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Renee Swope

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

(Chapter 6) Don’t Throw Away Your Confidence

Our word for Chapter 6 is HIS
Download and print a PDF file or in a MSWord file. Post it everywhere so you can remember YOU ARE a HIS – He has redeemed you and called you by name. You belong to HIM!

God’s promise for this week:
“Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name; you are Mine!” Isaiah 43:1b (NAS)

Do you ever feel inadequate and insecure? We have an enemy who is good at getting us to believe we’re not good enough and don’t have what it takes to be used by God. But we don’t have to let him trash us the way he does! Today we’ve got another IMPORTANT video message you don’t want to miss! It is one of my favorites!!

{Download “Video Message Notes” in a PDF or in MSWord just for you. }

{Download “Don’t Throw Away Your Confidence” printable.}

 

Today’s Assignments: Print and post your Chapter 6 word and verse. Pray our Chapter 6 prayer and start {or continue} reading chapter 6.

“Share Your Thoughts” about Chapter 6 and today’s video below.

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I’ll post details about the conference call Tuesday on my blog next Monday.
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Comments

  1. I read “Victory Over the Darkness” about 3 years ago. That book helped me to see I could be healed from depression, anxiety and borderline personality disorder. I feel hesitant to share that, because satan uses it against me sometimes. Like I haven’t really changed, so I am saying it because I believe God not him. I had taken possession of that diagnosis and felt like it was my label, my life. But it came with little hope of overcoming it. I just had to maintain some level of normalacy. It became my identity, and my excuse. The Who I Am in Christ statements were spoken out loud by me with broken sobs until I began to believe it. I had been told from my childhood that Jesus loved me, but I felt like I had fallen so far that it didn’t apply to me anymore. This book changed my view of how God saw me. I was able to get off my antidepressants after 10 years (with the help of a christian counselor)and emerged changed. There were many struggles that hit me following that decision, but I held onto God’s hand the entire time. He carried me, and taught me to slow down, to be thankful for my life, and how to love myself enough to say no to some people.

    I am learning new things with this study.
    Some things that jumped out to me in chapter 6 were….

    We are loved with reckless abandon by the King of Glory.

    The most important truth if all: God is in control.

    We have an enemy who is completely against us. He is jealous of God’s glory in us.

    We need to keep our minds clear by asking Jesus to replace the clutter of insecurity, pride, and Satan’s lies with the clarity of His truth.

    When you get that “not good enough” feeling, stop and ask God what
    triggered your thoughts and made you start turning toward the shadow of doubt. Then compare your thoughts to about the situation to God’s thoughts. Do they match? If not, look for a promise in God’s Word to replace the lie that has filled your heart with doubt.

    I did that out loud in the car yesterday. Wow, what a change that made in my way of processing my feelings about a situation.

    • Praise God, Brittney:! Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts with us. What a testimony – and it continues! Glory! May we learn from it and move forward in Jesus Who is THE TRUTH!

      God bless you richly!

    • Love that Brittany …. I went around today as I was calling on my stores with the following mantra going through my mind ….”this is not of God” …. “this is not of God.” Love how he works in our lives.

  2. Thank you for helping me see how to change my doubts to God’s promises. What a wonderful example of Eve in Chapter 6. Thank you for helping me focus on God and his unfailing love.

  3. Reaching out! As I read today’s email, with tears rolling down my face, begging the Lord to intervene. You know, the pain and hurt is so bad that you wish, the good Lord would come back NOW, and take it all away. The devil is winning at everything in my life. You see I have recently lost a huge part of myself. I don’t like who I have become. I feel I have lost everything. My marriage, my job, my walk with The Lord. I see no hope for my future. I have been suffering major depression for months now along with Aniexty and recently been diagnosed as codependent. I pray constantly asking The Lord for help, for intervention, for my marriage and to be healed. I would like to ask if you ladies would ever so kindly please take a few minutes and lift myself and my husband up in prayer. I feel I have no one else to turn to. And yes I am crying out to my Father, in faith for total restoration of my health and my marriage. “I know I am His!”. I am so thankful for you Renee, and much more thankful for you following the Lord’s calling in your life in writing this book. All the many blessings that has abound me by your words. Sincerely my deepest appreciation.
    In Christ Love, Heather

