Promised Peace for Frazzled Hearts

Dannah Gresh: Starting a new day can feel overwhelming sometimes, can’t it? Dr. Jim Tour understands.

Dr. Jim Tour: Sometimes I get before the Word of God early in the morning, and I’m like, “How am I gonna get through everything that I have to do?!” I get before the Word of God and spend time in the Word, and after thirty minutes I am just ready to go. I can take on the world. I just come out like a roaring lion. The Scriptures lift me up!

Dannah: This is the Revive Our Hearts podcast with Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth, author of Lies Women Believe: And the Truth That Sets Them Free, for March 18, 2026. I’m Dannah Gresh.

If you’re feeling busy, frazzled, overwhelmed by a mountainous to-do list, I can’t wait for you to hear from today’s guest! He’s pretty busy himself, but he’s not frazzled. Actually, he’s learned where to find peace. Do you want to find it, too? He’s going to point you in the right direction.

That’s right—we're joined today by Dr. James Tour. My friend, Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth, emailed our team and said, “We’ve got to email this scientist! I’ve never met him, but I came across an interview he did, and he has such a full and tender heart toward the Word. What a testimony!”

Now, get ready for the résumé. Dr. James Tour is a professor at Rice University. He holds appointments in chemistry, material science, nanoengineering, and computer science. He's published hundreds of papers and holds—get this—hundreds of patents!

He’s helped pioneer nanocars, nanomachines, and he's a member of the National Academy of Engineering. Welcome, Dr. James Tour, you go by Jim. We are so glad to have you here at Revive Our Hearts today. 

Dr. Tour: Thank you so much.

Dannah: I’ve got a question. I just read what you do, but . . . what do you do? Tell us in layman's terms.

Dr. Tour: I'm just a professor. I teach classes. 

Dannah: You’re “just a professor”?

Dr. Tour: I have a research lab, and a bunch of students and postdocs work in the lab, and we publish papers, and we write patents and start companies.

Dannah: Well, that’s a very humble way to say that you are a very decorated and respected—I would say world renowned and influential—scientist, and you also are marked by humility. So, I’ll say that for you. But thank you for being a believer in that field, because how desperately we need them!

But I do have a question, how did you come to know Christ, and how did you end up being a believer in the field of science?

Dr. Tour: Well, I came to know the Lord at the age of eighteen. I come from a secular Jewish home in New York City. I was in college, and a young man in the Navigators campus ministry shared with me. He gave me the message of the gospel, and I was deeply convicted of my sin.

At first, he had me read a verse from the Bible which says, “For all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23 NKJV). I said, “I’m not a sinner. I never killed anybody; I never robbed a bank.” This is actually a very secular Jewish thing to say. Secular Jews don’t consider little things, “sin.”

Then he turned to Matthew 5:28 which says (Jesus said), “[Truly] I say to you anyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has committed adultery already with her in his heart.” I was deeply convicted by that because I was addicted to pornography from the age of fourteen.

There was no internet. I was working in a series of gas stations along a highway just outside New York City. My job was to clean the restrooms and parking lots. I would find these magazines, and I became addicted.

And by the age of eighteen, I was heavily addicted, but nobody knew. I didn’t tell anybody. We didn’t tell people our problems in those days. Now, if you have a problem, you start a YouTube channel. You talk about it, and others who have a problem come in and you talk about it. But we didn’t talk about our problems in those days. And so, I was deeply convicted by that.

He gave me the gospel message. It was a few months later; I was all alone in my room, and I was still carrying this burden of sin. I just fell on my knees and I said, “Lord, forgive me, because I am a sinner!” And I felt this amazing peace just start to drop over me, and this burden of sin that I’d been carrying just started to lift!

And then, just off to my right, Jesus is standing! It was not a clear optical thing, but His presence was so strong! I turned toward Him. I was already on my knees; I put my face to the ground, and there was just this amazing sense of love that was pouring over me, tremendous love! 

