Latest / The Woman at the Well Ministries Podcast / 599 | My God is My Deliverer: Finding Peace When Life Falls Apart

Transcript

599 | My God is My Deliverer: Finding Peace When Life Falls Apart · The Woman at the Well Ministries Podcast

• 0:06
  Hello, friends, and welcome back to the Woman at the Well Ministries podcast.
• 0:10
  With Kimberly Miller, where we believe that every man, woman,
• 0:14
  boy, and girl must come to Jesus just like the woman at the well in John chapter 4.
• 0:20
  Our highest priority is helping you experience the reality of God in your everyday life.
• 0:26
  Whether you're listening in our app, on your favorite podcast platform,
• 0:30
  are on our website at watwm.org.
• 0:34
  We invite you to sit down with us as we open the scriptures to learn more about
• 0:39
  who God is and to strengthen your daily walk with Jesus Christ.
• 1:03
  Where do you turn to when you need help? Just how much do you really trust God?
• 1:08
  Join us in this program of Woman at the Well Ministries as Kim explores the
• 1:12
  Word of God, discovering His faithfulness.
• 1:16
  Hello, and thank you for joining us in this broadcast of Woman at the Well Ministries,
• 1:21
  and what a pleasure it is to spend the next few moments with you discussing
• 1:25
  God's Word and His promises and His faithfulness to each of us.
• 1:29
  And today we're going to talk about God being your high tower,
• 1:32
  your deliverer, and your shield.
• 1:34
  And it's an important lesson for us to really look at.
• 1:40
  Because ultimately, he is the
• 1:43
  supreme deliverer when we think of ourselves as sinners saved by grace.
• 1:49
  For those of us who are Christians, we have made that commitment to Christ.
• 1:54
  We have received his salvation, which is true and which is free,
• 1:59
  which liberates the soul and which introduces us to life that we can hardly even comprehend.
• 2:06
  But for many of you within the sound of my voice, you are oppressed by the devil
• 2:11
  and you are absolutely positively still serving him.
• 2:15
  And you have no hope because you've not placed your hope in Jesus Christ.
• 2:21
  Recently, I was going through some things in my life, and I was just overwhelmed
• 2:28
  by the absolute fact that I had no control.
• 2:33
  It was so hard for me to just raise my hands up and yield completely to God
• 2:41
  and say, I have no control at all in this matter.
• 2:45
  And prior to this, if someone had spoken to me, and if I was just honest with
• 2:50
  myself, I would have really believed that I knew how to yield to Christ.
• 2:56
  And I would really believe that I knew how to give him everything and just follow in obedience.
• 3:05
  Very aware of the fact that obedience is better than sacrifice.
• 3:10
  Very aware of the fact that he's
• 3:14
  in control but at the same token i
• 3:17
  wanted to hold on to a little bit and i
• 3:21
  imagine that i'm not that far different from the rest of
• 3:23
  you guys you see the circumstance i was in
• 3:26
  was that my mother's health had taken a
• 3:29
  horrible turn for the worse and i stood there
• 3:32
  helpless watching her go through all that
• 3:35
  she was going through and seeing all
• 3:38
  of the things that take place as people's health begin
• 3:41
  to deteriorate and wanting desperately to
• 3:45
  do something to help to do
• 3:48
  something to change the way things were i was so aware that james tells us that
• 3:55
  the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much and i was so aware
• 4:00
  that i could cast my burdens upon Jesus Christ because he cared for me.
• 4:06
  But on every turn and in every way, I still held on to something.
• 4:11
  Some form of if I get the right doctor, or if I stay here long enough,
• 4:17
  or if I do this, or if I do that, somehow, some way, I am affecting what's going on.
• 4:25
  The truth of the matter is is one night wee hours of the morning.
• 4:32
  Thing changed for me something became very obvious to me and that was i was glad i wasn't in control,
• 4:43
  i'm glad his ways are higher than my way i'm
• 4:46
  extremely glad that the weight of
• 4:49
  the world isn't really on my shoulders and that
• 4:52
  my job is to follow he said come follow me he
• 4:55
  never said come advise me he never
• 4:58
  said come guide me he said
• 5:01
  come follow me and he said i
• 5:05
  know the plans that you have for me to prosper
• 5:08
  you to give you a hope and a future he never said let's discuss the plan he
• 5:18
  never said what do you think is best no he said all good and perfect gifts comes
• 5:24
  down from the father of life where there is no variableness returning.
• 5:27
  And he said that all things were together for the good to them that love the
• 5:30
  Lord and that are called according to his purpose.
