The Father’s Arms

Dannah Gresh: Where do you turn when you’re facing difficult circumstances, temptations or enemies? Here’s Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth.

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: I can’t fight these enemies myself. What do I do? I need a place of safety and protection in the midst of the battle.

Dannah: Nancy will show you where to find that place of rest on today’s Revive Our Hearts podcast. It’s November 7, 2023. I’m Dannah Gresh. 

Yesterday, Nancy took us through a couple of psalms that describe God’s protection over us being like a bird covering its young. We saw how living under God’s wings provides satisfaction and refreshment. And we saw how being under God’s wings provides shelter and refuge in storms.

If you missed yesterday’s episode, you can find it on the Revive Our Hearts app or at ReviveOurHearts.com. Now, Nancy’s going to pick up with part 2 of that teaching. 

Nancy: And there’s a third aspect of what we find under the wings of God that has been especially encouraging to me in recent days. The wings of God provide a place of safety and protection from our enemies.

In Psalm 17, verse 8 David says to the Lord, "Keep me as the apple [the pupil] of your eye [protect me]."

The Scripture tells us that God does care for us as the apple of His eye. You know, our eyes are something that we guard pretty carefully. 

Especially if you go into a storm and there’s debris blowing. You find yourself in danger of dust getting into your eyes; you find yourself really guarding your eyes. The Scripture says that God guards us, He cares for us, as a man would the pupil of his eye. 

So David says, 

[Lord,] keep me as the apple of Your eye;
Hide me under the shadow of Your wings,
From the wicked who oppress me,
From my deadly enemies who surround me. (vv. 8–9)

Now as I think about this matter of enemies who come up against us, times when we need protection from the Lord, I think there are two kinds of enemies. First are those external enemies. These might be people, they may be circumstances that threaten to attack us and undo us. 

Our culture is filled with enemies against God. You turn on your television or you pick up a lot of books and magazines, you listen to the music of our culture, this is something that comes from outside of us and threatens us to think in ways that are not godly.

Those enemies may be people in our own families who are not walking with God. They come up against us and they rub against us, and it's like sandpaper. We feel sometimes that we're living in a war zone, with people coming up against us.

Those enemies can be circumstances over which we have no control. We say, “Lord, I can't handle this! These arrows and darts are flying fast and furiously. They're just coming at me, one thing after another.”

Now external enemies are hard enough, but then I find that I've got a lot of internal enemies. Those are sometimes I think even harder to deal with—the enemy of my own flesh. I'll tell you, everything can be going right around me, but I've still got this flesh inside of me that wants to have its way.

I find myself wrestling against these temptations that come against us from within. (I see some heads nodding. I think I'm not the only one.) The internal enemy can have to do with wrong ways of thinking, with our minds: "Where did that thought come from?" 

Those thoughts can be enemies: "Why am I thinking such thoughts?" and "Why do I have such emotions within me of self pity, of anger, of despair?" and "Where do these suicidal thoughts come from?" I hear women talk about these from time to time, these thoughts that say, “It's not worth going on.” These are enemies within.

David said, “Lord, there are enemies in my life.” They come from without; they come from within. What do I do to help me be protected against the enemy? I can't fight these enemies myself. What do I do? I need a place of safety and protection in the midst of the battle. And David says, “I’ve found that place. That place is under the wings of God.”

There's another wonderful passage that makes this same point. Many of you are familiar with Psalm 91. Perhaps some of you have memorized that psalm. David here uses several word pictures to talk about God being for us a place of safety and protection from our enemies.

He says in verse 1, 

He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High
Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. 

The secret place of the Most High. That's a phrase that means "a hiding place, a shelter." 

When I think of that word, I think of Corrie ten Boom and her story and The Hiding Place. It’s how her family had this special room in their house where they hid the Jews from the Nazis. It was a hiding place. The Jews whose lives were in danger were safe as long as they went into that hiding place.

