Your Life Has Significance

This program contains portions from the following episodes:

"For Such a Time as This"

"Radical Faithfulness, Beautiful Forgiveness"

"Groundbreaking Poet with a Purpose"

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Dannah Gresh: Do you ever feel unnecessary? Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth says your life has significance.

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: God has put you here for a purpose not just to take up space, to while your life away. God has a job with your name on it, a purpose, an intent.

Dannah: Welcome to Revive Our Hearts Weekend. I’m Dannah Gresh. Your life has purpose. Let’s light a passion under it today!

Okay, I’m going to start today’s program a little differently than normal.

Song: “When Will My Life Begin” 

Seven a.m., the usual morning line-up
Start on the chores and sweep till the floor's all clean
Polish and wax, do laundry and mop and shine up
Sweep again, and by then, it's like seven fifteen.

Dannah: Maybe you recognize that song from the movie Tangled. Maybe it sounds like your life (except that your chores take a whole lot longer!). Maybe this sounds like you too:

And I'll keep wondering, and wondering, and wondering, and wondering
When will my life begin?¹

Dannah: That’s one perspective on life. 

Let’s look at another perspective from a source that’s a lot more reliable than Disney:

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. (1 Peter 2:9)

That’s your purpose, and you can do that no matter your situation. You can do it from a desk job. You can do it from home with toddlers under your feet. You can do it writing contracts or doing chores. If that’s not convincing enough, listen to this, from 1 Corinthians chapter 1.

But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. (vv. 27–28 ESV)

Sometimes I feel foolish. I definitely feel weak now and then. I’ve even been despised before. Can you identify with these qualities? Take heart! In Christ, you are wise! In Christ, you are strong! And Jesus loves you. In fact, he has a plan to use you in amazing ways. We’re going to talk about that today.

Sabina Wurmbrand was one woman who was despised. Her story is proof that you can be used by God from anywhere! She and her pastor husband, Richard, were arrested by Nazis during World War II . . . and that was the beginning of long years of imprisonment and torture. In the eyes of her captors, she was nothing. But she wasn’t “nothing” to God! He used her suffering to strengthen her love for Him. Here’s John Grooters to give us some background information.

John Grooters: The very first time they got picked up by the Nazis, it’s the first time either of them have been arrested. It’s certainly the first time either of them had been beaten. They don’t start out as experts in this field. They don’t start out like, “Yes, we suffer for Jesus.”

They have like the rest of us, fear. The very first time they meet in the prison she says, looking at the scar on his face, “Was it horrible?”

He says to her, “There was pain. I will not lie to you.”

But later in that same scene he says, “I am grateful to be among the beaten by His grace rather than to be among those who beat.”

This is the beginning of that deeper understanding that they begin to live out—of what it means to be Christ followers, understanding Jesus’ call. This is so radical, to turn the other cheek. If the enemy strikes you on one cheek . . . If someone says carry my pack a mile and I carry it two miles.

This kind of radical thing that we hear about in Sunday school, that we read about in the Bible, it becomes the Word made flesh once you are put in that situation. No one I know wants to be put in that situation. At that point, you start to live out the words of Christ. Then, we are actually becoming transformed in His image—which really is the goal of all Christians.

Dannah: As World War II drew toward an end, Romania was released from Nazi control only to be taken over by Communists influenced by the Soviet Union.

In 1948, Richard was arrested for sharing the gospel and for denouncing Communism. Sabina was arrested in 1950 and spent three years in a forced labor camp. Here’s Sabina, reminding herself—and us—of truths we can stand on in the middle of trials. In the prison camp she filled her mind with truth like this:

Sabina: I have a famous God. The God of Israel and Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. I have a heavenly Father, a very famous God. Then I have a Lord—the Lord Jesus Christ—the Savior of Israel. He is my Savior, my Teacher, my Lord, and my Friend.

Then I have a very famous Book, the Bible. In prison cells where we didn’t have any book, neither the Bible nor any bit of paper, the Word which we kept in our hearts, a Word from this famous Book, the Bible, could give new life and new hope to those in despair.

Dannah: In the prison work camp, Sabina faced beatings and hard labor. She was hungry and even would eat grass to survive. In the middle of all that suffering, she went through periods of doubt when it felt like she was far from God. But she also experienced His presence in a whole new way. 

Sabina: The prison was a very hard place. The days could not be counted in years. I say my husband has made fourteen years in prison. Every day is twenty-four hours. And every hour has sixty minutes. For this reason, minute by minute and day by day, it is a very hard time. The human heart so very quickly loses our vision of God. It very quickly sees a dark prison cell. The longings, the hunger, the mockery of the Communists. But God knows how we are. 

