Scripture Memory as a Way of Life with Veronica Copenhaver

Leslie Basham: Veronica Copenhaver says you’ll get a lot out of memorizing Scripture, even if you start small.

Veronica Copenhaver: Even if it takes you one verse, and it takes you a whole year to memorize it, that's one more verse than you had last year—and you have no clue how God will use it.

Leslie: This is Revive Our Hearts with Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth, author of A Place of Quiet Rest, for Friday, December 30, 2016.

Nancy: I’m here at the Revive Our Hearts studio this morning recording some programs with my husband, and we just finished recording a program, and we turned around and looked out the window and there were a whole bunch of little ones. One of our staff members came through. He lives a few hours away. He came through with his wife and kids and his sister-in-law and her kids are here—Veronica Copenhaver. We just met for the first time, and you began to tell me of your love for Revive Our Hearts.

I said, "Can you walk in the studio, and let's talk about it for a few minutes." So thank you for letting me put you on the spot.

Veronica: Thank you. I'm a little nervous.

Nancy: You're all the way from Alaska. Your husband is a pastor there. And you are here in the midwest visiting family.

You said you've been listening to Revive Our Hearts since we first went on the air fifteen years ago.

Veronica: Yes.

Nancy: How did you come across it?

Veronica: I don't remember for sure. But I was getting ready in the morning to go to school, I was a school teacher before having kids. From 6:30 to 7:00 every morning that was my routine—get ready and listen to Nancy. I was pretty consistent and faithful and a user of the challenge to memorize Scripture. You were working on Philippians. I was listening to that and thought, I can do that. I had random verses memorized that I could go through, but that only took ten or fifteen minutes. Then I thought, I think I could do a whole book.

So I emailed Erika and Bryan and my other sister, Jenna, and my parents and said, "Hey, let's do a family challenge to memorize the book of Philippians." Erika and Bryan wrote back and said, "Oh, we already have it memorized."

Nancy: Bryan is on our staff, leading our web and digital department. So he was familiar with this challenge, but it sounds like you made it personal.

Veronica: That hadn't shared the fun challenge. So I was like, fine, the rest of us can do it. We started with Philippians. My husband was involved. Then we went to . . . 

Nancy: Philippians . . . how long did that take?

Veronica: Five months.

Nancy: So you really spent some time on it.

Veronica: We did. We all have our different routine now. My sister, Jenna, and I are accountability partners. So we do about a verse a day. We try to. Erika and Bryan and my parents all have their own routine.

Nancy: So a verse a day.

Veronica: Then we review a chapter for about a week, and then start the next chapter, and then review for about a week, then the whole book is done. We're up to nine books, I think, memorized. So now we slow down and review more to make it stick. But we try to review every week.

Nancy: We is . . . you and your sister?

Veronica: Yes. I'm the oldest of three girls. Erika is our middle sister, and then Jenna is our little sister. We are very close. I'm thankful for technology so we can email and text every day. But six years ago when we started this, we were just emailing when I heard the challenge of memorizing Philippians. I contacted my whole family and emailed all of them and said, "Hey, let's do this together as a family challenge—my husband, my two sisters, my brother-in-law, my parents (but Erika and Bryan already had theirs done)."

Jenna said, "Let's do this." We are five years apart, and we tend to be a little competitive with each other.

Nancy: So you are using that to your advantage now.

Veronica: It's a good advantage. She lived with my husband and I for three months. We had water drinking challenges, and we have workout challenges. We have a good competitive edge together. So I said, "Let's do Philippians. Nancy said Philippians, so we'll just go with that."

She said, "Great." So we started the next day. There was no hesitation. We have continued to stay with each other. We'll text and say, "Hey, I need another day on this verse. Or, I didn't get it, can you wait for me?" It's good accountability to keep us on track because there are times I'm ready to quit. You get to a part where you are thinking, I'm just not getting it. It's not sticking. It's so nice. God is so good. If she's getting it, I'm not. And when I'm getting it, she's not. So we can keep each other going saying, "No, you can't quit. Come on! Here's what I did."

She lives in Tennessee and I live in Alaska. It's over texting and email and phone calls that we figure it out. 

We'll take times and go, "Are you done? Let's take a little break for a season and review and make sure we have it." I don't want to lose it. We both did 1 Peter together, and then we didn't practice very well, and we both lost 1 Peter.

