The Wonder App: Transforming Screen Time into Scripture Time

Dannah Gresh: Are you worried about the teens in your life? Do you long to see your daughters and granddaughters opening their Bibles more than they open TikTok or other social media? Yeah, us too! Here’s a message from Revive Our Hearts we’re pretty excited about. It might just get you excited, too. 

Staci Rudolph: The U.S. is experiencing an extreme mental health crisis. Fifty-seven percent of teen girls said that they feel persistent feelings of sadness and hopelessness. And it actually all traces back to one thing: the growth of smart phones. Yep, she’s on her phone a lot. 

What if she could meet God there? Introducing Wonder, a daily Scripture experience for teen girls who want to be rooted in God’s Word. Daily video features address issues like: identity, friendship, and faith. And each one is guiding girls through reading the Bible each day in a safe and protected environment. And . . . extra tools let her doodle in her Bible and earn her digital rewards that keep her coming back.

Today’s teen girls face immense pressure—social media comparison, identity confusion, and rising mental health struggles. Wonder meets them in their digital world, offering an engaging way to immerse themselves in God’s Word daily to counter despair and point them to Jesus. By exploring Scripture, young women will navigate life challenges with wisdom and courage, fostering a new generation of deeply rooted disciples. Wonder: Word Over World.

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: Welcome to Revive Our Hearts for Tuesday, December 2—also known across the globe as Giving Tuesday. I’m Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth.

Dannah: And I’m Dannah Gresh. Today is actually a pretty big day at Revive Our Hearts because this is a global day of generosity. And for ministries like us, it’s a really special opportunity to share our vision for the future and to invite you to join us.

Nancy: That’s right, Dannah. Today is all about a new project that we are SO excited about. We’re getting ready to launch Wonder—an experience designed to get teen girls into God’s Word every day.

At the heart of Wonder is a brand-new app designed specifically for girls ages thirteen to seventeen. It speaks their digital language, and we’re praying that it will draw them into a deeper relationship with the Lord.

The Wonder app is set to launch in 2026, and our hope is that it will meet teen girls right where they are—on their phones or other devices—by delivering engaging, biblically rich content to spark a lifelong passion for God’s Word.

Our team is working to bring to life a beautiful, engaging, highly interactive app, and doing this well is no inexpensive endeavor. Together with Dannah's ministry, Pure Freedom, our goal has been to raise $150,000 between yesterday and today to fund the next phase of this project, and I’m inviting you to partner with us. 

Dannah, you’ve been heading up this wonderful new project, and I can’t think of anyone better equipped to do that. You may not be aware that in addition to being the cohost here at Revive Our Hearts, Dannah is also the founder of another ministry that we love to partner with called True Girl. And I know many of our Revive Our Hearts’ listeners love that ministry for their daughters and granddaughters.

Well, Dannah’s got a big heart for these young women. 

Dannah: Oh, I do, Nancy! I love teen girls so much. I’ve loved them since I was in my twenties and felt the call to minister to them. And that’s why this project is just really an exciting one to me.

You know, one of the things that we’ve seen in girls recently, Nancy, is just really what I would call hockey-stick growth of negative emotions. We’re talking 57 percent of them experiencing sadness or depression, hopelessness, and suicidal ideation. It is just terrifyingly on the rise.

But one of the things I’ve seen, Nancy, is that there have been studies on reading the Bible and whether it impacts those things. And one of the studies took Bible reading and all of those negative emotions, and even some negative sinful behavior, and compared what happens when you read the Bible for one day. Well, almost nothing. Almost no difference in emotions or behavioral changes.

Day two: Almost no change.

Day three: A little bit of what I would call maybe conviction of sinful behaviors and a little bit of stabilizing in emotions.

But on day four, suddenly we see dramatic changes in this study where suicidal ideation almost disappears. Depression and anxiety drop out of the picture. Things like pornography among males and females just plummet.

God’s Word changes us. It changes us. It doesn’t change us when we open it one day a week just at church. It changes us when we bathe our hearts in God’s Word on a regular basis.

For me, I like that to be every single day. I do miss some days, but for these teen girls, we want it to be a minimum of four days a week. So we decided, they’re on their phones. What if God was there, too?

