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:
- SIGN UP to Receive Website Email Updates here {enter your email very carefully}
- Sign up for my Online Study Email Updates here {enter your email very carefully}
- PLEASE ADD [email protected] and [email protected] to your email account as an approved sender. And please check spam these next few days to make sure you are receiving emails.
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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I have read Chapter 1, the verses were powerful. ” Self doubt blocks the promises of God’s power and the truth to change us from the inside out so we can live with a confident heart’. In answering the questions, my earliest memory of doubting and feeling insecure was as a child. The disharmony in my home, my mother overloved, my dad was an alcoholic, school was hard as I am blind in my left eye and so I was not coordinated, my eye looked like it was lazy so I was called a cross eye baboon. Insecurity kept me from dating different boys, going to college until I was an adult. When doubt whispers, I shut down, I listen to the lies of the devil. I have hope when I read God’s word. Pain is my constand companion. So I do not feel well and that hinders me the most from living with God’s confidence on a consistent basis. I want to be a woman with a confident heart. I want to be one who sees God in what I am doing. Jermiah 17:7 let me be a woman who trusts in the Lord and is confident. I want to write. I want to be whole. I want to not procratinate. Blessings Diana
This is my first time joining an online bible study. i’m not sure how exactly to do it. Do I need to read all the blogs? (Not that the blogs are not important. I know that we all have something to share to each other..)Or, should I just do the assignment and share my thought about it. I’m sorry I think I’m really lost in a way of doing this.
Anyway, I read the first few blogs and some are exciting and some are very heart breaking…I really pray that God will meet each of us personally wherever we are at right now. Most of all that God will open the eyes of our hearts to REALLY see him and know and believe that He really, really loves us. Let’s overcome doubt and fear by CHOOSING to believe the TRUTH. The Word is the truth and the truth (the Word) will set us free!
I’m feeling a little frustrated……I posted something yesterday for the online study and I can’t find my posting. Is anyone else having this problem?
I had trouble finding mine, too, Mary. I’m wondering if there are just so many posts (which is awesome!). I’m kind of overwhelmed with trying to keep up with the posts. Would love to read them all, but if they continue at this pace, won’t be able to. Still, it’s great to see so much participation!
Hi Renee,
I read your book in the fall, and it touched my heart in so many ways. I am thrilled to have the opportunity to go through it again with you as my guide. God is really working in my life right now to make me into the Christian woman He created me to be. I have been a Christian most of my life, but doubt and insecurity have always held me back. I would rather sit idly in the background than step forward and risk saying or doing the wrong thing or worse yet failing. I have spent a lot of time worrying about what other people might think and my perception of what they think is always filled with negative chatter. I’m not good enough. I’m ugly. I’m fat. Why would they want me around. They don’t want to hear what I have to say. I have no real reason to feel this way. I just made a habit out of beating myself up. I have been blessed with wonderful, loving parents, a terrific husband and three beautiful daughters, and I have a really good life yet I doubt myself. Doubt and hope cannot live in our hearts at the same time is the line that really grabs me as I reread Chapter 1. Over the past year I have seen God’s work unfold in my life. I have felt the power of prayer at work in my life as I rested in the palm of His hand with the peace that passeth all understanding that only He can give. On January 1, 2012, my middle daughter fell down a ski slope in Colorado into an artificial snowmaking machine head first. We were 20 hours away at home in Mississippi when we got the call that she needed immediate brain surgery or she would not survive and at that she would probably have severe brain damage. My response was do what you have to do, and we will be there as soon as humanly possible. It was late Sunday afternoon on New Year’s Day and we were two hours away from commercial flights that were departing in an hour, and we were having trouble getting a private flight. We would not be able to fly out until the next morning. That would not do. My baby was in a strange place with strange people, and she was hurting. No way could I spend a night 20 hours away doing nothing. I was praying so, so hard, and I did the only thing I knew to do at the time. I sent out a plea on FB for prayers for my daughter and that my husband and I would find a way to get to her. Within an hour we were on a private plane to Colorado. As we were rushing out the door leaving our other children and family behind, a kind