He knows every one in a dark prison cell. The humans could not reach the Christians. Jesus Himself would know us and let us know He is Lord. Sometimes when it was very, very heavy—hungry, beaten, mocked, and forsaken by all men—Jesus Him would lift the veil for a fraction of a second and show us His beauty, the beauty of Paradise. So we would get new strength.

Dannah: Does that sound like a woman who was “nothing”? I don’t think so. That’s Sabina Wurmbrand, explaining how God comforted her during years of imprisonment and torture. Later, she used the truths that she had learned and experienced to minister to others. God had turned a seemingly insignificant woman into a mighty instrument for His kingdom.

That reminds me of another woman from U.S. history who was used by God in an unusual way. We’re going to hear about her from Dr. Karen Ellis. Karen is a professor at Reformed Theological Seminary, and she’s the Director of the Edmiston Center for the Study of the Bible and Ethnicity in Atlanta, Georgia. 

First, imagine that you’re standing on a busy dock at sunset, watching boats coming and going. Just like you might in any port city . . . except it’s the 1700s. And there you see perhaps the most heartrending scene possible: a slave ship has just arrived. It’s packed with human beings made in God’s image, but who are being treated worse than animals. The sights, sounds, and smells are indescribable.

Karen Ellis: From this pestilence, a voice rises. A woman named Phillis Wheatley, born in 1754, is seven years old when she makes this trip. It’s called the middle passage. She will later write about her experience as a Christian, as an American, and as an abolitionist. I want to introduce you to Phillis and the community around her as an example of an expression of the other cultural, other political reality of the kingdom of God.

She helped others around her reconcile the inconsistencies of people who were saying that Christianity favored the people who looked like them. The model of Christ, in providence, gave her incredible comfort. Her pen and gifting gave her incredible courage and strength to promote a revolution that was both temporal and eternal.

Let me give you a sampling of Phillis Wheatley’s work. She wrote about her middle passage experience on the ship coming to America to the Earl of Dartmouth. You’ve heard of Dartmouth University, Dartmouth College? This is him, before the school exists. She writes to him. At this point he’s His Majesty’s Secretary of State for all of North America. She writes him these words. 

I, young in life, by seeming cruel fate
Was snatched from Africa’s fancied happy seat.
What pangs excruciating must molest,
What sorrows labor in my parents’ breast!
Steeled was that soul, and by no misery moved,
That from a father seized his babe beloved.
Such, such my case, and can I then but pray
That others may never feel tyrannic sway?

Now, Wheatley’s brilliance showed at a very early age. After she was kidnapped from Senegambia and made the trip from West Africa to America at the age of seven, she was purchased at auction by the Wheatley household. She was given the name of the slaving vessel that brought her over. The name of the ship was the Phillis. 

She came and was taught the English alphabet by the Wheatleys’ daughter. She was trained to be a domestic. In Senegal and Gambia you could find certain types of slaves. Very much the dehumanization process was to say kind of like how we do with dogs today, “This is a good dog for police work,” if you get this German shepherd. Well, they had the entire region mapped out for different kinds of slaves coming from different regions. 

She came from Senegal and Gambia, which was appropriate for various kinds of work. But the Christian Wheatleys soon realized that she needed to be in a life of service with a pen in her hand and not a broom. We don’t know exactly how she got her education, but there’s solid evidence that she was educated well. 

In 1773, her first literary work is published in the form of a small book, to mixed acclaim, and sent to the new colonies and England.

If you’ve ever heard of the book The Valley of Vision, you also need to own Phillis Wheatley’s first and only book of poems, Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral. Her owners helped her finance its publication.

Now, remember, Africans are considered inferior in intelligence at this point, so they see a woman who has written extensive poetry, she’s translating, and the men of the day say, “This is impossible!” As proof of her authorship, the volume included a preface where seventeen Bostonian men actually claimed that yes, she had indeed written her poems.

Wheatley’s work reflects the themes of redemption, the image of God, original sin, total depravity, suffering for righteousness. She would have known through the abolitionist social circles of Boston that Christians in America preached that the Bible justified slavery. But with access to her English Bibles and the original languages, she would have seen that this was inconsistent with the story, “I will be your God, you will be my people, and I will gather you from all the nations.”

She would have seen that slavery was inconsistent with Old Testament Israel in both the ancient languages and in English, and she would have thought, while she was sitting in the rafters of the slave section of the old Congregational Church in South Boston . . . She would have heard Reverend Soule talking about freedom from tyranny in England, and she would have thought of freedom from tyranny for herself.

