Dannah Gresh: Do you remember listening to anything with your parents growing up? I sure do. I remember special nights where my mom would pop popcorn in a great big, ceramic, brown bowl, and we would sit around the television together, cuddling on the sofa and on the floor, and we would watch family-oriented sitcoms. Well, Sarah Booth remembers something much better. She remembers listening to a radio program with her mom.
Sarah Booth: It started with my mom, who listened to Elisabeth Elliot's program, Gateway to Joy.
Dannah: Elisabeth had been a missionary in Ecuador before her husband Jim was martyred. Amazingly, Elisabeth shared the gospel with the people who had killed her husband, and many came to faith in Jesus. Later in life, Elisabeth started a radio program, Gateway to Joy. She began every program, “You are loved with an everlasting love, and underneath are …
Dannah Gresh: Do you remember listening to anything with your parents growing up? I sure do. I remember special nights where my mom would pop popcorn in a great big, ceramic, brown bowl, and we would sit around the television together, cuddling on the sofa and on the floor, and we would watch family-oriented sitcoms. Well, Sarah Booth remembers something much better. She remembers listening to a radio program with her mom.
Sarah Booth: It started with my mom, who listened to Elisabeth Elliot's program, Gateway to Joy.
Dannah: Elisabeth had been a missionary in Ecuador before her husband Jim was martyred. Amazingly, Elisabeth shared the gospel with the people who had killed her husband, and many came to faith in Jesus. Later in life, Elisabeth started a radio program, Gateway to Joy. She began every program, “You are loved with an everlasting love, and underneath are the everlasting arms.” That's the program Sarah and her mom would listen to.
Sarah: And I remember one day I came home from college break, and she told me they have this new young person who's taken over the program, and now it's called Revive Our Hearts.
Leslie Basham (original announcer): It's Monday, September 3, and this is Revive Our Hearts with Nancy Leigh DeMoss.
Dannah: That's how the very first Revive Our Hearts episode began twenty-five years ago this month. And since that time, God has graciously used this program to call women to freedom, fullness, and fruitfulness in Christ.
If you're walking through the 2026 Bible Reading Plan with us today, we're reading Daniel 10–12. I hope you're ready for a fast-paced ride. We're going to hear highlights from a quarter century of ministry. I think you'll come away challenged to say “yes, Lord” to anything God is calling you to do. Let's start with that first episode of Revive Our Hearts. Bob Lepine, the co-host of FamilyLife Today, introduced listeners to Nancy.
Bob Lepine: What is on your heart? What do you hope God will accomplish through the ministry He's called you to?
Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: You know, Bob, when the Lord saved me when I was four years of age, He called me to Himself. He gave Himself to me. I gave myself to Him. And my whole life has been the developing of that love relationship with the Lord Jesus. That's something that I find very few professing believers really enjoy and experience to the extent that I think God intends.
So my burden for years has been to let women know what there is in Christ—the riches of our inheritance in Christ, the implications of the gospel for our lives. What does it mean that Christ died for us? That He loves us? That we belong to Him? My burden has been to call women to experience and to enjoy the fullness, the abundant life that Christ promised us.
President Bush: Our very freedom came under attack in a series of deliberate and deadly terrorist acts.
Dannah: Right away it became clear that women needed solid biblical teaching. We watched in shock as airplanes struck targets in a terrorist attack. To help women take their fear to the Lord, Nancy offered a series called "A Biblical Response to America's Tragedy.” She taught from Psalm 46, which says:
God is our refuge and strength,
a helper who is always found in times of trouble. (v. 1 CSB)
Nancy:
Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way,
though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea,
though its waters roar and foam,
though the mountains tremble at its swelling. (Psalm 46:2–3 ESV)
Dannah: Nancy's teaching from Psalm 46 had a huge effect on Connie Douglass when she went through a life-threatening health crisis.
Connie Douglass: It just built my faith so much, and it cheered me on in the depths of very, very big unknowns.
Nancy (from “A Biblical Response to America’s Tragedy”): Yes, there are storms. Yes, there are troubles. Yes, there are disasters. Yes, there are earthquakes and tsunamis and kingdoms raging and tottering, and all these things talked about in this passage. But as you read the psalm, the thing that just grips your attention is that God's at the center of it all. He's not absent. He's there. He's in the middle of it all.
Connie: Oh, it just fortified me. It encouraged me. It built me up.
Nancy: Our security in times of turmoil is found in God and God alone.
Dannah: Let's move to 2002 when Nancy released the book, Brokenness: The Heart God Revives.
