Either Way, I Win

Dannah Gresh: Kathy’s sixteen-year-old son had cancer and was facing the possibility of death, but she says his faith was strong.

Kathy Branzell: He looked at his doctor, and he looked over at me, and he said, “Well, either way I win. This is an opportunity for His glory, and that’s all.”

Dannah: This is the Revive Our Hearts podcast with Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth, author of A Place of Quiet Rest, for May 4, 2021. I’m Dannah Gresh.

I really wish you and I were in a Zoom room right now, because you know what I would do? I would pull up the poll feature. I would ask you this question: Have you ever taken time to pray for your nation? Would your answer be yes or no or not really, I’d rather spend my time complaining on social media?

Ouch! I said that! I just said that! Today we’re going to talk about how we could move you to a hearty, “Yes, I have been praying for my nation, and I have a desire for it.”

Nancy, don’t you think this is an important topic for us to talk about right now?

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: It’s huge! Yes. I don’t know if there’s ever been a time when the United States of America and most of the nations of our world needed prayer more than we do right now.

I’m thankful that in the United States we have a designated National Day of Prayer, which is taking place this week—two days from now—the National Day of Prayer. And today, we want to encourage you to get involved in some way in praying with other believers, crying out on behalf of the United States, or whatever your nation may be, during this National Day of Prayer.

And, Dannah, the National Day of Prayer has been part of the fabric of both of our lives for a lot of years. I was spiritually mothered and mentored by Vonette Bright who, for many years, was the president of the National Day of Prayer Task Force.

I grew up hearing her talk about prayer and praying for our country and buttonholing people and encouraging them to get involved and pouring out her heart and grabbing others to get involved with her. This is something that was a huge passion to her. So it was something that all of us who were around her were caught up in.

And it was part of your life, too.

Dannah: Yes, because in the 90s, I would have been in my 20s. I was a young woman. But my mom was serving on the National Day of Prayer Task Force as a regional coordinator. She kept bugging me that we would do something together, and I had a burden for prayer for our nation.

And so from the middle of the country, I joined the National Day of Prayer Task Force so that I could do something with my mom, and it happened to be something really awesome in God’s kingdom. I served under Shirley Dobson. She was the director then. She really formed, I guess, my passion to pray for our nation, to pray for our leaders, to pray for business people who are such an important part of our country, and to pray for our churches.

But what I’m excited about today, Nancy, is that we have these rich friendships with these women who are leading the National Day of Prayer Task Force. And now we have another friend to add to our roster, because our guest today is Kathy Branzell. She’s a current president of the National Day of Prayer Task Force. If you missed our time with her yesterday, you’ll want to go back. This woman makes you want to pray.

She’s the author of An Invitation to Prayer: Developing a Lifestyle of Intimacy with God, and she’s here today to stir our hearts to pray for our country. Kathy, welcome back.

Kathy: Thanks for having me back. I love talking with you all.

Dannah: One of the things that really has stirred my heart to pray for our nation is the prayers being answered, the stories of God’s glory through the National Day of Prayer Task Force. Tell us one. Stir our hearts.

Kathy: Oh, wow! Well, last year we were praying for God’s glory out of Habakkuk 2:14, “For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.”

Nancy: What a promise!

Kathy: And so we were praying that promise and asked God to open our eyes and ears to what He was doing. “In the middle of a pandemic, in the middle of a shutdown, in the middle of economic distress, Lord, show us Your glory.”

We started writing glory stories. Our incredible communication’s coordinator, fresh out of college, Amy McDonald, started gathering these glory stories. We received all of these stories from people who were feeling alone, were feeling isolated, had nothing, and then a neighborly kindness would show up, rides to chemotherapy sessions.

In the midst of people being fearful to come out of their houses, people would not only come out of their house, but would get in a car with a stranger in their neighborhood who needed to go to chemo infusion each week.

People reaching out to people: “Do you need food? Do you need child care? Can I come mow your lawn?” Just basic human kindness. It wasn’t, “Hey, can I give you a million dollars?” But what people were doing were priceless.

And seeing people pray together. People persevering. Even in a time last year where there was almost zero personal interaction, personal gathering, people persevered and just resolved they were going to pray together. That was a glory story.

