When You Cannot Trace the Plans of God, Trust the Character of God, with Ruth Chou Simons

When life brings twists and turns you never expected, what aspect of God do you cling to? In this episode of Grounded, Ruth Chou Simons shares why it matters that you know the character of God. You’ll be encouraged to dive deeply into your Bible, linger with the Lord, and experience what it means that He is infinitely more than anything you can imagine.

Connect with Ruth 

Instagram: @ruthchousimons 
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gracelaced
Website: https://ruthchousimons.com/

Episode Notes

• Pilgrim book by Ruth Chou Simons: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0736982922/ref=cm_sw_r_as_gl_api_gl_i_H6Z5EXMPCAP8NW7TQ2TS?linkCode=ml1&tag=r095a-20
• “Life Beyond the Spiritual Shadows” blog post by Erin Davis: https://www.reviveourhearts.com/blog/life-beyond-the-spiritual-shallows/
• Lies Boys Believe book by Erin and Jason Davis: https://www.moodypublishers.com/lies-boys-believe/

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Dannah Gresh: Hey there, Friend. I'm going to supercharge your day with one of my favorite quotes from A.W. Tozer. He wrote, 

What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us. 

I love that quote. And if you think about it, what comes into our minds when we think about God also might just be what determines how you respond to the journey we call life. 

I'm Dannah Gresh. This is Grounded, a production of Revive Our Hearts. We like to show up every week with a little dose of hope and perspective. And today, we are joined by the beloved and elegant artist and writer Ruth Chou Simons. She's here with some beautiful insight about why knowing the character of God makes such a significant difference in our lives. You are not going to want your friends to miss this episode. So, make sure you let them know. Share it. And as always, we're going to start our time out by getting grounded in some good news.

6:10 - Good News (with Erin)

Erin Davis: I like it when I get to be the sunshine bringer, the good news correspondent we like to say. I say that before we can get to the good news, we’ve got to talk about the bad news. So very quickly, you already know this. The headlines are full of really bad news these days. And as we've stated before, here on ground we are praying for Israel. We encourage you to be praying for Israel. We're also praying for those innocent Palestinians caught in the crossfire of Hamas, which is an extremist terrorist group. 

So, there's a lot to pray about. There's a lot to grieve over. There's even some things that are worrisome. But sometimes it's hard for us to find the right words to pray about those things. But here on Grounded, we like to flip the question. Instead of asking which you could look at in the news this morning . . . You could ask what in the world is God doing? We'd like to ask instead, what is God doing in the world? It's His world after all.

And here's a question I've had to wrestle with, do I really believe that God is at work in the Middle East? 

It dovetails into the conversation I know we're going to have with Ruth soon. She's talking about God's character. And if I really believe God's character is love, do I really believe He's working in the Middle East? 

Because all I see on the headlines are bombs and babies and protests and hostages. But this is my Father's world. He is it work in the darkest corners of the globe. Take Iran, for example. Did you know that revival is happening in Iran? You couldn't have known that if you just flipped on the TV or started scrolling through social media today. That's not the story that lots of folks are telling. But it is true. A significant survey taken by a secular research group found that there are more Christians in Iran than ever in human history. They say how many more than one million according to the secular survey.

Let's sit and soak in that for a minute. In Iran, more than one million Christians in this nation . . . Actually, Christian house church leaders in that country say it's not just one million Christians in Iran, they say there are now several million Christians living in Iran. 

I want you to listen to this recent report from Newsweek. This is a quote, “Something religiously astonishing . . .” Isn't that an amazing phrase that's got Jesus written all over it. “Something religiously astonishing is taking place in Iran, where an armed Islamist government has ruled since 1979.” And here's the religiously astonishing cannot be explained by human effort must be a work of God news, “Christianity is flourishing. The implications are profound.” Newsweek said, consider this, the Christian Broadcasting Network, founded in 2018, said that “Christianity is growing faster in the Islamic Republic of Iran than in any other country.” 

Somebody better be whooping and hollering and amening somewhere in the world over this good news. Today, you're likely going to see Iran in the headlines. And you are wise to be concerned. You are wise and discerning to pray about it and to even feel sorrow and grief over what's happening. We need you to pray for the violence that's happening in the Middle East to stop. But here's the story you may not see elsewhere. 

More than a million new Christians, maybe as many as five million new Christians in Iran, those house church leaders are saying, or over a million new Christians in Iran right now are reading their Bibles, perhaps for the first time. They are gathering in house churches right now. Perhaps again, for the first time. They are praying. They are sharing their faith with others because as desperation increases, so does our need to turn to true hope. And He has a name, His name is Jesus. 