Nancy (from “Brokenness: The Heart God Revives”): Proud people focus on the failures of others, but broken people are overwhelmed with a sense of their own spiritual need.
Jackie Hill Perry: And I thought pride was just being arrogant.
Dannah: This is Jackie Hill Perry.
Jackie: She talked about pride in the most subtle, discreet ways that I didn't know existed, and it humbled me.
Dannah: In 2003, Nancy released the book Surrender: The Heart God Controls.
Nancy (from “Surrender: The Heart God Controls”): Whatever God calls us to, it's finding out what is the will of God for my life, and then just waving that white flag of surrender and saying "Yes, Lord.”
Dannah: Over the past twenty-five years, we've returned to that phrase "Yes, Lord,” over and over. It had a huge effect on Monica Hall.
Monica Hall: It's the white flag of surrender. You know, “I surrender, Lord. Whatever You're calling me to do, I'll say yes” because, you know, she says you can't say “no, Lord.” That's impossible.
Beth Lowe: I listened to a clip from Nancy. She was talking about raising the white flag.
Dannah: And after hearing that message, Beth Lowe just wanted to hear more.
Beth: After the first few times that I listened, I couldn't stop.
Gayle Gilyeart: I'd actually never heard of Revive Our Hearts or Nancy Leigh DeMoss.
Dannah: This is a listener named Gayle.
Gayle: I was just kind of mindlessly listening. All of a sudden, I was truly convicted about my own sin.
Dannah: Let's move to 2003.
Nancy (from “The Splendor of Holiness”): I want to talk this week about a word that Andrew Murray called the most profound word in the Bible . . . holiness.
Leslie (on air): Nancy's been helping us develop a deeper understanding of what it means to be holy.
Gayle: It just turned my life upside down. I knew I needed to go to my husband and ask him to forgive me.
Leslie (on air): The topic is fresh on her mind because she's just released a book called Holiness: The Heart God Purifies.
Nancy: Father, I pray that you will restore in our hearts, in our minds, in our homes, in our churches a sense of the splendor and the beauty of holiness.
Dannah: Let's move to 2005 when Nancy and Tim Grissom released the workbook Seeking Him.
Heather Patenaude: I did Seeking Him by Nancy Leigh DeMoss, and that was pretty life-changing.
Dannah: This is Heather Patenaude.
Heather: That pretty much picked me up and crushed me, and then put me back together.
Dannah: This is Kim Zolman.
Kim Zolman: Through that study, I needed to go back and seek forgiveness from people that I hadn't seen for years.
Nancy: Do you need revival, and what exactly does that mean?
Man: I thought I was doing pretty good.
Dannah: In 2005, Nancy also began a one-minute short feature, also called Seeking Him.
Nancy: Revival happens when God calls His people back to Himself.
Leslie (on air): Don't forget that next week there's a big change happening. The new and improved Revive Our Hearts will be a half-hour long.
Sherry Seidensticker: I'm Sherry Seidensticker, and I'm from Shakopee, Minnesota. I listen to Revive Our Hearts every morning, and it starts my day. If I have a longer drive, I listen to her at least three times in the same morning to keep listening to the stories. I'm astounded by the things that I'm learning.
Nancy (from “For Such a Time as This in Los Angeles”): Kesha not only wanted to train other women, but she wanted to make sure she was sharing solid biblical truth with them. That quest for biblical materials led her to Revive Our Hearts. It also caused her to realize her need to deal with bitterness and forgiveness in her own heart.
Kesha Griffin: I didn't realize how much unforgiveness that I was harboring in my heart, specifically towards my father.
Nancy (from “Freedom Through Forgiveness”): We will be offended. We will be wronged. It can't be avoided.
Dannah: In 2006, Nancy released a book called Choosing Forgiveness.
Nancy: But we release them not because they deserve it, but because of God's incredible grace.
Kesha: I decided to be more open toward a relationship with my dad. It was as if one day the bitterness was removed, and I was able to be open to receive him into my life. I felt a ton of weight lifted off my heart, lifted off my shoulders.
Dannah: In 2008, Nancy and I co-wrote a book called Lies Young Women Believe and the Truth That Sets Them Free.
Ala: The study was amazing. My name is Ala. I was the one who was supposed to teach the girls, but it taught me so many lessons that I was like, “All right. It's kind of the opposite of what I expected."
Alexandra Gilman: I was not allowed to go to a Protestant church.
Dannah: Here's Alexandra Gilman.
