Committing to Trust

Dannah Gresh: Karen Loritts has learned what it means to trust, even in a crisis.

Karen Loritts: Take whatever stuff you’re going through and lay it on the altar. For me, what I needed to do, I needed to take our crisis and lay it on the altar and tie that baby down because I kept going to the altar and taking it back off the altar.

Dannah: Janet Parshall was in the audience that night and said that Karen’s message taught something important about humility, about being real.

Janet Parshall: You don’t just arrive and say, “Ta-da! We've got it all together in Christ Jesus.” It's a moment by moment, day by day surrendering and submitting and trusting. I appreciated the fact that she reminded us of regardless of where we are in life, what stage of womanhood we are at right now, what season we are at, those are universals, and they’re constants in our lives

Dannah: This is Revive Our Hearts for Friday, June 28, 2024. I'm Dannah Gresh with our host, Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth, author of Choosing Gratitude.

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: Yesterday, we began hearing a message that Karen Loritts delivered at a True Woman conference. Regardless of what season of life you may be in, I think you’ll relate to the fear and worry that tempted Karen. 

Yesterday, Karen Loritts told us that someone close to her family caused a lot of pain and grief. She faced a big decision, would she trust in the Lord with this situation?

As you listen, let me encourage you to ask yourself, “Is there any area in which I’m tempted to not put my trust in the Lord?” 

Karen: A godly women, a true woman, trusts in the peace of Christ, trusts in the power of the Holy Spirit to be filled, to be fruitful. But lastly, she trusts in the presence of God.

Psalm 37, a very familiar passage. Psalm 37, verses 3, 4, and 5 says,

Trust in the LORD, and do good; dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness. Delight yourself in the LORD; and He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the LORD, trust also in Him, and He will do it (NASB).

Ladies, I am determined to wait on the deliverance of God. I'm saying that now, but I couldn't have said that even a month ago. It is hard waiting when you are going through something, to wait. My questions, first of all: “God, why us?” We have sons in ministry, our girls are doing great. We have great grandchildren. Why? Why me? I'm driving down the street to my BSF class, studying the book of John, asking why, crying—I can't even see the stoplights—crying, crying, crying saying, “God, why us? Pick on somebody else.” (laughter)

But God has a way. When He serves up a crisis buffet, He always says, “Wait 'til the dessert bar.” The dessert bar may come later, but it's coming. It's the good news of God. So as I'm trusting in the presence of God, God says several things from this passage in Psalm 37.

He says, “Trust in the Lord and do good.” Cultivate faithfulness. Ladies, I have to tell you, even with all these things in my house, with the crosses, with the Scriptures on the wall, even with that trust sign staring at me and talking to me, I have to cultivate faithfulness. Don't run. Stay the course, and fight the battle.

Are you tired of fighting the battle for your husband? Are you tired of fighting the battle for some peace in your home, jobs, or whatever your crisis you are going through or that you will go through, are you battle ready?

I had to admit to God, “God, I thought I was cultivating faithfulness. I’m reading my Bible every day, loving my husband, speaking truth.” I was doing all the right things. The only thing God said was, “Wah, wah, wah.” (laughter)

Cultivate faithfulness. Do you know, one of the scary things about this thing of cultivating faithfulness is that I had to be a big girl to my children. They look to us, the big people who have been walking with Jesus a little longer and to see “Do you really believe what you say you believe?” Cultivate faithfulness.

I had to fight the battle, pray those defensive prayers. I said, “No, no, no, God, we’re not going down this way. We are not going down this way.

The next thing He says in Psalm 37 is, “Delight in Him and He will bless you.” Delight is to give great pleasure, and adore God. I love God. I adore Him. He saved me. He loves me. He continually puts up with me.

A couple more things . . . He says, “Commit your way to God.” This is the hard thing for me; it could be a hard thing for you to take whatever stuff you are going through and lay it on the altar.

For me, what I needed to do was I needed to take our crisis and lay it on the altar and then tie that baby down because I kept going to the altar and taking it back off the altar. (laughter)

The presence of God says, “Commit your way to God and lay it on the altar and walk away.”

“But, God, You need my little help!”

“No, Karen, I don't need your help.”

“But, God, if You did it this way, or, God, if You just hurt that person just a little bit (laughter) . . . don't kill him . . . just a little bit.”

Commit it to God, and then last, I want you, if you mark in your Bible, it says in verse 5, “Commit your way to God,” and mark this, “Trust also in Him and He will do it.” Trust in Him, and God's going to act.

That was the message of that little trust sign. That trust sign, if it was made out of neon lights, it would have been flashing. Trust. It simply says trust, and He will act. Trust, and He will act. Trust, and He will act. Don't put any time on God.

Those are my simple things I'm walking through right now. I'm trusting in the peace of God. There is no peace other than the peace of God, peace of Christ.

Trust in the power of the Holy Spirit. Without Him, I would have melted away. I would have stayed in bed and not got out because it was just too hard to get up every morning and deal with what the crisis was going to be.

And then trust in the presence of God. Am I burdened still? Yes, I am still burdened. I have no idea where this will all end up. Has my joy been waning? Honestly, yes. I have a good face sometimes, but if you could see my heart, my heart breaks for my children. My heart breaks for the future of our family. My heart breaks for this other family. My heart is broken. But God's a good God, and according to the Word of God He says, “Don't be a fool, be a wise woman because you will be delivered.”

Do you want to be delivered? You have to trust and obey. You have to trust and obey.

Ladies, I commit to trust and obey God.

Song:

When we walk with the Lord in the light of His Word
What a glory He sheds on our way!
While we do His good will, He abides with us still
And with all who will trust and obey.
 