    • Hello Heather,

      I am praying for you to know who’s you are. You are King of Glory’s daughter, he has you by the hand and is forever with you. Do not be fooled into thinking the devil it winning! He only wins if you give up. And Jesus has already won the battle for us. Please believe me when I say that He still performs miracles. I am sorry for the distress that your stuggles are causing your heart, but know that God will not and does not waste our pain. It is hard to remember in the midst of it, but it is truth. He is already at the end of your struggle and knows what will happen. He is in control, rest in Him. He is a wonderful place of refuge. I was seeking refuge in Him a few months back and looked up what refuge meant. It means “the state of being safe or sheltered from pursuit, danger, or difficulty.” I pray for you to take comfort in His glorious wings of refuge.

    • Father God, I lift Heather and her husband to you. May she be overwhelmed with Your great and deep love for her and her family. I do pray that the lies of the enemy, her flesh and the world be silenced and the TRUTH of who she is in God would prevail. May she be strengthened in her inner man to stand firm and rest in the strong, everlasting arms of Jesus Christ and Father God Who love her immensely. May she know, in the midst of these struggles, Your peace that passes all understanding. May Heather have clarity of thinking regarding the issues with which she is dealing. I pray for wholeness for her – spiritually, socially, emotionally, physically and mentally. In Jesus’ Name, Amen!

      Rise up in praise our Lord dear, sweet sister. The enemy hates praise. When we submit to God and resist the devil, he must flee! Glory! We serve the sovereign Lord who has so much in store for us – more than we could ask, think or imagine. Keep your eyes, heart and mind fixed on Him. Jesus First….”…that in all things He might have the supremacy.” Colossians 1:18b.

    • Father God,

      I lift Heather and her husband up to you right now. I’m not sure of everything that is going on but you do and I ask for your Holy Spirit to intervene as your Word tells us that the Holy Spirit will take our groanings when we don’t know what ot say or how to pray and translate them into prayers for your to understand. Wrap yourself around Heather and let her feel and experience your love.

      Fill her with an understanding that you love like no other can nor no other will. Draw Heather and husband close to your heart and cause them to lean into for your love. I pray for healing for their hearts and their marriage. Allow them to see each other through your eyes.

      Replace those doubts with your grace, your love, your concern, your mercy and your compassion. Focus their eyes and hearts on you and not on themselves. Draw them to you and to your heart. I pray 1 Corinthians 13 over Heather and her husband. Give them an understanding of these scriptures.

      If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate.

      2 If I speak God’s Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, “Jump,” and it jumps, but I don’t love, I’m nothing.

      3-7 If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love.

      Love never gives up.
      Love cares more for others than for self.
      Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have.
      Love doesn’t strut,
      Doesn’t have a swelled head,
      Doesn’t force itself on others,
      Isn’t always “me first,”
      Doesn’t fly off the handle,
      Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others,
      Doesn’t revel when others grovel,
      Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
      Puts up with anything,
      Trusts God always,
      Always looks for the best,
      Never looks back,
      But keeps going to the end.

      8-10 Love never dies. Inspired speech will be over some day; praying in tongues will end; understanding will reach its limit. We know only a portion of the truth, and what we say about God is always incomplete. But when the Complete arrives, our incompletes will be canceled.

      11 When I was an infant at my mother’s breast, I gurgled and cooed like any infant. When I grew up, I left those infant ways for good.

      12 We don’t yet see things clearly. We’re squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won’t be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We’ll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us!

      13 But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love.

      In Jesus’ name. Amen

    • Im praying for you Heather – claiming these promises for you tonight:

      Lord, You know the plans You have for Heather, plans to prosper her and not to harm her; plans to give her hope and a future. We are calling upon You and praying to You, because You promise that You will listen to us. You say that Heather will find You when she seeks You with all her heart. Please open the eyes of her heart so that she can know the hope to which You have called her and Your incomparably great power for us who believe. Rebuild Heather’s ruins and restore places devastated long ago in her heart.

      Help her forgive those who have hurt her, just as in Christ You forgave her. Despite the pain of her past, You offer hope for her future and want to do a new thing in Heather’s life, making a way in the desert and streams in her wastelands. When her soul is downcast, help her call this to mind so that she might have hope. Because of Your great love, she is not consumed, for Your compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness! In Jesus’ name, Amen.