• 5:33
  And in that instant in time, as my soul was communing with God and my circumstances
• 5:41
  were not changing, if anything, they were getting worse.
• 5:45
  I suddenly felt the peace of God like never
• 5:49
  before because i fully understood what
• 5:52
  it meant when you sang i surrender all
• 5:55
  all to thee my blessed savior
• 5:59
  i surrender all
• 6:02
  so many times i have sit in church and i've heard them call out the song and
• 6:09
  i've turned to it in the church hymn though and now i've sung it so many times
• 6:12
  that maybe i'll turn into it and maybe i won't but i have stood in the congregation
• 6:17
  at the top of my little voice singing,
• 6:20
  I surrender all.
• 6:23
  All to thee, my blessed Savior, I surrender all.
• 6:30
  And I had to think about that that night. Because my mind's eye went back and
• 6:35
  it's just a thing with me, I guess.
• 6:38
  Oftentimes when I sing a congregational song, I always place one hand on the pew in front of me.
• 6:45
  And that hand is generally gripped to that pew in front of me,
• 6:49
  almost as if I'm balancing myself.
• 6:51
  And I don't know why that is, and I really never paid attention to it to that night.
• 6:57
  And in that night, I opened up my Bible and it came to psalms 144 and he says
• 7:03
  blessed be the lord my strength then beginning in verse 2 he says my goodness
• 7:08
  and my fortress my high tower and my deliverer my shield and he in whom i trust,
• 7:15
  verse 3 says lord what is man that thou takest knowledge of him or the son of
• 7:20
  man that thou makest account of him and as i stood there in the hospital room
• 7:26
  no one else there but me and God and my mom.
• 7:30
  And I began to hear that song, I surrender all.
• 7:36
  All to thee, my blessed Savior, I surrender all.
• 7:42
  And I saw that picture of my hand tightly gripped to the pew in front of me.
• 7:49
  And I realized that there's nothing surrendering about that stance.
• 7:56
  And in church, it really isn't a big deal. But standing in that hospital room,
• 8:03
  my hand was tightly gripped around the bed rail.
• 8:07
  And as I stood there tightly gripping the bed rail, I realized that it mattered there.
• 8:14
  Because I needed to have my hands in praise. Lifted up to the God of the universe, this is I.
• 8:22
  Surrender all. all to thee
• 8:25
  my blessed savior i surrender
• 8:29
  all my blessed savior for
• 8:33
  those of you who know him as personal savior have you
• 8:37
  looked at who he is do you
• 8:40
  know what it means to call
• 8:43
  him savior he says that he's your
• 8:46
  fortress he builds a hedge
• 8:49
  around his people and explains to
• 8:52
  the devil you can't cross that line and he
• 8:55
  covers that hedge in blood if
• 8:59
  you remember the old testament he said when i see
• 9:02
  the blood the death angel passes over when
• 9:06
  the devil sees the blood of jesus christ
• 9:09
  upon you he realizes he can't
• 9:13
  cross that threshold he can never have
• 9:16
  your soul because it belongs to the
• 9:19
  god of the universe and there's that hedge around
• 9:23
  and god is protecting you he's
• 9:27
  the high tower who can see over and beyond all
• 9:31
  that is taking place in your world see
• 9:35
  i don't know what tomorrow holds but
• 9:39
  i don't have to because i know who holds tomorrow and he's my high tower looking
• 9:46
  across and then he says he's your deliverer and as I stood in that hospital.
• 9:52
  Room white knuckled two fists hanging on to the side of that bed,
• 9:59
  looking at my mother in very declined health, and wondering where my deliverer was.
• 10:06
  There was just such a picture of how many times I had sung all twice.
• 10:18
  For I surrender all.
• 10:25
  But I knew better. I knew that I hadn't surrendered control.
• 10:31
  I could follow him in obedience.
• 10:35
  I could come to him in prayer. I could believe in him and all he could do.
• 10:42
  I could come and call him my helper, as he says in Psalms. I could cast my care
• 10:49
  upon him But I couldn't yield All time.
• 11:06
  Oh, I couldn't do it because there was a piece of me still holding back,
• 11:13
  a piece of me that just believed I had to be doing and I had to be there.
• 11:21
  I had to do something and that everything fixated and hinged upon what I could do.
• 11:29
  And with each fleeting moment, I saw my control just go away.
• 11:33
  And it was then, and only then, that I realized what a great God I serve,
• 11:42
  and that he is in control, and that he had hedged me.