So we have been developing this app, which is going to be daily devos in video form—not written form. This is not your grandma’s Bible app. This is a Bible app for fifteen-year-old girls. I have curated this wonderful team of twenty-somethings that love Jesus. They love His Word. And they’re going to make great big sisters. We’re calling them the Wonder Mentors.

And I’m just dreaming . . . I have written down on a piece of paper that by 2028, which I know that’s a few years away, and this is totally just Dannah praying. We have nothing to base any kind of estimates on. There is no other app that’s like this out there, but I’m praying that by 2028 we have 10,000 girls reading through the Word every single day because they are captured by Wonder.

And I’m not talking about Wonder as in our app. I’m talking about the wonder of God’s Word, because the Word of God doesn’t need us. It has its own wonder. All we’re going to do is invite teenage girls to see it every day.

Can you tell I am so excited?

Nancy: I can, Dannah, and I’m excited too! What a wonderful ministry opportunity this is!

At the True Woman conference in October, Dannah’s team hosted a teen breakout session to introduce girls to the Wonder app. Our mutual friend Suzy Weibel shared about her own Bible reading journey. 

Listen as she describes how she’d begin to develop a habit of being in the Word but then she’d, in her words, “fall off the wagon.” She realized she needed two things: a system to follow and prompts to stimulate her thinking. She’s excited about Wonder because it provides both of those things. Here she is from that teen track breakout session.

Suzy Weibel: So, I want to share with you a little bit of my story, my history with the Word. I've heard people saying all weekend, “You know, if you want to love Jesus, if you want to follow Jesus, and if you say that you follow Jesus, if you want to be obedient, if we want to be righteous, we have to know what the Bible says. That's how we get to know Jesus.” And it's true.

Now this is a little bit of my history with the Bible. This is going to sound so nerdy to you, but about twenty years ago I was really into crossword puzzles. I still like them, but like twenty years ago, I was into them. I could do a Monday puzzle in less than five minutes. I don't know if you've ever done crossword puzzles, but that's pretty fast. Every day I would wake up, I would pour my coffee, I'd open the paper, and I would do the crossword puzzle, and my Monday puzzles were fast.

Here's a little factoid for you. Did you know that crossword puzzles get harder as the week goes along? Were you aware of that? So Monday puzzles were really easy, and a Friday or Saturday puzzle, they're nearly impossible. So by the time I would get to Thursday and Friday, my crossword puzzle would take me at least two cups of coffee to finish, if I could even finish them. Usually I could not. You know what that's like. I had an onslaught of other things that I had to do to take care of my day. And most days, I didn't even get around to opening my Bible. That's my old story.

Then came the annual church fast. Every year our church would fast for twenty-one days. I was a pastor's wife, but I did not really enjoy fasting. Is there anybody else out there that could just be honest for a second and say, “Yeah, I don't really enjoy it”? I don't think we're supposed to enjoy it, right? We're not meant to. And I didn't understand it either. I was kind of looking for a way out.

Then I had this nudge that felt really personal and specific to me this year in the church fast. The nudge said to me, “How about this year you add something to the fast instead of taking something away? How about this year I let you eat?” And I liked the sound of that. “Start every day in My Word. Start there first. Taste and see that I am good. And then just do the puzzle, if you have time.”

For me, the results were immediate. I had this great devotional book that would take me through one book of the Bible at a time. This is still how I do my devotions. And then I would add a study guide. I like the depth of the devotional that I read every morning, because that really makes me think. Do any of you do a daily devotional? So that really made me think. I liked that, and I liked the interactive nature of the study guide, because that meant I had a pen and I had a journal and I had to think and write something down.

So it was interactive, and before I knew it, I was spending a lot of time in God's Word. I mean, like, one to two hours a day, is what it grew to pretty quickly. I was loving it. And I am not going to lie, because at some point I fell off the wagon. Now, most people when they fall off the wagon, they're like, “Yep, last night, I fell off the wagon, but I'm back on it.” No, I fell off the wagon for a few years . . . back to my old habits.

I can tell you exactly when it was, December of 2021, I climbed back on. I hope for good. I needed two things: I needed a system. I still need a system, and I needed prompts to stimulate my thinking.