Nancy: I've had that happen. But I would say that even then, the process of meditating and memorizing it, while you are doing that, God is doing a good work in your heart. So all the much better if you can keep it. I've memorized a lot of Scripture. I haven't retained most of it. If I could go back and do my life again, reviewing Scripture memory is one thing I would make a bigger deal out of. It sounds like you've really done that.

As I hear you talk about it, you and your sister Jenna and the accountability, it sounds likes that verse in Hebrews that says we're to stimulate one another to love and good deeds. We need each other all the more as we see the day approaching because the enemy tends to get us side-tracked, distracted, giving up, throwing in the towel, forgetting what's really important. But if you have somebody that you are doing it with—it may be a mate, it may be a child, it may be a friend or a sister—you hold each other up and keep each other going in the race. It's just another illustration of how we need each other. It might be a walking partner. But you'll do more together. Two are better than one; they have a good reward for their labor, Ecclesiates tells us that. So you and your sister are practicing that. There may be other areas in your life where it is somebody else who provides that for you.

Would you have thought that you could have done this?

Veronica: No. I teach Bible studies at our church, and I tell women all the time . . . the challenge is to memorize. Go for a verse. Go for a paragraph. If you think you can do that, go for a chapter. It's addicting. At our women's retreat I've done a workshop on memorization. It's all because of Janet Pope's book. When your hands are busy but your mind is free, I've just taken that and run with it. With having three kids, and I home school, how I find the time is washing dishes, folding clothes, getting ready in the morning. It's grown out of my morning routine. It has to incorporate more now to incorporate that many books now takes time.

Nancy: Janet has been a guest on Revive Our Hearts. She challenged our listeners to memorize whole books of the Bible. We're offered her book, His Word in My Heart, in fact, it's available in our resource center. So if you go to ReviveOurHearts.com, you can get a copy of it.

It sounds like it's not as complicated or daunting as you might think. It is little by little, one day at a time, one verse at a time, and filling in those cracks and crevices that otherwise become like wasted time or lost time.

Now you have three children. You're home schooling. So you are a busy mom, but you are finding time to do this. So do you have your children memorizing yet?

Veronica: They do. They were doing random verses, but I like the idea of sticking with a whole chapter or a big chunk so it stays in context. 

Last year my daughter asked, "I'd like a talking bird."

I said, "Then you have to memorize that entire New Testament."

She said, "Okay."

I said, "Okay, we'll go with it." We already have several animals. I figured I'm safe.

She said, "Let's start with Matthew 1."

I said, "No, not Matthew 1."

She said, "Yes, Matthew 1 if we are starting the New Testament."

Nancy: How old is she?

Veronica:  She's eleven now. She'll be twelve in October.

It took a year to learn Matthew 1. 

Nancy: That's a hard chapter!

Veronica: It's a very hard chapter.

Nancy: There's a geneology in there!

Veronica: It's a lot of geneology—hard names. We took a solid year. But they have Matthew 1. We recited it at Christmastime at church. She is still working her way to get her parrot.

Nancy: She may be a mother herself.

Veronica: I'm okay with that. I told her you can have whatever you want if you memorize the entire New Testament.

Right now we've skipped out of the New Testament. We are working on Proverbs 2. My three children are all learning that.

Nancy: I sometimes say that if I were starting a family and going to parent children from little up, I would have them memorize the book of Proverbs before they leave home. As an adult, that seems impossible. But I think a lot of children really could do that. But it requires a lot of help and discipline of the parents to prioritize that to make it important, to get the Word into your children's lives.

Does your husband memorize?

Veronica: Not as faithfully as I do. He was doing really good, and then he went moose hunting and got off his schedule.

Nancy: That's what you do in Alaska!

Veronica: Yes, it is. You provide for our family.

But he's very supportive, and he loves it. He jokes that he doesn't have as good of a memory as I do. But it's just a matter of making it a priority and setting aside the time. So, he's trying to get back into it

Nancy: I've gotten off it myself. I had a little thing last year—like getting married—and my whole life is getting a new rhythm. I just getting back into memorization. I'm taking baby steps again. I used to do a lot of Scripture memory. Just running into you today is a sweet challenge to me.

Do you recite aloud to anybody?

Veronia: The kids and I have done it at church. My husband has had me in his sermons.