• 11:48
  Because in that moment of deep despair, in that moment of absolute trauma, I wasn't alone.
• 11:56
  And he had made sure that all of
• 11:59
  my life that that wonderful mother that
• 12:02
  i was looking at had crammed scripture after scripture after scripture inside
• 12:07
  of me and he made very sure that i knew that he said he'd never leave me nor
• 12:16
  forsake me and as i began to pray my prayer changed.
• 12:22
  I began to pray for me, that I would be the girl that I was raised to be.
• 12:29
  I began to pray for me, that I would see him for who he is.
• 12:36
  There was a peace that hovered across that room there was a stillness that in
• 12:45
  my mind's eye i believe must have been much like it was in the upper room when
• 12:53
  the holy spirit came in like a rushing mighty wind.
• 12:58
  I knew who he was. I knew he was my deliverer because I knew she was a winner either way.
• 13:07
  She was a winner if she stayed and she was a winner if she went.
• 13:11
  And my job was to glorify him in all things.
• 13:14
  My job was to realize that all things were together for the good to them that love the Lord.
• 13:19
  My job wasn't to ask him to hasten and take her or to heal her at that moment.
• 13:26
  My job was to pray and say, Lord, keep me in thy will that I don't get in thy way.
• 13:33
  Lord, let her live out however many days she has left, praising you and showing you who she is.
• 13:43
  God, give her the grace to die with glory for you.
• 13:49
  As I stood there, I knew what it was like.
• 13:55
  Know who he was. I've had a personal relationship with Jesus Christ since I was a little girl.
• 14:01
  And he's walked with me and he's talked with me and he showed me things beyond
• 14:06
  my mind's comprehension.
• 14:08
  And I've had the glory of the privilege to speak about him to many people.
• 14:17
  And I found in that moment what it must have been like when they rolled the stone away.
• 14:26
  You see, when the stone was rolled away, he came out in all of his glory.
• 14:33
  He resurrected from the dead, and he changed life forever for all of us.
• 14:39
  And there was no doubt who he was, though no one was there to see it.
• 14:44
  And in those early morning hours he rolled
• 14:48
  the stone away and i saw him not with my mind's eye because no man has seen
• 14:54
  god and lived but i saw him i knew he was my deliverer i knew he was my high
• 15:02
  tower and i knew he was my god.
• 15:08
  Don't know what circumstance you're in. But the circumstance doesn't matter.
• 15:15
  As we record this message, I'm still in the same circumstance.
• 15:20
  But my God is still the same God. And he's in control. And I understand that.
• 15:29
  And to God be the glory for the great things he has done.
• 15:35
  But some of you, within the sound of my voice, have no idea what I'm talking about.
• 15:43
  And that peace that passes understanding has just passed over your head because
• 15:49
  you don't know him as the deliverer of your soul.
• 15:52
  You don't know him as the Savior.
• 15:55
  You can't sing, blessed Savior, because you've held on to the world and you've
• 16:04
  placed your trust in the God of this world,
• 16:08
  and not in the one true living God who rolls the stone away.
• 16:15
  In Luke chapter 22 and verse 31, he says, And the Lord said,
• 16:19
  Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you that he may sift you as wheat.
• 16:25
  This God of the world that you're serving, this little G-O-D,
• 16:30
  he is sifting you as wheat.
• 16:33
  The only thing he cares about you is that he eternally damns your soul to hell.
• 16:38
  He has no other use for you other than to use you to hurt and destroy and to steal and to kill.
• 16:46
  The Bible says that the thief cometh as a thief in the night to steal and to kill and destroy.
• 16:53
  But Jesus said, I have come.
• 16:56
  Might have life, and that you might have it more abundantly.
• 17:00
  That was his purpose, and that remains his purpose, to deliver you from the
• 17:07
  gates of hell, to deliver you from living a life in absolute oppression.
• 17:12
  He wants to be for you exactly what he is for me.
• 17:16
  He's no respecter of persons. He doesn't love me more than he loves you.
• 17:19
  He wants you to turn around and say, I surrender all. all to thee my blessed
• 17:24
  savior i surrender all first peter 580 says be sober be vigilant because your
• 17:31
  adversary the devil walketh about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour,
• 17:36
  but first john 4 4 says you are of god little children and have overcome them
• 17:40
  because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world the victory
• 17:44
  has already been won victory in jesus.
