God’s Word and Your Life

Dannah Gresh: It was written by more than forty authors, over more than 1,500 years. It’s presented in a variety of literary genres . . .

Other voices: Law . . . history . . . poetry . . .  wisdom literature . . . prophecy . . . gospels . . . letters

Dannah: Yet it follows a cohesive story arc, and it still makes a difference in the lives of its readers today. I’m talking, of course, about the Bible.

Hi, I’m your host Dannah Gresh, and you’re listening to Revive Our Hearts Weekend. 

The Scriptures. God’s Word. Have you read it? Has it made a difference in your life?

I’m not asking for the Sunday school answer here. Can you put a finger on some specific way the Bible has affected you? When the rubber meets the road, does God comfort you through His Word? Has He used it to confront your wrong thinking or wrong behavior? Have you been changed by something in the Scriptures? I hope so. 

But if you’re skeptical or not sure it’s really relevant to your life, that’s okay. I hope you’ll keep listening. 

Today we’re going to hear thoughts shared by our speakers for the upcoming True Woman conference this fall. My goal today is to inspire you to be more in awe of God’s Word. And that’s the theme of True Woman '25, too—The Word: Behold the Wonder. 

Ready? Fasten your seat belt! We’ll start with Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth. She was speaking to a gathering of students at Moody Bible Institute. She expressed her desire for them—and for you!—related to the Scriptures.

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: I want you to love His Word, to delight in it. 

Yes, it is inspired and inerrant and infallible and true. Yes, it is powerful, it is important, it is sufficient, it is authoritative. It is all the things that Moody Bible Institute stands for and teaches and proclaims. But in addition to all those things and more, it is also beautiful and desirable and satisfying. It is also sweeter than honey. It is also more precious than much gold. Yes, we ought to study it and know it and obey it and share it with others. But I want you to also love it.

Dannah: Enjoying and spending time in the Word of God is more than just a solo sport. Here’s pastor and author Kevin DeYoung.

Pastor Kevin DeYoung: We can often think about that Mary/Martha passage and think about our private devotions, and that’s certainly key and we need that, but there’s a whole corporate dimension that we can’t overlook. Sometimes those corporate dimensions have built-in accountability that we really need.

I’ve got a Bible study this morning, and I need to go, and here’s a chapter and I need to read it. Here’s the small group, here’s the book of the Bible, we’re reading through the Psalms, we’re going to do it. These things count. Sometimes we can think, Well, I’m not really doing anything . . . No.

All of these are ways of getting the Word into our soul. It’s not to the exclusion of personal quiet, just you and the Lord, but all of these things hopefully have a cumulative effect. During some of these seasons where you’re praying for a few minutes at night and you’re trying to stay awake, or in the morning you’re trying to get up—we need to know that the Lord gives grace for that. We want to keep striving for the “holiness, without which no one will see the Lord,” (Heb. 12:14), and also realize that the Lord is at work within us, "to do according to His good pleasure and His good purpose." (1:08)

Dannah: Again, that’s Kevin DeYoung, who will be one of the speakers at True Woman '25, this fall. 

Mary Kassian will be there, too. She uses an analogy for God’s Word, comparing it to a skill she learned in her days in Pioneer Girls, when she got her badge in something called “orienteering.”

Mary Kassian: The needle of a compass always points north. You may not know that if you weren’t in orienteering. (laughter) Orienteering teaches you to orient yourself to this reliable indicator. It enables you to stay on course and make it to your destination.

There were a few things that I learned while orienteering. First was how easy it was to get thrown off course when you’re in a forest and having to go around trees and through culverts and scrambling over rocks.

And the second thing I learned was how important it was to check my compass often to make sure I was going in the right direction. The slightest deviation, even by just a few degrees, would take me off course, and I would miss going where I needed to go.

Truth is like the needle of a compass. God has given us the Word of God. The night before Jesus was crucified, He prayed, “Father, sanctify them. Make them holy by the truth. Your Word is truth.”

It’s so easy to get thrown off course when we’re moving through life around the trees and over the rocks that we encounter in life. That’s why we always need to check and orient—correct our bearing, reorient our hearts to truth. 

Dannah: We’re considering the relevance of the Bible to everyday life, hearing from speakers who will be at our upcoming True Woman conference in Indianapolis. 

Jackie Hill Perry spent some years living a gay lifestyle before God got ahold of her life. Here’s how she would counsel someone who feels attracted to others of the same sex, and notice the role of the Bible in this.

Jackie Hill Perry: Scripture says, “You are who you are because of what Christ has done.” And you have faith in that. These feelings don’t identify you; they just exist. But because you’re His child, you know that you have the overwhelming capacity and power to flee and walk free from them. You don’t have to submit to them.

