Storing Up Truth for Trying Times

Dannah Gresh: Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth says, "Soaking in Scripture today could protect you tomorrow."

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: The value of feeding your mind, filling your mind and heart with the truth for a period of years is that as you've been walking in the light, then when you come to this situation where you have to obey God in a very difficult, costly way, you won't get tripped 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 November 3, 2026. I'm Dannah Gresh.

Well, yesterday we began a classic series from Nancy based on her book Lies Women Believe. We saw why lies are so dangerous and why they lead us into bondage. After we listened to that, I was joined by my friends Ashley Gibson and Suzy Weibel to talk about how to put that teaching into practice. Well, they're back. Welcome back, Suzy.

Suzy Weibel: Hey, you know, I've been thinking, Dannah, listening to you here about something that we have often taught young girls, and that is that if you want to reject lies, you have to know the truth—really know it.

Dannah: Really know it, that's right, yes. And welcome to you, Ashley Gibson. Glad you're back.

Ashley Gibson: Yeah, glad to be back. You know, I'm excited to talk about how we can recognize deception and how we can develop some truth-absorbing habits so that we can recognize deception when it comes.

Dannah: That's part of the battle, isn't it? Recognizing it when it slithers up right next to us.

All right, we are going to have you guys unpack again Nancy's teaching, but first we've got to listen to it. So here's Nancy to begin today with a story.

The Path from Bondage to Freedom

Nancy: And she said, “Nancy, I just have to tell you that God has set me free. I had given up hope that it could ever be possible, but God has set me completely free from years of bondage!”

Now, she began to tell me about the particular area of bondage in her life, and I'm going to tell you a little bit more about her story in a few moments. But when we think about this matter of bondage, I'm reminded that there's a progression that leads to bondage. We've been looking at that progression, and we've seen that every area of bondage in our lives begins with a lie.

• We listen to the lie. 
• We dwell on it. 
• We believe the lie. 
• Sooner or later, we'll act on what we believe. 
• When we begin acting on lies, we ultimately set patterns, strongholds, areas of bondage in place in our lives.

In this session, I want us to focus on the steps to freedom. We've seen the progression that leads to bondage. The progression that leads us to freedom is really just the opposite. Instead of listening to lies, we have to commit ourselves to listen to the truth, to have a constant intake of the truth into our minds and our hearts, to feed our minds with the truth.

What Are You Feeding Your Mind?

You've heard people who are really into health matters say, "You are what you eat." Well, you are in your mind, what you feed into your mind. Those of us who are taking a steady intake or diet of the world's ways of thinking into our minds through the things we read, the things we watch, the things we listen to, the kinds of friends we hang around with; we're going to be led into deception. But we can choose to put into our lives input that is the truth.

Now, where do we get the truth? Well, for starters, with the Word of God, and this is why it's so important that you and I have a steady, constant diet of the Word of God into our lives.

I thank the Lord for this Book that I'm holding in my hand. I have been reading the Bible for many years, but in recent years I've made it a point to get what I call mega-doses of the Word into my system. I've seen areas of my life that need to be changed, that need to be renewed, areas of my life where there have been sinful bondages, things that are true about me that I don't want to be true, areas I want to be changed. I've realized that it's the Word of God, it's the truth of God's Word that will set me free in those areas.

So, I try to start each day by getting input from the Word of God into my mind, listening to the truth. But I not only want to get the actual literal Word into my mind. I want to make sure that the other things I'm reading and watching and listening to are things that will confirm the truth of God's Word in my mind.

In Philippians 4 Paul tells us that we're supposed to spend our time thinking about things that are right, things that are true, things that are noble and pure and lovely and admirable. He says, If anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think about such things” (see v. 8).

Now, that's one of the reasons that I don't spend a lot of time watching or reading the news. I've been told, and it has seemed to prove true, that if something happens that you need to know about, you will hear about it. But you know, you can have a great disaster happen in the world, and you get one of these newscasts that just broadcasts the news over and over again, and you can play these things over and over and over in your mind, not getting just the facts, but getting everybody’s spin on these facts. It can end up filling your mind with a lot of negative thinking.

I don't want to fill my mind, my heart, with the evil that's going on in this world.

Now, I want to know just enough that I can have compassion, that I know how to pray, but I want to be filling my mind, my thoughts, with things that are pure, and lovely, and good, and beautiful, and trustworthy.