So the Wonder app . . . we're going to start talking about the Wonder app. You ready to get to it? (cheers) All right! We are so excited about the Wonder app, 

First of all, it's an organized system by which you ladies can move through the entirety of the Bible in one year's time. It is going to provide you both accountability and reward. It provides, for lack of a better word, predictability, so that you know what every day is going to look like. You know what your time commitment is going to be. You know what that reward looks like. You're going to get feedback and give feedback.

And so the app is going to track your streaks and your finishes. It's going to welcome you in every day. It's going to reward you when you finish something. And there will be predictability in that. You'll be working towards a goal, and you'll know when your goal has been achieved, because your phone will vibrate in your hand, and you'll earn a badge, and there will be color and explosions.

But in terms of content, the Wonder app is going to provide anything but predictability. And this is where I'm really excited. This is what I love about God's Word. How many of you have seen or have used the technique of like opening the Bible, closing your eyes, and pointing a finger. Come on, we're into radical honesty. That's an actual technique. I do not recommend it. But have you noticed how crazy it is that that technique actually delivers sometimes? Have you noticed that? Why? Why does that work? Again, I do not recommend it. That is not a valid study technique.

However, it's because of the nature of the Word of God itself. It's because of the nature of the Bible itself. Look at Hebrews 4:12. Everybody, look that up. And when you're at Hebrews 4:12, tell me, “Got it!”

Hebrews 4:12 says this. 

The Word of God is alive and active. It is sharper than any double-edged sword. It penetrates even to dividing the soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It judges the thoughts and the attitudes of the heart.

So rather than putting on a blindfold and just pointing the finger, this is how God's Word is intended to work. It's part of this interactive relationship that we have with God, and it's meant to work that way. It's one of the primary ways that God speaks into our lives day by day.

One day you might come to Him bruised and tired, and you open up the Word, and He uses His Word right where you happen to be, to provide comfort and restore you . . . and you might be in Exodus.

And then the next day you may show up, and you may be reluctant and proud, and you don't want to be there. But He uses His Word to convict you and discipline you and call you back to Himself . . . and you might be in Ecclesiastes. It’s because He can use any part of His Word.

Another day you may come lonely and frightened, but you leave your time with Him possessing a boldness that you never believed that you could have had.

And this will happen to you day after day after day after day, if you will meet with Him day after day after day after day. To be fair, there may also be days where you show up confused and doubting, and you may leave that same day confused and doubting. Okay? But still, with a deepened hunger and an invitation to come back the next day and taste God's promises again and again.

Wonder Mentors are what we are calling the young ladies who are going to be doing a visual video devotion for you every day on the Wonder app. And most of those ladies that you're going to meet with every day are here in this room today. We're calling them Wonder Mentors. And listen to what they’re going to do. 

These ladies are going to take you deep into the theological tenants of our faith. They are not going to leave you in the shallow end. Are you ready for this? Are you ready to move on and get some meat, ladies? (cheering)

Yeah! Let’s go, we want the good stuff! They are going to take you places where you are going to need to strap on the oxygen masks and the regulator. Because we are going deep into the goodness of God’s Word. They’re not going to stick with the easy observations. They are going to challenge you with difficult questions.

You are going to learn to recognize the key themes. We talked last night about key themes that run through Scripture. Well, we have key themes that we've identified for the Wonder app as well. We have four meta-narratives. We're going to take a look at these really quickly, and you're going to learn that no matter where you are in the Bible, you may find the meta-narrative of creation. That would be the first one.

There are stamps within the app where you’re reading something, and you’re like, “You know what? This is talking about creation. I know I’m in the book of Luke. I know I’m in the book of Revelation, but this is a reference to the meta-theme of creation.” And you’ll go into your app, and you’ll grab that little stamp for creation, and you will drag it right up there and plop it right in Scripture as you’re reading it in the app so that you can mark up your app with the key themes as you read.

Another meta-theme that you’re going to learn to look for is the curse. This is anything that has to do with sin. So you're reading, and you're like, “Oh, this has to do with sin and how sin has impacted my life.” You're going to bring that stamp up and put it right where you're reading. So you're beginning to see how you can do that?

We also have really fun ways that you can underline themes. We have squiggly lines that you can use. Some things are animated. The next meta-narrative that you'll be learning to recognize is redemption.