Nancy: Even as you are learning it, are you reciting it with anybody? Saying it out loud? Or are you doing it pretty much on your own?

Veronica: I say it out loud to myself. I say to my kids . . . "And the days the judges ruled . . . " And they'll go, "Oh, not Ruth." And I'll be, "Yes, it's time for Ruth."

In the beginning when I started with Philippians, they could say the first six verses with me because I was saying it in the car, and I would say it during the day. So they would practice with me. Now that I have enough, they just kind of tune me out.

Nancy: I had a walking partner for awhile, and we used to recite Scripture to each other. I found it was really helpful to have somebody to say it with if you were on the same passages.

Veronica: Jenna and I have will try and help each other come up with tricks for verses. I do tell people, if you are going to do it, you have to say it out loud. Because if you go to say it to someone and you've only just said it in your head, it doesn't sound the same; it doesn't come out right. I am reviewing out loud, talking to myself throughout the day.

Nancy: The best wedding gift I received was when I was getting ready to walk down the aisle.

Robert (wedding): "Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels and have not love . . ."

Nancy: I was at the back of the sanctuary, and my soon-to-be husband was standing at the front, and he recited 1 Corinthians 13 to me from down the aisle.

Robert (wedding): "Love is patient, love is kind . . ."

Nancy: He had been working on that a long time.

Robert (wedding): "It does not seek its own, it's not provoked. Love thinks no evil. Love does not rejoice in inquity but rejoices in truth."

Nancy: That was a gift that he gave me, and it was filled with heart. But just that fact that he wanted to spend that time learning that chapter—not just learning it in his head, but that it was his desire to love in that way, what a gift that was. It involved Scripture memory.

What kind of impact do you see the Scripture memory making in your life?

Veronia: It changes my attitude. When my youngest was born, I had high blood pressure, and we were trying to figure out what was going on. In the middle of the night when I would be up nursing, I would go into deep depression and would convince myself that I was going to die the next morning. In the middle of the night your thoughts go crazy. I could feel myself sinking into that depression, and I thought, I'm not doing this. It's dark. Everyone's sleeping. I thought, Okay, I'll just practice Philippians. I didn't even get through chapter one, and I felt lighter. I felt joyful again.

I thought, I have no clue that I'm dying. And here I am six years later, and I'm totally fine. It was just hormones and all that. So it helped that.

I've also told the story of my husband. He left me one time to take the kids out when I had a newborn. He left the kitchen kind of messy. He was leaving with the kids, so I could clean the house, but he made a huge mess before he left. I was a little frustrated. The fish were apparently biting at that moment, and breakfast dishes just needed to be left.

I sat there and went through all my options: I can be mad. I can yell at him when he comes home. I can leave the dishes for him to clean. I finally thought, I'll just clean up the kitchen. I'm not going to be happy about it, but I'll practice Philippians while I'm doing it. I got to 1:23, and I was like, "Oh, I'm fine. Who cares. He's out taking care of the kids. I needed that break."

So there are times when I struggle with anger and frustration, and I'll do my verses, and it gets me out of my bad attitude.

There were times when Jenna and I were learning the Sermon on the Mount. Something had happened to our family, and we were frustrated with someone who had wronged us. I called Jenna that morning and said, "Don't do Matthew. God will talk to you the entire time."

Nancy: That's the point, I think.

Veronica: I think it was. Every time is was, "You have heard it said . . . but I tell you . . . " God kept saying that person's name. It was like, "Okay. Fine, I'll forgive. I'll get over it." I called Jenna, and she said, "Yes, I know. I don't even want to think about it yet."

But you see how stuff I've been saying every week for five years still hits me in a new way. Something happens, and it's like, "Oh . . . you're right."

Something happened, and I was thinking of a line from Malachi. I said, "God what do I do in this situation?" And a line from Malachi came out.

Nancy: You memorized Malachi?

Veronica: We memorized the book of Malachi. And that came, and I was like, "Oh, You're right. Thanks." It's just there, ready to flow.

Nancy: It's renewing your mind.

Veronica: It is. It really is.

Nancy: And that transforms your life.

Veronica: I think my husband's happy. I'm not as grouchy. 

It's an addiction, it really is, to start and get that first chapter. You go, "Oh . . . I have a whole chapter. I never thought I could memorize a whole chapter." Then to get a whole book. You think, I can do this again. I tell women all the time. It's going to change your life. You are constantly meditating on it.

