Telling the Truth for Women

Jill Briscoe: Did you open your Bible at Jeremiah chapter one? I want to read just a few verses. Jeremiah is speaking, verse four. "The word of the Lord came to me, saying, 'Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.' 'Ah, Sovereign Lord,' I said," Jeremiah speaking, " 'I don't know how to speak; I am only a child.' But the Lord said to me, 'Do not say, "I am only a child." You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you,' says the Lord. Then the Lord reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, 'Now, I have put my words in your mouth. My words in your mouth.' "

Well, they are great words, and that is one of the special verses that God has used in my life many, many times. But I want to talk about some other words that Jeremiah uses in the book of Lamentations, chapter three. In the book of Lamentations, Jeremiah is sitting on a hillside overlooking Jerusalem, and he is watching some horrendous things happen, apart from which the end of all his hopes and dreams. He had fought for 40 years to get the nation of Israel to listen to him and to repent, to turn their backs on what they were doing, to come back to God, and maybe God would get Nebuchadnezzar and the forces that were surrounding Jerusalem off their backs. But nothing he had said had worked. Nothing at all.

And so now he is watching Nebuchadnezzar sack the city of Jerusalem, and somewhere along the line, he pens his thoughts and his feelings. And we are going to look into that chapter three before we are through. You know, I just read you some verses that talk about God knowing us before we were born, before we were made in our mother's womb, before we were us to choose, before we were us to know. And God, knowing everything, God is here like I am, if you wish. The line of time is like the front of this pulpit. So God sees us before we were born, he sees us when we are born, he sees us if we accept him or not or reject him. He sees us what happens afterwards, and he sees us when we are dead. He sees it all.

And so before we are born, he chooses what would be the very best thing for us. But of course, we have to choose to be chosen, and we have to choose to find out what it is that he feels would be the very best for us. And the whole art of life is finding out what God has in mind for us, the reality of our being and then the reality of our doing. We have thousands of grandchildren, and I remember looking after Drew, and he was just into the discovery stage of his beingness. So he was running around the house saying, "I be hungry," or "I be bad," or "I be good," or when I was bathing him, "I be naked." He was discovering what he be, his being. And it was a wonderful stage. I don't know if you have got any grandchildren around too.

"I be," his beingness. What does God want me to do? I realize what he wants me to be. He wants me to be in connection with him. He wants me to be in a relationship with him. That is the first thing I have got to do. But then what does he want me to do? How do I find out what I am supposed to be doing with my life? Well, God leaned out of heaven and he told Jeremiah what he wanted him to be. He wanted him to be very close to him. He wanted him in a relationship with him. And then he said, "And I appoint you as a prophet to the nations. But above all, I want you to talk to people. I want you to go all through your life telling them about me."

And God wants all of us to do that. Now, you say, "Well, it's not my gift. I'm not an evangelist, Jill." Well, you're a witness. Very few people have the gift of an evangelist, but all of them are supposed to be witnesses. There is a gift of giving, but all of us are expected to give. There is a gift of helping or helps, but all of us are expected to be helpful. And there is a gift of preaching, but that word really means telling forth plainly the truth, and all of us are supposed to do that. And God says, "Now I'm going to put my words in your mouth and I want you to go to everybody I send you to and tell them everything I tell you to. And do not omit a word." And that word "omit" means don't clip off any of the message. It is used in clipping off a beard. That's the only time it's used somewhere else in the Bible. And God doesn't want us to shave off any of the message. He wants us to go around our world just telling people about Jesus and telling them the way to heaven.

So the first thing that we have to do is make sure we are on the right track. Is the road you are on getting you to God's place, to his place? I remember thinking I was on the right track years ago when I was trying to get to a meeting in Blackpool. I was up in the Lake District in England and I had to take a meeting in a little church about an hour away. So I got a map given to me, and this map said, "This is where you go," and there were instructions on the map, and I followed them to the letter. And it said you go right the way down towards the ocean. You go as far as you can until you see the water just in front of you and you will find a road on your right. And so what you need to do is go as far as you can, turn right, and that's the road to the church.