We reached more people than ever before in the sixty-nine years of the National Day of Prayer Task Force. We reached more people last year in our national broadcast and our virtual events around the world.

I just love that when Satan tries to sell you short, God always gives you more.

Dannah: I participated in some of those online events, and it was such a joy to pray and to join with my brothers and sisters all over this country to petition God on behalf of it.

Nancy: And let me just interrupt you, Dannah, to say that those events are taking place this week, again, on Thursday. And we’ve put a link up on www.ReviveOurHearts.com to the National Day of Prayer Task Force where you can find out more about what’s happening nationally, how you can link into that, and how to find out what’s happening in events that are more local in your area so that you can be a part of this National Day of Prayer.

And that’s why we wanted to air this program today so that you’ve got a couple of days to plan about how you’re going to get involved in the National Day of Prayer this Thursday.

Dannah: Yes. It really is that local boots-on-the-ground stuff that the glory stories are made of, aren’t they? You can get involved. This year you need to just go and have breakfast.

I don’t know if people know this, but for Thanksgiving we have turkey. For Christmas we have roast beef. For National Day of Prayer we have breakfast—National Day of Prayer breakfasts all over the country. Right? And who knows what exactly those will look like. It will depend on the pandemic and how safe it is in each, but go get involved.

And I am praying . . .you should be scared . . . Dannah Gresh is praying that when you join together, whether it’s online or at a local event in person, that God stirs your heart to be a part of praying for our nation, whether it’s through the National Day of Prayer or some other way for the rest of your life. Because I know that if you do, you will see God working in magnificent ways.

You know how I know that?

Kathy: I bet you have a testimony. I’m, like, on the edge of my seat.

Dannah: Yes, I do.

Kathy: Tell me more! It’s, like, pause—dot, dot, dot.

Dannah: Okay, because I saw God move in my mom’s life magnificently through the National Day of Prayer because she attended one event. In fact, I’m going to call her right now. Am I allowed to do that? Is it okay to do that? I know we’re on the air. We’re in the studio. She’s in my favorites—in case you wonder. She’s in my favorite contacts. My mom is an incredible business woman, international business woman, and also the world’s best mom and grandma.

Kay Barker: Hello?

Dannah: Hello. Mom? Are you there?

Kay: Yes.

Nancy: Hi, Kay.

Dannah: “Hi, Kay.” Did you hear that? That was Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth saying hello. We are in the Revive Our Hearts studios right now, Mom, and you are on the air.

Kay: Oh, okay. Hi, Nancy.

Nancy: It’s so good to hear your voice. We’re here with Kathy who’s the President of the National Day of Prayer Task Force. I’m excited for her to hear your experience with the National Day of Prayer.

Kathy: Yes.

Dannah: Mom, tell them how your time with the National Day of Prayer started.

Kay: Well, probably twenty-five years ago or so, our business was radio. We were working 24/7. And I thought, Lord, I really want to do something for You, but I’m always at work. What can I do here to minister and make a difference?

About the same time I prayed that prayer, I got a call from a friend who I hadn’t been in touch with for several years, and she said, “You know I’m heading up the National Day of Prayer.”

 I said, “Yes, I knew that.”

She said, “But we aren’t getting much activity or interest in the town, and I’d like to do something to make people know more about what’s going on, on that particular day. And every time I pray about it, your name comes to mind.”

I was smiling because I knew right away this is what God would have me do because we were in marketing and advertising, and I had all the community involved with my business.

So we got together, and we started planning with what was probably just a very small gathering at the local courthouse. We had probably twenty people, if that, on the National Day of Prayer. By the end of that year when we had everything planned and going, we had a prayer breakfast for most of the business people in town. There were at least 300 people there.

We had five or six churches open throughout the day with prayer, communities of prayer. You were invited to any of those churches. And there was a larger gathering at the courthouse.

So that’s how it all started. We did that together for about seven years. Then she finally had to give it up and was married for the first time, at age 50. Can anyone relate to that?

Dannah: Oh, I think that’s a direct comment, Nancy.

Nancy: I’ll take it.

Dannah: Nancy was married at the age of fifty-six, if you don’t know.