Trust and obey, for there's no other way
To be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.
 

Then in fellowship sweet we will sit at His feet
Or we'll walk by His side in the way.
What He says we will do, where He sends we will go
Never fear, only trust and obey.
 

Trust and obey, for there's no other way
To be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.
Oh, Trust and obey, for there's no other way
To be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.
 

And 'tis so sweet to trust in Jesus
Just to take Him at His Word.
Just to rest upon His promise
Just to know, "Thus saith the Lord."
 

Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him!
How I've proved Him o'er and o'er.
Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus
Oh, for grace to trust Him more.

Lord oh, for grace to trust You more.¹

Nancy: I wonder if that is a decision you need to make? To consciously decide, through all the fear and hurt and emotions . . . I will trust in You, O Lord.

After Karen Loritts delivered her message at the True Woman conference, our team caught up with her for some follow-up questions. We wanted to know how she could decide to trust God when circumstances seemed so unbearable.

Karen: For me there was no other option but to trust God. I have seen God come through in all areas, all parts of my life. And God's my life. I couldn't go to a book; there was no self-help book, no talk show host that I wanted to listen to. I listened to God and laid everything out to Him. He's a trustworthy God, and I was relying upon that.

Throwing in the towel is easy to do. I've been there. I think that's the cheap way. Christ paid a big price for my salvation, the ultimate price. And He stuck in there and gave me salvation. As a believer, it costs us something to follow God. The easy thing to do is just walk away.

It says a lot about my belief and trust in God, but He's able to do that. All things are possible with God. It's worth it; it's hard; it's long-suffering, but in the long run, it’s more beneficial.

Nancy: Karen Loritts has seen firsthand the value of older women teaching younger women. She saw it as a young girl, and she’s seen it in action at the True Woman conferences. Karen explains why she’s been part of the counter-revolution that the True Woman conferences represent.

Karen: I think True Woman is a revolution, like Nancy talks about is so important today because we are being bombarded. Our culture is just doing a job on our families, on women and men. I believe the True Woman conference, that God may use this to usher in revival. I believe our country, our world needs a ground swell of people that will be onboard with the truth of God and believe Him. I believe that will set the stage for the Holy Spirit to just come through our homes and communities and churches in America and throughout the world. God is willing an ready to do that, but it's going to take a true woman of God to usher, to help God to do that.

A true woman, when she signs the Manifesto, is saying, "I  believe what God says about me as a woman, what a wife looks like, what a mom looks like." All the Scriptures that back up the Manifesto is just Bible. But when you put your name to it and you sign it, you're saying, "I agree with what God says about me as a woman and His creation."

I think when women start realizing that they are making the decision to live by what the Manifesto says, then I think there is going to be a lot of break throughs. There will be a lot of freedom in trusting themselves to God, to live a life that is biblical and is right.

No matter what the world thinks, they're going to say, "These women have a backbone. They stand for something that is right." I believe it will shake up some people. There's going to be a big ground swell in communities that have the truth of God's Word carried out in all of the areas of our lives.

For me, there are some people who are part of my prayer team. Some of these older women are from my former church. There are good friends that I call up and cry out to them. You need people that will bear the burden with you. 

I would encourage women who are going through any kind of rough spots in their lives to have prayer warriors who you know their prayers can bust through the ceiling. Even when you can't pray yourself, stay in the Word. The easy thing to do is to say, "I'm not going to believe the Word of God. I've tried it His way, but . . . " The best thing to do is still get up and by faith read the Bible. Read the Psalms. Those have been so comforting to me.

Also, give God an opportunity to show Himself faithful each step of the way. Do those things, whether it is rendering forgiveness. Going and picking up the phone and having those hard conversations with a friend that misled you or a friend that has gone a different way than you expected. Be the big person and reach out.

It's easy to hide. There was a little bit of time where I didn't want to answer the phone because I didn't want any convesations to come up. I had to walk through those things. But it was reallly having people pray for you, staying in the Word, and doing those tough things to be able to cultivate faithfulness.

Dannah: That’s Karen Loritts talking about what it’s like to live as a woman who trusts God. If you missed yesterday’s episode with Karen, be sure to check it out on the Revive Our Hearts app, or at ReviveOurHearts.com. 

I don’t know about you, but this message was an encouraging reminder to me of how much we really can trust God. And this month, as we’ve been talking about your child or loved one who has chosen to walk a path that is not of God, you can trust God with their life. 

While you wait for them to come back, you can cultivate that faithfulness Karen talked about as you seek the Lord on your knees . . . surrendering to Him, surrendering your child and trusting Him. 

Our newest 30-day prayer challenge, While You Wait for Your Prodigal, is a helpful tool in the waiting. You’ll use Scripture as a guide and seek the Lord, consider reflection questions, and write out your own prayers. We pray it’s a resource you’ll look back on in the future and see how God was working in His time. 

You can get a copy of While You Wait for Your Prodigal with your gift of any amount this month. It’s one way we’d like to thank you for supporting Revive Our Hearts as we help women around the world thrive in Christ. Visit ReviveOurHearts.com, or call us at 1-800-569-5959 and request your copy of the challenge.

Next week we’re going to begin a series all about compassion! We’ll hear from some amazing women talking about the compassion of God, humility in compassion, seeing compassion in action, and much more. You won’t want to miss it. Please be back for Revive Our Hearts.

This program is a listener-supported production of Revive Our Hearts in Niles, Michigan, calling women to freedom, fullness, and fruitfulness in Christ.

¹“Trust and Obey,” Don Moen, Hymns of Hope ℗ 2014 Don Moen Records.  

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