• 17:48
  He is moaning and is groaning on an old rugged cross
• 17:51
  and is shedding of blood for you and for me when we
• 17:54
  would not even have acknowledged
• 17:57
  him had we even been there and i know
• 18:00
  this because now that we are here many of us do not acknowledge
• 18:03
  who he is but yet he died on that cross for you and while
• 18:06
  he was on the cross you were on
• 18:09
  his mind friends that's a god that
• 18:12
  loves you and cares about you and he
• 18:15
  has provided a way for you he provided
• 18:18
  jesus christ his son in isaiah
• 18:21
  25 80 says he will swallow up death and victory and the lord god will wipe away
• 18:26
  all tears from off all faces there's coming a reckoning day and for those of
• 18:32
  us who've lived a life that maybe we've shed some tears they've been bottled
• 18:35
  in heaven and he'll wipe them away those days are gone forever,
• 18:40
  But for those of you who don't know him as personal Savior,
• 18:45
  my friend, there's a reckoning day coming because every knee shall bow and every
• 18:49
  tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
• 18:52
  And right now you have the opportunity with me as we speak about this very moment.
• 18:59
  Come to know Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, to make heaven your eternal
• 19:03
  home, to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ,
• 19:07
  to be able to just fold yourself in the arms of an almighty God who has given
• 19:12
  himself for you and who is looking upon you,
• 19:17
  who visits with you, who simply says he makes account of you.
• 19:24
  You matter to the God of the universe.
• 19:27
  And this is your opportunity because
• 19:31
  salvation is free to all because whosoever should call upon the name of the
• 19:35
  lord shall be saved for god so loved the world that he gave his only begotten
• 19:42
  son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life oh my friends.
• 19:51
  The lord is calling thee and he's
• 19:54
  made it very simple in romans 3
• 19:58
  23 he has said that all have sinned and
• 20:00
  come short of the glory of god in john 14
• 20:03
  6 he says i am the way the truth and
• 20:07
  the life and no man cometh unto the father but by me and in romans 10 9 and
• 20:13
  10 he lays it out he says that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord
• 20:20
  Jesus and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
• 20:27
  For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
• 20:35
  He says, my goodness and my fortress, my high tower and my deliverer,
• 20:40
  my shield and in he whom I trust.
• 20:44
  What I'm asking you. Have you placed your trust in Jesus Christ?
• 20:51
  I ask you to pray this prayer with me. If God has touched your heart and you
• 20:57
  realize that you're a sinner in need of a Savior,
• 21:01
  if you realize that you need to place your trust in a God and you need to come
• 21:05
  to him and say, I surrender all, all to thee,
• 21:11
  my blessed Savior, I surrender all.
• 21:22
  This very moment, with your arms lifted up as Peter did in the troubled waters, say, Lord, save me.
• 21:30
  I am a sinner in need of a Savior, and you are a sinless, perfect Lamb of God.
• 21:36
  Who shed your love and your blood, that I might have all of my sins cleansed
• 21:44
  and that I could have a personal relationship with you.
• 21:48
  Dear Heavenly Father, come into my heart.
• 21:52
  Forgive me, a sinner in need of a Savior. Lord, I can do nothing on my own.
• 21:57
  I don't even understand all that I'm supposed to do.
• 22:00
  But I know that I need you and that without you, I am nothing.
• 22:05
  Lord, save me. Come into my heart.
• 22:09
  Let me live eternally with you. Lord, walk with me and talk with me.
• 22:15
  Teach me and guide me. Lord, I thank you for loving me and sending your son Jesus to die for me.
• 22:22
  That I claim him as my savior and I put all my trust in thee.
• 22:26
  To all these things I ask in thy most precious and holy name we pray.
• 22:30
  To all of God's people said, amen.
• 22:33
  If you made that prayer, you find a good Bible-believing church.
• 22:38
  You email us or write us to get yourself rooted and grounded in the Word of
• 22:43
  God, because it's a journey from earth to heaven that He's walking with you.
• 22:50
  But remember, He is God, and He loves you.
• 22:55
  Thank you for joining us for today's podcast. You can find quotes and scripture
• 23:00
  references from this episode in the show notes.
• 23:03
  We pray today's message has been a blessing. If it has, please consider leaving
• 23:08
  a rating or review on your podcast platform.
• 23:11
  Your feedback helps others discover the truth of God's Word.
• 23:16
  You can connect with Women at the Well Ministries through our app at watwm.org
• 23:21
  and on Facebook and Instagram.
• 23:24
  While you're there, learn more about Bible Bits, Kim's daily devotional delivered
• 23:28
  Monday through Friday by text message, and the Bible Bit Podcast.
• 23:32
  Thank you for your prayers and support. Remember, Jesus loves you, you are loved.