doctor from Denver Health called to tell us she was going into surgery and God took us into His hands. It was that time in our lives when there was only one set of footprints in the sand. We arrived shortly after midnight just as they were bringing our daughter out of surgery. That was the longest 31/2 to 4 hours of my life yet I never felt closer to God. The doctor that met us was amazed that she was awake and responding to them with her eyes. They still did not promise us that she would not have brain damage and the whole right side of her body was paralyzed, but our God is in the miracle business. Through Facebook and Caringbridge prayers were being lifted all over the world and over the past year, though it has not always been easy, we have watch her heal to almost 100%. She is back in school and doing well. She still has a few struggles but they are so minor compared to what they could have been, and God is working in her life as well as ours. As her body has been healing over the past year, my heart, mind and soul have also been healing. God has been showing me my value. He has shown me how much people really care even though we take that for granted in our normal daily lives. He is showing me I can make a difference, yet I still let the shadow of doubt overcome me at times. I have learned the meaning of Romans 8:28, “I am working all things together for good, because you love me and are called according to my purpose.” He took the worst thing that has happened to us and is working good from it. He has touched so many lives through her accident and our journey to bring her back. He is guiding our way. Her FB status at the time was Jer. 29:11 and there is no doubt in my mind that He has a plan for her life, but I also think He has a plan for mine. He is helping me find the true me that has been hidden under all the doubt and insecurity. I don’t know what He plans to do with me when He finds me, but I am anxious to find out, and I am so grateful to have people like you to help me along in this journey to find me.
That is just amazing work of God in your life and family. There is really nothing impossible to our God. And God said, “those who trust in the Lord will never be disappointed.”
The statement that most resonated in me was”As God’s girls, we need to know and beleive that change is possible.” I so often feel that things will never change and that I am stuck where I am. I don’t feel things are really bad, just that they will not get better. I know those thoughts come from me and I need to have the God Confidence maybe just to look at things in a different way. His way instead of mine.
Good Morning! I am enjoying this first chapter. How did you know so much about me Renee! 🙂 So far, the sentence that really speaks to me as a reminder to be aware of the source of my thoughts is this: “Self-doubt blocks the promise of God’s power and truth to change us from the inside out so that we can live with a confident heart.” Also, God has been, for a while now, showing me that I go so far in moving past self-doubt and turn back. I am looking forward to God and I exploring this issue and coming out the other side of it, more in love with Him and more believing and relying on Him.
I have been so blessed ALREADY by your book~ thank you for allowing God to use you Renee!
I can relate to the father/daughter relationship and the consequent pattern of ‘striving’ to measure up as a teen and adult. It is still a struggle, so this book comes at a perfect time…
I am also a worrier by nature, and with a big project due in 8 weeks at work, I have been on worry overload. The project is one that was handed to me last minute, adding to the anxiety, so after reading chapter one, I am claiming Jeremiah 17:7! I have written the verse on a notecard and I am carrying it with me everywhere I go! I am also reminding myself that as I trust in the Lord, that my hope will not be disappointed as promised in Isaiah 43:19~ as I said this Bible Study, could not have come at a BETTER time! lol
Thank you again and looking forward to the next step! Blessings to you and your family.
I had trouble getting connected your blog page tonight. I couldn’t open it at all. And Windows said it needed to know what program to use to open it. But I just closed it and went on with what I was doing.
I did the required reading tonight even though I had read it before, but thought I’d refresh my mind. Then I did the 7-day doubt index analysis. Came up with 148 total score, so I fluctuate up and down with my self-doubt.
I’m finding it hard to understand your comment in the book how you ‘fell in love with God when you realized how much he loves you’. I know an acquaintance that always said she loved God more than her husband and I never understood that. How does one feel that close and in love with God? I have also suffered many times all my life with depression. I always thought, because it usually came on me at Christmas Holiday time and through winter, that it was because I never had enough money to buy presents for my children and my husband and family that I wanted to give to. My husband died at 54, 17 years ago and I still have depression off and on. Although I have never felt suicidal.