By all accounts, as an African, a woman, and a slave, Wheatley should have remained voiceless in the post-colonial world that surrounded her; yet, she managed to be instrumental in both the temporal revolution and the eternal one. This is radical. She takes what they have to offer her theologically, and then she uses it biblically to hold up the gospel mirror to their faces. 

This is exercising influence when you don’t have authority. This is how the underground runs, and there are stories like this all over American history. The forgotten, the voiceless, the overlooked; but they’re there for the taking. So I’ve mined these diamonds for you, to give and to encourage you to find the people in history, to learn from the people in history, to learn from the people in the global underground who are following the story of God’s people as closely as they can. Nobody’s going to do it perfectly. Perfect doesn’t come until we get to glory. But there are some who got closer to it than others. Find them. Tell each other about them. Share their stories, and then get in the stream yourself.

Dannah: Wow! Are you motivated to go find those behind-the-scenes, forgotten people? People who are doing really amazing things for God? Let's go find them. That was Dr. Karen Ellis, telling us about Phillis Wheatley.

Sabina Wurmbrand and Phillis Wheatley both had seasons of intense suffering. They could easily have wondered if they could ever do anything useful. But in God’s grace, they did.

Still, their stories are kind of . . . extreme. Right? You probably haven’t been in similar situations. Maybe you’re thinking, Do the same principles apply in my life? Well, let me assure you, they do!

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth talked about that. She says that it doesn’t matter who you are—you might have endured lots of suffering, you might have a “boring” life, or maybe you are in a position of influence—God wants to use you! Let’s listen.

Nancy: As you think about your life and the providence of God, think about what God has given you: the privileges, the blessings, salvation. When a billion people or more on this planet have never heard the name of Jesus, it’s in God’s providence that you came to hear the Gospel—that you were brought to faith in Christ, that you have a knowledge of God’s Word.

The abilities you have, the influence you have, the material resources you have—those are all gifts and a stewardship from God in His providence. God entrusted those experiences, those opportunities, those blessings to you as a steward so that you will serve Him and use them to further His kingdom here on earth.

All those blessings we enjoy. They’re not for our happiness, not for our satisfaction, not for our pleasure. They’re for God’s glory for such a time as this. The home you were born into, the opportunities that you’ve had, the culture that you live in, the era that you live in—it’s all according to the providence of God and for the purposes of God and His kingdom.

You are not in the position you are in by accident. “Who knows whether you have come to the kingdom,” the kingdom where God has placed you, the set of circumstances where God has placed you, even if you are where you are, as a result of having messed up in life. In God’s providence as you are repentant and broken, God has a place and a purpose for you here and now in His kingdom.

It’s an amazing thing how God’s providence can overrule the losses and the failures caused by our sins. I don’t mean by that to minimize sin in any sense. I’m just saying, “Where would we be if God didn’t redeem hopeless, helpless messes?” That’s what we are apart from Christ. God has put you here for a purpose not just to take up space, to wile your life away. God has a job with your name on it, a purpose, and an intent.

You may think, “I’m not a queen. I’m not in the palace. I don’t have any position of great influence. It’s all I can do to survive homeschooling these kids. I’m just trying to keep my head above water.”

I’m telling you, that’s your kingdom. God has put you there in that home, for such a time as this, with an incredible opportunity that no one else has been given to nurture those children to be followers of Jesus Christ. That’s a big job for such a time as this.

You say, “I’m just a clerk in a store. I don’t have a husband. I don’t have kids.” God put you in that store. That’s your kingdom for such a time as this to represent Him, to represent His kingdom.

You say, “I’m retired. I’m widowed. My kids are scattered across the country. There’s no purpose; there’s no use for my life.” God put you there in that place. That little apartment, that retirement home, that’s your kingdom for such a time as this.

What can you do? You can pray. You can intercede. You can encourage pastors. You can encourage young moms, other widows, with notes, with prayers. God’s got a purpose for you, and it’s not just to wile your life away.

One of the things I so appreciate about my upbringing is that my dad had a vision for his seven children—for us kids to fulfill the purpose that God had for our lives whatever that might be. My dad didn’t know what it was, but he wanted us to fulfill that.

He gave us a vision that we could be used by God, that God had a purpose for our lives. It was individual, it was special, it was for us and we were to fulfill that purpose. He gave me a vision, long before I ever heard of Revive Our Hearts, long before I was doing conferences, long before we started a radio program. God entrusted through my parents to me, a vision that my life had been brought to God’s kingdom for such a time as this.

I have believed for years and years, since I was a little girl, that God put me here in this world, in this country, in this place, and now in this ministry of Revive Our Hearts for such a time as this.