Kay: So, anyway, she was not able to put the time into it, and we turned it over to another. But I think it’s still going and doing well.

Dannah: What I love about that story is that you were a business woman with influence and a burden to serve the Lord, and you prayed. And this new National Day of Prayer local director didn’t have the influence she needed, and she prayed. God answered those prayers, worked, brought you together, and you saw for years prayers answered just like that.

I am hungry for women, business leaders listening right now, women who are saying, “I want to serve You, Lord, but how?” to hear that story and say, “Okay, God. I’m praying. What do You want me to do?” I want to see the miracle unfold.

Kay: Right. Exactly. He did that.

Dannah: He did that. He’s so good.

Mom, I promise never to call you in the middle of a Revive Our Hearts recording again.

Nancy: Don’t promise that.

Kathy: I don’t believe you.

Kay: I appreciate that. Thank you.

Dannah: If you don’t know Kay Barker (that’s my mom’s name in case you wanted to know), right now she’s getting off the phone to pray for you that God would use you. And I know that He will answer her prayers, because that’s what He does.

Nancy: Amen.

Kathy: That was perfect! Kay needs to come and be a spokesperson for the National Day of Prayer Task Force. She just explained perfectly how God takes the sacrifice, the little that we have, the widow’s mite, and He presses it down and shakes it up. And everyone, you want your piece of the puzzle and His kingdom come to be done in your city, to not be missing from the puzzle.

Your mom just gave the perfect explanation of how a whole city can come together, how business people can come, how prayers come together, and they can watch a city be transformed through the power by praying to the Lord to bless their city and bless their nation.

Nancy: Yes. And you may be thinking, Well, it’s a little late for me to be doing that for this year’s National Day of Prayer. So my encouragement would be to plug in to what you can plug into this year, either through the national broadcast—we’ve got a link to all the information on our website—or with a local group if you’re aware of that happening in your area.

But then if you have some loaves and fishes you might want to bring to next year’s day, start thinking about that now. Go to the website that we’re linking you to in relation to the National Day of Prayer, and that will give you some ideas to get connected.

Maybe what you can do is different than what Kay did, but it’s something in your community. Start planning and praying now about how you can get even more involved next year. It will be the first Thursday of May, Lord willing, every year, next year as well.

Kathy: Every year. That’s right.

Dannah: You know, Kathy, as we’re sitting here talking about prayer, I happen to know that you didn’t just pop into this position as the President of the National Day of Prayer without walking through some fires where your prayer passion was forged and refined.

Kathy: Yes

Dannah: Will you tell us a little bit about that?

Kathy: Yes. I always say, “Chase the fruit to the root.” I would say that I have been a walking testimony of prayer and this story: for praying don’t grow weary.

A lot of people right now are saying, “I’ve prayed for America, and I’ve prayed for America.”

Nancy: Or prayed for my marriage or for my child.

Kathy: Or my prodigal. My answer right now about America is: I shudder to think what America would look like if we hadn’t been praying. Pray and don’t give up.

I learned that through fourteen-and-a-half years of brain cancer. I personally had a brain tumor for fourteen-and-a-half years. My son was born in July, and I was diagnosed in November. I was sick the first fourteen-and-a-half years of his life—five different rounds of experimental chemo that was lovely, and friends who cared for me.

When I was in St. Louis, I was like an Excel spreadsheet at my church of child care and laundry and food and making sure that I wasn’t passed out, crawling to the bathroom after chemo, being sick. So many people came and cared for me.

But I prayed and didn’t give up.

Nancy: I assume other people prayed, too, and didn’t give up.

Kathy: So many people prayed. We prayed, and we prayed, and we prayed.

Nancy: And was it tempting to grow weary of praying? It had to be after fourteen years.

Kathy: Yes. I’m just going to be transparent and real with you. Don’t get me wrong, I was grateful for every prayer and every pray-er. After fourteen years of people with great intentions—let me just start there—great intentions, but full of opinions as well. There’s a lot of hurtfulness. Take every thought captive when you’re talking to somebody, before you pontificate on their situation. Make sure you really prayed it through and heard from the Lord.

There had been years and years and years of, “Drink this green milkshake of stuff,” and “Sleep with this tape playing.”