So, what is God doing in the world? Well, the same things He's done since the dawn of creation, He's giving hope. He's rescuing. He's redeeming, and He's calling people from every tongue tribe and nation. They're following Him, and we think that's really good news. 

Portia, get us grounded with God's people.

Portia Collins: Yes, let's get grounded. I think that's the perfect segue to what we're talking about today. Thank you so much. Ruth Chou Simons is with us. She is a wife, a mama to her precious man cubs. I love that. If I had boys, I would definitely call them man cubs. She's an artist, a bestselling author. She is here to remind us of the transformative influence of God's character, His provision as we walk through life with Him. Welcome to Grounded Ruth.

10:40 - Grounded with God's People (Ruth Chou Simons)

Ruth Chou Simons: I'm so glad to be here. Thanks for having me.

Portia: All right, let's jump right in. So, in your latest book, Pilgrim, you write about how our walk with Christ can feel like an unsure road. So, what are a few ways that you remind yourself, you're not alone on your journey? And why is it so important to know that you're not alone?

Ruth: Yeah, I think you know, our journeys with Christ are not an unsure road. But we in our dependency on our own self, and our control of circumstances, our wanting to figure out how to fix every circumstance we're in; we tend to feel so insecure about it. Sometimes we feel like it's all up to me to fix every problem in my life and to get myself from point A to point B.

And so, the thing that I have to remember over and over again, is that God actually created this very circumstance I'm in and caused me to be in the very circumstance I'm in that I might depend on Him and not rely on myself. I'm not meant to figure it out on my own. I was never capable of it in the first place. The redemption story is one that reminds us that we actually can't save ourselves. 

So, we must leave Jesus at every part of our journey.

Portia: Yes, amen. Well, speaking of journeys, let's zoom in a little bit more here. Journeys can feel long. And they often have twists and turns and curves and all kinds of things that we don't expect. When we don't understand the plans of God, why is it important for us to know the character of God?

Ruth: Yeah, Dannah just read that quote by A.W. Tozer. I love that quote. And really, it's the heartbeat of this book. I think that so often we're looking for solutions that we turn to the internet, we turn to lots of witnesses, our friends. We turn everywhere else but to the character of God, when we feel like we need to figure out where we're going. 

And what we believe about Him will determine whether we come to Jesus, or we run away, whether we lean in and say, “I trust you, Lord,” or we say, “I'm going to trust myself.” 

And so, whether we believe and know His character will determine even the next steps we take. Even when our circumstances don't change, our response can be so different based on whether or not we know the character of the God we serve. 

Portia: Amen. Well, we like to get practical and get down to the nitty gritty here with our Grounded sisters. Could you share with us any tips for Grounded Girls so that they can grow in their understanding of God's character and deepen their relationship with Him?

Ruth: I think it's multi-sensory. Every day I go for a walk at some point of the day is to remind myself that God is God. He is sovereign. He's the Creator. He's the deliverer. He is the faithful one. A sunrise reminds me. I mean, the sun is coming up full force here in Colorado mountains . . . And when I see a sunrise, when I see a sunset, when I see the stars come up, when the seasons change, I'm reminded that God is in control. 

But then also, we remember in Psalm 119, this whole psalm about the Word of God. We can step out, and we know the next steps to take. We can trust who were following. We can know His character if we meditate on the Word. 

So, if I want to know that He's sovereign, that we need to go to the Word and find out what He says about Himself, see His ways, know what He's done before. He will continue to be faithful, and He is victorious going forward. 

So, knowing that from the Word will help me meditate on it day in and day out. I call that preaching truth to myself. I have to remind myself just like the psalmist says over and over again through this book of Psalms. I need to remind myself what is true, just like Jeremiah and Lamentations. This I call to mind and therefore I have hope, the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. His immutability doesn't change. And so, if I recall that to mind, that will change the whole course of my day.

Portia: I'm glad you mentioned you zoned in on one of the attributes of God, His immutability. In your research and your personal journey and as you have written about the character of God, which attribute did you find most challenging to convey? And why?

Ruth: Oh, I knew you were gonna ask me something like this. It's hard because they're all challenging for me. But they all connect together. They're challenging for me to surrender to sometimes. Do I really believe not just head knowledge, not just lip service? But do I really believe that? While I'm finicky, and I'm always changing, do I really believe that God never changes? Do I really believe that He is sovereign and in control? 

