“From My Heart to Yours”: Nancy Invites You to Come to the Word

A Place of Quiet Rest is not a book written by an expert.

Rather, it is written by a woman in process—a woman on a pilgrimage to know God. That journey began months before I was born, as my parents dedicated me to the Lord and purposed to teach me (and the six other children who would follow) the Word and ways of God.

Much as a greenhouse is designed to nurture young plants and protect them from forces that might damage their tender roots, our parents sought to create in our home a climate that was conducive to spiritual growth, where we were nurtured in the Word and ways of God and sheltered from unwholesome or dangerous influences.

The Spirit used the spiritual care of those earliest years to cultivate the soil of my heart, to make it tender and responsive to His wooing and to make me aware of my need for a Savior. My first conscious memory, in fact, is of the afternoon of May 14, 1963, when at the age of four I gave my heart to Christ. In that moment God planted within me a seed—the seed of eternal life—and placed within me a new life—the life of His Son, Jesus.

Until that day, according to God’s Word, I was “dead in . . . trespasses and sin” (Eph. 2:1)—I had no connection to the God of the universe. But at that moment, through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ, I became alive.

It’s not hard to tell that a newborn baby is alive—she breathes, her heart beats, she gets hungry and thirsty, she grows, she communicates, she cries. And so my spiritual birth was accompanied by signs of spiritual life—a capacity and a longing to know God, a heart that beats and cries after God. 

At the time, I had little comprehension of the fact that God is the supreme Lover who desires intimacy with His creatures. And I certainly had little awareness of the incredible price He had paid to make it possible for me to live in union and communion with Him. 

All I knew was that I needed Him, that He wanted me, and that Jesus was the One who made it possible for us to have that relationship. 

Now, looking back, I can see that what took place that day was the starting point of a relationship—a longing in my heart, corresponding to the longing in His heart, to know Him, to walk with Him, to enjoy fellowship with Him, and to share our lives together in an eternal love relationship. And early in my Christian life, I learned about one of the practical means to cultivate such a relationship with God. It had to do with something my earthly father practiced daily—something he called “devotions.” 

Each morning, in the midst of an extremely active and busy household and with the demands of growing a successful business, he managed to spend an hour or more alone with the Lord. 

I don’t recall ever actually being with him during those times—though I did frequently see him reading his Bible. But somehow we all knew that this time in the Word and prayer was more important to him than any other activity of his day. And as I got older, I learned something of how it had come to be such an indispensable part of his life.

During his teenage and young-adult years, in search of thrills, my father became addicted to gambling, adopting a freewheeling lifestyle that destroyed any sense of values he might have had, and caused no little heartache to his parents. He was not looking for God—the Scripture indicates that there is no one who seeks after God—but the “Hound of heaven”¹ was pursuing him. And one night while in his midtwenties, having made a mess of his life, he came under the preaching of the gospel. He was converted and never looked back.

Early in his Christian life, my father was challenged to give the first part of every day to the Lord in the Word and in prayer. From that day until the day he went to heaven twenty-eight years later, he never missed a single day of this devotional practice. Nothing was more important to him than growing in his relationship with the Lord, and he believed strongly that nothing was more essential to maintaining that relationship than a daily time alone with the Lord. 

Daily devotions were not something my parents ever forced on us, but the influence of my dad’s example and training in this area was profound. Although he has been with the Lord since 1979, the image of a dad on his knees before the Lord (I don’t know how many kneeling pads he wore out over the years) is indelibly etched on my mind and heart. 

In God’s kindness, when I was fifty-seven, never having been married, He brought a widower named Robert Wolgemuth into my life. I soon learned that, like my dad, this man knew and loved God’s Word. And since the death of his first wife, Bobbie, Robert had become even more purposeful about starting each day in the Word and prayer, no matter what else was on the docket for the day. It was from Robert that I first heard a challenging phrase he had picked up from his late wife: “The Throne before the phone”—something Robert has modeled consistently to me. 

Although I have made a practice since earliest childhood of beginning my day with the Lord, this discipline has not always come easily for me. As much as I value and need it, I have often struggled to make it a consistent reality. I have battled my flesh, which loves to sleep, is easily distracted, and does not like to sit still and be quiet. I have battled interruptions—many of my own making—and a never-ending to-do list. 

There have been mornings when I’ve allowed my pillow, my phone, or an overflowing inbox to win out and have ended up spending only a few hurried moments with the Lord—even as I was writing this book on the subject! At times, I have missed out altogether on spending time alone with Him. 