Well, I followed the map. I followed the instructions. I was absolutely sincere. And I went and went and went, and the water was there. And I thought, "I'm going to be in it in a minute." And I couldn't see a road. And then suddenly I saw this funny little road and I thought, "Well, this must be it." It had bushes on each side. It had a hedge on each side. And I got through where there was a hole and turned right on the road. And I thought, "Well, I'm following the map. I think I'm on the right road." And it was a really weird road and there were ruts in it. And suddenly I looked in my mirror and there were big headlights behind me in a weird place. And I heard a rattling sound.

And I realized I was on the tram track. Well, I realized it immediately because in front of me there were some more lights coming in this direction. Well, I realized that I was in trouble and even though I was very sincere, I was on the wrong road. And so I put my foot down and I went as fast as I could and to get away from the tram that was bearing down on me. And I thought, "I'll just have to go to the depot because I couldn't get off because of the hedge." So I just barreled along this road. And suddenly across the hedge I saw these little lights. And sure enough, he began following me along the hedge, this side, and I was going along this side. And I thought to myself, "Well, he's got to stop at all the traffic lights and I don't have traffic lights on my road."

And so I thought, "I wonder how fast this car will go." Well, I found out. And I have no idea how fast I was going, but I left the police car right behind me and I eventually got to the depot. And everyone was really surprised because they were waiting to get on the tram and my car drew up instead. Anyway, fortunately, there was a little way off and I turned around and there was the policeman. And he came across and he said, "Never. Never in my life have I seen anyone go at this speed," and I won't tell you what it was, "on the tram track. And I'm going to have to fine you." And I said, "Sir, where does it say in your little book that you can't go that fast on a tram track?" And he, of course, couldn't find the place. And in the end he said, "Where are you going?" And I told him and he said, "Follow me." And I followed him and he took me. He said, "Don't go anywhere. Just follow me." And he got me to the church.

I was sincere, but I was sincerely wrong. And what I needed was the law. I needed the law. I needed that policeman to say, "Follow me. I'll take you where you are trying to go." And you know, that's what it takes. It takes the law of God to show us the right way and to take us to our destination. So faith enough to start is where you all start. Are you on the right road? And then you need faith to continue. Because it's one thing coming to Christ, it's one thing starting the Christian life, but it's how you finish it that matters, not how you start it. And I talked to a girl this week who said, "I came to Christ at that big women's event that you had. I came to Christ there, but somehow it worked for about three months and then my faith ran out and it was all the same again. And I don't know what to do about it." Faith enough to start is not faith enough to finish or faith enough to continue. It's a moment-by-moment thing. It's a day-by-day thing. And what we have to do is figure out how we morning by morning, moment by moment live the Christian life. It's a moment-by-moment walk with a moment-by-moment God.

Are you a morning person? I'm not a morning person naturally, but I'm a morning-by-morning person because I'm a Christian. And what I've discovered is that the same faith that got me into Christ or got me onto the right road, that same faith takes me on to continue and will be the faith that I need to finish. Now, if you look in Jeremiah, in Lamentations chapter three, Jeremiah's faith is in trouble. Have you ever had faith distress? He was in real trouble. And I want to just look for a minute at some symptoms of faith distress. For the first 16 verses, you find the first problem is he's got God and life mixed up. If you just run your eye down those verses, he's saying, "He, God, has driven me away and made me walk in darkness. He has made my skin and flesh grow old. He has made me dwell in dark like one long dead. He's walled me in. He's barred my way with blocks of stone. Like a bear waiting in ambush, like a lion in hiding, he dragged me from the path and mangled me and left me without help. He drew his bow, he made me a target for his target practice," in other words.