But you see, they all go together. We start in the twenty-five ways of God. They're not exhaustive. There's so much more to say about God's character, the doctrine God. It's so limitless. It deserves our study. And when we start with the love of God, we see that He is merciful and He is just. He is faithful. His ways include how He saves us, how He glorifies Himself. These are not just simply how He seems but how He is active in our lives. 

And so, I'd say for me, it always comes back to sovereignty. It always comes back to me surrendering my striving tendencies, the part where I want to figure it out. I'll control it. And if there's a problem, I'll figure out a plan by this afternoon, and everybody will get the memo. That's kind of like the CEO me. It wants to fix it all and just say everybody follow me, we're going forward. I cannot look to Jesus, as if He's my assistant to get me where I want to go. I need to look to Jesus as the head as the one who is going forward, and I am following Him. 

And so, that requires daily surrender. That requires me remembering every single day Colossians 1:17, that He holds all things together, that He is the best, that He is preeminent. Not me. I cannot hold everything together, try as I might. 

So that's where I start every single day.

Portia: I love what you just said. It is not He's not our assistant. I remember growing up, I used to see these car tags on the front of a car. 

Ruth: I remember those.

Portia: It said, “Jesus is my copilot.” And I know, as I grew older, I realized how wrong that was. He's not the assistant; He is the pilot. 

Ruth: Yes. 

Portia: Yes, I love that. 

Well, your book provides insights into the unique journey of conforming to the image of Christ. So, I want to know how do you balance presenting these profound truths with the understanding that each individual spiritual journey is uniquely their own?

Ruth: Yeah, we need to remember that it's not a self-help program. We don't just understand and read about twenty-five of His attributes and suddenly go, “Okay, I got it. Now I'm gonna somehow just miraculously . . . It's like I used a product, and now my skin is gonna glow. 

No, it's God's work. We daily surrender. We daily say, I would love to be there and not here with myself discipline, with my bitterness, with my lack of forgiveness, whatever it is that you kind of go, “Oh, I wish I could be better than I am today.” 

But God promises that He makes us a new creation, and that He will complete the good work He begins in us. And so, when we trust Him to do that, He is a sanctifier. He is the one that created you on purpose for a purpose, then we can stand confidently in Ephesians 2:8–10. That is by faith through grace that we are saved.

Ultimately, He's prepared good work for us, but we don't need to do all of it all at once and be perfect in it today. 

So day by day, the prayer that I have is, “Lord, conform me to Your likeness. Restore me through the blood of Christ back to Your original intent for me. And for those around me, that my family and I as we surrender and trust in Jesus, that we would more and more look like You and less and less like who we are naturally.” 

That doesn't mean we lack personality. It doesn't mean that we lack any of those giftings He gave us. It's just that sanctification means that we get restored back to our original capacity to be the true image bearers that He made us to be. That's an exciting journey, but it won't happen as quickly or even in our timing. So, we need to trust Him for that work.

Portia: I love the fact that you just keep taking us to the Word of God. You have just quoted so many passages of Scripture that further underscore what we need to know and how we can trust and truly believe who God is and what He says. I love that.

Okay, so I keep looking behind you. I see this beautiful piece of artwork behind you. 

Ruth: Thank you. 

Portia: I want you to talk to us about your artwork. You've created stunning artwork throughout this book, Pilgrim. I know that this is the first time that one of your books has featured original artwork. So, what is the process of creating this art?

Ruth: You know, I don't know why I signed up to pair these two things together, because it feels like I'm writing the book twice. I write the book, and then I paint the book, but it always starts with the content. 

I think of myself as a communicator, as a mentor, and as an author before I think of myself as an artist. I'm so grateful and so honored when you love my artwork. I'm so grateful that it gets to participate in the books that I write, but I really think the artwork comes alongside to encourage us to linger long. 

The goal of my artwork is so that if you open my book, the ones that are meant to be a little bit of a daily reading, a little bit more like devotional setup, the goal is that you wouldn't just check it off your list and be like, “Oh, I got it. I read it in five minutes.” 

But maybe if you see a landscape . . . If you see at the front of Pilgrim, it's one of these passes that my family and I drive over. It can be a little treacherous. But if I create some artwork that causes you to stop and think of that Scripture as it lingers in your mind, the concept, the truth about God's Word . . . I even include lyrics from hymns. If those words are in your mind as you look at the images and it causes you to slow down, I think I've done my job. 