I have had self-doubts since I was a young child. I can’t remember my parents ever telling me they loved me and didn’t show their love very often either. I loved them dearly but didn’t receive the love I wanted from them. I never sat on my father’s lap for him to read a story to me or any other reason. My Mother would put me to bed and read to me almost every night. I was the youngest child in the family out of 11 children. The second oldest was a sister and she hurt me so many times in my life I could never count them all. She did that to me until I got married and was a woman. Always criticizing me for most everything I did or didn’t do. When I asked my mother why she thought my sister did this to me, she had no answer. I believe, now, that she had many issues herself all her life that made her do that to me and other members of my family and to her own grand children and family. Many of them didn’t like her as a grandmother. So I have forgiven her several years ago and she has been dead for several years now also. As a matter of fact, none of my siblings are living any more, nor my parents. I am the only one left in my family, except for some nieces and nephews. I only have my two daughters, one son in law and two granddaughters in my life and they are my reason for living.
I could tell you more, but I won’t now. Maybe later. This is supposed to be a comment and it has turned into a long story.
I am so thankful that God led me to your blog and website and I pray that I will receive much benefit from this study. And I believe I will find it because I do love Him and believe in Him and I have confidence that He can heal me of all the doubt in my life.
Thanks for being there for me.
Sharon
This is my second time to do this study. I am not very good at staying connected through the computer, but know that I need to for encouragement in the journey. I have felt “shelved” for the last several years. I have been following God’s leading and have learned to find my identity in him and not man, yet even as I write that I know that I have a long way to go. I hope to get a little further down the road and help my children and women that God puts in my life find the true source of strength and hope. Thanks for offering this study again!
This is the section in Chapter one that got to me:
“As God’s girls, we need to know and believe that change is possible. We need to hope that life can be different. Otherwise, doubt will win every time and our hearts will be eroded by attitudes and emotions of defeat. But, it is not supposed to be this way.
God declares, with confidence that things can change. “See, I’m doing a new thing.”
“I am working all things together for your good because you love me and are called according to my purpose.” “All things are possible to her who believes:”
I am challenged. Do I believe this? I just walked through the grocery store tonight, thinking to myself, “I’m nobody” over and over. It was like I was lost in a sea of “somebodies” and I was the worthless nobody. I thought about many years ago when I managed to land two very prestigious internships in my field at college. Now, here I was so many years later, doing a stressful, dead-end job that is not using my abilities. I’m divorced, abandoned and unloved. My body and spirit have been shell shocked by years of physical deterioration due to health concerns and mental and spiritual deterioration due to family situations. How did I become like this? There were times that I was so overwhelmed with the realization of my Savior’s love for me. The last several years, I’ve fallen into the pit of despair and hopelessness that my life will never get better. I can’t stay here. I can’t bear it. I long to experience His love anew, to feel Him wrap His loving arms around me and say, “It’s ok…you’re mine…I love you…and I’d do it all over again for you, even if you were the only one.” And, amazingly, He did do it for me, even though He knew that I wouldn’t fully accept and believe His gracious gift to me. I took part of it…the part that didn’t require me to open up and reveal all of the ugliness within my heart. But, though I clenched those things tightly to my chest, He still knew. He knew every last thing I’ve done to let Him down. He knows every heartache that I’ve clung to and the walls I’ve erected around my soul to prevent more heartache. He did it all for even me.And, it’s only the tip of the ice berg.
I look forward to falling in love with my Savior again in this study. I want to have confidence…to fully rely on and trust in his love, though no other love I’ve experience on earth has been fully trustworthy. I want him to take the rejection that battered my soul as a young child when my daddy wanted a boy, rather than a girl child. I tried so hard to be that thing he wanted, even by becoming a tom-boy. Then, along came his boy. The substitute was no longer needed. Didn’t take long to figure out that while I had been trying to become what Daddy wanted, my sister became the little princess. No chance of me taking that role over. I didn’t even know who I was anymore. But, the rest of my childhood became me trying to find my place in the family, trying to make Daddy proud. I finally did when I got those coveted internships. I actually heard him say he was proud of me.
And, then, I found Jesus at the same time I met another man. It was kind of a struggle to see where I would find my fulfillment. At times, I fully experienced who Jesus was to me and felt His love clear through to my soul. At other times, I was trying so hard to find that love in the form of an earthly man who, sadly, would hurt and reject me far worse than my daddy ever did. I came through almost 20 years of marriage feeling completely unlovable, incapable and worthless.