Build a Foundation of Truth Before the Test

As we listen to the truth, and as we meditate on it, God is going to cause faith to spring up in our hearts. We will come to believe the truth that we meditate on. That's why I go back and rehearse in my mind over and over again the things that I know are true about God and His ways, because that's what feeds faith in my heart. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. We've said that whatever we believe, ultimately, is what we're going to act on.

I want to act on things that are true. I want to obey the Word of God. So if I'm filling my mind, my heart with the truth, then I'm going to believe the truth, and I'm going to act based on the truth that I know. That's what's going to help me obey God, especially when I come to a difficult situation where it's a test to obey God, where it's emotionally or relationally costly or difficult to obey God. That's when I see the value of years of having laid a foundation, of listening to the truth, filling my mind with it, meditating on it. 

If I get up in the middle of the night in my house and it's pitch black dark, I can find my way in a power outage or whatever. I can find my way around my house because I've walked through my house so many times in the light that I know where things are, and in the dark I'm not likely to trip.

But I spend a lot of time on the road in hotel rooms, and if the lights are out in a hotel room in the middle of the night, it's pitch black dark, and I get up and walk around, I could really hurt myself, because I'm not accustomed to what that room looks like in the light.

The value of feeding your mind, filling your mind and heart with the truth for a period of years is that as you've been walking in the light, then when you come to this situation where you have to obey God in a very difficult, costly way, you won't get tripped up. The things that you've known about the ways of God will come to bear on your life. The truth will be your foundation, and you'll find you'll be able to stand and to obey God, to act on the truth that you have come to believe.

 

And what happens when we act on the truth? We end up in freedom. Jesus said, "You shall know the truth, and the truth will set you free" (John 8:32 NKJV). That's where we experience the peace, the joy, the blessing, the fullness, the fruitfulness that we long for in our lives. Freedom comes from embracing the truth, believing it, and acting on it.

Three Steps Toward Freedom

So, if we have these areas of sinful bondage in our lives, what should we do to move from bondage to freedom? Let me make three suggestions.

First of all, identify the area or the areas of bondage and sinful behavior. What are the areas in your life where you're not free? What are those sin habits that you can't get victory over? Identify what they are, and then ask God to help you identify what are the lies that you've been believing that are at the root of that bondage or that sinful behavior. Now you may not be able to see those lies yourself, but ask God to show you.

My friend, I told you that I met at this picnic. I ran into her, and she was telling me that God had set her free. She went on to tell me that since she was 13 years old, she had been in bondage to a particular moral habit. She thought when she got married that would solve her problem, but it didn't.

She said, "I wanted so badly to be free in this area of my life. I tried and I tried to get victory. I did everything I knew how to do." She did Bible study and prayer and asked people to hold her accountable.

She said, "But I just kept failing. Every time I would blow it, I'd confess my sin. I'd ask God's forgiveness. But deep in my heart, I knew I was going to fall again. I just couldn't stop."

Ultimately, she went to an older woman, a mature woman of God. And by the way, that's a good thing to do, to find a woman who really knows the truth of God's Word? She asked this woman to pray for her.

The woman said to her, "What are the lies that you've been believing that are at the root of this behavior?"

My friend, in telling me this story said, “You know, when she said that to me, ‘I said I don't think I've been believing any lies.’” But then she said, “I went to the Lord, and I said, ‘Lord, would you show me if there's anything I've been believing that's not true?’”

She said, "As I asked God to open my eyes, He showed me two lies that I'd been believing that I didn't know I'd been believing. I didn't know they were lies." God opened her eyes to the truth.

She said, "I repented of believing the lies." And in that moment, she said, "God set me free."

I had not seen her for a while, but here she was some time later, rejoicing. She said, "Nancy, I am free. It's not an issue in my life anymore. The truth has set me free."

And that leads me to the third point: counter the lies with the truth. Identify what are the lies that are at the root of the bondage, and then replace the lies with the truth of God's Word that will set you free.

This woman went on to tell me that as she began to walk in truth in this area of her life, that God was now opening up to her other areas where she had been deceived and had never realized it. She said, "Nancy, I'm getting victory in so many areas of my life where I never thought I could be free. You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."

Dannah: We want you to know that kind of victory too. That's my friend Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth in a series called "Fill Your Mind with Truth." Now, that message was recorded in 2001, and that was just as Revive Our Hearts was getting started.

And listening has been such a reminder that the truth of God's Word is solid, it's timeless, even as fads come and go. And as I mentioned earlier, my friends Ashley Gibson and Suzy Weibel are here to help us talk about ways that we can live out that truth that Nancy just taught on the hot pavement of life today. 

