Anchored

Dannah Gresh: When the waters are stormy and threatening, and the ship is in danger of drifting off course, or worse—running aground . . . The captain knows when to give this order: “Drop the anchor!”

Welcome to Revive Our Hearts Weekend. I’m your host, Dannah Gresh.

Depending on what that anchor grabs and how strong the line is, it could mean the difference between life and death.

You and I are threatened by the stormy seas all around us. Today we want to anchor our souls to God and to His Word. That’s where there’s safety. That’s where we’ll find hope as we weather the storms of life.

Two women who have some experience with hope when it hurts are Sarah Walton and Kristen Wetherell. In fact, they wrote a book by that title, Hope When It Hurts. In their case, the storms they’ve faced have been things like chronic pain, job loss, and difficult situations with children.

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth sat down to talk to them about a passage from the New Testament. Let’s listen.

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: If you’re where you can grab a Bible, I want you to open to 2 Corinthians chapter 4. We’ve got our Bible open here on the table in the studio. 

It’s a really familiar passage, but I think you two women have put new light on it and helped me to see it with new ideas. Let me just read this paragraph, and then, Kristen, I’m going to ask you to just talk about this out of your own life and your own journey.

So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away [this physical, human body—and really, the healthiest person this could be said of, too—our outer self is wasting away, and it’s certainly true when there’s chronic physical pain and illness], our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient [they’re fading, they’re fleeting, they’re moving away], but the things that are unseen are eternal. (2 Cor. 4:16–18)

Now, first of all, I’ve got to ask you, Kristen, when it talks about this “light momentary affliction.” As you think about Lyme disease, and, Sarah, you with physical disease, family challenges, a child’s neurological issues, financial issues—things that, collectively, the two of you have faced—does it seem to you to be light or momentary? When you’re in the midst of your affliction, do you say, “Oh, this is a breeze?”

Kristen Wetherell: Nope!

Nancy: How do you even read this? Does this make sense humanly? How do you come to see it as “light and momentary”? Or, could you feel—and I don’t mean any disrespect here at all—that Paul is kind of mocking? He’s not, but how can he say this is “light and momentary”?

Kristen: No. That is definitely the question that this verse causes us to ask.

Nancy: You say momentary—it’s not like it’s gone in two weeks.

Kristen: Right.

Nancy: It’s two years, or twenty years.

Kristen: It could be a lifetime.

Nancy: For some people, a lifetime. Right.

Kristen: Well, in reading this at first, it was like you said, “Is Paul mocking?” Because it almost sounds like it’s belittling the pain and the suffering. But we have to go to the next part of the verse which is talking about “the eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.”

When you’re comparing that glory to the “light and momentary affliction,” it is indeed light and momentary. So we know that whatever we’re going through, as horrible as it is, it will not last forever. That’s how we have to fix our eyes on glory.

But I think, really, the root of this verse starts at 16 where Paul is saying, “Our outer nature is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed.”

It starts there because suffering and pain isn’t actually our biggest problem. It’s a problem. It’s not just light and momentary. It’s big, especially for people whose world it’s rocking.

We have a friend who lost her hearing. She’s a young mom, and she needs her hearing, but she lost it. And she said at one point, “Sinfulness is my greatest problem.” And I remember thinking, What? How can you say that? You’re losing your hearing?

But that’s what Paul is saying here, that’s what God is saying to us here. “Your suffering is light and momentary in that you have a greater problem that I’ve come to take care of through the sacrifice of My Son. You are a sinner, and I’ve come to heal you from this great disease.”

So I think that has helped me, thinking about my friend Carrie’s comment. That has helped me to look at the Word and to say, “This really stinks, and we’re not going to shove this aside as belittling it, but I am going to look at that eternal weight of glory, what God is producing in me through His Holy Spirit, which is hating my sin because my suffering is pointing to my sin and all the emotions that it raises up, all the anger, and pointing me in what He’s going to do and ridding me of that on that day of glory and into eternity.”

Nancy: As I’m listening to you, I’m thinking about hearing Joni Eareckson Tada talk. I’m going to paraphrase what she says. But she’s been for years a quadriplegic, confined to a wheelchair with just limited motion, and a lot, a lot of physical issues. She’s been on the broadcast a number of times, our listeners are familiar with her.

But I remember hearing her say that her greatest anticipation about getting to heaven isn’t about being able to walk and use her hands and her arms and to have a healed body. That, I’m sure, she’s anticipating. But she said, “Even more than that, what I’m anticipating is being done with this body of sin and my angry, petulant, defensive, bitter stuff inside of me.”