David says that the Most High God is a hiding place for our hearts; He's a hiding place for our lives; He's a shelter. In Him we are safe. So David goes on to say, 

I will say of the LORD, “He is my refuge and my fortress;
[He is] My God, in Him I will trust'" (v. 2)

And then he goes on to give assurance based on his own experience with God being a safe place. He says,

Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler
And from the perilous pestilence.
He shall cover you with his feathers,
And under his wings you shall take refuge;
His truth shall be your shield and your buckler. (vv. 3–4) 

That brings to mind for me a picture of my mind being protected by the truth of God; the shield of God's Word is a protection for my mind. It keeps my thoughts stable when they threaten to run away and go crazy.

He goes on to say, verse 5, 

You shall not be afraid of the terror by night,
Nor of the arrow that flies by day. 

In this hiding place there is freedom from fear, because no one and nothing can get to me in that hiding place under His wings unless they first go through God Himself.

So he says you won't be afraid of terror or of arrows, 

Nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness,
Nor of the destruction that lays waste at noonday. (v. 6) 

This is a kind of "fill in the blank" sort of verse. Just fill in the blank with what are the "perilous pestilences" in your life. What are the terrors, the arrows, the things that fly at you? 

He says you don't have to be afraid of those things. They hold no terror for the one who finds refuge under God's wings. And so He says, 

A thousand may fall at your side,
And ten thousand at your right hand;
But it shall not come near you. (v. 7) 

Why? Because you are under the wings of God. He shall cover you with his feathers, and under His wings you shall take refuge.

When we're fearful, when we're feeling overwhelmed, as some even this morning have expressed that you are feeling at this season of life, when we're feeling attacked or threatened, perhaps going through a season of grief, when we're feeling desperately needy, when we're facing deserts or storms or enemies, what are we to do? Run for the wings. Take refuge under His wings.

What does that mean? It means I draw near to Him as the Scripture commands me to. It means I look up to Him and I trust myself to Him. I trust that He is capable to handle these circumstances, and then I stop wrestling. I stop striving, and I just do what the Scripture says: be still, be safe, be protected, trust in that place of dependence that He is going to provide all that I need.

There's a wonderful phrase in the book of Ruth where Boaz says to Ruth, "You have come to take refuge under the wings of the Lord God of Israel" (see Ruth 2:12). God has wings that are there and available for us. And really, we do one of two things in relation to those wings. We either take refuge under those wings, or we refuse to take refuge under those wings.

When I come under His wings He takes all of my troubles, all of my cares, all of my responsibilities as His own, as a mother bird or hen does for her little ones. But if I'm unwilling to come under His wings, if I insist on handling things myself, then I find that I have to take all those burdens on myself. I have to fend for myself; I have to make it on my own.

The fact is, we can't make it on our own. So if we want to experience the protection of the wings of God, we have to humble ourselves, admit our neediness, and stop pretending that we're so strong, not feel like we have to impress anybody with how strong we are or how "put together" we are. 

Unlike birds and chicks, you and I never will outgrow our need for the wings of God. They will always be there. I love this old hymn that speaks of the wings of God 

Under His wings I am safely abiding;
Though the night deepens and tempests are wild.
Still I can trust Him; I know He will keep me.
He has redeemed me, and I am His child.

Under His wings, what a refuge in sorrow!
How the heart yearningly turns to His rest.
Often, when earth has no balm for my healing,
There I find comfort, and there I am blessed.

Under His wings, oh what precious enjoyment!
There will I hide ‘til life's trials are o'er.
Sheltered, protected, no evil can harm me;
Resting in Jesus, I'm safe evermore.

Under His wings; under His wings;
Who from His love can sever?
Under His wings my soul shall abide,
Safely abide forever.

(“Under His Wings” by William O. Cushing)

Thank You, Father, for those wings that are a place of refuge, safety, security, stability, and protection. In the midst of the storms and the dry places, and when faced with overwhelming enemies without and within, would You grant us faith to run to Your wings and there to find all that we need to be still. Grant us faith to wait, to trust, and to look to You to meet all our needs. I pray in Jesus' name, amen.

Dannah: Just as an umbrella shields us from the wind and rain, the wings of God provide comfort and protection as we walk through the storms of life. As Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth has explained, God is more than willing to shelter us in His arms if only we'll run to Him. 

You know, that reminds me of a woman who needed to run to the wings of God when difficulty came into her life. Joy Larson’s husband and mother were sick with COVID in 2020, and the Revive Our Hearts podcast helped her greatly during this time. Here’s Joy with more of her story.