So, Suzy, Nancy talked about our relationship with the news and how she absorbed it through television and things like that. She had to listen to it with some discernment, knowing how much to hear and how much to just walk away from—enough that she could pray and be informed, but not so much that she was overwhelmed by it.

Is that harder today do you think?

Doom Scrolling: When the News Follows Us Everywhere

Suzy: Yes, I think it is. That was a really challenging part of her talk for me, because somewhere around COVID we invented a new term, which is doom scrolling.

Dannah: Yes.

Suzy: That is the practice of getting on our phones and just scrolling through video after video or post after post. I guess it's called doom scrolling because so much of what we see is scary or disheartening or something like that. But it hooks us, and it keeps us there. I definitely think it's much more difficult now than it used to be. I think she gave that talk before social media really came into prominence.

Dannah: We weren't carrying our newsfeed around in our back pocket.

Suzy: Exactly, exactly.

Dannah: Ashley, you're a youth leader, so you're with teens every week. Are they experiencing this same kind of phenomenon in terms of how they're accessing news or doom scrolling?

Ashley: Yes. I think Suzy hit the nail on the head when she said that our newsfeed is in our pocket. At any point and any time our teen girls can take their phone out of their pocket, and they can know anything that's going on at any point around the world.

I think it leads us into feeling like we're omniscient and we're omnipresent. The Lord knew what He was doing when He gave us those boundaries . . . and didn't give us those abilities! I think it's creating a lot of fear and anxiety and stress for these girls because there's all this information, but there's only so much you can do with all of the information you're consuming.

Dannah: I do think that is one reason why we are seeing hockey stick growth. I call it hockey stick growth because most trends happen very gradually. But in terms of anxiety and depression, with the younger generation right now, we saw something with the advent of our smartphones where we just saw that anxiety and depression goes straight up. That's like a hockey stick shape.

That doesn't happen. It's not how it works unless there is an agitator, and that agitator is the phones in our pockets. It is creating that anxiety and that depression.

Suzy, what's the balance? Like, we don't want to be monks. God didn't call us to live in a cave and hide away from the world. “Be in the world, but not of the world,” right? So, what's the balance? How do we get enough in our news feed so we can be responsible citizens and we can pray and we can know what people are going through and how to minister to them, but it's not what's building the muscle of our belief.

Suzy: Well, one thing that Nancy said I think was really important. She does look at the news. But not so much that she goes beyond knowing what to pray for. She wants to know what to pray for. She wants to know what to be concerned about.

Retrain Your Mind to Focus on What Is Good

And then beyond that, the Word tells us whatever is pure, whatever is right, whatever is lovely, whatever is true, to think on these things. So we need to, I think, retrain ourselves to think on those things because that is not our natural habit. We've really been kind of hijacked by the phones. It's a very addictive habit, and so the first thing that we need to do is we just need to put those phones down.

Dannah: Ouch! You know you stepped on my toes! Yeah, did you hear that? 

Suzy: I heard. I'm stepping on my own toes too. But the first thing we need to do is to retrain ourselves to look at the things that are pure, that are lovely and holy and right. Right now we're at a disadvantage because we have forgotten how to do that.

So unplugging the phones or putting the phones to the side is one thing. But the other thing is just recognizing those muscles that we have for paying attention and reading and taking in the things that are good and pure and lovely and holy, they're weak. They have been weakened, and so we need to build those muscles up again.

Dannah: Well, when you talk about that, it reminds me of a verse that I try to live by, but it's difficult. It's from Galatians 5. Paul writes,

So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh, for the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They're in conflict with each other. [That's Paul's words.] They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you're not under the law.  (vv. 16–18 NIV)

So, I have this sense that everything I do at every moment is either responding to the Spirit and being led by Him, or giving into the desires of my flesh. And honestly, my phone is where I struggle probably the most with my flesh just getting to be the boss of me, instead of letting the Spirit be directing what I do. I'm filled with either the lies and the anxiety and all of that stuff, or the truth and the peace and the fruit of the Spirit that comes with that.

Can you identify?

Suzy: Oh, absolutely. Ephesians 4 talks about taking off our former way—that which is corrupt, so the flesh that you were talking about. Then it talks about being renewed in our minds. And I think that kind of relates to what Nancy was talking about. The Word is food. So when we eat that which is healthy, that which is good for us, that which is pure, it nourishes us. It renews our mind.

Dannah: So good.

Ashley: I think we need to be so very aware of our own personal limits and be willing to admit that you have limits, that you're not God. We need to be proactive in cutting ourselves off from those phone activities before we start to fall into sin.

