What Is God Doing through the Pandemic?

Dannah Gresh: Aren’t you glad we don’t serve a God who is wringing His hands and biting His nails over this global pandemic?! Here’s Stephen Kendrick.

Stephen Kendrick: We have a loving, merciful, gracious, sovereign, holy God who is not worried; He is not panicked right now. He is ruling from the heavens, and He’s carrying out everything according to His perfect will.

Dannah: This is Revive Our Hearts with Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth, co-author of You Can Trust God to Write Your Story, for May 20, 2020. I’m Dannah Gresh. 

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: Dannah, throughout this entire saga with this pandemic, there has been no shortage of people offering their opinions, their commentary, their perspective on what’s happening, why it’s happening, and what we need to do. 

So you’ve had, day-after-day, all the news people, the politicians, the medical professionals, the scientists. A lot of that is really interesting; it’s fascinating, it’s educational. But the thing my heart has really longed for in the midst of all of this is to hear, “What does God think about this?”

What is His perspective? What is He saying? What is He doing? What are we as the people of God supposed to be hearing? What are we supposed to be doing? I’ve just been so eager to have a biblical worldview on what’s going on around us.

That doesn’t mean the others aren’t helpful or important. But our souls long to know: What is God’s perspective on all of this? And a few weeks ago, Robert and I received a text from a dear friend of ours, Stephen Kendrick. 

It kind of came out of the blue in saying, “Here are some things I hear God saying and see God doing in the midst of this pandemic.” I shared it with you, and it really resonated with both of us.

Dannah: Oh, yes. It’s like there is an itch that I can’t quite reach, and it’s this spiritual longing to have spiritual meaning assigned to what we’re going through. And, Nancy, it’s not just you and me; I feel like every believer I talk to is describing that same sort of sensation.

Nancy: So we asked our friend, Stephen Kendrick, if he could join us in this conversation today. Stephen, you’re not a newcomer to Revive Our Hearts, but thank you for—on a short notice—joining us for this conversation today!

Stephen: I am so honored. I love you guys, and am just grateful that you’re always going to the Word of God and pointing people to the Scriptures, which is my heart as well. So I’m just grateful to get to share with you.

Nancy: Thank you. And for those who may not be familiar with you, Stephen, you and your brother Alex are film producers. If people don’t know you, they know some of those films and probably have shed a few tears watching some of those films! I remember War Room, Courageous, and going back a little further, Fireproof, which is such a great movie on marriage! And then a more recent one called Overcomer. 

I remember when you and your brother were first thinking about that, you shared with me, “We want to do a movie on . . .” And give us the gist what that was about.

Stephen: Identity in Christ. The Lord was teaching us so much about who we are in Him. It was born out of just studying through Ephesians over and over again and diving deeper into how our eternal identity completely transforms when we believe the gospel. And people don’t know it! They know their lives change; they know they have a hope in heaven, but they don’t really know what it means to be “in Christ.” 

That’s what Paul is praying in Ephesians 1 and 3, that the Holy Spirit will reveal to believers who they are in Him, what they have in Him, and how much He loves us. It really transforms every other area of our lives, as mentioned in Ephesians: our attitudes, our words, our marriages, our relationships, and everything else!

Nancy: Yes, so if you haven’t seen Overcomer, make sure and see that. It really unpacks that message in a beautiful way. And let me just say also, Stephen . . . I don’t know if you remember this. You and your mom were on a re-aired program of Revive Our Hearts just a couple of weeks ago, just before Mother’s Day.

This is a program from a while ago. We re-aired it because you were talking about the power of a praying mother. So, actually, you were with us a couple of weeks ago, and maybe didn’t realize it! But now we come to this COVID-19, coronavirus—things that have just become part of our everyday, everybody conversation worldwide.

You started your text to Robert and me saying: “Today’s thought: What is God doing right now through this pandemic?” And as the news changes, as the lockdowns are lifted, this is a conversation we still need to be having, because it’s what God is doing in our world—not just through this pandemic, but through all of the circumstances here on this earth.