We look at Joni Eareckson Tada, and we think, She’s an angel! But she’s been so refined in the fire, she just seems like the epitome of sweetness and sanctification. But she knows her own heart better than we do, and she says, “I want to be done with the sin that’s inside this body.”

And I think that’s what you’re saying. This outer man is perishing. It’s wasting away. But inside God is doing something that is cleansing and is purifying.

Kristen: Yes.

Nancy: Kristen, I want you to just speak for a moment to someone who’s listening right now who’s really hurting, and their eyes are filled with tears, and they can hardly look up, and they feel like the weight is just too great to bear. They don’t feel like they can put the next foot in front of the other. You have felt that way at times.

Kristen: Yes.

Nancy: Sarah has felt that way at times.

Just speak a word of encouragement. Now, if they want a lot of encouragement, they can get this book and have thirty days of heart encouragement from God’s Word. But, what would God put on your heart right now for that woman?

Kristen: Yes. Friend, this brokenness and this place of need, it’s exactly where you need to be. You think that you need to be strong, and you think that you have to have all the answers to come. But you don’t.

In our suffering, it can feel like God is farthest away. It can feel like He’s not near, like He doesn’t care, like He doesn’t love you. But, in fact, He has you exactly where He wants you, and that’s to see that you need Him, badly, eternally, right now, and forever.

Even if you feel like You can’t trust Him, ask Him to help you, at that basic level of, “God, I can’t even trust You. I need You to provide that for me.” Ask Him. Pour out your heart to Him.

Our pastor just pointed out that the Bible is soaked in tears. Pour out your heart to Him because He’s not going to shove you away.

That’s what I would say. He’s a God who has come near to you through His Son, and in Christ, you will find a suffering Savior who gets it. So I would say, “Come to Him because He really has what you need, and in your weakness, that’s actually exactly where God wants you to be, dependent on Him.”

Dannah: I can just about hear that anchor chain extending and feel it grabbing the solid rock of hope! Kristen Wetherell and Sarah Walton have been helping us get things in perspective. There’s more information about their book Hope When It Hurts when you click on this program at ReviveOurHearts.com/weekend. 

The final barrier we face before all the storms of life are over is death. Pastor Colin Smith gave a beautiful illustration of what that is like for the believer in Jesus.

Colin Smith: What will it be like when you pass through the valley of death? Let me give you this picture.

The first time Karen and I ever visited the United States, we spent some time with a friend of mine. He was a pastor in California. There were two men in his church who owned small aircraft, and one afternoon they took us for a flight. It was a wonderful afternoon.

So there were four couples in two small planes—Karen and myself, the pastor and his wife, and then the two pilots and their wives. The pilot of the first plane had been flying for thirty years. Our friends, the pastor and his wife, went with them.

When we got into the plane with our pilot and his wife, Karen asked him how long he had been flying, to which he said, “Just a few months.”

Well, we enjoyed the most marvelous afternoon in flying up the Pacific Coast. After we had flown for a bit, we landed at this small peninsula where we enjoyed a meal together. But as we got through the meal, I noticed that the lead pilot began to get agitated. At one point, he got up from the table and left the restaurant. Then just a short time later, he came back running, saying, “We’ve got to go! We’ve got to go! We’ve got to go!”

I thought, Oh my goodness. What’s happening here?

Well, of course, what was happening was that there was a very heavy mist that was rolling in from the sea. Now, can you imagine this? Four couples. We’re running down the cinder track towards this little landing area, the airstrip. The lead pilot gets in first with the pastor and with his wife, and I have never seen a plane take off so fast. My goodness. That was amazing. It disappeared into the mist.

Our pilot was clearly flustered. I’m saying my prayers, I’ll tell you.

Well, we revved up the engine, left the ground, hardly able to see. And then, through the earphones we heard the voice of the lead pilot, “Hold steady. Ten seconds and you’ll be through.”

And we go, “Three, four, five, six, seven, eight . . .” It was scary. But on the count of ten, we burst through the fog into the most brilliant sunlight I have ever seen.

Christ will not leave you in the darkness. He will bring you safely home.

All the way, my Savior leads me,
Oh the fullness of His love.
Perfect rest to me is promised
In my Father’s house above.

When my spirit, clothed immortal
Wings its flight to realms of day,
This my song, through endless ages,
Jesus led me all the way.¹

Dannah: That’s Pastor and author Colin Smith, in a message he gave to the Revive Our Hearts' staff on Psalm 23. I love that image of breaking through the dark clouds into glorious brightness.

We’re talking today about how we can be anchored, and how it results in hope.

