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Renee Swope

Encouraging and equipping moms to parent with God's grace and confidence.

A Note to Email Subscribers {& online study friends}

Hi friends!

If you are signed up to receive my website and blog Email Updates, I’m truly honored to have you as one of my subscribers.

I value your time and realize your inbox is probably really full. So, it means a lot that you would invite me into your already crowded space and busy days :0).

For the next several weeks, I’ll be leading an online study of my book.  Even if you aren’t part of the study, as a subscriber you will receive my blog posts. I’m praying God will speak to your heart in a special way by what is shared – even if you aren’t reading the book. He did that with so many last time!

I just wanted to let you know what to expect in the coming weeks – some of my upcoming posts may look familiar. But each week I’ll have a guest or two sharing their stories, and something new to keep it fresh and encouraging for you, too. I’d love to have you continue as a subscriber and journey with me closer to the heart of God during the next two months – and for many more that follow.

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For April 1st Online Study Participants ONLY

This past week I sent a  Confident Heart Online Bible and Book Study confirmation email to everyone who signed up for the study that starts tomorrow, April 1st. And if  you are one of them, I have a few questions to make sure you get all communications:

Did you receive an email from [email protected] with my website banner at the top – like graphic above?

If YES – you ARE successfully signed up for my Online Study group list.

If NO – click here to sign up here and enter your email very carefully.

If you are reading THIS  POST in an email – with my head shot only in the top corner – you are already an EMAIL SUBSCRIBER.

If you cannot say YES to both please take a minute to do these BOTH OF THESE things today:

Important Reminder: If you are waiting on your book, you can read the Foreword and chapter One on Amazon by clicking “Look Inside” here.

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Got any questions before we get started? Are you excited, nervous, ready?? Just click “share your heart” below. I’ll be reading comments and answering questions this weekend as time allows. {If you are reading this via email, click here to return to my website to leave a comment or ask a questions.}

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Comments

  1. Hello from Singapore! I’m enjoying your book and am excited for a greater revelation of what God has in store for me. 🙂

  2. I think this will be an exciting study with so many different backgrounds from people participating. Looking forward to it. 🙂

  3. Iam really looking forward to this study Renee. I have not read your book but I do have an ebook copy of it. I still get times when I feel inadequate as a Christian even though I know God loves me right where I am. So this is the study I need. Thank you for this.
    Doreen

  5. I decided to join this study because I have not always been so confident. But months ago I decided to surrender to the Lord because all power is in His hands and I know that I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength. I want to go higher in the Lord but I also wanna be more attentive to His Spirit. I also want a stronger prayer life. I know how to pray and I know I do have a personal relationship with God, but I’m ready to go to the next level.i know this online study is where God led me and I pray by the end of this study that I am higher and on the way to victory in Jesus name.

  6. Dear Renee and classmates,
    I am so excited to find this type of study at your own pace! Before I had kids, I was able to be more involved in studies. Now I’m lucky if I get 10 minutes to myself. I don’t have the book yet bc finances are tight. I work part-time contract work and have been out of work for a month! It was a blessing to get stuff done at home while kids where in school, but not good on the budget! I recently got some work again so bear with me if I don’t have time to participate a lot. Ill be praying for you all. 🙂 May the Lord richly bless this study! Thanks so much, Renee!

  7. Looking fwd to kissing my overwhelming self doubt and insecurities goodbye and being in community with other women. Can’t wait to read the book and learn how to be confident in who I am in Christ !

  8. I Renee, I’m nervouse and excited at the same time. I bought your book about a month ago and starting reading it and right away found myself in it. I have suffered with self-doubt and the lack of confident all my life but have not been able to find out where or when it started, I’m so looking forward to starting this online study. I pray that God will show me and give me the confidents I need to live my life solely for him. Pray that he will remove the fear that holds me back.

  9. I too am excited, yet anxious-nervous about what God will be doing in my Life. God has been so very faithful in my life thus far, and I am looking forward to seeing what HE will do thru this study and MY journey of life with HIM ahead. God is so loving, and he so desires for us to grab hold of him and walk alongside him. And, as we reach for him he pulls us by our hands and leads us in HIS path so graciously. For I know, ‘HE leads me in the path of Righteousness for HIS name sake’ (Ps 23:3) I am learning, I have to trust GOD *the lover of my soul* and open up my heart so HE can do great and mighty work of healing in me, THEREFORE…. I pray that I cooperate and not hold back ( NOT give room to the enemy to distract me) during this study. So If you can please lift me up in prayer regarding this matter. Thank you in advance for your prayers, and your willingness to sacrifice some time and do this this study— so we too can regain confidence in CHRIST and thus have a CONFIDENT HEART. May GOD continue to be glorified thru you.