So what got you started thinking about this, and what has been a key grounding truth for your heart as you’ve been thinking about, What is God doing during a time like this?

Stephen: Well, I think everyone feels like we’re in the Twilight Zone, you know? I don’t know how many times I’ve been standing in my kitchen talking to my wife and I just pause and say, “This is just really bizarre!” The things that we’re talking about, the schedules that we have now with our kids, the usual routine that has been disrupted—not just here, but around the world!

I’ve never known, reading history, of a global pandemic happening at the same time! And if you think about the technology we have now, all the advances in science now, all the knowledge we have on the Internet, and yet this invisible enemy that they describe has crippled the economies of continents at the same time! 

I’m thinking, Man, what is God doing!? And so, there’s this longing as we watch the news media. People are constantly sharing their opinions on what we should do, but there’s this confusion. I think even in the church, people are wondering what’s going on. There’s a tendency for fear, worry, confusion, doubt to begin to fog our thinking.

And the Word of God is so clear from beginning to end, not only what God is doing in any moment, but what He is doing throughout eternity. It just sheds so much light in the fog of this pandemic, when we go back to what the Scriptures say.

Nancy: Robert has said to me a number of times over the last weeks, when we’ll hear something more bizarre about what’s taking place. He’ll just look at me and say, “The whole world is upside-down” It’s coming unraveled!”

And yet, in the midst of that sense that we all have, we do have an anchor for our souls, because God is not in a fog; God is not upside-down; God is not coming unraveled.

Stephen: Right!

Nancy: I love how you keep pointing us back to the rock that God is, when it seems like the whole world is off-course.

Stephen: I think, when we try to answer the question, “What is God doing?” we need to remember His nature, that He is unchanging. Ephesians 1:11 says He does all things “according to the counsel of his will,” which was established before the world began. Before there was a wedding in a garden, God was sovereignly working out and carrying out His plans.

And if we think from the terms of, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Heb. 13:8), our Father ruling on the throne is constantly carrying out His perfect will, and He states what that is.

And so when people ask, “What is God doing right now?” I think, first, He is reigning supreme; He is ruling from the throne right now! I have come back to Psalm 96, because so many things in this text message that I sent you are referenced in that passage: that we should be worshiping the Lord. 

And it says, “Say among the nations, ‘The Lord reigns! Yes, the world is firmly established; it can not be moved” (v. 10 NIV84). He is actively working; He is bringing down the gods of this world. He is spreading good tidings to the nations. He wants us to rejoice in His sovereignty during times like this. 

I think how many Scriptures talk about God reigning supreme or that He is Lord over all things at all times. Psalm 103:19: “The Lord has established his throne in the heavens, and his [sovereignty] rules over all.” 

In Ephesians 1:21–22 Scripture says Jesus ascended to the right hand of the Father “far above all rule and authority and power and dominion . . . And he puts all things under his feet.” He’s bringing all the enemies of God under His feet.

Colossians 1:17: “In him all things hold together.” All authority in heaven and earth has been given to Him. I think we have these gods in our generation . . . and what did God do with the gods of Egypt? He said, “I’m going to judge, humiliate, bring down every single one of the gods of Egypt.” 

He sovereignly hardens Pharaoh’s heart until he annihilates every god that the Egyptian worshiped! They worshiped the Nile; they worshiped frogs; they had their sun god that they worshiped, and He darkens, takes the sun away. They worshiped Pharaoh, and He’s totally humiliating Pharaoh.

And then, when He brings all those gods under His feet, then He sets them free. I thought about Deuteronomy 32:39, “See now that I myself am he! There is no god besides me.

I put to death and I bring to life, I have wounded and I will heal, and no one can deliver out of my hand” (NIV84).

You may not hear that on good-feeling, prosperity-gospel preaching all the time, but Scripture indicates that God rules over everything! And He is good, His mercies are new every morning. He is compassionate, but He is sovereign.

I love what Corrie ten Boom said: “There is no panic in heaven.” I don’t know how many times that quote comes back to my mind. In any circumstance, we should never be worried! “Panic” is actually connected to the pagan God, Pan. I’m thinking, We don’t worship the pagan god, Pan. We worship the God who rules over all worries and fears and brings all things under His feet!