And then, I think also we need to ask ourselves why we're consuming the information in the first place. Is it so that we can glorify God and that we can understand the truth of what He's doing in the world? Or are we just trying to distract ourselves? So, does what I'm consuming lead me to honor God, or does it just leave me in despair and feeling self-pity?

Dannah: Nancy talked today about the need to fill our mind with God's Word. So that's kind of the opposite of the doom scrolling you're talking about, Suzy. What's your routine, Suzy? How do you fill your mind with truth? I'm particularly interested because this year you followed the Wonder of the Word project to some degree as we read through Scripture together with women all across the globe.

But what's your regular routine to get into the Word so that your mind is full of the truth, not the headlines?

Develop Habits That Fill Your Mind with Truth

Suzy: Yeah, it is a routine. We keep coming back to this idea of an athlete or training, which I think is very crucial. I think it's crucial that we understand that this is not good works, this is not performative salvation. Paul talks about being an athlete and running in such a way as to win the race, such a way as to win the crown. So, there does need to be a routine, and every athlete understands that.

I've done this forever, but one of the ways is just prioritizing. So when I wake up in the morning, I do pour my coffee before I do anything else because I'm not sure if I can see before I pour my coffee.

But I wake up in the morning and I say, "I'm not going to open my phone. I'm not going to get on social media. I'm not going to play any games. I'm not going to do any of of the things that might distract me in a normal day until I first sit down and I meet with the Lord. That's how my day needs to begin. It's imperative! The other thing is that I have a plan.

You know, we would never say, “Just open the Word and point your finger, and that would be your Bible study.” We need to train with a plan. That is where we meet with the most success.

So I'm doing the Revive Our Hearts Wonder of the Word. I'll take a small chunk of Scripture, and then I'm reading that Scripture for the day alongside a commentary that's rich and helps me to understand it from a number of different theological voices and how it applies. Then I go back to my journaling Bible and I journal what I'm reading.

I meditate as I go, I guess I would say, on God's Word. I'll just keep doing that until I finish the reading portion for the day. And I'll tell you, it sits with me all day long. Another thing that I try to do is when I pray, I try to begin my prayer time with recounting or recalling what I read, what I studied, and it often informs my praise during my prayer time.

Dannah: So good. I've loved watching you dig into the Wonder of the Word reading plan. 

You know, if you have been joining us for that this year, we send an email every day with a prompt of what to read. And maybe you're behind. Today's a good day to press reset on that. Just pick up where we are, or go back to where you left off and get started. Or if you haven't joined us yet, it's not too late. You can finish the year strong with us. 

Ashley, what are some of the methods you use to get God's Word into your heart?

Ashley: Like Suzy was saying, obviously Bible reading is a huge one. I can't overstate the importance of digging into God's Word and knowing what it says.

The first thing that I do when I sit down to read my Bible is I pray, because I know that I'm so easily distracted. So, I sit down, and before I even open the book, I say, "Lord, I need You to help me focus in on this. I need You to help me understand what Your Word says. I need to understand You and the way that You've revealed Yourself in the Word." Then I spend my time in Scripture. 

I also have learned the importance of community in getting truth into my life. The Lord has really been convicting me lately. We talked yesterday about how well the algorithm knows us. The Lord has been convicting me, “Does the algorithm know me better than the person sitting in the row behind me at church? And if it does, why is that? Where am I spending my time, where am I investing my time?”

 

What I need when I'm starting to believe lies is not the algorithm that's going to serve me up whatever it thinks I want or it thinks I need. What I need is the person who's sitting in the row behind me at church, who knows me and loves me, to speak truth into my life.

Dannah: So good. Mic drop, right? Ah, Suzy, you're one of those people in my life that I think knows me better than the algorithm.

Suzy: Yeah, and I think you know me better than an algorithm. And what does the Word say? It says “encourage one another.” We're supposed to be taking the truth of God's Word and encouraging one another with it.

Dannah: Yeah, exactly.

Suzy: You do that, and I try to do that for you. We should be doing that for one another.

Dannah: If you don't have someone like that in your life, go first.

I think most of us are sitting there thinking, I don't have someone like that in my life. I think that's a pretty common Christian woman condition. But walk up to someone in your church and say, "Hey, you know what? I heard this girl Ashley on the Revive Our Hearts app, and she said, 'Does the algorithm know you better than the person sitting in the row behind you at church?' And it convicted me. Would you like to go out for coffee?"

Suzy: That's good.

Dannah: Just start there.

