Call for the Wailing Women - Part 4 — Nancy Leigh DeMoss

Repentance for Women’s Sins and a Meek Spirit

That meek and that quiet spirit that trusts in God, that yields our rights. I need to weep over the sin among Christian women of immodesty, lack of discretion. I received a letter just a week or so ago from a man saying how hard it is.

It was from a woman. I've received several recently, but the one I'm thinking of was from a woman who said you can hardly go to church today without seeing just this matter of women being dressed like the world, immodest.

Not as the scripture says, with modesty and femininity and sobriety. To weep over our lack of discretion, to weep over the fact that we've been deceived, that we've prioritized careers over family, over being wives and mothers, that we've not taught our children the ways of God, that we've not protected our children from ungodly and unholy influences, that we have broken vows, our marriage covenant and our vows before God.

We need to weep not only over the sins of women in general, but over our own sins, over our own hardness of heart. There are women in this place, I don't know who you are, but God's been speaking to you today.

Wailing Over Immoral Relationships and Generational Sin

And there are women who are involved right now in a relationship that is an immoral, ungodly relationship. You're in a burning house and you ought to weep and to wail over what this is doing to you and to your children and to your grandchildren and to future generations and to those around you and to the culture.

We are part of this. We've got to take responsibility and wail before God. Lamentations chapter 2 verse 19, the prophet says, Arise, cry out in the night, in the beginning of the watches. Pour out thine heart like water before the face of the Lord.

Lift up thy hands toward him for the life of thy young children that faint in hunger, for hunger at the top of every street. And I'll tell you this, we can't manufacture weeping and wailing. But when we get in the presence of God and then we look around, God's going to cause a groaning, a moaning, an intensity, a compulsion in our hearts.

From Complacency to Mourning

We'll no longer be able to be complacent. We'll become concerned women. And we will move from merriment to mourning. I found myself several weeks ago as I was reading over these prayer cards, as I returned home from a conference sitting at a table reading over these, and I'm not a big weeper, but I found myself just weeping before the Lord saying, Oh God, what is wrong?

Have mercy on us. This is not a time for merriment. This is a time for mourning over the house of God. Jesus said, Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. The time for comfort will come.

Warning Others Through Women’s Influence

The time for rejoicing will come. But first, the mourning. Although we would ask God to put in our hearts a sense of our great need to mourn. Not only are we to wake up, to turn from complacency to concern, to wail, to turn from merriment to mourning, but number three, the prophets say, warn others, move from isolation to influence.

We have such a powerful influence as women, and few of us realize how great that is. The prophets realized it. That's why they said that we have an influence on men, and on our children, and on others.

Let them come quickly and wail over us. Who's the us? Over the men. Until our eyes overflow with tears, and water streams from our eyelids. Women know how to cry. The problem is, we use our tears so many times for the wrong purposes.

To manipulate. When we don't get our way, that's what usually makes me cry, when I don't get my way. But the prophet says, weep over the right things. Weep over the grief and the offense that's been committed against an unholy God.

And then the men will be motivated to weep, to pour out their hearts before God. And then he says, now, oh women, hear the word of the Lord. Open your ears to the words of his mouth. As we heard earlier today, we've got to become women of God's word.

Women who know this book, and know how to apply it to real life situations in our generation. And then he says to those who've heard the word of the Lord, teach your daughters how to wail. Teach one another a lament.

That's our influence. To warn others, to buy our tears, and our heavy heartedness, and our grieving over the condition of our nation. We become a means of influence over the hearts of others. It takes boldness, it takes courage, because ours is not a popular message.

We may not be believed, we may not be heeded, but we have to say it anyway. A great writer of the past century said this, the greatest influence on earth, whether for good or for evil, is possessed by woman.

A community is not likely to be overthrown where woman fulfills her mission. For by the power of her noble heart over the hearts of others, she will raise it from its ruins, and restore it again to prosperity and joy.

Women as Instruments of Good or Evil

Women, we've been chosen not just to belong to God, but to be God's instruments in this dark and perverse culture. The influence of one woman for evil or for good is so powerful, and I don't suppose we see that any more clearly than in the distinction between two biblical women, Eve in the Old Testament, and Mary the mother of Jesus in the New.

Eve asked herself, what do my feelings say? But Mary said, what does faith say? Eve said, what's best for me? But Mary said, what's best for others? Eve said, I want to have it my way. But Mary said, I want to have it God's way.

Eve said, it's all about me. But Mary said, it's all about Him. Eve said, what do I want? Mary said, what does God want? Eve said, what looks good? And Mary said, what is good? Eve said, what do I think?

But Mary said, what has God said? What was the result? Two powerful, influential women. Eve led her husband and the human race into sin and darkness. But Mary, through the power of her surrendered life, became the instrument of bringing the Savior into the world.

Influencing Others Toward Repentance and Mercy

Our lives are an influence, a powerful influence on those around us. And oh, that we would use that influence to show our mates, our children, others in the body of Christ the critical condition that we are in, so that they will be motivated to join us in weeping, repenting, and crying out to God for mercy.

So the prophets say, wake up. Turn from complacency to concern. And then wail, turn from merriment to mourning. And then he says, warn others, move from isolation to influence. And then finally, wait on the Lord.

Waiting on the Lord in Faith

Wait on the Lord. Move from fear to faith. Prophet Isaiah says, he speaks of the power of God to transform the most hopeless situation. And he says, it will all begin when the Spirit is poured upon us from on high.

And then the desert, the dry place, the barren place will become a fertile field. And the fertile field will seem like a forest. There we will find justice and righteousness, peace, quietness, and confidence forever.

And that day, he says, my people will live in peaceful dwelling places, in secure homes, in undisturbed places of rest. Move from fear to faith. He continues in the next chapter with this prayer. Oh Lord, be gracious to us.

We long for you. Be our strength every morning. Our salvation in times of distress. The Lord is exalted for he dwells on high. He will fill Zion with justice and righteousness. He will be the sure foundation for your times.

A rich store of salvation and wisdom and knowledge. But the fear of the Lord is the key to this treasure. Yes, there is hope. But he is our only hope. Sociologists are busy trying to come up with...