Dannah: You know, I have chills listening to you, Stephen, because the first Scripture you read over us just a moment ago was Psalm 96, where it says, “I rule over the nations.” How many times does God use the word “nations” and “look and see the nations”? And “every tribe, every nation, every tongue” will bow before Him? What could get every continent, every people group, crying out for hope but a global pandemic? What could do it? It gave me chills!

And then, as you’re talking about the Egyptian plagues, I think, How many times have I made that story about the rescue . . . and it was about the rescue . . . but how many times have I thought, God loves rescuing us. He will rescue us! And I forget the holiness of God He was working not only to remind the Egyptians that there is one true God, but He was working to remind His own people about who He is and that He reigns and that He is in control!

If it were all about rescuing the people, He could have done that with one sign, with one wonder, but He needed their hearts to get into a posture of brokenness, so that they would repent . . . so that His people would repent.

Stephen: If you think, when He rescues them, He gives them the Ten Commandments. The first one is, “You shall have no . . . gods before me” (Ex. 20:3). Psalm 96, verses 4 and 5: “For great is the Lord and greatly to be praised; he is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the people are idols” (NIV84).

You know, they’re not gods. They’re deaf and blind and can’t save anybody! “But,” it says, “the Lord made the heavens.” There is this theme throughout Scripture, that God is bringing everything under His feet. You know, “Sit at my right hand until I make [all of] your enemies a footstool under your feet” (Heb. 1:13 NIV84).

Even in Corinthians, the last enemy that is brought under His feet will be death! (see 1 Cor. 15:54). And so Jesus, through His death and resurrection, not only offers us salvation, but He triumphs over all the gods of this world, and He is risen above with great authority and power!

We have a loving, merciful, gracious, sovereign, holy God who is not worried. He is not panicked right now. He is ruling from the heavens, and He’s carrying out everything according to His perfect will! He’s actively judging the nations right now, at the same time.

If you think about it, Scripture says that God judged people in the past. You see that throughout Scripture. You think about Sodom and Gomorrah. We just talked about Egypt. Jesus warned about Jerusalem experiencing a judgment at the time. Noah’s flood was a judgment.

So He always has perfect justice. There’s no ignorance; there’s no guessing. He judged Adam and Eve in the Garden. People ask, “Well, is the wrath of God being revealed against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men?” 

Well, read Romans 1:18: “The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth [in unrighteousness].” Does God judge the nations? Yes, but we have to remember His judgment on earth is mercy, so that we would repent so that we would not ultimately experience a greater judgment and total separation from Him.

Nancy: You see those two themes of judgment and salvation running on parallel tracks all the way through the Scripture, over and over again. What did God save us from? What is He saving us from? It’s from His wrath, it’s from sin, it’s from unholiness.

So God judges sin and He saves us from His wrath. The salvation of God is not precious if we don’t see it against the backdrop of the judgment that we deserve for our sin. Every time God judges, He’s also offering to people an out, an escape, a rescue, a means of redemption.

So love how you put those two together. God is not any less merciful or compassionate or generous or kind when we see judgments coming about in the earth. This is not a vindictive God. He’s a holy God who longs that all people everywhere should repent . . . and yet, He will not have rivals!

As you think about God judging the false gods, the idols of Egypt . . . We say, “We don’t have a sun god today; we don’t worship some of the things that maybe the Egyptians worshiped.” What are some of the gods that God may be judging in our world today?

Stephen: I would say anything that we put above Him has become a god—anything that we are bowing down to, submitting our hearts, our schedules, our time, our money to in bowing down in service, anything that we fear more than we fear Him could be a god in our life.

Nancy: So, health?

Stephen: Yes. I’ve got this quote from Pastor Bill Elliff. I know he’s a good friend of yours as well. He said, 

There’s a phenomenon happening right now during the coronavirus that we must not miss. God is systematically stripping away every idol we worship . . . and He’s doing it all across the world!