      From Jeremiah 29:11–13; Ephesians 1:18–19; Isaiah 61:4; Ephesians 4:2, 32; Isaiah 43:18–19; Lamentations 3:20–23.

  4. Today is my birthday….and to look on your page this morning Renee, and see You are mine….That spoke volume to me….and your video’s I am so loving to hear how God is working and changing us all and bring life to our walk with him…

    I have copied off the chart and when those thoughts come in, I will write it down and throw it out…Take action with the God’s Word and crumble the enemy’s lies…..

    Thank you Thank you!!!!
    Patty

  5. Hi Renee I have not read chapter 6 as of yet but I will today. The video ie great and I’m going to do the experiment and carry it a little furtuer I’m going to put the balled up papers in a special trash can and at the end of 7 days starting today I will count them and see just how many douths I have for one week.then I will put them in my burn barrel and burn them as I give them to God once and for all ( hopefully) I have a problem taking things back when I give them to God. The in control thing happens alot to me. But I’m getting better some. In Christ Love

  6. Ty for the video. I plan on listening to it a number of times. I am a business owner that
    Struggles from not believing I belong what I am doing. Ty again

  8. I just watched the Chapter 6 video. I absolutely loved the part about writing our insecurities and doubts on a piece of paper and throwing them in the trash. What a great visual. We carry around our doubts and insecurities and they just drag us down. This way we can purge them from our minds and put them where they need to go…the trash. Then we are open to fill ourselves up with the truth of God’s word! Have a blessed day everyone! XXOO

    • Amen!! Get out that paper and pen and write them down, throw them away and get one truth from our chart to hold onto!!

      Heb 10:35-36!

  9. Thank you Renee for sharing your experiences with us! I think many of us can relate to the Michael story! I couldn’t help but to chuckle as I recounted my past events. Thank God for deliverance and restoration! I’m so grateful to God for revealing more and more truth as the book progresses! I’m feeling freer by the day! Im getting intentional! Thanks again! To God be the glory!

    • Oh I love that Syd!! What you pour in, you will get out. Keep being intentional, examining your thoughts, taking them to Jesus and asking Him for an accuracy check, replacing your doubts with His truth. It’s a powerful process that works when we do it – Im evidence of a heart that has been set free!

  10. “We may be betrayed and cast aside, but we are chosen and redeemed by our Heavenly Father.” (Chap. 6, p. 111) While working through these two chapters this week, I have begun to tell my Heavenly Father that I do not want to live my life in the shadow of doubt anymore. When I read the sentence that I quoted above, I smiled, chuckled and said, “That’s right!”. So now, I will choose to remember exactly these words in my journey to victory over my doubt. Thank you.

      • That was a powerful verse for me when my mom tried to remind me of all the wrong things that I had done in the past. I replied, “I have been redeemed and forgiven by God for my past, God knows that I am sorry and what is in my heart.” I truely believe I have been redeemed, so have you! All of us who believe that Jesus died for us have been.

  11. Thank you, Renee, for this beautiful message. It brought tears to my eyes. I am going to watch it again! It gave me such comfort and hope.

    • Praying for you Maureen!! You are valuable, chosen, pursued, loved, gifted and called!! Don’t let Satan convince you otherwise. Throw away those doubts today!!

  12. Thank you Renee for the encouragement this morning!! I find my confidence in 1 Peter 5:6-7 Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that He may exalt you at the proper time. Casting all your care on Him, because He cares about you. I am called to walk with Him and obey. For my life to have meaning and purpose, I WILL follow and He will promote me to my place at the proper time. Thank you Father!!

    • I love 1 Peter 5:6-7 Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that He may exalt you at the proper time. Casting all your care on Him, because He cares about you! Thank you for reminding me of that wonderful truth this morning!

    • Thank you Annette for this scripture. reminding me God cares about us, and He is always there for us…..It was a great help fo rme today…

  13. I love the exercise Renee challenged us with this week. Physically writing out our doubts and trashing them! Powerful! I often times find myself in doubt when I compare myself to my coworkers. Being someone who facilitates smaller size motivational meetings, comparing myself to other ladies who have been doing the same job, just a lot longer than I have, is very easy to do. My take away from this chapter is the Truth found in Philippians 1:6 “I am confident God will complete the good work He started in me.” You bet, that this doubt will be one I write out and trash! I have to remember that it’s a continual choice to choose to lean on Truth and not give in to deception.
    Awesome chapter Renee!