So anything that has to do with Jesus’ blood on the cross that has been shed for you and how that has brought you back and brought you forgiveness, you will use the stamp for redemption.

And then the next meta-narrative is that of restoration. So anything having to do with heaven or holiness or righteousness and the new creation that you are in Jesus would be the restoration stamp.

There are other prominent themes that we don't have on the screen here, but they're in your app. You can draw them and place them like stamps in your app as you read God's Word: covenant love, kingdom life, prophecy and promises, the Great Commission, the commandments. You're going to grow. I hope to love marking up your Bible with stamps and lines and notes. Yes, there's an area for you to bring up a note and type in notes to keep for yourself so you can come back later.

Eventually, once our developers catch up to us, you're going to be able to tell your Wonder app, “Could you please show me every passage that I've marked with the theme of creation?” And a list of scriptures will come up that you've dropped the creation stamp on.

So it's an interactive app, and it's one that helps you see that thread that goes all the way through Scripture. But I think mostly what will happen, girls, is that you will be challenged the way that I was. You will be challenged to have a hunger to meet for God. In the morning, when you wake up, and you pick up your phone, the first thing you reach for won't be TikTok. The first thing that you reach for won't be some other app. I'm hoping that you cannot wait to open the Wonder app and meet with Jesus this day.

And how can I promise that that change will happen for you, as it did for me, if you will stick with it? Because there's no way that we can encounter God through the wonder of His Word, one of the greatest gifts that He has ever given us, and walk away untouched.

Isaiah 55:10 and 11. Tell me, “Got it!” when you're there. So along with me, read this: 

As the rain and the snow
come down from heaven
and do not return to it
without first watering the earth
and making it bud and flourish,
so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,
so is my word that goes forth from my mouth: 

It will not return to me empty,
but it will accomplish what I desire
and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.

So with no further ado, we're going to introduce you to the Wonder app. It is free. It is a download from the App Store that will nest within your phone, right next to all of the other apps that compete for your time and attention. But remember, this app is alive. It is active in your life. When you open this app, you're going to be greeted by your name. You'll be invited by the day's host to encounter once more the wonder of God's Word. Your host will read a few verses and invite you to swipe the screen for your daily video devotional.

Nancy: That’s Suzy Weibel, who serves as the theological content director for the Wonder app. After Suzy walked our teens through the app’s features, they broke up into small groups to experience the app for themselves. It was still in development at the time, but they got an exciting taste of what we’re creating just for them. And let me tell you, these girls are eager to dive into God’s Word, and that’s exactly what we’ve been asking God for. 

Our Wonder contributors are excited, too! These are college students and young professionals, and they’re gearing up to come alongside teen girls as spiritual big sisters. They’ll be leading them through daily devotional teaching on the app. Here’s a brief word from Dannah with her newly formed Wonder team:

Dannah: Okay, we have just finished a two-day retreat. The whole Wonder contributor team is in my living room. (cheering) My heart is full. My body is saying, “Can I take a nap?” But does anybody have just like a takeaway as the Lord has been preparing our hearts for this grand experiment. What's rising up?

Lorelle: Well, what's big on my heart right now is this current generation—and every generation—needs Jesus. But we as young adults and contributors to this app get the privilege of being a vessel to share absolute truth. God's Word is what teenage girls need right now, and they need that to shape their identity. It's exciting that they get to feel that joy and that true love that they can't get anywhere else. I'm excited that I get to be a part.

Elaiyna: Yeah, exactly. I mean, I am already seeing so many young girls who are just so thirsty for God's Word. They are hungering for it. It is such an incredible thing to be able to be part of a team and part of a group that God has chosen and put together to have the honor of helping those girls in that. I just cannot wait to continue going to the fountain with them and drinking of God's Word. It's the best blessing.

Hildsy: It reminds me of the verse where it talks about, “You will know the truth and the truth will set you free.” And this is freedom for us. It's freedom for the girls. We're experiencing this together. I know this weekend, like when we've gotten to be in the Word for three hours at a time on our own, it's been like a fountain of life. And so we anticipate that for these girls, and we're prayerful for that. We ask for the Holy Spirit to fill us and, in turn, fill them. So we're very, very excited.