Now, have you ever got God and life mixed up? Jeremiah did. What are the symptoms? Seeing God distorted, yes. Remember when Jesus came walking on the water and the disciples said, they didn't say, "Oh, it's Jesus," they said, "Oh, it's a ghost." Just distorted, out of focus. Didn't look like Jesus, didn't look like the same Jesus they knew, the familiar, dear Jesus. And they thought he was a ghost and they cried out in fear. And he had to say, "No, it's me. It's me. Don't be afraid. It's me." And when we get into trouble, when we're seeing the destruction of all our dreams, like Jeremiah was watching that day on the hillside overlooking Jerusalem, it's easy to get distorted. It's easy to think, "Well, God isn't like I thought he was. God is not kind. God is cruel." But you're getting God and life mixed up. It's life that's cruel, not God.

Sometimes we think God is using me for target practice. He's drawn his bow, he made me a target for his arrows. Life is a bear, you say. He's mangled me. That's what Jeremiah said. "He's dragged me. He's mauled me. He's mangled me." Do you ever feel God is just mangling me? There's a verse further down the chapter that says, "He has walked all over me. He's broken my teeth with gravel. He's trampled me in the dust." I think I understand what that feels like because just five hours ago I was in Chicago with my grandchildren, and I was rushing to take them in to a restaurant, and there was a great big curb and I tripped on the curb and went flat on my face. And you can't see, hopefully because I've covered it all up with powder and stuff, but my face was in the gravel. Fortunately, my teeth were not broken. What would I have felt like if somebody had walked on my back at that point and pushed my face in the gravel? Well, it was bad enough with kind people helping me up and offering me ice and all of that stuff. I can't imagine what it would be like for somebody to deliberately push me down and walk on my back. And Jeremiah says, "That's what I feel you're doing to me, God."

Have you ever dared to be honest enough to say, "Life is so tough at the moment. He's done this, he's done that." Well, you're in faith distress. Your faith is panting. It's out of breath and you need help. Now, let's look at another symptom: your prayer life. Your prayer life. Have you ever listened to yourself pray when you're in faith distress? Ever heard yourself praying like an unbeliever? Panicky, bargaining, angry? That's faith distress. I mean, read those verses. Can you imagine this is one of God's best saints praying like this, accusing God of all this stuff? His prayer life is a mess. It's not working. That's a symptom of getting God and life mixed up.

And then, of course, "He's barred my way of blocks of stone." What does that mean? Well, I thought I knew I was doing what he wanted me to do and I was going down this path and I was making the decisions I thought he wanted me to make and then suddenly it was as if God had gone before me down the path of life and turned all the signposts around and he's up there having fun with me. Do you ever feel God's making fun of you? Jeremiah did. I felt like that sometimes. In a lesser way, I remember trying to come here to Elmbrook because you kind folks asked us to come. And Stuart wrote to me from somewhere he was off in the world and said, "Just sell up everything, Jill. They want us to just come with our clothes and suitcases and they'll give us a beautiful home this side of the Atlantic. So get rid of everything and get ready." So I did.

And then it took 18 months after that, sitting in an empty home because I'd done what he told me to do, trying to get the immigration people to be as excited as you were about us coming. They let the dog in immediately, but they didn't let us in. And I was on my own waiting, waiting, waiting. Stuart was traveling and all of this. And I began to think I doubted God. I felt, "Lord, you told us to immigrate. You told us to leave everything behind, go to America. And we've done everything you told us to do and here we are sitting in this house with our suitcases and now you're teasing us." But I got God and life mixed up. I got God and the immigration service mixed up. It was the immigration service that wouldn't let us in, not God.

And we do this all the time. Was talking to somebody whose wife had walked out on them. "It wasn't God that walked out on you," I told them. "It was your wife." Don't get God and life mixed up. And how is your prayer life? How is it doing? How are you doing in all of this? Well, what happens in this chapter, there's a turning point. Verse 19. Let me read it to you. "I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall. I well remember them and my soul is downcast within me." What's he doing? He's going down the things that God has allowed to happen in his life. He's playing the tape. He goes to bed with it. He gets up in the morning with it. And the reel is just going round and round and round, and when the tape finishes, he puts it in again, he presses the button. And if you do that, then your soul will be downcast within you.