Alexandra: At a tender age of 13, my heart was just so hungry for Jesus, and the fact that I had Nancy's speaking available, that introduced me to people like John Piper.
John Piper (from “The Ultimate Meaning of True Womanhood” True Woman ‘08): Wimpy theology makes wimpy women.
Dannah: In 2008, Revive Our Hearts held the very first True Woman Conference.
Nancy: We began to hear about a group of women that was wanting to come to that event from the Dominican Republic.
Dannah: That group was led by Laura González and Patricia Saladín.
Patricia Saladín: There started in me a very strong desire to put this in Spanish, not only to the one hundred women that came from the DR, but to every Spanish-speaking woman in the world.
Mary Kassian (from “You’ve Come a Long Way Baby!”): The Creator fashioned the two sexes differently, and this is a fact that we dare not overlook or trivialize.
Alexandra: Mary Kassian . . .
Mary: God created us. He created us male and female, and that's not inconsequential. That means something.
Tracy: When I went to True Woman '08, God really pressed on my heart that He wanted me to teach the women the Word and get them into the Word.
Dannah: Here's a women's ministry leader named Tracy.
Tracy: Before the True Woman Conference, I really had a lot of anger and bitterness that I didn't know was there, and it was directed towards my husband and ultimately towards God, because I was worn out and exhausted. I just was a little angry and bitter. Going to True Woman '08 was really when God showed me that anger. Actually, it was the 30-day preparation leading up to it where He really broke my heart and revealed the sin that was in my life. He showed me how to love and respect my husband again, and to have a desire to do ministry out of pure motives and not out of obligation.
Kim Zolman: I needed to come home and make things right.
Dannah: This is Kim Zolman.
Kim: Not only with my husband, but I also made sure that my kids were there as I apologized and said, “I have given you the wrong picture of what a woman, a biblical woman, is supposed to be in a home.”
Dannah: Okay, let's move to 2009.
Haley Ryan: I'm Haley Ryan, and I'm from Lawrence, Kansas. I've walked through a lot of different health struggles over the last couple of years. I specifically went to Revive Our Hearts continuously, just searching for truth, trying to make sense of how to understand what it would look like to live a life with a chronic autoimmune disease and medical bills and insurance I didn't understand. So I would just comb the depths of Revive Our Hearts.
Nancy (from “The Attitude of Gratitude”): Every day the Lord loads us down with benefits. So if He's gracing us and giving us gifts every day, and He's giving us new mercies every day, doesn't it seem that our gratitude should be daily?
Leslie (on air): When you visit ReviveOurHearts.com, make sure to get more information about Nancy's new book, Choosing Gratitude: Your Journey to Joy.
Haley: Really choosing gratitude, and then I read through Choosing Gratitude, and I realized it really had set me free from so much bitterness I felt like I could have experienced as a result of health struggles.
Nancy: Now, that doesn't mean that things are always going well at all times from our human vantage point. It doesn't mean that circumstances are always to our liking, or always comfortable, or easy, or convenient. The psalmist says, "As an act of my will, I will bless the Lord at all times.”
Dannah: Ciara Dierking was in the middle of reading Choosing Gratitude when she experienced a medical emergency. Doctors had to amputate her arms and legs.
Ciara Dierking (from the video “Always Grateful”): Nancy talks about how gratitude is a life preserver. It keeps you from drowning.
Nancy: . . . continually, forever, giving thanks to the Lord.
Dannah: This is Elena Thomas.
Elena Thomas: Going to the True Woman Conference in 2010 was really life-changing for me.
Dannah: Kay Arthur spoke that year.
Kay Arthur (from “The Powerful Influence of a Godly Woman”): Women play a pivotal role, not only in the times in which we live, but in the future of a nation.
Dannah: It had a huge effect on Monica Hall.
Monica Hall: I was in a very dry place, a hard place, and it just filled me up. I went home and my husband and I probably sat on the couch for two hours with me just spilling out everything that God had done at that conference. And so, yeah, I went back in 2012.
Bob Lepine: Welcome to Indianapolis and True Woman 2012. You excited to be here?
Brooke Boyer (from the video “Amazed by His Grace”): I didn't want to go. Pretty much everybody knew that I didn't want anything to do with God.
Dannah: Brooke Boyer will never forget attending True Woman in 2012.
Brooke: Joni Eareckson Tada got on stage and she sang "Amazing Grace.”
Joni Eareckson Tada (singing): “Amazing grace how sweet the sound . . .”