    • Doing this exercise of writing down our doubts and throwing them away is so powerful b/c it helps us recognize them, refute them and replace them with the security of God’s promises!

      • And helps us to remember we don’t want to go digging around in the trash to pull out worthless lies.

    • Hi, Kourt: Thank you for sharing Philippians 1:6, a very appropriate verse for this chapter. As I went through the am and fm thoughts, I thought of Romans 3:3l: “What then shall we say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?” I often pray asking the Father to silence the lies of the world, the enemy and our flesh, and that truth would be magnified and prevail. This is all possible through Jesus Who loved us and gave Himself for us. What promises we have to receive and CLING to tightly!

      God bless you!

  14. This was an amazing video. It has given me strength if only for 30 minutes. Thank you so very much. You are a gift from God

    • Praying for you Tina!! That message will be here for you all day. We can meet here via video again at lunch and dinner and I’ll keep encouraging you each time!

  15. Paul, a pillar of the faith, warns us that those who “measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves” are not wise (2 Cor. 10:12). Our struggle with comparison will always leave us feeling like we’re lacking something. Oh how true!

    If we have put our trust in Christ as our Savior, we can stand on the promises of who we are in Him – chosen, holy and dearly loved (Col 3:12). Oh how we need to rest in that truth. Trusting in Christ is the beginning of the promises we have in Him.

  16. I’m so in need of hearing, and believing, these truths. I had just ‘thought’ negative thoughts, insecure thoughts – loud enough to be words spoken for my heart to hear- before I listened to the video. Now I need to read chapter 6, again, and grasp onto, again, Hebrew 10:35-39. Looking forward to the next chapters of truth!

    • Hi Tammy!

      I just had the same thing happen to me. I was eating breakfast this morning and I too started having doubts about myself- how I wasn’t good enough. What a failure I’ve been, etc. Then, I got on my computer to check my email and there was Renee’s smiling face on her video! It was what I so needed to hear this morning! Within mere minutes of me thinking those thoughts, there was Renee building us up with God’s message of hope! Thank you so much for speaking to me directly! You are a Godsend! I will keep reminding myself to stand firm on God’s promises.

      Thanks to all the wonderful ladies out there who give me strength with their stories and comments. You are all beautiful!

      • 🙂 I love getting to spend this time with each of you!! Anytime you need some face to face encouragement, just come on back and I’ll cheer you on all day!!

  17. Chapter 6 was awesome, they just keep getting better and better as we go!
    We really need to watch our WORDS!! Words are powerful they are life or death. Proverbs 18:21 says, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.” 18:20, “A man’s belly shall be satisfied with the fruit of his mouth; and with the increase of his lips shall he be filled.” Page 106 Renee talked about our words and how they plant seeds of doubt!! WATCH YOUR WORDS!!
    I love the “Who I Am In Christ” verses. I am going to put them on cards and take them with me and say them out loud to plant those seeds of victory in my heart and life every chance I get!! Thanks Renee for all your great tips, advice and being so vulnerable to share your life with us. Gob bless you and all the OBS ladies. Praying for all of you daily!!

  18. Renee, I am pretty sure you wrote Chapter 6 especially for me!!! I struggle with not being good enough way too often. Your story about your failed engagements pointed out very clearly that I need to work on not depending on my fiance’ for my happiness and fulfillment. Thank you so much for listing the “comeback” scriptures for when I hear those whispers of doubt, fear, worry, anxiety! I have read and heard about Jesus’ confrontation with Satan during those forty days in the desert and thought “I wish I knew scriptures that well so I could know what to say back”. This book is striking nerves each day and pointing out new and more in-depth portions of my life that I need to turn over to God and work on with His intervention. I am praying and expecting many more revelations to come!

    • I love what you shared Mindy!! Im so encouraged to know that God is using my broken places and all that He’s given me, taught me, and set me free from to lead women like you into the depths and freedom of His unfailing love!