He’s taken away from us our gods of sports, entertainment, health, wealth, position, and power. One by one, we find the things we look to for life and meaning suddenly gone, stripped away by a marauding army of germs we can’t even see!

This microscopic horde is no respecter of persons; neither the wealthiest nor the poorest are immune. Senators in the halls of government can fall, as can the clerk at the nearest grocery store. Money can’t buy deliverance, nor can position or human power. We have always been powerless, but this moment is reminding us of our frailty in no uncertain terms!

Bill, I think, is spot-on in pointing out that we have all these gods that we lean to, run to. They are our refuge rather than the one true God. The Lord is stripping those away from us right now and showing us that they can’t deliver us!

Nancy: It’s not just the world that needs to see that. “Judgment must begin in the house of God,” 1 Peter 4:17 tells us. So what do you see God doing—or wanting to do—in us, in the Church, in His people?

Stephen: Well, He said He is going to be working all things together for good for those that are called according to His purpose, for those that love Him in order to conform us to the image of his Son.” (see Rom. 8:28–29]

So He’s looking at our lives and He’s saying, “I’m going to remove the idols. I’m going to discipline you out of love,” Hebrews 12:6 says. So He disciplines His Church in order to bring about the holiness of Christ in us—in order for us to be reminded that He is the greatest treasure of all! He is worth living for and dying for.

At His right hand are pleasures forevermore, in His presence is fullness of joy (see Psalm 16:11); that love and joy and peace that we want in life come through His Holy Spirit, not from money or entertainment or fame or those kinds of things.

He is making us more like Jesus. He’s looking down, saying, “Okay, my Bride that I’m purifying, preparing for My return, anything that doesn’t look like Christ in you, I want to remove that from you.”

Jesus says in John 15:5, “I am the vine; you are the branches.” “And the Father is going to see anything unfruitful in you, and He’s going to prune it away” (see vv. 1–2). And how many of us have been pruned and had things taken away in the last month? 

But the goal is that we may produce more fruit, that we may be even more intimate with Him, that we may bring Him greater glory with our lives.

Nancy: Have you and Jill and your family seen any of that happening? Just give us a glimpse into . . . You have a public life and have been very effective in kingdom work. But think about your family and your own walk with the Lord. How have you seen God using these circumstances to do a fresh work of grace in your own lives?

Stephen: I see myself being much more freed up of ten million distractions and able to not only take more time in God’s Word during the day when I’m spending time with Him, but my relationship with my wife has gone to a sweeter level over the last month.

My time with my kids . . . I have had some incredible heart-to-heart conversations with my children over the last few weeks . . . and sharing with them both good and bad—areas where the Lord is revealing where they’re not trusting Him, or there’s fear, or there are things that they are loving in this world that the Lord has taken away, and they’re grieving and realizing, “I don’t need those things!”

At the same time, the faith of my daughter has been coming out to a deeper degree, her time in the Word. My son recently had a tearful conversation, saying that he was grieving over the loss of his prom, his graduation, all of these things that he was looking forward to.

And then he said, “But I’m realizing how much the Lord loves me, during this time.” He got very tearful in the conversation. He said, “God is showing me the depth of His love to a greater degree as I’m letting go and grieving the loss of all these things that I was clinging to, that were busy-ing up my schedule. And so, I’m very grateful.”

It’s humbling. We’ve gone back and pulled a lot of old VHS tapes out of our shed and have started to watch those as a family. We’re seeing how fast time has flown by, and seeing back to different seasons of our lives where we were.

And it’s so refreshing to see, “Lord, You have really grown me since that season of immaturity and distraction! And I’m excited about where I am now in my walk with You, compared to where I was just a few years ago!”

Dannah: I feel like you just spoke to a lot of the “mamma bears” out there who are trying to fix all the things their children are missing. And as moms, it breaks our hearts when our kids miss special things. I have a single daughter who is alone, and it breaks my heart. 

I want to fix that, because being alone in a pandemic is not a lot of fun! It’s a different thing from being single at other times. And what you just spoke to my heart, Stephen, is that I need to let God do the work that He is doing in her life . . . because that’s what you saw in your son as he yielded those special things. He was able to find the treasure of God.