Nancy: Or, “Go to this place.”

Kathy: “Go to this place.” All kinds of things. People wagging their finger and saying, “Unresolved sin in your life.”

Nancy: Or, “Not enough faith.”

Kathy: “Not enough faith?” I’m, like, still here! You don’t know what my prayer life looks like!

But I would say that so many people who love me deeply at the National Day of Prayer Committee, I had been anointed and prayed over so many times, I nicknamed myself “Olive.”

Nancy: Olive oil.

Kathy: I was drinking in it. And the third go-round of my chemotherapy, in St. Louis, they stopped it too soon and didn’t realize it. We were getting ready to move to Colorado. My husband left me with two children to go start his job in Colorado. He left me crying my eyes out in St. Louis, because I didn’t want to leave St. Louis. But wherever the Lord sends us . . .

And it became known as the summer of the flibbertigibbet. Remember, in the Sound of Music, the words, “flibbertigibbet.” We would have a lot of conversations like: “You didn’t tell me that . . . Well, when were you going to tell me that? . . . Well, that would have been nice to know.”

And my husband saying, “I did tell you that.”

He was chalking this up to, “She’s sad about leaving. She’s got two small children. She’s trying to sell our house. So, just let it go. Just let it go. She’s just not able . . . the brain’s turned off, the emotions are turned on.” Right?

Well, wrong. We moved to Colorado two weeks before my kids start school, not even. Long-story-short, it became very obvious very quickly that the tumor was back because I lost all short-term memory for eighteen months of my life. So I would meet you, and I would turn away, and I’d turn and be, like, “Oh, hi! I’m Kathy.”

Nancy: Wow!

Kathy: Our new neighbors thought I was a drunk. The school principal . . . I signed up for the P.T.O. four times in the first week.

Dannah: We laugh.

Kathy: Go ahead and laugh. Don’t feel bad about it. I mean, you have to keep your sense of humor. I see Jesus as joyful. When He was here, I picture Him smiling and laughing. And you had to laugh. I would finally introduce myself as “Teflon Brain,” because nothing stuck. It would just slide right through.

I had my long-term memory, but because we moved to Colorado, I had no short-term memory. So eventually, when I left the house, I was lost. That was before G.P.S., so I couldn’t leave the house, because there was no G.P.S. to get me home.

I would turn the water on and not turn it off. I couldn’t walk away from anything. My whole life became Post-It notes. I even had Post-It notes that said, “Believe the Post-It notes.” And I had to journal. I had to journal if I ate because my husband would call me and would say, “What did you have for lunch?”

I would open my little journal that I kept in my pocket, and I’d say, “At 11:45 I ate a ham and cheese sandwich” because at 12:15, I didn’t remember that at 11:45 I ate a ham and cheese sandwich.

So how amazing that, in this miraculous moment of healing that God performed, He not only took the tumor out of my body, but all that was still messed up in me—the five different rounds of hideous chemo . . . On a good day, my blood pressure was 60 over 40, on a good day. My kidneys, we were tricking them to work to keep me out of dialysis.

Here’s what I want to say to somebody listening right now, because I usually only tell this story in person to people, because ministry needs to take place in the testimony. Obviously, I’m still here. I will tell you that in 2008, I was miraculously healed.

In a moment where there was nothing more they could do, I had signed paperwork for a surgery that I probably wasn’t going to survive. But I was doing it for the sake of science because there was nowhere else to turn, and there was nothing else they could do, and I was only suffering.

God sent a woman from Mexico to a prayer event. I went to a prayer event to say goodbye. God gave her a dream of me before she came. When she locked eyes on me, it completely freaked her out because she knew it was me, and she knew she came with a message.

She came and, through an interpreter, told me that she’d had a dream about me, not someone like me—it was me. She was touching my face. I mean, there was no social distancing going on in this moment. She was just hysterical to be obedient to God.

And my friends were kind of puffed up around me, like, “What’s this woman about to say?”

Nancy: And you’d probably heard a lot of things, and you were wondering . . .

Kathy: “Here we go again.” In that moment, I would have loved to have been Fanny Faithful, but I wasn’t. It was really a, “Here we go again,” moment.