And so, my goal is not to make the artwork the central thing or cause you to be like, “I love this book because I settle in on the artwork.” No, I want you to always go to the Word of God. I want the artwork to be the springboard upon which you might go, “I want to know more. I want to see more. I want to experience how God is declaring His majesty all around me. And this artwork might just point me there a little bit.”

Portia: You gave us something to put in our knapsack. You say it lingers blown like that. Immediately my brain went, “Oh, okay. So yeah, the artwork . . .”

Ruth: In this hustle culture, microwave, quick, quick, we need to linger a little bit longer.

Portia: All right. You heard her Grounded sisters; linger long in the Word of God. I love it. Okay, last question, Ruth. Where can people connect with you online? And where can they pick up a copy of Pilgrim? 

Ruth: Well, thank you, Pilgrim is available everywhere books are sold. I saw it at Hobby Lobby at the front counter last week, and I know that you can purchase it anywhere online, and GraceLaced.com, my shop will have signed copies of my book, my newest, in a week. But you can always get signed copies through GraceLaced.com. You can connect with me on Instagram and on social media. But Ruth Chou Simons on Instagram is where I shared a little more behind the scenes of my life about my mothering journey of six boys, and just how God is showing me how His grace is laced through my everyday life. So, I'd love to see you there. 

Portia: I love it. Thank you so much for being with us today, Ruth. It has been a joy talking with you.

Ruth: Thank you for having me, Portia.

Portia: Dannah, a little birdie told me that you are going to be getting us grounded in God's Word. I got my Bible over here. Tell us where are we going in God's Word today?

25:07 - Grounded in God's Word (with Dannah)

Dannah: Well, you're gonna want to open that Bible to Psalm 27. And while you're doing that, I'm going to tell you about an experience I had this summer in Alaska. I was up there for a little tiny mini vacation with my husband and some friends. And if you know me, you know that I love nature. I think one of the reasons I love it is because Romans 1:20 tells us that we can observe God's character and His power by observing creation.

One of my bucket list items has always been to see the northern lights. Well, one night, this past summer, I spent a whole two hours staring at what I thought might be the northern lights, but I wasn't sure. They didn't look quite exactly as I thought they would. But I could describe to you the photograph I have on my phone of what I saw, and I described it over and over again to friends. 

And finally, a friend of mine here in State College, Pennsylvania, who is a meteorologist at AccuWeather who attends my church said, “Let me see that picture.” And he declared that I had in fact not seen the northern lights. But I had seen noctilucent clouds. I think that's how you say it—noctilucent clouds. They're very, very rare. 

And this meteorologist was completely geeked out. 

Well, I can describe the cloud to you because I spent two hours gazing at them one night, and that's what I want to talk to you about tonight. Taking a little time to linger longer, to gaze at God. 

Psalm 27:4, let me read this to you. We're actually instructed to gaze or encouraged to gaze by this verse. It says, 

One thing have I asked of the Lord,
that will I seek after:
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord
all the days of my life,
to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord
and to inquire in his temple.

One thing David said, “I've asked the Lord, let me gaze on the beauty of the Lord to inquire in His temple.” Let me just gaze he says. What does it mean to gaze? It means to look intently, especially in admiration like I looked at the night sky in Alaska—not to glance, but to gaze. 

In Psalm 27:4 the word “gaze” is an intransitive verb. Now, that's a verb that's not happening like running, cooking, or learning. It's not happening right now. But one that has been done and is being done, like arrived. You're in a state of arrival. Cooked—you're in a state of already having cooked. Educated—you're in the state of being educated. 

Now, you can't experience what the psalmist has with one glance, with one devo, with one encounter. You have to linger longer. It's something that we do and keep doing. It's something that's happened and is happening, to gaze at God. 

David recognizes that and is saying, “I want to be the man who has gazed and is gazing.” In other words, “Lord, I want to get to a place where I've learned to be in awe when I'm with You. And I'm so in awe that I stay. 

So do I, David. So, do I. 

But you know, we as a modern Church, we are so busy. We have so much to say, so much to do, and so many places to go. I think we could all learn to be quiet and to gaze, to linger longer. 

And let me tell you, Christian Sister, you're not really going to understand the presence of the Lord or the beauty of the Lord unless you stop and slow down and gaze. 

Let me ask you a hard question. When was the last time your worship experience included a time of just sitting quietly? Just keeping the silence as Habakkuk instructs us? Just sitting there in the presence of God and gazing?