Stephen: “He who began a good work” in our children will be faithful to complete it “until the day of Christ Jesus” (Phil. 1:6). If you have dedicated your children to the Lord and laid them on the altar before Him, God is the author and the perfecter of our faith. (see Heb. 12:2) 

And all of us are that way. All of us see areas of growth and all of us see areas of our lives where we feel totally inadequate. We say, “Lord, I should be further along than I am right now in this area of my life. I should have learned this lesson years ago. I see areas of immaturity and un-Christlikeness in me and in my children.”

And the Lord, who loves us more than anyone else, is using all things. I love that in Romans 8:28: good things, bad things, confusing things; He’s using all things together for our good to conform us to the image of our Son. And He is very adequate in His ability to complete that good work!

Nancy: Have you seen this season, Stephen, as an opportunity for the advance of the gospel?

Stephen: Absolutely! I was doing research on what is happening right now to advance the gospel among the nations. There was an article that came out with Christianity Today. It was mind-blowing, because they said that right now massive evangelism is taking place specifically tied to the COVID virus. 

There’s an April 7 article in Christianity Today called “Coronavirus Searches Lead Millions to Hear About Jesus.” And they’re saying, right now, global media outreach Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and Cru have all seen that online searches about fear—and specifically faith—have skyrocketed!

And prayer has skyrocketed! Seventy-five countries, they said. . .people are searching for spiritual things. And they’re saying millions of people, now, are becoming open about faith that weren’t there before!

In March, the Billy Graham Association said ten thousand additional people came to Christ online than expected. Cru says they put fifty-two new resources up, and they said that this year is going to eclipse the total number of visitors to their online evangelistic websites by twenty-million. 

The site’s total decisions for Christ . . . they’re expecting 300,000 more people coming to Christ this year, because of the coronavirus. They said this is the greatest moment in the history of the Church to fulfill the Great Commission, based upon what’s happening online and how people are searching for the Lord!

There’s a global outreach day that’s coming up on May 30 that they’ve been planning. They said, “Our hope is engaging one-hundred-million believers to share the gospel with one-billion people worldwide in May.” And when I look at those numbers, I just want to say, “Praise the Lord! God, You are carrying out and fulfilling the Great Commission!”

“You said a sign of the end times was the gospel would go to the ends of the earth!” But Jesus also said a sign of the end times is that there would be earthquakes and diseases among the nations that would bring fear. 

So this is a sign of Jesus’ return, but part of that is the gospel is spreading more rapidly than ever before. We’ve been praying for it, and God is now doing it to a greater degree, through this!

Nancy: So God is not sitting up in heaven scratching His head, calling emergency meetings of the angels to say, “Oops! What are we going to do now? The world is falling apart!” He is still on His throne; He still rules; He reigns. He is overseeing all that’s going on in this crazy earth, this prodigal plant, that from a human perspective has spiraled out of control.

It’s amazing to think of how God takes and uses even these crises—the loss of life, the confusion—to say to us, “Science is not god, humans are not god, I am God; there is no other God,” and to provide an opportunity for the hearts of men and women to be drawn to Himself.

So, really, this is a day of unprecedented opportunity for the world to lift their eyes up and to see and to know and to trust a God that they may have been really comfortable ignoring until now.

Stephen: Nancy, I think it’s important that we remember God’s heart and His character at all times. It’s easy for us when something uncomfortable happens, something fearful and confusing happens, to lose sight of who He is. 

I recently sent my sons an email and I said, “Let me just remind you of the heart of our God in the midst of this.” And I gave them three passages of Scripture: Lamentations 3:32–33: “Though he brings grief, he also shows compassion, because of the greatness of his unfailing love. For he does not not enjoy hurting people or causing them sorrow” (paraphrased). 

Ezekiel 33:11: “‘As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn!’ He says, ‘Turn from your evil ways!’” (paraphrased).

And then, John 3:17: “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that through Him the world might be saved” (paraphrased). And just as a cherry on the top, I think about 2 Peter 3:9: “The Lord is not slow concerning His promises, but is longsuffering towards us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (paraphrased). This is the heart of our God!