Joy Larson: We all came down with COVID, we all got sick. We’re laying in bed watching TV, because we couldn’t do anything else. My husband just every day kept staying sick. He ended up going to the hospital. I drove him there. I got a call as I dropped him off and my mom said, “I need you to take me to the hospital.” So I went back, picked her up, and drove her to the hospital. She had COVID as well. 

My mom ended up coming home, but they admitted my husband and he ended up staying. I only heard from him for like two minutes a day, eight days straight. I thought he was dying, and my mom was really, really sick. We didn’t know what was going to happen to her; she was like eighty.

So we got on the phone with my brother-in-law, and we all three just prayed for my husband, that he would be able to come home, but . . . God’s will. We got a call, and the doctor said, “He’s fine. He can go home.”

But it was the longest season of life! Even though now looking back it was only eight days in the hospital, but it seemed like eternity. You know, when you’re going through trials, things are in slow motion! But I got hold of the podcasts of Revive Our Hearts.

Dannah (from Coronavirus, Cancer, and Christ): This is the Revive Our Hearts podcast with Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth for May 21, 2020. I’m Dannah Gresh.

Joy: And once I found those, I just listened to them for two hours a day, usually going on walks. They were my walking partners. That’s how I got started with Revive Our Hearts, truly.

Nancy (from Coronavirus, Cancer, and Christ): Christ is King! And this whole COVID thing— Coronavirus, cancer—these are visible reminders to us, tangible reminders thats we feel very deeply, that this world is still under the curse of sin! But we’re also encouraged to wait in hope for that promised day when the curse will be no more! 

Joy: I just realized that Jesus is in control! The Word of God allows you to have that peace of mind. You know that things may not turn out the way you want them to, but God will get you through it, Jesus will, through the Scriptures.

I’ve known that through all the past, through different things: “God’s gotten me through that.” So I know He proves Himself faithful. 

Nancy (from "Coronavirus, Cancer, and Christ"): You really can trust Him to write your story in the meantime. This is not the end of the story. Coronavirus is not the end of the story, cancer is not the end of the story. 

We know the end of the story, but we’re in the middle of it right now, and as we wait, we need patience and courage and hope.

Joy: I realized I wanted to be a part of Revive Our Hearts and do the books and get it into the hands of other people. I realized many of the people in my area didn’t even know about Revive Our Hearts’ ministry, and so I became an advocate of the ministry, wanting people to know about it!

The first thing that I did was I just bought Seeking Him with the DVD. I didn’t know what I was going to do with it, but I just bought ten books. I thought, I’m keeping these just in case, for whatever the Lord has for me.

I love doing Bible studies; I love leading Bible studies. I like DVDs because I am not the teacher; I’m not good at just being the teacher. That’s where Nancy’s studies are fabulous! We loved that DVD! 

I’ve always prayed for revival in Cleveland—since my kids were in junior high. Seeking Him is all about revival!

Dannah: That theme of revival was one emphasis of our Cry Out prayer event at True Woman ’22, and Joy was able to be there for that. Let’s listen to a clip from that evening.

Women in speaking in unison: Will you not revive us again so that Your people may rejoice in You? 

Nancy (from True Woman ’22): And could we just say that last couplet from Psalm 85:6 one more time? “Will you not revive us again so that Your people may rejoice in You?” Did you see who revival is for? “Your people.” We’ve prayed for the nations, we’ve prayed for our countries, we’ve prayed for sorrowing people and for families. But for revival, that for which we long, begins with the people of God! We’re not going to have joy and rejoicing in the house of God until we have repentance and revival among the people of God.

Joy: My favorite part of the conference was the cry out for revival in the world—that would be amazing! I just really want people to seek the Lord because everyone’s been going through trials with COVID and all of that. So we just need to get into Him and get deep! We need to know the Word and be able to speak it, and that Seeking Him is a great study!

Dannah: Joy liked the Seeking Him study so much that she wanted to lead womenin her church through more studies from Revive Our Hearts. The next one she did was Adorned: Living Out the Beauty of the Gospel Together.