There was no condemnation, there was no judgment, it was just kindness. I had never felt like that before, never felt like that after. He just filled the room. I don’t even know how long I was there. I remember, after a while I got up, and I wiped my eyes. 

I couldn’t stop thinking about Jesus. I was thinking about Him all the time. I was dreaming about Him. I was dreaming about telling people about Jesus. It was just a very strange dream. I didn’t tell anybody, I didn’t know what to tell people. I didn’t have a construct for this. “Who’s going to believe me anyway?”

And then two weeks later, the guy who had shared with me a few months earlier said, “Jim, have you received the Lord?” 

I said, “I think I did. Why do you ask?” 

He said, “You haven’t stopped smiling for weeks. You’re different!” 

And I said, “I feel different! How can I stay close to God like this?” 

And he said, “If you read your Bible every day, you’ll stay close to God. If you don't, you won’t.”

And I said, “Well, that I can do.” I just read my Bible every day.

He gave me a little green Gideon’s New Testament—it was the New Testament, Psalms and Proverbs. Gideons used to hang out on college campuses. That’s what I started with, and I’ve kept that pattern now for forty-seven years, where I read the Scriptures every day—I mean every day! When I had Covid, when I had the flu, when I was in the hospital, every day!

The Bible makes many promises about this. It puts it in two ways: it says “every day” and “day and night.” Joshua chapter 1, verses 8 and 9 says, “If you make this Word of God your meditation [you meditate on this day and night],you will have success wherever you go” (paraphrased). This is what it says. 

And this is not talking about money; it’s talking about a relationship with God that is just so good! Psalm 1 says, if you are in the Word of God every day: 

How blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
Nor stands in the way of sinners,
Nor sits in the seat of scoffers!
But his delight is in the law of the Lord,
And on His law he meditates day and night.
He is like a tree firmly planted by streams of water
Which yields its fruit in its season;
And its leaf does not wither,
And in all that he does, he prospers. (Psalm 1:1–3 NASB1995)

So, you see, it says specifically every day—“day and night.” The Bible puts it those two ways. If you do this day and night what is going to happen is, when everybody else is drying up around you, the Bible says you’ll just be bearing fruit. That’s the promise! It’s not my promise to you, it’s God’s promise! When God speaks, things have to happen! 

 

As a scientist, what I do is, I chase the universe, trying to explain it. This is not what God does. God speaks! And the universe comes into conformity at His Word. It has to happen; it has to happen that way. It comes into conformity with His Word.

People think, Oh, the Bible predicts the future. It does not. It defines the future. The Bible says it, so the future has to conform to this. This is exactly what happens. Psalm 112:2 says, “[The man who delights in the Lord, his children] will be mighty on this earth” (NASB1995 paraphrased).

You know, if not for yourself, why not for your children? Your children will be mighty on this earth, it says in Psalm 112, verses 1 and 2. 

O how I love Your law!
It is my meditation all the day.
Your commandments make me wiser than my enemies,
For they are ever mine.
I have more insight than all my teachers,
For Your testimonies are my meditation. (Psalm 119:97–99)

So when I make the Word of God day and night, every day, my meditation, this is what it says is going to happen. So I just stuck with it, and the whole pornography thing was just broken on that day. I didn’t even realize it at first, but it was just gone!

I had many other problems that didn’t leave, but God used that one to convict me of my sin, He used that one to show me His power. If you’re in the Word God every day, you’re going to be okay!

I teach Bible studies. I’ve taught Bible studies for a decade, in a maximum security prison. I’ve been teaching Bible studies to college students for more than twenty-six years straight—and if they’re in the Word of God, they’re going to do fine in life. 

I don’t know if you knew, three days a week is not every day. Did you know that? (laughter) Every day means every day. There’s specificity in the Bible, and when it says every day, it means it!

So when people tell me, “Oh, I’m just too busy; I can’t do that.” Look, I’ve raised four children. I’ve had a very busy career. I’ve traveled all over the world . . . and, I’ve been in the Word of God every day. So, I know it can be done!