  10. Where am I actually going to participate in the online bible study? Can you please direct me, also I was not able to read the entire chapter 1 on amazon it stop on page 22. I order my book so hopefully it will arrive tomorrow.

    Thank you
    Paulette

    • Paulette, you will participate right here. Did you get the email tonight explaining how the study works? And tomorrow, I’ll share a link to Chapter one in my post so you can read the whole thing.

      I know this is a new way of doing a study for many, but once we get started it will make more sense later this week 😉

      Glad you are here!

  11. Dear Renee and others,
    Please pray for me. I need the truths and promises of this book,of God,to transform me. I have been in a deep dark depression and hating myself for years. Once an active mom and teacher for 17 years everything is crumbling away. My young daughters are hurting seeing me go thru this and being hospitalized 3times in 2 years. My marraige has been dead for 7 years and we are roommates at best. I have seen many doctors, medications etc. my Christian counselor tells me to get truth in my head and that He loves me. I feel like I’m living in a prison cell that I can’t break out of. I want do badly to get better and live in Christs freedom. Pray I can believe Gods words are for me,and live like they are true. Thank you so much. Never written on a blog before.
    Christine Romero

    • Christine, I can so relate to your journey. Please hang in there. God truly is working all around you. Watch where He is working and join Him. My husband and I were separated for 5 months and reconciled. God did a big work in our lives. My husband dated during that time and it has totally shaken my confidence. I compare myself to those women. I am truly in need of some trust and assurance. I am 55 and married for 34 years. This is the hardest journey I have ever been on. I will be praying for you daily. There is hope and you can find it.

      • thank you Julie. I will be praying for you too. I will pray that your trust in in the Lord and that HE alone fills you. Thank you for sharing with me. I’m almost 43 and the past 3 years of my life have almost done me in but I now see and want to choose to believe God has me here for a reason and I have to minute by minute choose God’s promises over the way I feel inside. Let’s grow in HIM!

    • Christine, I’m proud of your courage, for you not giving up, for persevering toward healing and all God has for you. I’m asking Jesus to do a new thing in you, to help you see Him working in your life. Im praying and claiming these verses for you now:

      I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Eph 3:16-19

      • I love this verse in Ephesians! It is a beautiful prayer to pray for those we love! And with Jesus love in our hearts we can pray for a lot of people! I also will pray this prayer for you, Christine! May this study bless you. I too look forward to sharing and growing in this study. I don’t have much opportunity to share the joy that The Lord is giving me recently and am so glad to be a part of this study group.

      • thank you for your encouragement and prayer Renee. I just re read ch 1 and have a glimmer of HOPE arising within me. That is from the Lord I know. Thank you so much for doing what you do Renee.

    • Christine, I am finding that the more I focus on Jesus and His love there is more love in my heart for my husband. I’ve been married over forty years and there have been times I have felt so alone especially in my journey with The Lord. But just this morning I told my husband I love him so much and I know it is because of the love of Jesus in my heart. Thanks be to God!

      • thanks Priscilla and I do need to allow the love of Jesus to penetrate my soul. Then, like you said, I can be a giver of love to others. Way to go in sharing your love with your husband this morning! That is victory:)

    • Putting you on my prayer list, Christine. I too, have suffered from deep depression, in the past and doubt. I found some good support groups, counseling and God. I hope you find the right doctor, medications, support group and Scripture to help. The authors Townsend and Cloud wrote books that helped me. Without a strong , loving, and accepting support group I would not have made it out of the despair. If you are in need of medication to balance seek a good psychiatrists. We need each other. Do not isolate yourself. So glad you are part of this study:)

      • thank you so much for what you said Maureen. I am deep in isolation. Have one friend left that I fear I have worn her out too. I know it is I that needs to do the work, just so very hard to be around others or make a phone call. I don’t answer the phone and spend all day in bed till my girls get home from school then pray I can be ok for them. Tomorrow I’m not going to spend all day inside in bed!!

    • this is oh so me, christine, i don’t love myself, and am trying to fill it up with other THINGS, to the point i’m so exhausted, i believe God loves me & thinks I’m special, I just haven’t gotten to that point yet, i’m hoping this study will help me with that, will put your name on my ever going prayer list! Hang in there God DOES LOVE US! I ask for prayer for physical strength at this time, when you’re not feeling well, your mind does a number on you even more, thanks in advance!

  12. Stumbling across this book was a divine appointment. I got your book a week ago and have read through it and found myself crying through most of it….I could so relate to your stories! I’m going through a lot right now in my life that has shaken my confidence to the very core of my being. It’s been very difficult for me to know that Jesus is right by my side when my world seems to be falling apart….I know that He is in my head….but I want to know and feel it in my heart! I’m looking forward to reading through the book again as I do the online study. Thank you for being obedient to God’s calling and blessing me… and no doubt, many other women through out the country and possibly the world. You are truly a gifted and anointed woman of God!