Let God's Word Be Ready When You Need It

Last thing, real short answer here. We don't have much time, but I want to ask you this. Nancy talked about when you fill your mind with God's Word, you're ready to put it into practice during a crisis, is there a verse that you have at the ready in your heart when you hit a crisis? Ashley, I'm going to let you go first.

Ashley: Yeah, absolutely. So one thing that has been so sweet is just the way that the Lord brings Scripture back to your mind when you're in a point in your life where you don't feel like you can get yourself to the Word.

So recently, my husband and I had walked through a few years of infertility, which was really difficult. It was hard to get myself into the Word. But every time I was driving to those appointments, the Lord would bring Psalm 16 back to my mind, and the truth that the Lord is my portion. In Him, I have a beautiful inheritance. At His right hand there are pleasures forevermore.

And so, in those times when you feel like you're wrestling with the Lord and you can't get yourself to wrestle with Scripture, He's so sweet and so faithful to just bring those verses back into your heart and into your mind.

Dannah: Wow, that's beautiful, Ashley. And we celebrate that little baby growing inside of you. We're so excited! Suzy, is there a time when Scripture was at the ready in your heart for crisis?

Suzy: Oh, over and over again. I feel like I really relate to what Ashley just said. Scripture defines itself, and God defines His Word as living and active. He talks about the things that it's able to do. I think that what Ashley just shared is one of the things that Scripture is not only able to do but makes a practice of doing.

Jesus is found throughout Scripture. The gospel is found from page one. He is the Alpha and the Omega. He's page one, and He's page the end, and He is throughout the Word. So, it just doesn't even matter what I might be studying at the time. It is what I need to handle what I encounter that day. It’s most amazing. It's supernatural, obviously.

Dannah: So you're saying every day. It's every day, right? 

Suzy: Yeah, it's every day. If we will allow it to be, and if we will ask it to be, He's there. 

Dannah: So, get your Bibles and get your Bibles into you. Get the Word into you, so that when you're in a crisis, it’s what comes out of you. It makes a difference.

Thank you Ashley and Suzy for being with us today, thank you.

Suzy: Yeah, glad to be here.

Dannah: You know, if you, like me, thought those ladies have some wisdom, well, you know what? Your teenage daughter or granddaughter can hear from them and some other Wonder mentors every day on the Wonder app. It's a Bible reading app and devo tool for teen girls. I want you to let the teen girl in your life know about it.

We're wrapping up a year in the Bible together over the next couple of months, and then we're going to begin a brand-new series next year. Of course, we're going to stay in line with Nancy's teaching as she walks through the next year of the Wonder of the Word. But we're also going to put some snippets of lies young women believe, and I can't wait for next year.

I'm one of the wonder mentors as well. This is really just a great time to jump in. Have the girl that you love join us. Visit ReviveOurHearts.com/wonder to learn more about it and download that app.

Hey, Ashley, have you seen the Revive Our Hearts 2027 calendar?

Ashley: I have. I've gotten a little sneak peek.

Dannah: It's beautiful, isn't it? You know that is one of our most sought-after resources every year. People wait for it, and I have some really good news. Do you know what it is? You probably do know because I said it yesterday.

Ashley: Is it that it's available now?

Dannah: Yes, it's available now. Good answer—ding, ding, ding, ding. Yay, Ashley.

And the theme this year is wonder of the Word. It's filled with biblical encouragement from Nancy. Our hope is, as always, that the words and images found throughout it prompt you to seek, savor, and share God's Word every day.

It's yours when you make a donation of any amount. Visit ReviveOurHearts.com, or call us at 1-800-569-5959. We can't wait to send this to you.

Hey Suzy, I’ve got a question for you. Did you wake up today grateful or grumbly?

Suzy: Well, you asked me on the right day or on a good day because I woke up grateful this morning.

Dannah: Oh, I'm so glad to hear that. Well, tomorrow our guest is going to help us to make sure we wake up on the right side of the bed. She's no stranger to the Revive Our Hearts world. She's a frequent guest on the program, as well as a speaker at our True Woman conferences.

You might know that I'm talking about Mary Kassian. Several years ago she wrote a book on gratitude. I think we could all use more of that in our lives, don't you, Suzy?

Suzy: Oh, you know it. Yeah.

Dannah: Ashley, I can't imagine you being anything but grateful. Are you ever grumbly?

Ashley: I am. Ask my husband. From time to time I'm there.

Dannah: Honest answer. Okay, join us tomorrow, Ashley and Suzy, and everyone, I hope you'll 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.

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