Dannah: Amen! You know, as you’ve been saying your testimony . . . I’m looking at the faces of our whole team. We’ve got producers and writers, and they’re rapt with attention because the Holy Spirit in you is so alive and active.

I believe being in the Word every day keeps the Holy Spirit stirred in our hearts in such a special way. But what I’m seeing in you is . . . you just quoted all those Scriptures! You didn’t open your Bible, you don’t have notes. They’re in you, and they’re pouring out of you! So, you’ve obviously also memorized Scripture. Can you speak to why that’s been important in your life?

Dr. Tour: Yes, so I’ve memorized Scripture for many decades. We would have family devotions when my kids were little, and we would memorize Scriptures together—not just a Scripture—we would memorize whole chapters together, like Luke chapter 6, entire chapters of Proverbs together. That’s what we would do. 

I’d commit them to memory, and I’d work at it. I’d try to make it part of my life. So this is what I do: I take the Scriptures and make it part of my life. The Bible speaks more about meditating on the Word of God than it does about reading, which is slow, pensive, thoughtful.

And this is the way I read the Scriptures. Actually, I read the Scriptures from beginning-to-end, so I start at Genesis 1, and I read through Revelation 22. When I’m done. I start again. Now, I’m reading throughout, too, as I’m teaching Bible studies. This is my normal pattern, and I don’t like to be disturbed by all sorts of commentaries.

When I’m teaching the Word of God, I’ve got to use commentaries to help me get the lay of the land, but I want to focus in on the Word of God. I don’t want other books around; I just want the Lord to speak it. 

What happens is, it says in James chapter 4, “You do not receive because you do not ask” (v. 2). So the main reason why we don’t receive answers to prayer is because we flat out never asked! And so I’ll ask, “Lord, speak to me this morning! Lord, speak to me from this passage.” And then I just start to read it. I just start to stare at this verse, and it comes alive!

 

When my eyes keep being brought back to the verse and the verse above keeps being brought back, I say, “Lord, You’re trying to tell me something. What is it here?” Sometimes I don’t even consciously have to try to memorize it. It just becomes a part of my life because I’ve stared at it for several days. 

I love the Scriptures; I love the Word of God! This is God speaking to us! This is His way of speaking; He speaks primarily through the Word of God. No doubt, God can speak to our hearts through the Holy Spirit, but I can be really messed up in this. I mean, sometimes I think God’s speaking to me, and it may or may not be the Lord, it may be my own mind. But when He speaks to me through the Scriptures, it’s just a treasure that I can hold on to! 

And so often it is a portion that is going to affect my life that very day. Sometimes I get before the Word of God early in the morning, and I’m like, “How am I gonna get through everything that I have to do?!” And I get before the Word of God and spend time in the Word, and after thirty minutes I am just ready to go. I can take on the world! I just come out like a roaring lion. The Scriptures lift me up! 

Dannah: I know; I love that! I try to spend an hour a day in the Word, and people say, “Ah, you’re so holy!” But it’s not because I’m holy, it’s because I’m so unholy! About twenty or thirty minutes in, I start to lock; I start to change. 

I think differently, I see the Word differently. I’m not thinking about my to-do list. I’m thinking about my Jesus! Then I have a good twenty or thirty minutes with Him because I’ve stopped the distraction. It does take time. It takes time to slow down and read His Word.

You talk about meditation. I want to pause there for a moment, because it is different than Bible study, it is different than reading. It’s letting Scripture interpret Scripture. It’s letting God’s Spirit have your mind to focus on the Word.

You make it sound like it’s really easy. I have found that it’s really hard. One of the things I have to do to meditate is walk, because when I’m walking my brain pays attention to what I’m meditating on, slows it down or whatever.

Give us some tips on how to meditate, because you said as you’ve meditated, memorization has been easier for you.

Dr. Tour: Yes. Okay, so the way I teach it is this: if I go a week without leading somebody to the Lord—just one-on-one—it is a wasted week for me. What I teach them when they have received the Lord is this:

You start in John chapter 1. It says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (v. 1). Read it a second time. Now break it up. “In the beginning . . .” and just stop. “Lord, what does that mean, in the beginning?” That’s before there was time, before there was anything! Nothing else was around! “In the beginning was the Word!”