And here is the turning point. It's to do with the mind. Do you notice that? "I remember," he's remembering, he's rehearsing all these awful things. "I well remember them. My soul is downcast within me." Now, look at the turn. "Yet, this I call to mind," and that verse is very strong. "I put in another tape. You mind your mind and God will mind your heart." There is his work and your work. Your work is to mind your mind. His work is to mind your soul. "So this I call to mind," it's a bit like Philippians where Paul says, "Think on the good things, don't think on the bad things." "This I call to mind and therefore I have hope. Because of the Lord's great love, we're not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They're new every morning. Great is his faithfulness. So I say to myself, 'The Lord's my portion, therefore I will wait for him. The Lord's good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him. It's good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. It's good for a man to bear the yoke while he is young. Let him sit alone in silence, for the Lord has laid it on him. Let him bury his face in the dust; there may yet be hope. Let him offer his cheek to one who would strike him, let him be filled with disgrace. For men are not cast off by the Lord forever. Though he brings grief, he will show compassion, for great is his unfailing love.' "

What a difference to the first 16 verses. And what's made the difference? Mind work. You've got to do some mind work and then God will do the heart work. The mind is absolutely crucial. Absolutely crucial. So how do we do this minding of our minds? Well, the first task is to get life and God unmixed. And then the second thing is to start and put our minds somewhere else other than the trouble. If you turn to the end of the chapter, verse 55, he gives a testimony. At one point in Jeremiah's life, they'd thrown him into a pit. It was a cistern, a water cistern, but it wasn't used anymore, and there was water and mud at the bottom. And they threw him in there and they intended to drown him in mud just for fun. But they didn't measure him right and he sank up to his neck and no further. Can you imagine the horror of being let down into a cistern like that and finding your feet meet mud and then sink, sink, sink, and not know if they're going to find rock?

Well, they found rock. But just to make sure he was dead or dying, they took stones and dropped them on his head. Somehow they either missed him or didn't kill him. Now, here's his testimony. Verse 55. "I called on your name, O Lord, from the depths of the pit. You heard my plea: 'Do not close your ear to my cry for relief.' You came near when I called to you and you said, 'Do not fear.' Lord, you took up my case and you redeemed my life." Look up to 52. "Those who were my enemies without cause hunted me like a bird. They tried to end my life in a pit and threw stones at me. The waters closed over my head and I thought I was about to be cut off." Here's a marvelous example of him using his mind. He's in this incredible nightmare that's a reality. He's down in this pit. He's pretty sure he'll never get out again and they're going to try and finish him off and the stones begin to come down. Now, he could have focused on what happened to him in the pit as he writes about it afterwards, but he didn't. He started to focus on what God did for him. "You came near."

And he climbs up of his pit of horror and fear and depression on the steps of what God did for him. First of all, God came to him in his pit and then, of course, he delivered him out of the pit. Think of the three men in the fiery furnace. They would not submit to Nebuchadnezzar, so they got thrown into this fiery furnace. Do you remember the story in Daniel? And suddenly the king who is watching them, expecting them to be burned up to a cinder, jumps up and says, "Didn't we throw three men in there?" and somebody says, "Yes." He said, "Well, who's the fourth man? There's four men. Didn't we throw three? Yes. Who's the fourth man?" And we know who it was, don't we? The king said he's like the son of God or a son of God. Well, that's who it was. And in the furnace, the ropes came off. That's what often happens, actually, in a furnace or in a pit. You come out a totally different person with things that bound you before not binding you anymore. And it's all because of the fourth man. "You came near," said Jeremiah. Well, those three men had already discovered that in the fiery furnace.

And here's Jeremiah in a pit discovering it. And there's one thing God says, "Doesn't matter how deep the pit or how hot the fire, you can go to the heavens or you can go down to hell, I will come near. In the storm on the sea, I am here. It's me." And somehow the three men in the fiery furnace didn't care whether they ever got out again. And I believe Jeremiah in his pit said, "Well, as long as you're here, that's all right. I don't care either. You came near."