So I think doing all of that, but also drenching yourself in the Word. We need the Word, man, for our minds. We need worship. We need prayer. We need these things that will help us disengage with lies. 

I’d also inquire about a lot of stuff: “How long have you felt it? Is there a trigger?” Sometimes you may feel this if you’re around somebody or if you’ve watched a certain thing or you’ve listened to certain thing or you’re going through something emotionally.

So let’s identify a trigger, if necessary. What do you do about it? Do you just let it happen? Do you call somebody? Do you watch something?”

I ask them: “How much time do you spend with God?” I’ve noticed that people who have thoughts like that, oftentimes, it’s indicative of a lot of prayerlessness and lack of Word. That’s what it seems like when I’ll talk to them. They’re just like, “Well . . . I just kind of read it and then just go about my day.”

But do you drink it? Do you sit with God? I think when you sit with God, it doesn’t mean that the thoughts don’t come, but they don’t have as much control over your peace or your joy when you sit with the Lord. 

Dannah: I love that thought of “drinking” the Word, from Jackie Hill Perry. 

Kelly Needham compares God’s Word to food—healthy food.

Kelly Needham: It’s nutritious. It is a food for our souls! It’s spiritual nourishment, and so it creates a spiritual vitality and health in us. In me I feel it in some really specific ways, and in some just general sense, where there is just a general feeling of joy and contentment that’s present.

I don’t always notice . . . Sometimes other people will say, “You seem a little less anxious lately,” and I’ll go, “I wonder why that is.” And generally, that’s in tandem with my time with God and His Word being a lot more consistent. And so my soul is filled, I’ve been drinking from the fountain of living water regularly, so I’m not dry and thirsty on the inside. 

I can also weather the storms of life a little bit better, just those daily annoyances, inconveniences, things don’t go your way, conflict that happens with kids and spouses and the person on the street you bump into . . . and it doesn’t throw me off my balance quite so easily. 

Dannah: Can the Word of God help you fight against the lies your own emotions might be telling you? I say, "Yes!" At a True Woman conference I told about a time I couldn’t sleep because my emotions were all over the place.

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And I'm laying in that bed, and the Lord is saying to me, “Put on what you put in you. Put on what you put in you.”

And I'm crying, and I am shaking with fear of the future.

And the Lord says to me, “Hey, a woman of God smiles at the future.”

And I'm, like, “I got nothing to smile about, Jesus.”

I'm searching my memory bank for Scripture, and suddenly . . . I was feeling very sinful, I should mention. (laughter) That's part of it.

And so suddenly, Psalm 130 comes to mind: “If You, O Lord, kept a record of sins, who can stand?” (v. 3 NIV).

And all I could do was whisper it. And so I sat up in the dark, hoping that I didn't wake Bob with my whispers.

(In a whispered voice:) “If You, O Lord, kept a record of sins, who can stand?

And then I thought, “Okay, I need to say this out loud because maybe—maybe—if my ears hear it clearly, I'm going to start to feel it because I'm not feeling it.”

So I drug myself to the bathroom, and I looked in the mirror. “If You, O Lord, kept a record of sins, who could stand? For with You there is forgiveness and therefore You are feared. My soul waits and in his word I put my hope. O, Lord, more than watchmen wait for the morning” (vv. 3–6 paraphrased).

(Sounds of letting out breath.) And then I felt, like, “I’ve got to say this full out loud.” (laughter)

So I walked downstairs, turned on the fireplace, “If You, O Lord, kept a record of sins, who could stand?”

And I felt my backbone straightening. I felt my spirit getting stronger. And then I thought, You know, I need to shout this out loud. (laughter)

So I walked out to my barn. (It was a bit of a temptation, because there were baby goats out there, and that could also help with peace, love, and joy.) And I held a baby goat in my arms. (That poor little thing, because I began to praise the Lord.)

If You, O Lord, kept a record of sins who could stand? But with You there is forgiveness, therefore, You are feared, my soul waits, and on Your word I put my hope. More than watchmen wait for the morning—more than watchmen wait for the morning—put your hope in the Lord for with the Lord is unfailing love and with Him is full redemption. (cheers and applause)

And I want you to know something: I was feeling it. I was feeling the unfailing love. I was feeling the forgiveness. I was feeling the full redemption. Full redemption, Sisters! That is better than Walmart's guarantee. (cheers)

I was feeling it because I had put His Word in me, then I could put it on me. But I had to do the work of it, Sisters. I had to do the work of it, Sisters. You have to do the work of it, Sisters. In the dark night when everything is crumbling in on you, you have to do it.