Is it hard? Yes, sometimes it’s very hard. Is it lonely? Yes, sometimes it’s very lonely. Sometimes you think, “Am I the only person on the planet who’s concerned about these issues, who carries these things on my heart?”

But that’s not what it’s about. It’s not about me. It’s not about you. Do I feel overwhelmed sometimes with the tide of evil and what it’s going to take to overcome that? Yes, I do.

But it’s not about how I feel. I don’t care how old you are, what season of life you are. You say, “I’m not this big, great speaker. I don’t have a radio program.” You don’t need a radio program. God’s given you children and grandchildren that I can’t reach. But you can because God put you here for such a time as this.

I’ve been put here in this place. You’ve been put in your place. I’ve been put here at this time. You’ve been put here at this time for such a time as this to bring God glory. Don’t say—don’t think, “I don’t have anything to offer. My life doesn’t really count.”

Charles Spurgeon said it this way: “Though you be no better than a mere cipher [that’s a zero], yet the Lord can make something of you. Set one before a zero and it is a ten immediately. Let two or three zeros combine to serve the Lord and if the Lord heads them these nothings become tens of thousands. Who knows what you can do?”

God chooses and uses nobodies. He infuses them with His grace and His power and He uses them in mighty ways:

• A little shepherd boy becomes the psalmist king of Israel and through him comes the Messiah.
• A Moabite widow becomes an ancestress of the Savior.
• A redeemed harlot becomes instrumental in the children of Israel conquering the city of Jericho.
• An orphan girl in a foreign land becomes a queen who saves the lives of millions of Jews.
• A teenage virgin gives birth to the Savior of the world.

Who would have thought it? Who could have planned it? Who but God? Who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?

Dannah: That’s Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth. And you know, what she just said made me think, you can’t know exactly what God is going to do through you. But you can know this: you are here, right now—not somewhere else at some other time—by God’s design. Even if your current circumstances are a result of your own sin, He can redeem those for His purposes. Will you ask Him to do that?

In a minute we’re going to hear about more seemingly-insignificant women. But first, if you enjoyed today’s program, you might be interested in a new resource from the Revive Our Hearts team.

You can find the stories of Sabina Wurmbrand and Phillis Wheatley—and others—in the book (Un)remarkable. The subtitle is Ten Ordinary Women Who Impacted the World for Christ. And we’ve just written (Un)remarkable, volume 2! In that one you’ll read about Amy Carmichael, Helen Roseveare, Florence Nightingale, and others.

You’ll receive both of those booklets when you contact us with your donation of any amount to Revive Our Hearts. When you do that, you are being used by God to help spread the message of freedom, fullness, and fruitfulness in Christ . . . even if you feel very unremarkable. We’ll say "thank you" by sending you a physical copy of (Un)remarkable volume 1, and instructions for how to download a digital copy of (Un)remarkable volume 2.

To give, go to ReviveOurHearts.com, or call us at 1-800-569-5959. Don’t forget to ask for both books when you do.

Now, the women we heard about today are well enough known that we can be familiar with their stories, and aren’t we glad that we can learn from them? But we all know women who are never going to be the subject of a biography, are never going to host a podcast or have lots of social media followers, but who are faithful in following God’s call to represent Him to other people. We wanted you to hear about a few of those, so we asked several ladies to tell us about women who influenced their lives. Here’s what they had to say.

Here's what Christy, Stacey, Stacy, and Tatiana had to say:

Christy: My grandma would encourage me to learn domestic skills. She bring me yarn and knitting needles and teach me how to make bread and.

Stacey: I have a good friend named Ros. I watched her care for her aging father.

Stacy: My mom—the difference when it was just a religion for her and when the Word really soaked in.

Tatiana: My mom came from a rough background that most people would carry for the rest of their lives.

Christy: I do think she was the way she was because she loved the Lord.

Stacey: It's a hard struggle for her at times but she does it with grace.

Stacy: It was really God's grace in her heart that made her stand out that the rest of the world would probably never know about.

Tatiana: But my mom really held on to the fact of Christ as her redeemer, and she let that be the thing that drove her.

Thanks for listening today. I hope you’ll join me next week to hear about how you can pursue Christ more than anything else. 

I’m Dannah Gresh. We’ll see you next time for Revive Our Hearts Weekend.

Revive Our Hearts Weekend is calling you to freedom, fullness and fruitfulness in Christ.

¹Alan Menken, Glenn Slater, Mandy Moore, Zachary Levi & Donna Murphy. “When Will My Life Begin.” Tangled (Soundtrack from the Motion Picture) ℗ 2010 Walt Disney Records.