Brooke: That just kind of hit me. Somebody who went through so much, who had so much happen to her, and yet she still believed that God loved her. I just said, “God, I can't do this anymore. I'm so empty, and I have such a heavy weight on me. I just need You. Come save me.”
Jackie Hill Perry: The first time I was introduced to biblical womanhood was through Nancy's ministry . . .
Dannah: Jackie Hill Perry.
Jackie: . . . when I was 20. I didn't even know it was a thing. I just was like, “I don't know how to be a woman.”
Leslie (on air): Nancy Leigh DeMoss and Mary Kassian have co-written a new workbook that takes you to the Bible to discover God's unique purpose for women. The workbook is called True Woman 101: Divine Design.
Salina Turner: Like, the first week, I was blown away. My name is Salina Turner, and I am from Cleveland, Ohio. First of all, I felt like I had gotten punched in my face several times just by what it was saying. I did not understand what I was reading, and I was processing it. It was just crazy to read what it was saying and then look at the Scriptures and going, “This is real!”
Leslie (on air): So I hope every woman hearing my voice will get a copy of True Woman 101: Divine Design.
Tanya: My name is Tanya, and originally I'm from Ukraine.
Leslie (on air): Read each day's chapter and fill out the questions to make this material personal.
Tanya: Just every chapter was eye-opening. Like, I was crying and just repenting before the Lord every time.
Announcer: Esto es Aviva Nuestros Corazones con Nancy Leigh DeMoss en la voz de Patricia de Saladín.
Dannah: In 2013, Aviva Nuestros Corazones started releasing programs five days a week. Andrea Baker remembers that day.
Andrea Baker: I remember when they said, "Oh, we're going to do this every day.” I was, "Oh, this is amazing!”
Nancy (from “Jesus, What a Wonderful Name!” at True Woman ’14): “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. But in these last days, He has spoken to us by His Son.”
Janet Parshall: Praise God for people like Nancy Leigh DeMoss who take us back to where we need to go every time—the Word, the Word, the Word.
Dannah: Here's what stood out to Janet Parshall at True Woman ’14.
Janet: When Nancy did over 240 verses right through the Scripture of who Jesus was, I stood there! I've read the Word. I know the Word, but I listened to her talk, I thought, It's all about Him.
Nancy (from “Jesus, What a Wonderful Name!” at True Woman ’14): “He is the radiance of the glory of God, and the exact imprint of His nature, and He upholds the universe by the word of His power.”
Dannah: And in 2015, we celebrated the marriage between Nancy Leigh DeMoss and Robert Wolgemuth.
Nancy (from “Thoughts for My Single Sisters Before I Become a Mrs.”): God's calling for my life, and it's been a sweet one, has been to serve Him as a single woman. And now God's saying, "I have a different assignment for you. My heart was to say “Yes, Lord” as a single woman. My heart is to say “Yes, Lord” as a married woman. It's a calling.
Robert Wolgemuth (from their wedding): I, Robert, take you, Nancy, to be my wife.
Nancy: I, Nancy, take you, Robert, to be my husband.
Robert: I joyfully and graciously receive you as God's gracious gift.
Nancy: I pledge to you my tenderness.
Robert: I promise to love you, to cherish you, and to shepherd you as Christ loves, cherishes, and shepherds His Church as long as we both shall live.
Dannah: This is Vonette Bright.
Vonette Bright: I believe that it's time when we as women begin to be very serious about praying.
Dannah: Rosalyn Hickman shared Vonette's burden.
Rosalyn Hickman: It's like God is saying now is the time, and I don't mean just pray. I mean cry out!
Nancy: That's why I'm issuing an urgent call for women to join us in Indianapolis for True Woman ’16: Cry Out!.
Blair Linne (from “Where Are the Wailing Women?” from True Woman ’16): Women, where are you?!
Dannah: Here's spoken word artist Blair Linne.
Blair: Stop whatever you are doing, for it is time to pray. It is time to weep. It is time to weep.
Dannah: In 2017, Nancy released her book Adorned: Living Out the Beauty of the Gospel Together. The messages from the Revive ’17 conference were all based on the book Adorned.
Nancy (from “A Woman Adorned and Adorning” from Revive ’17): My prayer is that every one of us would have people who would name us and say, "She hung out with me. She loved me. She shared Christ with me.
Dannah: A woman named Mercy heard one of those messages.
Mercy (from “Sarah, Meet Mercy”): I had heard on the radio through Revive Our Hearts Susan Hunt speaking, and she said, “Older women, you need to invest into younger women's lives.”