  19. This chapter spoke to me. The first question about an area that I struggle would be work. I’m a special ed teacher. This is only my 2nd year and both years have looked different. I don’t feel confident that I know what I am to be doing. I don’t know that I do it well when I do my job. I even put a resume somewhere else to test the water. I know this was a job given to me by God. Nothing about the way I got this job was normal.I see God’s hand in the entire situation. When days are long and hard and I feel that I can’t please anyone with any decision, I begin to doubt everything about my ability to do this job. I am currently questioning if I misheard God when he led me to where I am. I don’t know whether to stay or go. If I stay, how do I do the best job possible? How do I best serve these children? I know I can’t make everyone happy but man, it is tough when you feel all are against you!

    I am privileged to work with many Christians. We can share our cares. We lift each other up. We use “God’s got this” a lot. I have some verses and prayers posted in my work area. I try to remember that I’m a child of the King. I should live like one. I should copy the Am/FMs on 113-114 and post them to remind myself!

    Thanks for listening! I know I can overcome this with God’s help. I just need to stay close to HIM!

    • By obeying God, you are already doing the best job possible. When I was serving in ministry, I had to come to terms with the fact that I simply cannot please everyone. Then I realized that there was only One whom I had to please, and as long as I did that, the other problems don’t matter so much. Tuning out the complaints of others can be hard, but I pray that you will be able to hear from God each day, especially when you feel that everything is against you. Just remember, the world is against Him too, but He is willing to fight for you. Thank you for sharing and God bless!

    • Be confident that you are TRYING!! Teaching is very difficult these days. I have been teaching for 22 years and this year I too have LOST my confidence. It is easy for me to tell you to be confident but I have a lot of trouble believing that for myself. Renee’s book has helped me however I struggle hour to hour with confidence. This is the first year confidence has ever been a problem at work. I read your story as I was about to start crying due to the difficult day without confidence I have had. I just wanted you to know that your story helped me and I wanted to give you a word of encouragement.:)

    • I too do some teaching with special ed 16 -60 it is tough but it helps me when I remember that it is not their fault, that God loves them and if God has given us this work to do He will give us all the strength and resources we need – guaranteed by His promises. Stay positive- you are likely to be one of the few positive influences in each of these children’s lives. Keep getting the streams of living water each day from scripture and remember it can take 10,000 hours to become an expert at anything worthwhile – and some of us are slow learners so it may take even longer but God has asked us to persevere and perseverance …..

      3 Not only so, but we[c] also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us rRomans ch 5

  20. I absolutely loved chapter 6, especially the verses and the need to strengthen myself with what God says about me. I enjoyed reading the story for Renee’s fiancé, it is a sobering lesson to remember that we cannot find fulfillment in people. I also liked the way she pointed out that Eve’s fall into temptation began with a stumble over doubt.

    There are too many negative voices telling us that we are not good enough. I heard so little praise growing up that silence usually meant that I could have done better. Nowadays, even seeing others’ success makes me wonder what is wrong with me that I can’t have what they have. But that is not God’s will, He did not go to the cross so I could wonder what is wrong with me. Instead, He wants me to rest in the fullness of His promise and love, and be made right with Him. So nothing is wrong with me because of His strength!

    • I love reading your comments, Julie ~ I am so happy that you have found strength in God, especially having grown up with so little encouragement. You are also so supportive to the rest of this group. My best friend’s name is Julie and she brought me closer to God. Lovely coincidence.

      Blessings ~ Maureen

      • Me too. I love seeing Julie’s sweet face and hearing her thoughts 🙂

        Maureen, thank you for your kindness and encouraging words too!

    • Please help me ladies, where do I go for me to be able to read the chapters on email.

    • Julie: Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts on Chapter 6. I especially like: ” He did not go to the cross so I could wonder what is wrong with me. Instead, He wants me to rest in the fullness of His promise and love, and be made right with Him. So nothing is wrong with me because of His strength!” Wow! May we grasp this and run with it. God bless you!

    • Julie:

      It is amazing to know the number of people who also call themselves children of God are speaking negative words over each other. I am currently enduring this painful process on my job and it has broken my spirit down. I have to remind myself who I belong to and who really loves me and that is Jesus Christ. I haven’t been posting but have read the book previously and am rereading it with all of you and I have to tell you I thought I was all alone in this walk with doubt. I know that God says “I can do all things through Him who strengthens me and I know I am capable of doing many things, but the negative voices crowd my mind and my heart and I feel so discouraged. Thank all of you for being strong in your journey through this study, it is helping me to lift up my head and look to the hills for that is where I will find help through the Lord.