When He brings judgment, He’s doing it reluctantly. He’s sending warnings, and even there are small doses of judgment as an appetizer saying, “Here’s an opportunity to repent. Please turn back!” His holiness, His justice requires ultimate judgment, but through the death and resurrection of His Son, He’s provided total mercy, salvation and a way out! And so, this is His heart: not wanting to bring sorrow or pain, not delighting in the death of the wicked; but that we would all be brought to repentance and back into an intimate, loving relationship with Him.

Nancy: Wow, I love that—just pointing us back to the heart of God and to His ways. And there are some listening to this conversation right now that God has been drawing to Himself and providing opportunity to turn, to repent. 

There are others that God is wanting to use to speak into our neighbors, our family members, our friends, to encourage them that now is the day of salvation! God is longing for you to return, to turn, to repent, and to come to Him! 

I wonder, Stephen, if you would just close our conversation in praying for God’s purposes to be accomplished in the heart of every listener and every person that we touch as we take this conversation out to others.

Stephen: Father, I know that if we were in Your presence right now and we saw you in all of your holiness, we would be so overwhelmed with the love that emanates from the throne of God, and the grace and the mercy and the beauty that pours out who You are.

You are a good God! Your Word says in You is light and in You is no darkness at all! (see 1 John 1:5) You are truth (see John 14:6) and there’s no deception. And, Father, we just acknowledge that You are sovereign and on Your throne. You are reigning supreme. You are carrying out Your will.

You are fulfilling the Great Commision. We thank You for this, Lord! You are discipling Your Church through all this right now. We thank You for this, Lord. You’re strengthening families; You’re testing families. You’re exposing areas of our marriages, our families that we need to work on. And at the same time, You’re humbling us, Lord.

You’re reminding us that we don’t have all the answers, that we don’t have control, that we desperately need You every day! And so, Father, we just acknowledge that there is no god in this world greater than You! You are alone ruling, wholly set apart, and we just praise You that the Lord reigns among the nations! 

And, Lord, we also just ask You, as we come before You, that You would continue the good work You have started in each of us and in Your Church. Lord, You are humbling the proud as Your Word says. (see 1 Samuel 2:7)

You are reminding us that it says in 2 Chronicles 7:14 that if we humble ourselves . . . But before that, in verse 13, You said if You send a wasting disease among the land and “if my people,” when that happens, “who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”

Lord, America needs to be healed, but the nations need to be healed. We have been wicked, Lord, in our turning away from Your words, Your commands; from not walking in love toward You and towards other people.

And so, Father, we ask You for mercy and compassion! We ask You for forgiveness, Lord, for ourselves, for our families, for the Church, for the Body of Christ. Lord, we have been intoxicated with entertainment and self-indulgence.

Lord, we have not gone over to the ditch and rescued the people that have been desperately needing You and needing help, around us. Even as You said, at the judgment there will be a time when You say, “I was hungry and you fed me and thirsty; you gave me drink.” (see Matt. 25:35)

Lord, right now You are reminding us of our own needs, and so Lord, we ask You, Father, be glorified in Your Church! Be glorified in our marriages. Turn the hearts of fathers back to their children and children back to their fathers.

Free us up, Lord, of things we don’t need to be doing. Cut away the branches that are not producing fruit in our lives. Cut away the things in our schedule and our budgets and our time, in our hearts Lord, that are displeasing to You.

And, Lord, we know that You’re conforming us to the image of Your Son, that You are making us more like Jesus every day, as the day approaches. And so, Lord, we thank You for this. We welcome this, Lord Jesus.

We also pray, Father, that You would use the coronavirus to humble leaders, that they would begin to serve the people and serve You, and not themselves. We pray, Father, that You would use the coronavirus to spread the gospel to the nations, to the ends of the earth—the good news of salvation!