Susan Hunt (from “Step Up and Grow Up” from Revive ’17): The local church is where we know each other's stories.
Mercy: That message burned inside my chest, and something came alive.
Dannah: That message inspired Mercy to reach out to a visitor to her church named Sarah.
Sarah: She continued to seek after me and got to know who I was, and loved me into God's arms.
Dannah: Here's Tessa Maki.
Tessa Maki (from the video “Surviving in Christ Together”): When the marriage first fell apart, it was that summer Nancy had written You Can Trust God to Write Your Story.
Nancy (from “You Can Trust God to Write Your Story”): He is the one who is crowned in this time of coronavirus or cancer or whatever other kind of flood you may be facing.
Dannah: This is Ann Janel McClure, a missionary to Brazil.
Ann Janel McClure: The pandemic happened, and I was in Brazil. I didn't leave my home for like forty days.
Dannah: Don't we all remember those days? Early in the pandemic, I had the opportunity to join a community of listeners every day, along with hosts Erin Davis, Portia Collins, Alejandra Slemin, and Robyn McKelvy. We co-hosted a live videocast called Grounded.
Dannah (from Grounded): We're so glad you're with us today for a dose of hope and perspective.
Ann: And I started on day three watching Grounded, and didn't miss a day after that. My kids knew, okay, Mom's listening to Grounded. We need to leave her alone right now.
Nancy (from “Coronavirus, Cancer, and Christ”): Coronavirus is not king. Cancer is not king. Christ is king. As we got Robert's cancer diagnosis, we looked at each other and we said, "Heaven rules.”
Dannah: That phrase, "Heaven rules,” sustained Robert and Nancy through his cancer diagnosis and COVID, and it's the name of the book Nancy released in 2022.
Nancy: You know, in over forty-five years of ministry, I have never been more excited about something, a project, an undertaking than I am about the Wonder of the Word. I've spent the past two years teaching through the Bible, cover to cover. It's being translated into multiple languages.
Sabrina Aslan: These Farsi podcasts have created a very deep desire in their hearts to know the Word of God, to know Christ.
Neeharika Lorimer: Wow, Lord, you know, this just really needs to be in Portuguese.
Marie Falk: In Germany, we just really need to understand the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Ed Cannon (Far East Broadcasting): Now we're broadcasting her content in Ukraine,
Jackie Arndt: In South Africa we need to hear truth.
Jeannette Kossmann: We need this in French.
Ed Cannon: We've just dipped our foot in the water of taking Nancy's message around the world.
Nancy: I got stuck in the middle of Isaiah just before Robert got sick. As I was preparing to move on in chapter 40, we had to push pause.
Dannah: Well, friend, I have to begin today with some heartbreaking news. Our friend Nancy's husband, Robert Wolgemuth, has gone home to be with the Lord. He went into the hospital on Christmas Eve, 2025.
Nancy: When I come back to the microphone, whenever that is, the next verses I will speak on is Isaiah 40, “Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.”
Anastasiya Snavely: I first learned about Revive Our Hearts during the lowest point in my life so far, and I listened to Nancy for hours.
Nancy: It's not us. It's not our organizations. It's not our programs. It's not our words that comfort broken hearts and that heal lifelong wounds. It is Christ and His Word.
Sarah Booth: It started with my mom who listened to Elisabeth Elliot's program, Gateway to Joy, and so now you've influenced three generations of my family, and now the people that we're ministering to in Portugal are being influenced too. So I just thank you so much for investing in all of us.
Dannah: Oh, what a joy to reflect on the last twenty-five years together. God has been so faithful.
If you've enjoyed celebrating with us today, we've got a full documentary video that we'll link to in today's transcript. You'll find that at ReviveOurHearts.com. If you've been challenged and encouraged by Nancy's teaching over the years, would you consider making a special 25th anniversary gift?
This is a sweet way to say, “Revive Our Hearts has blessed me, and I want to be a part of what's to come.” When you donate any amount this month, we'll send you our newest Women of the Bible study, Devoted, as our way of saying thanks.
This resource is an invitation to a life of surrender, as six biblical women teach you to say “yes, Lord,” no matter what comes your way. To give and request your copy, visit ReviveOurHearts.com, or call us at 1-800-569-5959.
Next week is all about surrendering to the will of God, particularly when His will surprises us. Please be back for Revive Our Hearts.
This program is a listener-supported production of Revive Our Hearts in Niles, Michigan, calling women to freedom, fullness, and fruitfulness in Christ.
*Offers available only during the broadcast of the podcast season.
