency for those who do not know You. I pray Lord, that as we walk with You, as we serve, Lord, that You would grow our faith.

Lord, we see You work in some very difficult situations, but Lord, we know that there is nothing that is impossible for You. You are the miracle maker. Lord, You are who You say You are, and You do what You say You’re going to do. Your promises are true and they can be counted on.

And Lord, I just ask that we would daily run to You. Lord, You are everything, and You are good, and we love You. Lord, may we and may many others point to You and give You glory. Lord, I thank You for this opportunity to share what You are doing. It is an honor to speak Your name, and I love You Jesus. Amen.

Leslie Basham: Kim Jaggers has been leading us in prayer. She has talked today with Nancy Leigh DeMoss about the struggles a single mom faces and the strength and grace the Lord provides in every situation. If you have a question or comment about today’s program, I hope you’ll participate on the Revive Our Hearts listener blog. Scroll to the end of today’s transcript at ReviveOurHearts.com. You can read comments from our listeners and post your own. Kim Jaggers will participate in an online dialog today so if you have a question for her, you can visit ReviveOurHearts.com and ask. While you are on our website, you have a chance to get a copy of a CD Nancy has been calling her new favorite. She’s back to tell you more about it.

Nancy: Just the other morning I was facing a day of challenging meetings and other deadlines and tasks. Feeling a little frantic and stressed, I turned on this CD we’ve been telling you about all this month called, Hidden In My Heart. These words from Philippians 4 washed over my heart.

Song from CD:

Don’t you worry about anything,
Instead, pray about everything.
Tell God what you need,
And thank Him for all He has done.

As I listened to God’s promises, my heart began to settle, not just because of some pretty music, it was because the Word of God is powerful. Each song on this powerful CD, Hidden In My Heart, is based on a Scripture passage. The Scripture promises that God will keep in perfect peace those whose hearts are fixed on Him. This CD will help you fix your heart on the Lord and will point you to the true source of peace when you are facing tough situations. We’d like to send you a copy of Hidden In My Heart. It is our way of saying "thank you" when you send a gift of any size this month to Revive Our Hearts. You can make your contribution by visiting us at ReviveOurHearts.com or ask for the CD, Hidden In My Heart, when you call us with your support. The number to call is 1-800-569-5959.

Leslie: None of us can walk through life alone. We need to hear godly wisdom from other women. This is what you’ll hear tomorrow when a panel of ladies offer practical advice on living out what you believe. Please come back for Revive Our Hearts.

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