Satan is a bully who tries to make us feel small, inadequate, less than and insecure. But we don’t have to believe him anymore.
Often times He’ll use something to trigger our self-doubts and then he’ll pounce on us with lies. Today can be the day you decide YOU ARE are more than a conqueror through HIM who loves you!
I’ve got a short video message based on my book that will equip and empower you to stop letting doubt and discouragement beat you up and start letting God’s Word build you up instead! Watch this for a practical way to beat the bully of doubs with the power of God’s promises.
{Download FREE Confident Heart “Triggers and Truths” Printable here}
A Summer Diet of a Different Kind!
Lose the weight of self-doubt by joining over 40,000 other women who have gone on my FREE 7-Day Doubt Diet. Filled with daily insights, powerful promises and scripture-based prayers, you will receive a week’s worth of life-changing Confident Heart devotions.Sign up here
“Confidence Boost” Giveaway:
Today I’m giving away a year’s subscription to the P31 Woman magazine and a copy of my book, “A Confident Heart” (to keep or share with a friend) along with my message “Don’t Throw Away Your Confidence” on CD and a Starbucks gift card! To enter, click “share your thoughts” below this post and let’s talk about those things that trigger your doubts and what truth God spoke to your heart today through the video message and/or my P31 devotion.
And the WINNER is…. Erin Maxwell {announced July 26, 2012}
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There is no secret to have confidence in Christ; it’s exactly as you shared that we need to replace the lies we believe with the truth of God’s word. What I find difficult is identifying the lies that I believe… the root or core of what makes me feel insecure. I pray that one day I will come to the place where I will more easily identify the thought “in the moment” and have His truth hidden in my heart to replace it immediately so that I can shine for His glory! Thanks for your encouragement!
I had a huge episode yesterday where the devil was really attacking me. My huband and I are bringing our marriage back together after an affair. We are doing really well. But I have times when the devil gets to me and says I am not as good as the other woman, or not as beautiful, or not as thin, and he completely takes my confidence away. In times like those, I need to just pray to God. I need my confidence to be from the Lord.
I would love to receive this book. I have always struggled with self esteem issues and am my own worst enemy. My friend is doing this book as an online bible study and has really grown. She encouraged me to consider it as well. Due to the horrible financial status of my state I continue to get laid off from work as a social worker because I lack senority. My employers praise my work, but regretfully I have been let go from 3 positions in as many years when social service budgets are cut. It is so hard to hold onto my belief in myself when I continue to find myself unemployed because I was the last person hired. Some days I just want to bury my head in the sand and say forget it!!! But, I know God designed me to help others and He is for me.
Self doubt is a constant companion even though I have overcome many obstacles in my life. It is by looking back at the times that God has lead, guided, provided, and carried me that I find my confidence to move forward in unfamiliar areas. However, it is a constant battle but the word of God is a wonderful resource when we are down.
Wow Renee! Loved the comment of Think-Feel-Live. How often do we allow those feelings to control us in how we react and what we do? But from what you said that it starts with our thoughts made sense. So many times you hear – you can let your feelings control you – but knowing where they stem from gives a target on how to conquer them. I could never seem to control my emotions – thanks to so much around me and in me, but I can control thoughts with God’s truth. Thanks so much!
This is just in time….I recently graduated college and I am now on the job hunt. I have applied at a school for a teaching position but have not heard anything yet. I am nervous about getting a job because I am afraid I will fail. I have always been afraid of failure. It has kept me from doing a lot of things in my life. I didn’t even go to college until I was 24 because I was afraid I would fail and not be able to finish. Then it took me 9 years to finish. I live with a lot of self doubt. I am always comparing myself to other moms thinking they have it together and I can’t figure out why I can’t have it together. I try to over come these moments of doubt but I don’t know if I will ever be rid of them.
I am reading your book (kindle edition) and am so blessed by it. I think this would be a wonderful bible study to do with high school girls.
Doubt beats me up everyday, as I have OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) and my world is filled with doubt and worry. On top of this, I let OCD define me instead of God, I let it define my days, my choices, my relationships. I have so wanted to read your book “A Confident Heart” because I haven’t really had one for a long time. On the surface I may appear somewhat confident, but underneath I don’t feel good enough to maintain certain friendships or try new ones, to be a confident mother, to be a loving, strong wife, etc. My OCD has had many negative outcomes that I have let define me. I want to recapture what God wants for me and have purposeful living. I am tired of fearing the battles of each day. I want confidence again.
My friends and family constantly come to me for help, support and advice. They all seem to think that I am qualified and able to help them with whatever their struggles are at the time. I pray and trust God to give me words to speak to them that will help them through whatever the problem is at that time. Afterwards and even sometimes during the talks, I feel so inadequate to help them and then start second guessing what I said or told them. I have gone through so much in my life and I know that God wants to use these things to help others, but I just do not trust myself or believe in myself. I want to please God and help others so desperately but I battle with inadequacy.
Your post this morning reminded me that if God calls me to do something it doesn’t matter what I think about myself because He is wanting to use me. I just have to trust Him and not lean on my own understanding.