And she said, “God told me in a dream that you are healed from the top of your head to the soles of your feet.” And she got on the floor and touched my feet, and I just looked at her.

We talked yesterday about who are some of the giants who taught you how to pray—T.W. Hunt was one of those. He’s just so precious to me. He was standing there and saw me with just this blank look on my face. And he said, “Honey, what are you thinking?”

And I was not thinking, I’m healed. All I could mutter out of my mouth was, “Lord, heal my unbelief.” That’s what I needed healing from more than anything in that moment was my unbelief and what was happening in this moment. Because I had resolved that I was getting to go Home.

That’s what I want to say to those of you who are listening when I said, “Ministry always has to happen in this moment.” Because there are probably hundreds of you sitting there right now going, “What about my mom? What about my dad? What about my child? What about my best friend? What about my sister?”

Nancy: “Did they not have enough faith?”

Kathy: And that is not true. You need to understand, in Christ, death is a reward, not a punishment. I’m going to say that again because you’re, like, “What?”

In Christ, in the liberty of walking in the full forgiveness of Jesus Christ, death is what we actually, eventually long for. In His time and His numbering of our day, it’s what we’ve been waiting for. “Welcome! Well done, good and faithful servant,” is what we long for. Living in paradise with Him and worship of Him, where there’s no pain, that’s the reward.

Nancy: And a greater prize by far than physical healing in this life.

Kathy: By far. You’re hearing from a woman who was saying goodbye to her young children and her husband who adored her and was just putting her earthly life in His hands and getting to go Home.

So when I was pronounced, “Healed,” I was, like, “Wait. I can’t emotionally do this again with you.”

After I said, “Lord, heal my unbelief,” I said, “This cannot get lost in the translation because I’m about to have surgery, so I need to know, I am healed? Or is the surgery going to work, and I will be healed.”

And before the translator could translate to her, she, in perfect English, said, “It is done.”

So now my people are freaked out because she just pronounced me healed from fourteen years of a brain tumor. And her people are freaked out because she understood and spoke English. It was just this frozen moment of time that I’ll never forget.

So I said, “Well, you guys need to pray because I’m supposed to have surgery. Now I have to go to my oncologist, and I need to say, ‘Oh, by the way, I’m good.’ So we need to pray they’ll listen, and they’ll give me an MRI.”

So we circled up, and we prayed. Then we went on with our conference for two days and continued to have our prayer conference. It was so cute, because every time she saw me, she would just hug me and move on.

Nancy: You probably had no category for this.

Kathy: Nothing. So we just went on with what we were there to do.

So I go home. I said nothing to my husband. I go home, and he’s angry. He’s doing that where you talk with your teeth clenched because you’re trying not to cry, but you’re mad, and you’re trying not to cry. He’s, like, “What is this? What are they doing to us?”

What had happened is my doctor had sent me an MRI request, and I had not called her. I will tell you that in that moment my unbelief was healed. He tossed that MRI request across the kitchen counter.

Nancy: Your doctor wanted you to have an MRI?

Kathy: She called me back for one more MRI before the surgery. And—very long story short—I was healed. It was gone. Everything in my body was set right, except my body does not have the ability to cool and heat itself, so I can’t get too cold or too hot. I just can’t regulate the temperature of my body.

Nancy: To this day?

Kathy: To this day. But that’s the only thorn left in my side.

So when you think about all that I can remember, all the Scripture He allows me and enables me to remember, the stories He’s given back to me for that eighteen months of my life I didn’t have a ten-second memory. It’s just so amazing to me.

Nancy: Wow! When the miracle happened, what did your doctor team think?

Kathy: My oncologist did the, “Thank You, Jesus,” dance around her office. She was thrilled!

Nancy: Is she a believer?

Kathy: Yes. And what was sad in the moment was that I didn’t know she was a believer. She’s doing the “Thank You, Jesus,” dance around her office, and I’m sitting there looking at her saying, “Thank You, Jesus, thank You, Jesus.” And I said, “You’re a believer?”

And she just froze and said, “You didn’t know I was?”

So that was a standing stone moment in her life. I want people who meet me, I don’t want to be obnoxious, but I at least hope my attitude, I at least hope something in me says, “She’s a believer.”