Lord, would you use the coronavirus to prepare the Bride of Christ for Your return? You said, Lord Jesus in Matthew 24 that one of the signs of your return would be there would be earthquakes, there would be famines, and there would be diseases around the nations, causing fear. (see Luke 21:11) 

And You said in anticipation of Your return, and so Lord I pray that You would put inside of us an excitement about heaven, that we would set our hearts on things above, not on things on this earth. Lord, give us an excitement about being with You, an excitement about Your return.

And as it says in 1 John, that we would purify ourselves in anticipation of Jesus’ coming. Lord, would You purify Your Bride? Lord, we ask that You complete this good work that You have started!

We do ask, Lord, for compassion, for comfort for those that are grieving and hurting right now. We pray that they would fix their eyes on You, not on themselves, not on a check from the government. But we ask that they would see You as Jehovah Jireh, their Provider. 

And, Lord, we pray that we would not waste this opportunity to go deeper in our intimacy with You—to sit at Your feet like Mary, to quit our busyness like we’ve had, like Martha in the kitchen, and Lord we would sit intimately at Your feet. Even as it says in Revelation to the church, “Repent and be zealous. I’m knocking at the door to come in and fellowship with you!” (3:19–20) Lord, may we open our lives, our hearts, our schedules for intimacy with You, to sit with You, to walk with You. 

Lord, be glorified. Do more than we could ask or imagine. Help us to fix our eyes on You. Your Word says You will keep us in perfect peace when we keep our eyes on You. We pray these things in Jesus’ mighty name, amen!

Nancy: Amen!

Dannah: Amen! Oh, thank you! You know, that stirred my heart; my heart was just agreeing so powerfully with the things you were praying. I love how so many of the words you said were Scripture! But what I really want to have us burning . . . There may be somebody listening who, if we are moving towards the end times, if we are moving toward the second coming of Christ . . .

They might have thought in 1918 during the Spanish flu plague, that that was the end times. They might have thought that in World War I and World War II . . . I don’t know. But one of these times, it will be that Jesus is just about, His return is imminent. And this could be very close to your last chance to really turn your heart towards God; to bow your knee to Jesus Christ and give your life to Him. So I just can’t help but plead: Are you ready for Him to come back? 

Stephen, thank you so much for being with us today!

Stephen: Praise the Lord! Well, thank you. I am so grateful for the Word of God, and I would just encourage people . . . It says in Psalm 119 that the Word comforts us, it comforts the grieving. If you’ve been worried, if you’ve been afraid, if you’ve been grieving, go dive into the Word of God. 

God has given you this opportunity in your schedule. What are you filling your schedule with, now that it has opened up. Are you allowing time with the Lord and in His Word to take precedence during your day?vBecause it is everything that we draw intimately close to Him during this time.

Nancy: Amen!

Dannah: Thank you, Stephen Kendrick, for spending time with us today! Before we’re done, I want to remind our listeners of our current financial needs here at Revive Our Hearts. Just as you have ongoing needs in order to make ends meet, it’s the same for a ministry like Revive Our Hearts—.and this month is no exception.

We’re asking God to provide $750,000 by May 31. That seems like a huge amount, but nothing is too difficult for God! If you’ve already donated this month, thank you! And if you’ve been thinking about it but haven’t done it just yet,now is the time!

If you’re not in a place where you can give financially right now, that’s fine. We completely understand, but would you please pray for us? We need your prayer just as much as we need your donation! This month, as a thank you for your gift of any amount, we’ll send you a booklet by Erin Davis, Uncommon Compassion: Revealing the Heart of God.

In it, Erin goes on a quick trip through the Scriptures. She looks at five aspects of the compassion of God. Again, it’s our gift to you as a thank you for your donation. You can donate when you visit ReviveOurHearts.com, or call us at 1–800–569–5959. 

It sure is easy to lose perspective and hope in the midst of everything going on around us right now! But tomorrow, Nancy shares what’s been on her heart as she and Robert have walked through their journey with cancer in the midst of a global pandemic. I’m Dannah Gresh. Please be back for Revive Our Hearts.

Reminding you that heaven rules, Revive Our Hearts with Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth is an outreach of Life Action Ministries.

All Scripture is taken from the ESV unless otherwise noted.

 

*Offers available only during the broadcast of the podcast season.