Years ago, I watched a very wonderful friend of mine die. She died of cancer. And one day she said to me, "Jill, I've always been able to feel God near, but I can't feel him anymore. That's what chemotherapy does to you at the end." And she said, "I've lived my life on my feelings. I've lived my faith and my feelings and I can't feel him anymore." I was sitting in her car. I'd gone to the hospital with her and we were watching boats on Lake Michigan and both of us sitting there crying. And she was hauling around an oxygen tank, all that good stuff. And I'd just finished a chapter of Job that day, and God in his grace had given me a phrase for her at the end of that chapter. And I said, "Carmen, when you can't feel him with your feelings, feel him with your faith. That feels different. When you can't feel him with your feelings, feel him with your faith. That feels different."

Feel him in your knowings, know him in your knowings. What did Job say? "I know that my redeemer lives." Did he say, "I feel that my redeemer lives"? No. "I know that my redeemer lives." And it's in your knowings. It's what he knew about God. God is good. God is merciful. God is here. And there looking over Michigan, I said, "Carmen, we're going to do a little game. I'm going to say something about God and then you're going to say something and then I'm going to say something and you're going to say something." And I started. "God is good, even when life is bad. So don't let's get God and life mixed up." And there was a long, long silence as my dear friend sat there. And then a small voice said, "God is here. God isn't he." And I said, "Yes. And God is merciful." And she said, "And God is kind." And God is big enough. And God is great enough. And God is God enough. And I watched her climb out of her pit that day, the spiritual pit she was in, until her soul was tap dancing. And we were crying, yes, but tears of joy. "You came near."

And that begins with mind work and then God begins the heart work. And all the inner confusion goes away. Jeremiah had said at the beginning of the chapter, "I've been deprived of peace," and the word is "robbed." "God, you're robbing me." Now, it's the devil that wants to rob us of God and God of us. That's his whole thing. He wants to rob you of God and God of you. But Jeremiah, before he'd started to do his mind work, said, "I've been deprived of peace." Peace is the tranquility of order, Augustine said. He was falling apart inside, and you can have your world falling apart outside, but if you are together inside, you're going to make it. You're going to make it. Morning by morning and moment by moment and day by day, yes, you're going to make it. And so it doesn't matter what's happening outside. It's what's happening inside that matters.

I talked to a grandparent earlier this year. They were leaders in the church down there and they had us out to their lovely house overlooking Lake Tahoe. They have a neighborhood group and they are lay ministers there. They have big business, but they're wonderful people. And I asked her to tell me about her children and she had two pictures of her grandchildren up on the wall and I said, "Oh, what beautiful children." She said, "That's a last year picture." And I said, "Oh, how often do you see them?" And she said, "Just once a year, unfortunately." And I said, "Oh, where do they live?" She said, "Here." And I said, "Here?" She said, "Just three blocks away." And I said, "You see them once a year?" She said, "Yes, for two hours. That's all they'll allow us to see them." That's a pit. That's a pit. And then she went on to tell me how he came near in her pit. And all she'd ever hoped for and all her dreams were lying shattered around her. But God came near. God came near. There was no more confusion in her heart and mind. And he began to renew her life at the low point. Renew her life at the low point.

Now, let's look how he does this. I want to give you some really practical things at the end of this talk. How do we do this mind work? First of all, count your blessings. "The Lord is good to the one whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him," verse 25. Listen to this definition of thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is the exercise of our memories in the presence of the source of all blessing. Okay? Thanksgiving is the exercise of our mind or our memories in the presence of the source of all blessings. Jeremiah found something to be thankful about. My friend Carmen found something to be thankful about. My grandmother friend rehearsed things to be thankful about even in that painful situation. And that's what you have to start and do.

We were incredibly privileged to know Corrie ten Boom. She came to our house. She stayed in our home. It was like having Jesus at the breakfast table. That's what the kids said. They were in their early teenagers at the time. And we were all eating our cornflakes and Corrie would be talking to the children and talking to us and then she'd say, "Don't you think so, Lord? Well, I really think, Lord, I so and so," and we'd all look at her. And she would go back from talking to the Lord to talking to us as if he was sitting at the table because, you see, he was. And Corrie knew he came near and he was there. And she was so super aware of his immanence and immediate presence that it was as natural for her to go in and out of her conversation to us and to the children and to the Lord and not sound weird. It was so natural.