Nancy: So that oncologist, she saw that as a miracle?

Kathy: Yes. The neurosurgeon was furious. He thought I was pulling some sort of stunt.

Nancy: He was the one that was going to do the surgery?

Kathy: Yes. He thought I had gotten somebody else to do the MRI, that there was something that had gone amuck here, and that I was just trying to get out of the surgery.

Dannah: It was so miraculous he couldn’t believe it.

Kathy: Right.

Nancy: So eventually, what did he chalk that up to?

Kathy: Who knows. I went back after two weeks. I went back after two months. I went back after six months. Every six months, for five years, and it was still gone. And it’s still gone. And to this day, I don’t know that the word “miracle” would come out of his mouth.

Nancy: But he acknowledged that it wasn’t there? It was there before.

Kathy: Oh, for fourteen years. He couldn’t wait to do the surgery.

Nancy: And it wasn’t there then.

Kathy: Right. And so there was all this great rejoicing. And, of course, it turned into praise and thanksgiving. But then, thirteen months later, my son was diagnosed with blood cancer. And there was this implosion of the heart, like, “What? Here we go again.”

My first response was, “Lord, just give it back to me.” Like, that’s not how God works. “That’s not how I work. This is about him. This isn’t about you. Now I’m going to grow His faith. You had your turn. You had your opportunity. Now it’s his journey.”

A sixteen-year-old teenager had to remind me, had to give me this revival moment at Children’s Hospital in Denver. As he was diagnosed and he looked at his doctor, and he looked over at me, he said, “Well, either way I win.”

The doctor said, “I don’t understand what you’re saying.”

And he goes, “Well, God gave my mom cancer for fourteen years of my life to realize this is an opportunity for His glory, and that’s all. I don’t need to be afraid because, Doc, if by the miracle of medication you heal me and I get to live longer, great! That’s a win! God gets the glory. But, Doc, if He takes me Home, and I get to be with Jesus forever, that’s really the bigger win! So, Doc, for you, no guilt either. No guilt, no glory for Doc.”

Nancy: Wow!

Kathy: And the doctor said, “I have no idea how to respond to you people.”

Nancy: He never met a teenager like that.

Kathy: And Chandler said, “Well, then, just watch.”

Ultimately, God got the glory, again. After fourteen excruciating months of chemotherapy, his junior and senior year of high school, every Friday in the infusion bed all afternoon long, sick every weekend, but God got the glory.

And not only did this very rare blood cancer go away, now Chandler is in his late twenties. He graduated from college; he is serving the Lord. The cancer had completely dissolved his right cheek bone and was eating its way towards his brain. And in the miracle that, God regrew his cheek bone. It’s just noted as a miracle.

Again, this story, for some people, it’s like, “Wait! That’s not fair! She got two miracles?”

Everybody’s got their story. Everybody’s got their trials and tests. There are so many other things we could talk about that didn’t turn out miraculously, but God . . . And that’s just what grows your prayer life.

As a mommy, I didn’t say, “Well, now I’m not going to pray anymore because now You’ve given it to my son,” or “I’m not going to pray anymore because this has gone on for fourteen years,” or “I’m not going to pray anymore because . . .” Because why? Where else would we turn? Where else would we go?

I think about the disciples when a lot of Jesus’ disciples walked away from Him in a moment. He turned to His twelve and said, “Are you going to leave, too?”

The disciples said, “Where would we go?”

And that’s my question today for people listening. If you’ve given up on praying for America, if you’ve given up on praying for your marriage, if you’ve given up on praying for your prodigal, where else would you go?

Don’t give up! Don’t give up!

Dannah: My heart is quieted and quickened. I don’t know what else to say.

Nancy: Dannah, I’d love to ask Kathy, who’s been talking to us about prayer, to pray for us, for our listeners, each one of us with our own story and in our own place in our journey, here on this week of the National Day of Prayer. But you’ve made this a sacred day of prayer for us on this Tuesday.

I’d love for you to just pray that God would do a work of His grace and His Spirit in each of our hearts, wherever we are, whatever the need is, that He would move us to keep praying and not give up. Would you do that?