But I have come to believe with all my heart that this is something worth fighting for. The enemy of my soul knows if he can win this battle, he will be able to defeat me in other areas of my life. He hates God, and he works tirelessly to convince us that we can operate on our own, independently of our Maker. He’s well aware that if we take that path, we will end up spiritually defeated, frustrated, barren, and fruitless. Worse, we will end up doubting God and His goodness, in bondage to our flesh, and resisting His will. 

Over the years, I’ve discovered another, even more important, reason to guard this time alone with the Lord. I have come to see practicing “devotions” less as an obligation of the Christian life and more as an incredible opportunity to know the God of the universe. He has issued to you and me an invitation to draw near to Him and experience an intimate love relationship with Him. So for me (most days) “devotions” have become not so much a duty as a delight—an awesome privilege to share sweet union and communion with the Bridegroom of my soul.

Yet, I’m convinced that few subjects evoke such feelings of guilt, failure, and frustration among believers as the matter of “daily devotions.” Of those believers who do have some sort of devotional life, many—perhaps a majority—approach this time with the sense that it is something they ought to do. Others have tried and failed so many times they are tempted to give up—or they already have. Still others have never even started and have no idea what they are missing. 

As a teen, she experienced several years of fits and starts with a daily devotional life. Then, when she was a young pastor’s wife, the Lord showed her the hypocrisy of trying to “do ministry” without first taking time to meet with Him. He brought her to make a commitment to start her day by seeking the Lord in His Word and prayer. She remembers thinking, 

With all the things that filled the hours of my day, could I not squeeze in at least a bit of time in God’s Word each day? Could I not set that as my most important priority? Then it hit me that, just as I had made a vow to my husband to be faithful to him in marriage, surely I could make a similar vow to my Savior—to at least begin my day communicating with Him, seeking Him, and hearing from Him in His Word.

Kimberly acknowledges that it was hard to get started. But now, more than thirty years later, she says:

That was the beginning of the greatest adventure I could ever experience on this side of eternity. My time with my Savior each morning is the most precious portion of each day. I’ve never regretted for a moment making that vow.

Little did I know how very much I would need the daily consistency of that established habit before I reached the challenges of interrupted mornings with mothering little ones, before the challenging years of parenting teens while serving in a church with complex problems, and long before extended seasons of hospital vigils and caregiving (first with my father, and later with both my mom and husband). 

Life here is punctuated by brokenness, trauma, sorrow, and tragedy. That’s the nature of living in a world under the curse (Rom. 8:20–22). But, through much loss and difficulty, spending the first portion of the day in God’s Word, seeking His heart, has been my stability. Staying tethered to His Word provides me with wisdom beyond myself; guidance for each day’s events, responses, and decisions; and joy that is indescribable as I get to know Him more and more intimately. His Spirit uses His Word to open my eyes to hidden sin, blind spots, and areas of my life where I need to grow. He convicts me and leads me. In those first moments of the day, He prepares me for the rest of the day—setting my heart for the course He has planned for me. He knows what the day will hold—whether tragedy or joy—and spending time alone with Him prepares me for that.

Time in His Word leads me in how to intercede for others. Scripture shapes and informs my prayer life. My prayers become entwined with His Word.

Over the course of these years, I’ve come to know His character and have an intimacy with Him that is the gift I treasure most, more than anything that this world might offer. Truly there is no greater privilege than to know Him.

If you are a child of God, I believe there is within you something that will never be satisfied with anything less than sweet, intimate fellowship with your Creator, Redeemer, and heavenly Father. Until you see Him face-to-face, you will never cease to hunger and thirst to know Him more. Kimberly’s example has increased that longing in my own soul. I hope it has done the same for you.

Jesus said, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink” (John 7:37). This is a book for thirsty souls. It is an invitation to come to Him—not to another program, another thing to add to your to-do list, another requirement—but to Jesus, the Source of all Life. Come to Him and drink. Drink deeply. Keep on drinking. Let Him quench your thirst. And then watch as rivers of living water flow out through you to quench the thirst of those around you.

This post is adapted from the 25th anniversary edition of A Place of Quiet Rest by Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth (pp. 13–19). Published by Moody Publishers. Used by permission.

¹ This term comes from a poem of the same name by the English poet Francis Thompson (1859–1907), which depicts God’s relentlessly pursuing love.