    • Thank you Mary for leaving a note and sharing your heart so we can pray for you. Im praying for you right now before I go to bed. Praying this for you:

      “The LORD is close to the brokenhearted; he rescues those whose spirits are crushed.” Psalm 34:18

  13. Hi Renee,

    Excited & nervous as I amgoing through a divorce right now & whating to be even closer to God now more than ever.

    • So sorry for what you are going through. Im praying for you right now Jane. Praying for you to feel God wrapping His arms around you and walking right by your side through this. He’s going to meet you where you are and love you into a place of hope and healing. We’ll be here to encourage and pray you through too!

  14. I am so excited to begin this journey under your leading. I will be doing this study with a few other local friends. I am looking forward to what God has in store for us!
    Happy Easter Renee!

  15. I’m so glad this study is back. I signed up before but never got the chance to stick with it. I am sticking with it this time and looking forward to allowing God to make changes in my life!

    • Oh Nae……..I am back again, too. I am so bad at letting everything get in the way digging really deep into God’s word. This will be a challenging week for me as I have to take a test tomorrow and if I pass it, will have several more to take. I am asking for God’s will……..if I’m suppose to have this job, I will pass this first test. If I don’t pass this test, it’s not His will for my life. I really want God’s will……..and I really need to complete this study. Praying we both stick with it til the end this time.

      • Hi Brenda…we can do it!! Praying for God’s will to be done in your life as well as mine.

    • Nae, welcome back!! SO glad you signed up again. Can’t wait to see how God is going to meet you through the book this time. 🙂

      • Thank you, Renee! I really need this Study!! Thanks for taking time to pour into the life of others!

  16. Thank you for hosting this exciting study. I am excited to get started.

    • So excited you are going to be part of it. My family and I gathered in our living room tonight to pray for each of you. It’s such an honor to be part of this journey you are taking with Jesus for the next several weeks!!

  17. Hi Renee, I began chapter 1 and took the time to answer each question. I think it’s helping already. My friend was interested in knowing more about How Much of a Time Commitment the study required and I didn’t know what to tell her since I didn’t time myself and did it when I could catch the time between other things. It also seems to take me longer than some to get assignments completed so how can I answer her?

    • Hi Florence,

      Im so glad you already feel like the book is helping. God’s Word has so much power to heal and restore our hope!!

      As far as time is concerned, it really is up to each woman. That is the beauty of an online study because we can each determine the time we have to read, answer questions, etc. And then the time we have to participate in group discussions on my blog and pray for each other. The more we put in, probably the more we will get out – but each person gets to set their pace, choose their time to get online and determine the time they have to give.

      Hope that helps a little! So glad you are both reading the book together!
      Renee

  18. I am so looking forward to this study. I could relate to so many things in your book. I have had insecurities all my life and though I know God loves me just the way I am, I still struggle with doubts. I have quit so many things when the going seems to be getting to hard, I just give up because of lack of confidence. I am sure it has kept me from becoming what God created me to be and wants me to be. Like what you said in Chapter One, “In the shadow of doubt, insecurity paralyzes us”, wow that hit home for me in a big way. I never thought of how much I have been paralyzed over the years and how much I have lost and missed out on because of it. I thank God for leading me to this study and to you Renee. Thank you so much for writing this book and doing this study!!! Happy Resurrection Day!! 🙂

    • I completely understand Janet – for so long I had no idea how much doubt was holding me back. Im so glad you are going to be part of the study. Praying for God to do immeasurably more than you can imagine in this area of your life!!

    • Janet I am with you! I have doubted and second guessed every thing in my life for 40ish years! I too quit when the going gets tough! Since my son (11) has active in sports and activities I have made him stick to anything he starts. But I still have a hard time doing the same! I will pray of you and each of our fellow classmates durning this bible study and after! 🙂

      • Thanks Christina and Renee for your prayers, they are greatly appreciated!!! I will be praying for you also!!

      • Christina,
        I thought I was the only Mom who didn’t walk the talk that I give my daughters about quitting! Thank you so much for sharing this.

  19. So thankful to have you joining me/us Marcella!!

    You will love the sweet community and encouragement God creates right here in this little corner of my cyber home. And Jesus is going to meet you in such a personal way – speaking to your heart in ways only He can as you read the pages of each chapter. 🙂

    Praying for peace and joy to chase all those butterflies away!

    • I just found this. Is it too late to get in? I also am nervous but feeling like this is what God wants me to do. Looking for some confirmation. Don’t have the book yet but the ch 1 available here strikes so many chords with me.
      Trish