If you do it Janet's way: When your hands are busy and your mind is free, you have those times throughout the day where you can look at your verse for a couple minutes.

Nancy: Do you have the verses written out on cards?

Veronica: I did. Chapters are getting longer. So now I just print it off. It's in my bathroom. It's in my kitchen. Before I had an iPhone and all those fun devices, it was in my notebook in my purse. I'd be standing in line at the post office at Christmastime, and the lines are long. I watched one lady, and she was stretching and doing all these poses. And I thought, I can do my verses. So I just whipped it out. I got home and James was done for the day.

Sitting in the doctor's office . . . It's nice to have it in my purse, so I'm always prepared.

I often do this, and then I'll get stuck with that one little word that I need to get me going again.

It's exciting.

Nancy: I remember when I was memorizing the 200 verses about Jesus that we recited a couple of years ago. I had assembled those together. It's different than memorizing a book because it was coming from different books. But I put that in one document on my iPhone. So anywhere I would go I would have that with me, and I could be scrolling through it and reviewing it. I took me several months to do that. I was thinking about it, saying it when I was awake, when I was sleeping, in the middle of the night.

Just having that Word going through your heart and mind all the time is really powerful. It's the Word of God.

Veronica: It's incorporated into my dreams. I'll fall asleep and think, I was reciting something and I dreamed about it.

Nancy: What are you memorizing right now?

Veronica: Hebrews 7.

Nancy: What is the takeaway for you so far? You're not just memorizing, you're meditating on it.

Veronica: I am, but it is harder now that we are on vacation. I think right now just understanding Hebrews and looking at all the different viewpoints. Trying to understand how the old covenant fits with the new covenant. How does what God taught Moses fit with what Jesus comments on. Trying to mesh it. It's all God's Word; it's all good.

Nancy: Is that the longest book you've tried to memorize?

Veronica: Yes. We also have Esther. That's ten chapters, but they are not all that long. When we're done with Hebrews, it will be our longest.

Nancy: So you do Old and New Testament.

Veronica: We tend to switch. It's neat to see how God's worked. I remember when we said, "Let's do something in the Old Testament. Let's do something short and easy. So we did Malachi."

Jenna said, "Okay, fine."

After we got done memorizing Malachi, I was approached by our church leadership to teach a study on Malachi. I said, "Let me think and pray about that."

And God says, "You just memorized it. Don't you think you should teach it?"

I was like, "Oh, yeah, good point."

So it was nice to have memorized it and then study it and end up with a group of women and go deeper into that one.

It's always neat to see how God prepares me to memorize because He has something for it.

Nancy: So are you always reviewing everything you've memorized?

Veronica: Yes.

Nancy: Every day?

Veronica: My goal is every week. I'm on vacation, but I'm also a checklist person. I want to check off my boxes. So I think two weeks ago I skipped two of the books. But last week, I'm proud to say, I got them all done, and I'm on course this week to have them all. I have five more hours in the car.

Nancy: Road trip . . . but you also have 99 children in the car.

Veronica: Five kids. I'll go, "Proverbs 2," and they'll go, "Okay, fine." It helps to do it with them because it keeps me accountable for my own.

Nancy: You just wonder what kind of impact that will have on their lives long-term.

Veronica: I can't wait to see. If I could have started this at your age, my oldest is eleven and my youngest is six. And they have to review every week too. That's part of our school days. Right now it is three pages typed out.

Nancy: Think of getting all that in their hearts.

Veronica: I love it.

Nancy: Anything else that you say in your seminar that would be helpful for some hints or tips?

Veronica: I think the big thing is review. Also, find a translation you like. 1984 NIV was going out of stock, that's what we had done. So we were thinking, Do we switch over to ESV. It's a little more wordy than the NIV. We did 1 Peter in the ESV, and that one has continued to trip us up for a couple years.

Nancy: Especially when you are familiar with it in another version.

Veronica: When you are used to NIV, it just flows in a way ESV hasn't.

Nancy: I grew up on the King James. Then I went to New King James. Then, New American Standard and ESV. So that is a challenge. I think the more familiar passages are harder. I'm working on Psalm 110. It's just seven verses, but I'm finding I'm having a hard time with that psalm. Part of it is because I've heard it so many times in other translations.