Suzy: I'm thinking about how last night, we went out to dinner as a team, and there were two plates of pretzel bread on the table. I did not know that anybody had ordered them. I just smelled it, and I was like, “What is that heavenly smell?” And it tasted as good as it smelled.

And that's what I think of when I think of God's Word. It says, "Taste and see that the Lord is good” (Psalm 34:8). And when you learn to be fed by God's Word, and you catch that aroma of the goodness, and you get to dive in and taste . . . I mean, it is just the sweetest thing in the world, and we've had a lot of that this weekend.

Abby Jo: I think I speak for all of us when I say we're not just being Wonder contributors because we have a ton of extra time on our hands and we don't know what to do with it. I really believe it's because we love and delight in the Word, and we also love and delight in teen girls, and we're genuinely so excited that we have the privilege of serving them.

Lisa: I'm just so excited to be part of blessing girls through this ministry that blessed me so much in my teen years. So to be able to speak truth to girls that I know how much they need them, I know how much I needed them. And just like having a project like this, being able to be just in the palm of the hands of these girls, it's just something that I'm so excited and thankful for.

Grace: Spending the weekend with all of these amazing young ladies has shown me how much they love the Lord, and that love overflows in them. And I can't wait for these teen girls to see that in the app as they watch these devos.

Ashley: One thing that I've been thinking a lot about this weekend is how God's Word changes you. This app is not going to change teen girls' hearts. We are not going to change teen girls' hearts. But the Word and the Spirit can change teen girls' hearts. And so that's why I'm so excited about Wonder, because we're going to get girls to the Word, and that is going to change them.

Dannah: Amen! Ashley, that is a good word. Suzy, I ordered the pretzel bread. (laughter) And we are all going to be ordering a big dose of the Bread of Life through this app. I can only pray that the response in these teen girls is the same as Suzy’s response when that bread showed up at the table. We're excited. Thanks for your help

As you pray for us, and as you think about how the Lord would have you contribute . . . This is an expensive venture. We can't do it without your prayers, and we can't do it without you walking beside us in giving and spreading the word. Please start telling the girls in your church about this, the youth leaders in your church about this. Your pastor, tell him about this so that he can put his weight behind it.

We need you on this Giving Tuesday. God bless.

Nancy: Thank you, Dannah, and the Wonder team. These girls are going to do such a great job. Not only will they be creating video devotional content, they’ll also be connecting with teens in a variety of ways:

• Through live online studies 
• Inviting girls to gather virtually and dig deeper into Scripture. 
• And, get this: we’ll also be hosting Wonder Live events. These in-person gatherings will bring the digital experience to life, will create unforgettable moments of worship, Bible teaching, and connection to other believers. 

We can’t wait to get started! Are you feeling the excitement, too? Does inviting teen girls to behold the wonder of God’s Word thrill your heart like it does ours? If so, I want to invite you to come alongside us to make this Giving Tuesday project possible.

As we mentioned earlier, between yesterday and today, we’ve set a goal to raise $150,000 in partnership with Dannah’s Pure Freedom ministry. All of what is given to those ministries today will be designated toward the next phase of the Wonder project.

Now remember, every gift you give this month will also be matched dollar for dollar, so you’re multiplying your impact! So if you have a heart for Gen Z, if you want your daughters, granddaughters, and spiritual daughters to develop a rich relationship with God through a personal daily devotional life, then I believe this is a project worth investing in. 

There really is nothing like the Wonder app out there. As we step into that gap, we’re anticipating an impact that trickles down to affect generations of women to come because one day those teen girls will be the mothers and the grandmothers of the generations coming behind them. So, please step into the gap with us with your financial support.

To do that, you can visit ReviveOurHearts.com/donate to make your donation. Or, if you’d like, you can call us at 1-800-569-5959.

Dannah: Well Nancy, I am so looking forward to all the Lord is going to do through this project. I’m also looking forward to tomorrow’s program, because we get to revisit your True Woman breakout session on Bible journaling. I heard it was amazing! In fact, your breakout session was so impactful that we sold out of the notetaking Bible that was at the conference. That’s how awesome it was!

It’s very insightful. You’re going to want to hear it. Please come back as we gear up to journey through the Bible together in 2026. 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.

All Scripture is taken from the NIV.

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