And I remember that day that the children asked her something, I can't remember what it was, and she said, "Children, you must learn to be thankful." And then she told them the story about her and Betsie in the concentration camp and how there had been a terrible infestation of fleas. And the women were just sharing all these bunks in that horrible, horrible place, and they were so bad, the fleas were so bad that the women were incredibly bitten and infected with all sorts of things because of these fleas. And in the end, Corrie said, "Betsie, I can't- I can't stand this one more night. I can't try and even go to sleep tonight knowing what I'll wake up- just being eaten alive all night with these fleas. I can't stand it." And Betsie said to her, "We have to learn to be thankful for the fleas, Corrie." And she said, "I'll never be thankful for the fleas. That's something I can never think of anything to be thankful for."

Well, after a bit, and the fleas never got any better, the guards who used to come in and rape the women at night just for fun and torture them and do all sorts of horrible things in all the other places, they noticed that they didn't come near. And after a month or two of the absence at night of these horrible, horrible tormentors, the big tormentors, not the little fleas, Betsie said, "Corrie, it's because of the fleas. They're not going to come in here where we're walking alive with these things. They're not going to come- they're not going to bother any of the women here." And she and Corrie got down in Ravensbrück and they said, "Thank you for the fleas. Thank you for the fleas." Now, that's an absolutely extreme case. I realize that. But find something to be thankful for. Count your blessings.

And then tell yourself the truth. "Let us examine our ways," says Jeremiah, "and test them, and let us return to the Lord. Let us lift up our hearts and our hands to God in heaven and say, 'We have sinned.' " Jeremiah owns his part. Call things by their real names. Do what he did. Put yourself into silence. Use silence. Do we know what to do with silence now? We don't like to be quiet. You can't even go to a lady's room without piped music in there in America. There's no silence allowed anywhere. We have to cultivate silence. He says, "Put yourself into silence. Sit alone in silence." Did you see that? And wait. What am I waiting for? That's the waiting room, and he's waiting for you to wait in silence. So intentionally put yourself into silence and then tell yourself the truth and then tell him. And call things by their real names. He did. He said, "I've sinned as long as Israel. It's not just them. It's me too."

And don't say things like, "Well, Lord, I've been righteously angry with my children today." Name it, call it. "I lost it, God." And so sit there until you can be honest and naked before him. He knows. And then just name it and then hold your heart in his presence until it's broken and contrite. Try that and stay there until you know it is. And if you're hard and if you're angry and if you're bitter, stay long enough until his renewing work is done. It's a habit I've learned years and years ago to say, "I am not getting off my knees until you have done the work you need to do in my heart. If I have to interrupt it with some things that need to be done for other people, I will be back here at 10:00 tonight, God. And I will not stop this exercise until you break my heart. Break my heart and make it contrite, Lord."

Until you're aware of that and then you'll be ready to say, "And then put the yoke on me." Did you see those verses? "The Lord has laid it on him." That's contemporary enough. If you sit alone in silence long enough, God will show you what to do in whatever pit you're in, whatever problem you've got. Let him renew you and then you're ready because you're together inside. And it's all right inside even though it's all wrong outside. Then you will be ready to go out into that situation and be the person God intended you to be and do the things God intended you to do and say the things God intended you to say. And you'll go to everyone he sends you to and you'll tell everything he tells you to.

It's a novel thought, actually, to realize in the presence of God in prayer that you've actually stopped thinking about yourself. And I'm so utterly aware when I put myself into silence into God's presence how "I" am everywhere. It's not very pretty. I'm everywhere in that silence. And I have to stay there long enough for God's work to be done and to refocus me so that I am nowhere and God is everywhere. And then I'll be ready.