I think when you find one and stick to it, it makes you think about it and concentrate on it in a way that you hadn't.

That's one of the complex psalms. It is Messanic. It's quoted, I think, twenty-seven times or more in the New Testament. So it is a really important psalm, but it is a puzzle knowing who exactly it is talking about. As I'm memorizing it, I'm focusing on each word, and it is making me think about it and seeing things I've never seen before and seeing Christ in the Psalms in a way I haven't seen Him before. It's interesting as I'm memorizing . . . On the surface, you wouldn't think it has anything to do with my life today, but it really does have amazing application. Even God saying to His Son, the Messiah, sit at my right hand until I make Your enemies my footstool. He's saying there is a time to be still and just wait for God to act.

Here I am, a newlywed and stuff going on in my life, and God says to me through that passage this week, "Be still and wait for God to act." Now, that's not the main interpretation of that passages, but as I'm meditating on it and memorizing it, it's making application to my heart in a way I don't think it would have if I had skimmed by it in my daily reading.

Veronica: That also is in Hebrews. Hebrews quotes that several different times. Often he says, "Somewhere it is said . . ." Jenna and I are laughing. I wish he would have just said, "In Psalms . . ." There's a part of me that can't wait to meet these men in heaven and say, "Couldn't you have said it the same way please instead of saying it just a little bit different?"

Peter tends to have run-on sentences.

Nancy: And Paul, the same way.

Veronica: Paul the same way, but not exactly the same.

It's fun to get up in church because men will say before Communion or before the sermon, "I don't need to turn there, I have this verse memorized."

Nancy: I had a pastor when I was a little girl who when he would serve Communion with the elders at the front of the church, would recite verses that had to do with the cross, had to do with Christ. I remember Isaiah 53, 1 Peter. He would recite these from memory. Here I am like a six-year-old child and I was not just impressed that he could recite it, but I was so impacted by the Scripture. It's just like a shepherd praying Scripture over his people.

You think about a mom doing that over her children, doing that over your own heart. The impact that made on me as a little girl, it made me see the value of it. He could have stood there and read it, but there is something about reciting it that says, "This has been mulled over. It's been pondered in the heart." Now the overflow is coming out.

I find that when I'm memorizing Scripture, it's amazing when I'm talking to other people or praying with them or in the course of the day, how often that Scripture will come out. It will be a word in due season for somebody who needed exactly what the Lord has been saying to my heart through it.

Anything you'd like to say to our listeners? Maybe they've heard this conversation, and they are challenged.

Veronica: Just pick something. If God is saying it to you, you won't regret it. It really has been life-changing. It's just God's Word constantly ready to pour out over me. When you watch the news, when you get on Facebook, you are just reminded that God's Word is right there and ready to speak. It's amazing to me how it comes, and it's exactly what I needed. It's exactly the word I needed today, God. Sadly, I had to stop listening to Revive Our Hearts in the morning so I could use my time for my Bible verses. I've found other ways to get my Revive Our Hearts in there.

Nancy: How do you do that?

Veronica: The podcast.

Nancy: So you can listen anytime.

Veronica: So I can listen anytime. If there are ever issues, I contact Bryan and say, "This isn't working right." 

Nancy: Bryan is in charge of those things. So if it's not working, you're his focus group.

Veronica: I have a nice, direct line. "This isn't working, and I need it right now."

Nancy: Thank you, Veronica. We should put you on payroll.

Veronica: Don't let go of this opportunity. Use it. Grab that verse. It doesn't even have to be a whole book. Start with one verse. Even if it takes you a whole year to memorize it, that's one more verse than you had last year. And you have no idea how God will use it.

Nancy: There really are no short-cuts. People see me quote Scripture sometimes, and they think, That's a special gift. You do get better at it as you do it. But really, there are no short-cuts. It's over and over and over and over again. 

I've found that the times I have been memorizing Scripture helps my priorities, helps with my emotional stability and levels. I'm more hopeful because I'm banking on God's Word instead of what is happeningn in my circumstances. It does have a restraining factor in my reactions. There are so many, many areas of benefits.

That's what Psalm 1 promises. If we meditate on God's Word day and night, just what you are doing when you memorize, that we will be successful in whatever we do. We'll be like a tree planted by rivers of water; we'll be fruitful in every season. We won't wither; we won't faint; we won't fade away. We'll be strong and stable and successful. Who wouldn't want those benefits?