The Word. The Word is information . . . everything! As a scientist, everything starts with information.You can’t have a bottle of water, you can’t have a camera, you can’t have a chair. Everything had to start with information.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” It was information, “Word.” The Word was with God, the Word was God. Then you look at the next verse: “He was in the beginning with God” (v. 2). Read it again.

It puts a pronoun, “He” on “Word.” So this Word is not some inanimate object, this is an individual. We put a pronoun on an individual. He was in the beginning with God. Think about that. From the beginning.

And then, when you get down to verse 14, your mind is going to blow! It is going to say, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as from the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

That Word that was with God, that was God, became flesh. God took on flesh! Think about that. This is the God of heaven and earth; this is the God who’s created the entire universe! He took on flesh. In Hebrews it says He took on flesh and blood because his children are of flesh and blood (see 2:14).

In solidarity with us He took on flesh and blood. And if He comes among us as a man, we’d be scared of Him, so He says, “I’ll be born among them.” Because when one is born among us, we don’t fear them.

“I’ll be born among them. I’ll teach them. I’ll teach them myself how it is to have a relationship with God.” Where Jesus would go off early in the morning, while it was still dark, in Mark chapter 1, and “He would go off to a lonely place and He would pray there” (see v. 35).

Jesus had this relationship; He demonstrated this. I don’t have to shave my head and be a monk and go up on top of a mountain. He lived among His own people, He lived among His own community and He had just a regular life; this is the way He lived His life.

That’s how I know I can be a scientist and I can please God in this. Jesus said at the end of His life in John chapter 17, verse 4: “[Father,] I have glorified You on earth, having accomplishing the work that You have given me to do.” So this is how I can glorify God on earth, by accomplishing the work that He has given me to do.

I mean, He demonstrates this over and over and over again for us what it is. This is why I can take hold of the Word, and I see these people come to Lord all the time! Because it says, “They shall come, they shall come from the east and the west and the north and the south and sit at the table in the kingdom of God. They shall come” (see Matt. 8:11).

When God says they shall come, it has to happen! It has to happen. This is what He says. He told His disciples, “From now on you will be catching men” (see Luke 5:10). I mean, this is not just fishing. In fishing you may or not catch. But He says that from now on you’re going to be catchingmen!

You know, fishing is not that fun for me. It’s really fun when you’re catching. And I say, “Lord, You said that I’d be catching men! Lord, do this, do this!” When we become passionate about this, when we love it, Jeremiah chapter 9, verse 1: 

Oh that my head were waters
And my eyes a fountain of tears,
That I might weep day and night
For the slain of the daughter of my people!

That I might weep over the lost! Father, give me that heart!

Then you see people coming. You know, every evangelism course you go in to, I mean they say, “Read this verse . . . Say this . . .” It doesn’t do anything! Nobody sees any conversions after that. It’s the passion!

I studied over and over again these men who had great, great careers in leading people to the Lord: Charles Spurgeon, George Whitefield, John Knox. It was the passion! “Lord, that I might weep for the lost!” Or as Rachel cried out in Genesis chapter 30, verse 1: "Give me children or I die!” Then you start to see the conversions because God’s Word is true. It has to happen when it’s written in His Word.

Dannah: Love it! You’re speaking out of a life of fruitfulness and abundance, and so many of our women want that. They live that. So many of us are inspired by the mothers of the evangelists you just named. They were an important part of raising them and praying for them and raising them to love the Word.

What do you say, though, to the person who’s listening and they're like, “My life is not fruitful. My life is hard!” How is being in the Word going to change “hard”?