And what you'll find is you'll have a willingness to stop complaining. He says he put his face in the dust and that really means he stopped whining. You know, that's what I hear usually the first thing when I've quit listening to myself whining. I hear him telling me to quit whining. My daughter-in-law, with seven children, David and Rhea have seven children, she has a little plaque over her kitchen where everybody can see it, and it simply says, "Stop whining." I meant to bring it here, but I haven't been home to bring it. "Stop whining." And somebody sent me a bumper sticker the other day. It says, "Stop sniveling." We're such complainers. I think in the West and in America, Christians are such complainers.

I remember standing in the killing fields and I was doing a video for World Relief, and behind me was a glass monument to the people that had died there and there were all these thousands of skulls in it. And my interpreter was standing there interpreting as I did it sentence by sentence and talked about what had happened in the killing fields. And she was a wonderful young World Relief worker, beautiful girl. And when we were finished, I said, "This is the most gross thing I think I've ever seen in my life. I'm so glad my back was towards that when I had to talk about what happened here." And she simply said, "My mother and my father and my aunts and I think my nephews are all in there. I have nobody left. I was a little girl of six when this happened and they put me in the pit too and all the bodies fell on top of me and they thought I was dead, but I wasn't. And I crawled out from the bodies and I got into the forest and I kept myself alive on berries and a family took me in and pretended I was their daughter and saved me from what was going on."

She grew up and she found the Lord. And I said, "What has this done to your concept of God? And how could you find Christ when you come from this hell, from this holocaust?" And she simply said, "Well, we have a different feel, we Christians. We, you know, you in the West, you say when trouble comes, 'Get it off my back, God!' and you begin complaining about it." And she said, "What we do is say, 'God, strengthen my back to bear it for you.' It's a yoke of suffering. He's laid it on us. And when he lays it on us, we mustn't complain." I often think of her, especially when I'm whining. You know, it started in the Garden of Eden with the fall. The woman whined about the snake: "The snake made me do it." And the man whined about the woman to God: "Why'd you put that woman in my garden?" And the whining's continued ever since. And you'll find when you accept whatever it is God is allowing you to go through at the moment, there will be a willingness to stop complaining. And if you're still whining, you're not there yet. And there'll be a cheerful perseverance. "It's good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord." Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.

I have another friend who grew up in Vietnam and as a little girl, they stayed, the last missionaries while everybody was getting out as the Viet Cong just overran the whole of Vietnam. And they stayed in the country. And her father was taken off by the Viet Cong, her best friend's father was taken off and never seen again. They did bring her father back. But time after time as they stayed there to the bitter end until God told them that they could leave, they would come back to their house and they would find it burned and all her toys would be broken in the- in the- in the yard. And she said, "I remember as a little girl of six, picking up my toys, thinking, 'Who would break my toys? Why would they want to do that?' "

And she said, "My father would always gather the children, the four children round, and we would be in the absolute shambles of our house and he'd say, 'Now we're going to pray for the people that did this. It isn't that they've rejected Jesus; they just don't know about him yet. And that's why we're here.' " And Connie remembers kneeling down in the mess of her home and giving thanks because God came near. And they didn't complain. And they had this cheerful perseverance. And they accepted that particular yoke.

So really, that's a very simple message. And I don't know where it hits you. What yoke do you think God wants to lay on you? Is it a yoke of sorrow? Is it a yoke of service or ministry? Is it a yoke of loneliness or singleness or marriedness? Is it a yoke of childlessness? Is it a yoke of disappointment? What does he want to trust you with? Because it's out of that you will speak, because all around you, people are watching. And the greatest magnet for the gospel is how you respond and react to what happens to you. Because it's happening to them too. And if they can see you with a willingness not to whine, to count your blessings, to speak well of God, well of God publicly, to climb out of whatever it is on your faith, not your feelings, those people are going to say, "I want that. I'm dying. You're not. You're surviving. You're doing more than that. You're reviving. There's life. There's hope."

And those people will read you. You'll be the Bible, the only Bible perhaps they'll ever read. What did they read today, those people who are watching you? And God wants to make your life, your beingness, who you are, he wants to make that a sermon. So that as you go to everyone he sends you to, you might not verbally tell them about God, but your response and your reaction will tell them in loud, loud words, louder than words, what it's all about.