But it starts with an intake of the Word of God—letting it mold us and fill us and flow through us. What a great thing in parenting to have the Word of God to draw on when you are dealing with those issues. I can't think of any area of life that it doesn't positively impact.

Would your kids be willing to come inside and recite a few verses?

Veronica: They wouldn't be willing, but they would do it.

You want to do Psalm 19? Are you ready? Nice and loud.

Children: Psalm 19

The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge. They have no speech, they use no words; no sound is heard from them. Yet their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world. In the heavens God has pitched a tent for the sun. It is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, like a champion rejoicing to run his course. It rises at one end of the heavens and makes its circuit to the other; nothing is deprived of its warmth.

The law of the Lord is perfect, refreshing the soul. The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, giving joy to the heart. The commands of the Lord are radiant, giving light to the eyes. The fear of the Lord is pure, enduring forever. The decrees of the Lord are firm, and all of them are righteous. They are more precious than gold, than much pure gold; they are sweeter than honey, than honey from the honeycomb. By them your servant is warned; in keeping them there is great reward. But who can discern their own errors?

Forgive my hidden faults. Keep your servant also from willful sins; may they not rule over me. Then I will be blameless, innocent of great transgression. May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer (NIV).

Leslie: What difference would it make in your life if you embarked on a quest to memorize Scripture the way Veronica Copenhaver has? Veronica has been talking with Nancy about the value of hiding God’s Word in our hearts. If this topic resonates with you, what specific goal could you set for memorizing Scripture in 2017? Would you take a minute to see if this is something God would have you do?

Nancy, today’s conversation has been encouraging. We’ve seen how a Revive Our Hearts series has affected one family in practical ways.

Nancy: Just think of the lifelong effect memorizing God’s Word is going to have on the children we heard today. They are growing up in an environment where it’s normal to memorize large passages of Scripture. What a privilege that Revive Our Hearts has been able to have a role in the spiritual growth of this sweet family. But we could not do it alone.

Listeners like you donated to make Revive Our Hearts possible. It’s why we were able to air the interview about Scripture memory, and it’s why Veronica was able to hear it and take on this challenge with her family. Your gift to the ministry really can have far-reaching effects for generations to come. And there’s no better time to give than right now.

We’ve been asking the Lord to provide just over 1.8 million dollars here in December. That’s the amount we need to keep speaking into the hearts of women through our various outreaches. We'd like to reach the hearts of more women around the world in the year ahead. Time is fast running out to help meet this year's goal.

So if the Lord has used this ministry to be a blessing in your life, would you just stop right now and ask the Lord if He wants you to make a special gift here at the end of this week, the end of this month, the end of this year? Then would you contact us and let us know what the Lord is prompting you to give?

If you'd like to call us, that number is 1–800–569–5959, or you can go online and connect with us at ReviveOurHearts.com.

Now as we come to the end of this final program of 2016, could I just take a moment to pray a blessing over you?

Oh Lord, how we thank You for the mercies that You have showered upon our lives this year. I'm thinking back over the past twelve months and there have been challenges, there have been disappointments, there have been problems, but Your grace has been so very, very real. It has been in my life, and I know it has been in each of our lives as we are humbling ourselves and seeking You. You have been there. You have met our needs.

I know that some listening and joining in this prayer right now have eyes filled with tears as they are still facing some really difficult circumstances. I pray a blessing on each listener—whatever they are going through at this moment. As this year comes to a close and we turn the page to a new year, we thank You that bright mercies shine ahead in the year ahead.

You have been faithful to us, and You will continue to be faithful in the years ahead.

Thank you for these listeners, for those who have supported this ministry, for those who have encouraged us with their emails, their prayers, their multiplying of this message. Thank You for the joy of sitting together each day around Your Word and soaking it in, taking it in, and taking it out together—the beauty of the gospel of Christ .

Lord, we are so blessed. And I want to pray a blessing on each listener, on their families. I pray that physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually they might prosper in the days ahead. I pray that blessing that You have given us in Your Word in 2 Thessalonians 3: "May the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times in every way. The Lord be with you all, amen."

I trust that your New Year's Eve/New Year's Day weekend will be blessed in every way. And we look forward to having you join us with Revive Our Hearts in the new year.

Revive Our Hearts with Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth is an outreach of Life Action Ministries.

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