Ultimate hope has to come from God. Have you ever connected hope with the holiness and majesty of God? John Piper has. Let’s listen to some of what he shared at a Gospel Coalition conference for women, some years back. Here he is, quoting from Isaiah chapter 6.

John Piper:

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, seated upon a throne high and exalted; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: With two wings [they] covered [their] face, with two [they] covered [their] feet, with two [they] flew. And one cried to the another: "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!" And the foundations of the thresholds shook and the house was filled with smoke (Isa. 6:1–4).

Seven glimpses of God in these four verses.

Glimpse number one: God is alive.

“In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord.” The king is dead; God is not. From everlasting to everlasting, You are God. The Living God. He was alive forever when this universe exploded into existence. He was alive when Socrates drank his poison. He was alive when William Bradford ruled over the Plymouth Colony. He was alive in 1966 when Thomas Altizer said, “God is dead,” and Time Magazine absolutely, absurdly put it on their front page.

He will be alive in ten trillion ages of years when all of those who have lifted their squeaky voices against Him are obliterated like BB’s in the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. He is alive, and He will be alive forever.

All the potentates that are on their little thrones today in fifty years will be no more in those offices. The seven billion people that are alive on planet Earth will experience a complete turnover in 120 years. And God will be alive. He is alive. Think of it: forever, never having come into being, never going out of being. Our God is alive. Glimpse number one.

Glimpse number two: God is authoritative.

“I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne.” There has never been a vision of God in heaven plowing a field, cutting His grass, shining shoes, filling out reports, or loading a truck. And heaven is not coming apart at the seams for inattention. He is sitting in complete composure and on a throne. God is never at wit’s end with His heavenly realm. He sits. And He is in complete authority.

The throne signifies He has the right to rule the world. You don’t give God authority in your life. He has it—totally. You can either pretend He doesn’t and perish, or you can own it with joy. He has in the universe absolute authority.

God has authority, and we revel in it. We don’t play games with this. We don’t question Him. We don’t criticize Him. We don’t call Him into question or shake our fist at Him. We may weep with utter perplexity if He takes our child, breaks our husband, but we won’t rebel against our King.

Few things are more humbling. Few things give us a sense of God’s majesty like the truth that He is utterly authoritative. He is the Supreme Court of the universe, the Legislature, the Chief Executive Officer. Behind Him, no appeal.

Glimpse number three: God is omnipotent.

The throne of His authority is not one among many. It is high. “I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up.” Meaning: over every other throne, and thus superior in power, superior in authority, superior in rule and control, over every other throne. “It is high and lifted up.” It’s not just an authority. It is authority with supremacy of rule, supremacy of power and control.

“My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose.” (Isa. 46:10)

“He does according to his will in the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; none can stay his hand or say to him, ‘What [are You doing?]’” (Dan. 4:35)

This omnipotent God, this absolutely authoritative, sovereign, omnipotent God is a refuge for holy women who hope in God and experience tsunamis of pain. I love them in my church. I have loved to watch them for thirty-two years get this. Few things give a pastor more pleasure than to watch his people be steadfast in suffering because they have a place to stand—unshakeable, a holy, sovereign, authoritative, good, perplexing God.

Many have told me over the years, “Had we not heard this news, we would have gone insane.”

Dannah: John Piper there. I wish we had time for all seven glimpses of God from those opening verses of Isaiah chapter 6. You can hear the whole message when you go to ReviveOurHearts.com/weekend, and select this episode titled, “Anchored.”

Speaking of “anchored,” are you anchored to the hope found in the holiness of God? There’s a lot of craziness going on all around us, but we can stay firmly tethered to God and His Word to keep from drifting.

One way to do that is using the devotional by Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth called Revive My Heart. This is a year’s worth of daily reflections on passages from the Scriptures. If you’ve struggled to get into the habit of reading from the Bible and praying on a daily basis, this devotional by Nancy could be a big help. This month, Revive My Heart is our gift to you in appreciation for your donation to support this program and Revive Our Hearts as an organization. 

To give, go to ReviveOurHearts.com/donate. You’ll be able to select the devotional there. And to hear more from any of what we’ve heard today, go to ReviveOurHearts.com/weekend, and click on this program. It’s called “Anchored.”

One of the storms all of us face is the clash between the values God presents in His Word and popular notions of doing whatever you want to do. How should you and I pray for our country? That’s what we’ll discuss next time on this program—Crying Out to God.

Thanks for listening today. I’m Dannah Gresh. We’ll see you in about a week for Revive Our Hearts Weekend.

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

¹“All the Way My Savior Leads Me,” by Fanny Crosby, The Worship Zone, Acoustic Hymns 8, ℗ 2023 Movation.

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