I remember years and years ago, before we ever came to America, I remember one day feeling rather lonely as my husband was traveling all over the world and I was raising the children pretty well on my own at that point. And I remember getting sick of that yoke and very bitter and very angry. And I started to do a Jeremiah or a Lamentations chapter three: "You brought me into this. You got us to give our career up and you landed us in this mess. And we never understood what it would be like." And around the corner of my "glad-o-yes Lord," there is this horrible "oh-no Lord, I never expected this." And I did my 16 verses and more.

And then God enabled me to start and do some mind work. And then as I did my part, he began to do his and he started to change my heart. And I remember sitting on a hillside and putting myself into silence and saying to God, "I've got the whole afternoon. I'm going to stay up here until you do your renewing work on me because I'm sick of being sick of this and I want to change and I want to be different." And at the end of that afternoon, as God did his renewing work in my heart, as I held my heart in my hands until it was broken and contrite, something new happened and a new Jill Briscoe came down that hill. It was an incredible sense: he came near into my pit. So I was as happy with the loneliness as without it. Didn't matter. As long as he stayed as near as that, as closer than breathing, nearer than hands and feet.

Now, he didn't lift the yoke, and Stuart came home; in fact, he was away more. But it didn't matter. And somehow there was a release and I didn't complain anymore. And I didn't whine anymore: "Poor little me, poor little me, poor little me. Why doesn't somebody else's wife take a little bit of this? Why is it always my children that have to say goodbye to their daddy? Why can't it be somebody else's children, God?" Everything changed for me and for the children because children do not create your attitude, they reveal it. And they were picking up all my resentment and all my bitterness until that day I came down that hill that overlooked Capenwray Hall. And you know something? God gave me Stuart after that. It was not something I expected. But alone with God, I realized something. He said to me, "Do it again." And he laid on me a yoke that felt very familiar. All his yokes are custom-made, not one size fits all. This is my yoke. And I've been home for 26 days this year and not an awful lot of it with my husband. And I suddenly realized he's laid it on me and I want to tell you something: it's all right. It's more than all right. It's incredible. For he came near. And there's nothing like it.

So you put your face in the dust and you submit to the yoke, and he never, ever gives you a yoke without the enabling that goes with it. So my question to you is what's the yoke? What's he laying on you? It may be something small. It may be something big. Will you submit to it? Which part of the chapter are you in? Are you in the first 16 verses getting God and life mixed up? Or is all that sorted out? Will you surrender to God in every single part of you and say, "I want to be what you made me to be and I want to do what you made me to do"? Pray with me if you will.

Heavenly Father, in this quiet moment we would intentionally isolate our spirits, our soul and sit alone in silence. You've made us able to do that even in a crowd. And I just want to ask you, just follow me, let me help you here. If you've been getting God and life mixed up, talk to him about that for a minute and maybe you need to say you're sorry. If you're not sorry, say, "I'm sorry I'm not sorry." Start there and hold your heart in your hands until it's broken and contrite. Are you willing to stop whining? Are you willing to accept the burden, the yoke from God? What is he impressing you to do for him? Why not just accept that now, even thank him for it? And invite him to come near that he might be your enabling. Because of the Lord's great love you will not be consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning. Great is his faithfulness. So I say to myself, the Lord is my portion, therefore I will wait for him. I want you to know the Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him. It's good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord and it's good for a man to bear the yoke while he is young. So sit alone in silence and let the Lord lay it on you.

O Lord God, great is your faithfulness. Father God, you saw your son in a pit, the pit that we should never know, our pit. And they dropped stones on his head and worse, but you came near and you raised him from the dead. And now he sits with you at home in heaven, where he never needed to come from but did because of us. How could you love us, Lord, with all our grubby little ways and our horrid little habits? Thank you for your unfailing love. And God, I pray that we may so know you that life will never be the same. Thank you, Lord. Amen.