Oh reading thru the commets makes my heart ache for how much heart ache there is out there. Boy what our world would have been like if sin never entered. But praise God we can experience it if we only put our trust in Jesus. My whole life I have dealt with self doubt l, my biggest obstacle is with my self image. I feel so restricted in the things I do cuz of my weight. I feel it’s become an idol cuz I think on it so often, there have been times it has been so paralizing. I know all the places my doubts come from but boy is hare to overcome.
Yesterday, I attended the funeral of a family friend. In the midst of the sermon I found myself listening to the preacher declare how this woman’s life was a great example of Christ. He spoke about her servitude and her heart for children. He displayed her tattered bible and talked about her confidence as a Christian. At a time when I should have been rejoicing over the positive things that this individual had done I was sitting there in the pew comparing myself to her. I questioned my actions and wondered if I were the subject of this preachers sermon would he be able to speak that highly of my life? It is amazing how our Father can use the life of others to help us put ours in perspective. You see, I’m a mother to a beautiful and healthy 11 month old. I thank God daily for my daughter and for my marriage, but I often question whether I can do this. I question whether or not I will be able to be an excellent wife and a godly role model to my daughter. I’m also a public school teacher. I ask God daily to let me be an example to my 8th graders, but it’s not always an easy job.
I know that Satan is the originator of my doubts and sometimes it is easy to forget that. Just like Gideon, I doubt sometimes that I will be able to live up to all that God wants me to be. Thank you for reminding me that I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. I know that I am wonderfully made and that God will use me to further his kingdom. In this journey we call life, it’s nice to hear about other Christians who face the same doubts and how they overcame their fears by the power of the Holy Spirit. Thank you for sharing this message with me today. These little pearls of wisdom all contribute to helping me build my confidence and live a life that is pleasing to our Father in heaven.
Thank you Renee-
Between your devotional today and Lyssa yesterday, I know I’m being called to deal with the issue of two bullies in our small church. The sad thing is everyone in the church knows how these two men are but does nothing to stop them. The people who become completely fed up leave. Or refuse to volunteer for anything. These men are on our consistory now and are making people’s lives misirible.
The last person they turned their attention to was me and I’ve spent the last week praying for these men and our church. Praying I overcome my natural fear of confrontation and that God will bring me the confidence I’ll need to address this issue with the church (who I feel should be confronted first) and then thes two men.
Thanks for your words of encouragement. Lately I’ve been struggling with doubt and anxiety in the relationships that I have. I know that my relationship with the Lord is the most important one, and I need to shift my focus back on Christ, not only daily, but every moment.
Your analogy of AM/FM radio vs. AM/FM thoughts is great. Thanks for sharing that mental tool.
Blessings
Reading this today was a gift in the right time of my life. I’ve struggled 40 years and I was giving up. Now this is giving me hope.
This wad exactly the message I needed to hear today. Stress with work has been wearing me down to unbelievably low levels. I’ll make a conscious effort to work thru those AM thoughts today and in the days to cone. Thanks for the message of hope today 🙂
I have struggled with confidence for the past few years. After a giant trial came my way that included close people – I have felt defeated, not good enough and unable to compete in life. My husband and I are in the ministry which has made it harder to heal. Satan makes sure to keep you secluded when you are in the ministry, no true friends, no one that you can go to that will not judge. The struggle of my kids getting older, having to be the example to others we minister too and daily life – somedays seem impossible. Deep in my heart I know God hears me and loves me. But it always seems the negative is way louder than the positive. I will be sure to check out your book and continue on this road to healing. Thank you for your words! Keep encouraging others – we all need to hear this!
Thank you for today devotion in Proverbs 31 ministries “When Doubt Won’t Go Away”. It spoke to me on my current situation where I always feel inconfident, insufficient, incapable of doing the task that have been entrusted to me. Often, I have compared myself with my colleagues as well and that made me feel even more “small” in many ways. It really discourages me and I know I need to focus and rely on the Lord and HIS Holy Spirit to get me out of here. I am very interested in your message and would like to see/read the book “Confident Heart”. I feel God has been spoken to me through today devotion from Proverbs 31. I want to journey in God’s confident and heal from this feeling insufficient. Thank you and may God bless you.
Insecurity is something I have dealt with my whole life. My prayer is that I don’t pass it along to my teenage daughter & can teach her to not listen to the lies of satan. Thank you for your devotion today!
I have always dealt w/ negative self image issues & never thought I was good enough for whatever. I realize that I need to view myself as God does! Thanks for your insight Renee.
Everything about your message resonated with me today. Self doubt has been front and center my whole life. Two triggers are my own perfectionist tendencies — something that resulted from growing up as a child in a home where “being the best” was expected, and then as a teenager, losing the parent that expected that to sudden death. For the nextt 30 years, I continued to try to measure up to those expectations. Then, four years ago, when my ex-husband and tthe father of my three children chose to leave us, all my feelings of inadequacy and abandonment were magnified and couldn’t be ignored anymore.
I love your analogy of a radio with two stations. I like to think of the FM station as one that comes in clear and positive, and an AM station as one that contains lots of static and is unpleasant to listent too. I imagine physically turning off the AM station broadcasting the negative thoughts of self-doubt and switching on the FM station containing God’s clear message of acceptance, strength and love. Thank you for giving me such a powerful image to focus in on God’s love For Me!