Joy: My daughter was in high school and she was supposed to go to her Wednesday night group. I did my study on a Wednesday night and I figured, “This is her last year. We’ll go to church together; she can go to her group and I’ll go to mine.” 

Little did I know, because I just hadn’t read ahead, is that Adorned is all about doing life together with the young and the old.

Nancy (from "Adorned"): God’s grace in your life, spiritual growth in your life, fruitful ministry through your life, will be best experienced in the context of community. You see, our union with Christ makes us a member of the family of God. That means that we are related by blood. We need each other!

Joy: It was amazing when her small group got canceled until October, so I said to my daughter, “Why don’t you help me?” Because I needed help with the whole tech-y side of things. It’s not my thing!

So she ended up coming. She ended up bringing three other girls, so there was a group of high schoolers who came into my class of Adorned. They ended up staying for the rest of the semester, not going back to their group of same-age kids.

Nancy (from "Adorned"): And the good news is we have each other! God has given us women and friends within the body of Christ to help us grow and serve.

Joy: What a concept! They are learning so much from the grandmas that are in the group! I had no idea Adorned was such an amazing study, and that’s what it’s all about. It made me laugh how God purposely had her class cancel for a month so she could come to mine. And by that time they were hooked, so they kept coming. That was an amazing study!

Nancy (from "Adorned"): There’s not one woman here—starting with this woman—who can make it on her own. We all need other women in our lives! Now, those relationships are not always easy; they’re not always neat. Sometimes they can get messy.

But I want to tell you, done God’s way, under His leading and by His grace, they can be incredibly life-giving! And they are God’s way of making the gospel believable through us to the watching world. 

So the focus of Titus 2:3–5 is women living in gospel, grace community with each other—living out the beauty of the gospel together!”

Joy: My daughter was with us for True Woman 101,True Woman 201, and now she’s in my Seeking Him class. Why not be with multiple generations? I don’t know why I’ve never done that before. So it’s interesting how God used that study of Adorned to cause us to be like, “Whoa! Why don’t we? I don’t want everybody my age in the group. I like having the younger!”

And then the older kept asking the younger all these questions, because their grandkids were that age, so they wanted to pick their brains to know what they’re thinking. And I’m like, “Whoo! That’s so neat!”

Dannah: Aww. We don’t always get to hear how God uses Revive Our Hearts in womens’ lives, but it is really special when we do, like what we just heard from Joy Larson. And when you donate to Revive Our Hearts, you help women like Joy experience freedom, fullness, and fruitfulness in Christ. 

Your support means so much to us. As a way of showing our gratitude, we’d like to send you our Advent tabletop card set. It’s based on Nancy’s devotional Born a Child and Yet a King: The Gospel in the Carols. Or, you can get both the Advent card set and Nancy’s devotional with your gift of $40 or more. 

We’ll actually be going through that devotional in our Revive Our Hearts Advent Book Club starting in December! This is a great opportunity for you to read the book and process it with others. We’re so excited to dive in and journey through the meaning of some favorite Christmas carols together!

Find out more about the book club and sign up on our website. You’ll find a link to it in the transcript of today’s episode. And while you’re there be sure to request your Advent resources when you give at ReviveOurHearts.com, or call us at 1-800-569-5959.

If you’ve listened much to Revive Our Hearts, you’ve likely heard us talk about Lies Women Believe, Lies Men Believe, Lies Young Women Believe, and Lies Girls Believe. Tomorrow, you’re in for a special treat as we hear from my friends Jason and Erin Davis, bringing us some insight on Lies Boys Believe. 

Erin Davis: I don’t want to teach my sons toxic masculinity. I don’t want to teach my sons toxic anything! But I do want to teach them that there is a God, and that we see very early in the pages of Scripture that He created men and He created women . . . and both are good! 

And we see that He created men and women distinctly different, and that’s good! And that masculinity is not bad. We can’t just stamp everything having to do with boys and men and masculinity with this big ol’ red “Bad!” stamp. There’s a lot of it that’s really good and God-designed!

Dannah: You won’t want to miss it. Join us back here for Revive Our Hearts! 

Revive Our Hearts, with Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth is helping you experience freedom, fullness, and fruitfulness in Christ!

All Scripture is taken from the NKJV.

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