Kathy: Absolutely! I would be honored.

So, Lord, as we head to the National Day of Prayer, I just think about our theme verse, 2 Corinthians 3:17, “For the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.”

Father, we do pray, Spirit, pour out Your life, Your liberty on those who are running dry, on those who have forgotten that You alone are the designer and definer of love, true love, sacrificial love, unconditional love, love that has nothing to hide, love that can’t be earned, love, everlasting love.

Father, I ask that You pour that out on every listener today who has grown weary. Pour out life, abundant life, the life that You came to give, eternal life, Lord. Maybe there are some even thinking today, Is it even worth living? Father, pour out Your presence and Your love in them right now.

Let us walk fully in the liberty that comes with Jesus Christ, fully forgiven, fully loved, life unending, life where the reward of death is more life. We just keep going. And death, where is your sting? But the games and the shame, the whispers, the pit that Satan tries to drag us back into, that there’s no chance of that.

Lord, I pray that we would run into Your arms, and that we would not grow weary from the prayers, but to know that we always have someone who has inclined their ear, the one person who can do exactly kingdom come work in our life.

You, Abba Father, thank You for holding us in Your arms and for listening to our prayers, in Jesus’ name, amen.

Dannah: Wow! What a testimony, Nancy, to the power of prayer and God’s faithfulness! I love that! I needed that reminder just to never stop praying and to keep running to Jesus.

Nancy: I think that as we had that conversation with Kathy Branzell just a short time ago, that both of us came away feeling there was such a sweet sense of the presence of Christ in that conversation in that room and that both of our hearts were deeply touched.

Dannah: They sure were. I’m so grateful to Kathy for sharing with us and reminding us that every circumstance of life is an opportunity for God’s glory.

Nancy: If God is always at work, and as Robert and I have experienced over this past year, God uses even our most difficult challenges for His good purposes. God really can be trusted to write your story, my friend.

And now, as we come to the end of our fiscal year this month and gear up for the next year of ministry, I’m so eager to see how the Lord is going to continue writing His story in the lives of women all around the world through this ministry.

Dannah: Yes. Nancy, I’m so humbled and amazed continually at how God uses Revive Our Hearts to impact women through so many outreaches.

One woman had been wanting the Lies Women Believe book in Spanish for such a long time. And she wrote to us recently. Listen to what she had to say:

Woman: Today it is my fourth wedding anniversary, and my husband surprised me and brought me to tears with this book.

You cannot imagine what a blessing your ministry has been to me for the past two years. I cannot quite remember how exactly I came across your ministry, but it was undoubtedly thanks to the sweet providence of my dear Lord. Each day you are my guide, along with my personal Bible study. Thanks for so much.

My prayers are constantly with you, that you can reach many women just like me who need counsel and guidance. God bless you.

Nancy: Wow! I’m so grateful for the impact that Revive Our Hearts has been able to have on this woman. Our prayer is that the Lord will continue to expand this ministry through the help of listeners like you to reach other women just like her.

As we’ll be sharing with you over these next days, we’re asking the Lord to provide $750,000 during the month of May to enable us to close this budget year in the black and to move into the budget year ahead with the ability to reach out to women around the world.

So if this ministry has been a blessing to you, and you have a heart for this message . . . Perhaps as you’ve listened to Kathy Branzell you’ve thought, Wow! Wouldn’t we love to see millions of women around the world as a great army of pray-ers,” then I want to encourage you to consider making a gift today to help us meet that need during the month of May.

If the Lord prompts you to make a donation at this time, visit us at ReviveOurHearts.com. You can also give us a call at 1–800–569–5959. And let me just say in advance, “Thank you so much for your support at this important time. It means more to us than you can know.”

Dannah: Nancy, one of the reasons we need that support, both in terms of prayer and finances, is because we’re living in a time of confusion about what it means to live as a woman in today’s world.

Nancy: Yes. That is so true, Dannah. I hope you’ll join us tomorrow as Abigail Dodd shares how we can live as women of God according to His Word. Please be back for Revive Our Hearts.

Revive Our Hearts with Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth wants to help you grow a passion for prayer. It’s an outreach of Life Action Ministries.

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