The children who came along were the best distraction I could ever have. I poured my life into them, home schooling them all through to college.I have seen one graduate to become a talented graphic designer who is using his gifts in the Kingdom. I’m watching with excitement as my second child is about to graduate with honors and is heading to grad school to continue preparing for a life of ministry to those who hurt. I couldn’t be prouder and I’m so thankful that God gave me these precious gifts to be a part of developing and nurturing. I didn’t do it perfectly, but I did my best and His grace has been sufficient.
And, now, I’m here, hurting as I’ve let them go.I look back on my life and know that I have wasted my talents as a writer. The job I’m in now will take me no where. I basically work under stress all day and come home in pain from my chronic pain and too tired to try to do better. When I’ve tried, I’ve gotten nowhere. So, I have been really close to giving it all up. But, by His grace I’m still here.
I so need this study and the little bit of hope that I feel embarking on this journey to find a confident heart. I truly want to fully rely on my God and to fully trust in His promises. I want to break out of the discouragement and hopelessness to truly let Him use them for my good and, more importantly, for His Kingdom. It has to be worth it all sometime…neglect, abuse, unfaithfulness, cancer, divorce…Worth it ALL! I want to see these horrible things woven into a beautiful tapestry of a life devoted to Him. I want to see green, scarlet, and hey, even fuschia threads of all of the pain and heartache of life woven together with the golden, silver and precious threads of His grace and love. I want it to all be something that He can someday use for His glory to help someone else. Even one.
At this moment, I could cry thinking of this possibility. It is terrifying to hope. Yet, it’s exciting, too. I want to stick through with this study this time. I need to see it through. I long for a confident heart.
Thank you for the privilege of participating with all of you in this study! Can’t wait to see what He does in all of us!
Renee,
Thanks so much for your desire to help other women deal with insecurities. I stumbled across this study last night and believe that God has a purpose for me as it relates to this study. I also invited a girlfriend in our community group to join us.
Thank you for this opportunity!
Esther
I am someone who struggles with a lot of doubt, feeling like a failure at work, at school, as a mother, and as a wife. This doubt has had me in dark places at times, but I am so thankful for my friend Donia who is the one who introduced me to the book and online study. I am so excited to watch the Lord do a work in me and in all of our lives. I am so tired of living a life full of doubt, I just want to be all that God has created me to be! Thank you Renee for answering the call that the Lord has had on your life!
Hi ladies! I just finished reading Chapter 1. When I originally signed up for this online study I thought it was a good topic, but not exactly what I needed right now. After reading, I’ve changed my mind! God knows better than me what I need! I can relate to the endless doubts and insecurities. I’m looking forward to this study.
I read this book last year & enjoyed it. I read lesson today & remember I liked the bible verse Jer 17:17. Learning our faith by bible study has helped me have a more confident heart.
I am taking time tonight and for the last two days, to make this a priority in my life. I pay to be able to keep focused to do so. There are so many things coming into our lives. From looking for two pairs of missing keys to keeping up with an overwhelming number of daily responsibilities.
Looking forward to being apart of the online study and hoping it keeps me on track reading the book!! I have a busy life with work, husband, and 2 young boys and tend to shove devotionals and time with my Father to the back burner!! I know I will be a more fulfilled wife and mother if make it a priority to spend time in prayer and bible study!!
When I read the first chapter my heart and soul took a DEEP breath…relief in reading the words from someone who has REALLY struggled w/ self doubt. Self doubt has been w/ me near all my life…these words opened that area in me to THE LIGHT….
Hello Renee, I attended your conference in Long Island, NY 2 weeks ago. What a joy and blessing to have you speak for the Lord. I felt God’s love and spirit in my heart all through out the day; my relationship with Him is getting stronger each day. Thank you very much. God bless you always.
PS. I was the one who bought 2 other books, CD’s for my 2 sisters.
Emalyn
Im so excited to be a part of this study. I have struggled with doubt my entire life.
I’ve never felt good enough, smart enough or strong enough.
Like Renee says
“Doubt keeps us from believing things can get better.
Doubt convinces us it’s not worth the effort.
As God’s girls, we need to know & BELIEVE
Change is possible”
Those lines hit so close to my heart. Im so glad to be a part of this online study
and know Im not the only one who struggles with this.
Thanks for writing this book, Renee and sharing your Godly wisdom with us!
So excited to see what God has in store! May He give each of us the desire if our hearts as we delight in Him!