If the answer is, I can't remember. I invite you to set aside thirty minutes, forty-five minutes, maybe an hour today, and just sit in the presence of God and gaze. Now, you might have to prime the pump by opening the Word of God and thinking about His character or taking a walk and looking at His creation. But gaze at the Lord. 

I really do believe that lingering longer is really where revival starts—in our own hearts, in the world. The Welsh revivals are marked by what one reporter called breathless silence. What were those people doing? They were capturing a vision of the beauty of God. They were lingering longer. They were gazing. Do that today, Sister, and find out what it does to change your heart and life. 

Erin: Amen. Breathless silence, breathless wonder, linger longer; so many things for us to hold on to. God's at the center of it all. I want to do a little experiment that dovetails beautifully with what Dannah just shared. I want you to drop a character trait of God in the chat. I probably naturally would have just raced right through that. But since we were encouraged to linger a little longer, we'll give it just a few seconds. I want you to drop a character trait of God in the chat. Go ahead.

Whew, that was five seconds. I counted. That felt like a long time. I've got some things to learn about lingering longer. 

I'm not looking at what you dropped in the chat. I'm not great at multitasking. But I'm guessing you came up with some old favorites. You probably said that God is loving. He is in fact love. You probably came up with the character trait righteous. Absolutely, there's no unrighteousness in Him, Scripture says. You probably came up with holy, which is certainly an attribute of God that we should linger longer on. Those are all true. Those are good things for us to remind each other of, but He is infinitely more. 

The book of Job tells us that we've only touched the fringes of His ways. Some translations say the outskirts. So, even if you spent your entire life studying and memorizing and lingering and having all over the character of God, there's no probably better way to use your life. You would still just be scratching the surface of who He is. 

I want to confirm and affirm what Dannah taught. I want to affirm what we heard Ruth and Portia say. We want you to dive deeply into God's Word this week. And that's not just because we feel like it's somehow credited to our account if you guys read your Bible, that's not how it works.

But we know that the more you read His word, the more you will know Him. To know Him is to love Him, to love Him is to obey Him. There's a great correlation, really a straight line between whether we are going to linger in God's Word this week and move forward with the peace of knowing who our God is, or choose a different route. 

So, with that thinking in mind, I've got a blog post to recommend. I happened to write it. But that's not why I'm recommending it. It's called “Life Beyond the Spiritual Shallows.” I wrote it because I read somewhere that we humans now have attention spans that are shorter than a goldfish. In case you are wondering, goldfish attention spans, scientists say (I don't know how they can track this) are six seconds. They're saying we can focus even less than that now. That's a problem when it comes to knowing and experiencing the character of God. 

So, we'll drop the link to that blog post. It's from the Revive Our Hearts archives, and it will just repeat what you've already heard, which is the encouragement to linger longer on the character of God. I hope it challenges you. I hope it stretches you, and I hope you get some lingering moments as a result. 

Dannah, Portia, amazing episode. It was about the character of God for sure. But the theme I didn't anticipate that the Lord wove in was this idea that we need to linger with the Lord. Dwell on His Character. 

Dannah: I just love it when the Lord does that. He had Ruth talking about lingering longer and had me studying the word gaze. Like, could we be more affirmed that He wants us to slow down?

Portia: This was not the plan; it was planned by God.

Erin: Yep, He had a whole other theme in mind, which I just love. So thanks for taking the journey with me.

Dannah: So good. Next week. Hey, for all the mama's boys are boy mamas—mothers of boys. Have you ever realized that? M.O.B. mothers of boys?

Erin: That fits, I can affirm, that is the right acronym. 

Dannah: So if you're a mother of boys or grandmother boys, you're definitely gonna want to join us next week. Right? Portia? 

Portia: I'm excited. We’ve got Mr. Jason Davis coming, I hear.

Erin: He’s my favorite.

Portia: And Robert Wolgemuth is coming. And guess what we're talking about? Lies Boys Believe. If you didn’t know, that is the title of the latest book. That's coming from Mr. and Mrs. Davis. 

Erin: Yeah.

Portia: I'm really excited about it. 

Dannah: We're celebrating a book baby birthday. 

Erin: I love it. 

Dannah: And it's the next book in the Lies series started by our beloved Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth. It is a can't miss episode. So, let's wake up with hope together next week on Grounded.

Portia: Grounded audio is powered by Skype. Grounded is a production of Revive Our Hearts calling women to freedom, fullness, and fruitfulness in Christ

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