Now some people would say, “That was just a mantra.”

No, that was the living, active Word of God. It is alive and active, and it works. (applause) 

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Ah, yes, there have been a lot of times of sweet communion with the Lord out in my barn. And committing Scripture to memory can be so helpful in corralling our crazy emotions! 

Katie McCoy will also be speaking at True Woman this October. She reminds us that God’s Word helps us understand our identity better.

Katie McCoy: Some of the biggest sources of confusion today come from this question of, "Who am I? Why am I here?" This is where the Word, the Bible guides us, even in these huge questions—especially in these huge identity questions. Because, until we know who we are as created image-bearing beings of God, we can't understand why we are here. We can't understand our mission. And if we don't understand our mission, we have no way to make sense of everything that is happening around us—to sift through it, to distill who we are to be in our cultural moment. At every point we must always be tethered to the Word, understanding that not only is it true, but that everything God says about reality is true.

Dannah: Erin Davis says soaking in God’s Word needs to be a normal part of a life that is fruitful and flourishing.

Erin Davis: I’ve got to tell you, I’m concerned about how many Christian women I interact with aren’t thriving, that are in constant survival mode. Their spiritual lives are marked by struggle. They (I could say “we,” because at times this is me, too) . . . we have weak and anemic prayer lives.

We know we should be praying, but we would never call our prayer lives flourishing. We’re barely opening God’s Word, and when we do, we’re not getting much from it. It’s not because the Word of God is not living and active—it is! (see Heb. 4:12) But it is because we’re not flourishing on some other level.

And that can start to feel so normal; it can start to feel so universal. And yet, if we take God at His Word, the lives of those of us who follow Christ are supposed to be marked by flourishing. 

Dannah: We’re talking about how the Scriptures affect your life, my life—day-to-day, even moment by moment.

Another upcoming True Woman speaker is Courtney Doctor. She loves speaking to women who aren’t really all that familiar with God’s Word.

Courtney Doctor: We still live in a time when most people know what the Bible is, but there are a lot of assumptions about what the Bible says that it's going to be a lot of rules. They are going to tell you not to do a lot of things that you want to do. So I would say to anybody who doesn't know the Bible, but wants to know the Bible, ask the Lord to just open your eyes and pick it up and start reading. Find a good study that helps you understand what the Word is saying. And trust that the Lord is at work there. The Bible is different than any other book that has ever been written. It is living and active. 

That's not just something that we say, it actually is alive, and it gives life to those who read it. But it also, in being active, it acts on us and it changes us. And the Spirit of God is present in the people of God as they’re reading the Word of God. 

Dannah: Melissa Kruger points out the strong connection between our Bibles and the level of gratitude and satisfaction we’re experiencing.

Melissa Kruger: “How do we cultivate contentment in our lives?” 

And let me say this really clearly. We must be abiding women if we want to be content women! We do not fight for contentment by being tougher; we fight for contentment by being on our knees and being in the Word. We must be women who seek the Lord daily!

I also want to encourage you to desire more out of life, not to desire less. There’s a popular author under the Christian guise who talks about having a dream wall. And on her dream wall was a house in Hawaii, being on the cover on Forbes, and having famous friends. This was on her dream wall. 

If I could give you a dream wall, it would be the fruit of the Spirit. It would be. “Lord, I’m going to put this up.” Maybe put it up in your house. Put up a dream wall and put on it love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Put it up and say, “Make me like that, Jesus.”

Put up your promises and say, “Make me believe Your promises!” We’ve got to seek more out of life, not seek less, to be contented women. 

And I’m going to tell you, “Read your Bible, study your Bible, obey your Bible, and pray for Jesus to change you.” That’s where it’s found. That’s where life is found. 

Dannah: Thank you, Melissa Kruger. Gretchen Saffles was talking about the passage where Jesus challenges His followers to abide in him, just like a fruit-bearing branch has to be connected to the vine. Here’s Gretchen.

Gretchen Saffles: Believing His Word is different than just knowing His Word. Believing His Word is implementing it. It is allowing it to become our very heartbeat. When trials come our way, suffering, when anxiety comes, instead of responding with our flesh, we respond with God’s Word that never changes. It always changes us!

In this passage, Christ calls us to believe what He says. He says later in John chapter 15, verse 7, “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.”

So Christ is saying that when His Word abides in us and we are believing that Word, it’s going to transform our actions. It’s going to transform our thoughts and our feelings and everything about who we are! But, believing is the next step.

Believing is living a life of faith, not just living a life of head knowledge, but that head knowledge moving down to our heart and becoming our actions in everyday life. 