Dr. Tour: Yes, so again, this is God’s promise. I guarantee you, if you get into the Word of God—you spend twenty minutes, even just twenty minutes . . . Start with this: before you get going on your day, you can just wake up, wash your face if you want and grab a cup of coffee, fine. But before your kids get up, (I would get up very early. I have four children. Before they would wake up), I would get my Bible. I had to be up way before them. You get before the Word of God and you meditate on it for twenty minutes, just like I told you, starting in the gospel of John. You might only get through verse 6. That’s okay. The next day you just start on verse 7.

You just work your way through it. Within two weeks, here’s what’s going to happen: people are going to look at you and they’re going to say, “You seem much more calm. Something’s going on with you. You seem happier. You don’t seem as frazzled. What’s going on?” 

And the other thing that’s going to happen is: you’re going to find yourself apologizing to people more often. You know, “I lost my temper with you. I’m sorry about it. You didn’t deserve that.” And why is that happening? Because God is making you into a better person. You’re going to feel better; you’re going to do better.

If you do this, I guarantee you, it will get better. Just start every day in the Word of God, wake up early and do this. Your day will change. This is God’s promise to you! That’s what I would say to them.

Dannah: I have found that sense of . . . Yesterday I was confessing to someone who (I didn’t really lose my temper or anything, just when she brought something up to me, I didn’t respond with empathy.) I was like, “Ah, I don’t want to hear about it!” Years ago I would have lost my temper.

Now, the Holy Spirit has me in a place, because I’m in His Word, that when I’m just like, “Can you solve that problem?” I mean, that’s kind of what I said. I’m confessing. What you’re saying is true! Getting in the Word helps you keep a clean cup.

I also can resonate so much with the peace. My life before spending time in the Word is totally different from my time after. I was anxious. I was fearful. I was overwhelmed. I was busy. I was stressed out. And now, I have so much more on my plate, and bigger problems, and I’m peaceful! I’m peaceful.

Dr. Tour: You know, Paul writes in Philippians, he says, “The things that you’ve seen and heard in me, practice these things and the God of peace will be with you” (4:9). 

Dannah: I know.

Dr. Tour: Peace comes through practice. Practice these things and the God of peace will be with you. That’s what the Scripture says.

Dannah: Amen. That is a good place to wrap. Jim, I have a few more questions. I don’t know if you’d be willing to come back tomorrow for a few moments, but could I ask you a few more things tomorrow?

Dr. Tour: Sure, go ahead.

Dannah: Okay, you prayed for us before we started recording, and I was so blessed by that. I wonder if you’d just pray specifically, especially I guess for the woman who’s listening who is feeling a little overwhelmed with life.

And I hope what she heard is that there will be peace if she starts getting herself into God’s Word. Would you pray for her?

Dr. Tour: Our Father, I pray for that woman who’s just overwhelmed, Lord, that through the meditation on Your Word she would see peace come into her life according to your Word, according to what it says. Father, lift her up, I pray, strengthen her heart. The grace of God be upon her, I pray, for the glory of Jesus. Amen.

Dannah: Amen. That’s Dr. Jim Tour, a man overflowing with a passion for God’s Word. He has experienced its power and the way it gives peace to frazzled hearts. If we’re honest, we all need that, don’t we? What a great reason to open your Bible today!

You know, I think peace can feel pretty elusive to us. There’s a lot of noise in our world, a lot of chaos, a lot of distraction. But because of Jesus, there’s also a lot of hope! I’d love to point you to some more resources on peace to help you find rest in Him. We’re placing some helpful links in the transcript of today’s episode. To find that, visit ReviveOurHearts.com.

So often peace flows from a life of wisdom. That’s one reason Mark DeMoss wrote The Little Red Book of Wisdom. If you’re longing for a wiser, more deliberate way of living, this book offers timeless insight you can apply right away. 

Request your copy as our thanks for your gift of any amount to Revive Our Hearts. To do that, just visit ReviveOurHearts.com, or give us a call at 1-800-569-5959.

As promised, Dr. Jim Tour will be back with us tomorrow. He’s going to draw from his Jewish background to help us understand our Bibles better. 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 NASB1995 unless otherwise noted.

*Offers available only during the broadcast of the podcast season.