Dannah: You know, affecting our actions in everyday life is part of living wisely. Karen Ellis has a few things to share about wisdom and Jesus and God’s Word.

Karen Ellis: Wisdom is a virtue, yes. Wisdom is most essentially a Person. Wisdom is Christ Himself. So, when I go looking for wisdom, when Solomon said, “I want wisdom,” when all the people in the Bible were faced with an ethical choice between wisdom and folly, that's really what it comes down to.

The question was not just how you're going to live. But who are you going to follow? Who are you going to allow to tell you how the world works? Are you going to rely on your own autonomy? Or are you going to let the one who by wisdom laid the foundation of this world, who knows the physics of how it was intended to work before it was broken in Genesis 3, and been in Genesis 1 and 2 laying out the foundation of two people who were following wisdom, learning from wisdom, how His world works, and of course, that person is Jesus Christ. 

So, when we seek wisdom, we're actually seeking Him. 

Dannah: And that wisdom comes from the Bible. Elizabeth Urbanowicz says that’s important for parents to remember, too, as they raise their children.

Elizabeth Urbanowicz: I am passionately teaching God’s Word every day to children who are growing up in Christian homes, but there’s some kind of disconnect. So as I started diving into research, I just learned that with the amount of information our children are presented with—even if we are careful to limit screen time and what our kids are exposed to—in one year of their lives, they’re going to be exposed to more competing ideas than most people throughout history have been exposed to their entire lives.

So what we need to do is train them to ask some key questions so that whenever they hear something out in the playground or in a textbook or on a TikTok video or on a YouTube video or DisneyPlus they ask, "What did I just hear? Is what I just heard true? How do I know? How does this compare to God’s Word has revealed is true?"

So it's seeing this need in my students that really set me out on a journey to creat resources to help Christiain parents and educator and church leaders equip children to think carefully. We need to be sure that we are helping our children understand the concept of truth—that truth is what is real and that God is the source of truth. In His Word He has revealed to us what is true.

Dannah: I’d say that’s preeetty relevant to everyday life, wouldn’t you? Thank you, Elizabeth Urbanowicz. She’s going to be one of our speakers at True Woman '25, October 2–4, in Indianapolis. Our conference theme will be: The Word: Behold the Wonder. If you haven’t already made plans to attend, you can check out the details at TrueWoman25.com. We’d love to have you there. Together, we’ll “behold the wonder of God’s Word.”

Now, Patricia Saladin finds great comfort in remembering the promises of Scripture. She says it helps lift the performance burden off her shoulders—that sense of needing to somehow measure up to an imagined expectation.

Patricia Saladin: I know, because of what the Bible says, that nothing can separate me from the love of God. But what I have been growing in knowing and practicing more deeply about the love of God has to do with my desire that I think I don’t please Him enough; I have to do more.

When you don’t really soak in that love and when you don’t really know all that He has given you and done for you because we are complete in Christ, then I always have this guilt that I am not measuring up.

At that point what God really taught me was, “You know, Patricia, you will never measure up, but the love that Christ had, that Christ loved them to the end. It’s not your love, it’s Christ’s love.” 

Dannah: Patricia is the voice of Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth on our Spanish edition of Revive Our Hearts, Aviva Nuestros Corazones. Isn’t it encouraging to hear the difference God’s Word makes in all of life?

We have one more True Woman speaker to hear from today. It’s Damaris Carbaugh. She helps us keep the big picture in mind when it comes to reading our Bibles.

Damaris Carbaugh: John 5:39–40 says (and pay attention to this verse!); this is what Jesus told the Pharisees. 

You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life. 

I believe, sometimes, we commit the same error. We go to the Scriptures like, “Okay, I read. Check. I answered that question. Check.” Meanwhile, the purpose of the Scriptures is to take us to Jesus. That’s what Jesus said. “They point to Me, and you won’t come to Me.” How many times have we done the Scriptures but have not come to Him? The Bible was written to reveal to us who God is.

May we heed the advice Jesus gave the Pharisees, and may we come to Him. 

Dannah: Oh, that’s so good. It’s all about Him! So we read the Bible to get to know Jesus better! He’s the main character of the story. 

There are more speakers lined up for True Woman '25, we just didn’t have time here today to feature all of them. Remember, you can check out all the details at TrueWoman25.com. 

Next week on this program, we’ll take a closer look at what a life of surrender looks like. What does it mean to bow the knee and say, “Yes, Lord,” in everything? I hope you’ll join us for that. 

Thanks for listening today. I’m Dannah Gresh. We’ll see you next time for Revive Our Hearts Weekend. 

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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