So excited to start this “Confident Heart” journey with you!
The first thing I want you to remember: This is YOUR journey. You’ll be reading the chapters, listening to God speak to your heart, highlighting sentences, promises and quotes you want to remember and apply. You’ll be answering reflection questions and interacting with the group.
You’ll be doing the work of believing God!
I’ll be shepherding, leading, encouraging, connecting and pacing us. I’ll be sharing my heart and more of my story…because I want you to see you are not alone and give you courage to see and share yours. I’ll be praying for you and challenging you – but you’ll only get out as much as you put in.
Today, I asked the Lord what I needed to give up – so I can give more to Him – and this study. I immediately sensed Him whispering “work.” And I knew it was Him. I love my job and I’ve been working too many late night hours after the kids go to bed. So I’m cutting back the next several weeks to consecrate more of me TO HIM and to you!
What will you cut back on to make time for Him and yourself these next several weeks? I’m really going to challenge you and give you permission to block out at least a little bit of time each day to concentrate on replacing the OLD with the NEW He has for you! Ready? Here we go:
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A Confident Heart Online Study (Day 1)
Read the Acknowledgements (I’ll explain tomorrow why I wanted you to do this).
Read Chapter 1. Please highlight verses and sentences that grab your attention or tug on your heart. What is God saying to you though this chapter? Write down what you sense God speaking to your heart in the margins of your book, or in a journal/notebook that you’ll use throughout this study.
A video message from my heart to yours is coming later tonight. I’ll post it on my website later since I’m not quite ready to post it yet. But I wanted to go ahead get this loaded so you can get started!
I’ll send an email and post on our Confident Heart Facebook page to let you know when the video is up and ready for viewing.
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GROUP CHAT: What sentences in Chapter 1 resonate with you or tug at your heart?
Click “Share Your Thoughts” below (or click here and scroll to the bottom of this post) if you’re reading this via email).
Also, please share one or two on our Confident Heart Facebook Page or on Twitter (@reneesswope) using the hashtag #AConfidentHeart.
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All the witnessing – how blessed we are – God working through you Renee, reaching out to all of us. Pg. 24 – Looking for a friend you can trust with the things of your heart – my whole life (64 years) – Here I am LORD, It is I LORD looking for a confident heart.
The part of chapter one that was particularly meaningful to me was “Yet, doubt and hope cannot live in our hearts at the same time. . . 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.”
It can be all too easy to fall into a pattern of hopelessness and defeat, and I need to constantly remind myself that God did not create me to live like that.
Two thoughts stuck with me. “Perhaps you are good at hiding your doubts and no one but you know the paralyzing power they have on your life.” Wow….so true for me. I hide my feelings from most of the people in my life, and yes doubt has a paralyzing power!
“As God’s girls we need to know and believe that change is possible. We need to hope that life can be different.” Doubt and insecurity have often convinced me that things in my life will never change or get better. I so needed to hear those words.
Jeremiah 17:7
So excited to hear and learn more of what God wants me to learn.
The first major thing that struck me was Renee talking about the way we stay past the time we should stay in something, because we know our current misery well but are terrified to venture into unfamiliar territory, even if it would be beneficial. I’ve been staying in a very toxic, miserable job for almost 12 years. While I’ve been earning my bachelor’s degree & graduate degree online, and have done some job searching, I often find myself doubting it will ever happen. I wonder, with the opposite of confidence, whether I’ll ever be able to find something new. I have doubts creep up telling me I picked the wrong majors and will have incurred school debt and long hours for naught. I lack confidence that if I do find something new it will pay enough or be satisfying. I feel doubtful more than confident and terrified I’ll be jumping out of the frying pan into a worse fire. I find myself in turmoil and confusion, not knowing where to turn next. I wonder if paths I’ve chosen were paths Satan urged me to take, or my selfish flesh urged me to take. I question whether I’m following God’s will or making a horribly wrong turn! How can I have hope when all these doubts fill my mind and heart? I do derive comfort from Isaiah 43:19 but then wonder if I’m getting in the way.
You may also find comfort in Romans 8:28 “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to His purpose.” To me that means that even though I have taken the wrong path, God will use it for His good works. We just need to turn towards the light and let go of our doubts. I am praying that this will lead me there also.
I tried to pick one part that spoke to me. But my message was more broad. Rejection, insecurity, doubt, disappointment and abandonment – all themes discussed in this first chapter and they pull at every heart string I have. I hear voices telling me that there is something wrong with me at the core of who I am and that it will never get better.
But what I heard in the chapter tonight is that He can and WILL deal with all of those feelings. (paraphrased a bit) ” Those who hope in ME will NOT be disappointed … His Word will change the way I think, which will determine the way I feel and eventually transform the way I live”. So there is hope and there is another way to be. I have been putting my hope and my trust in the wrong places. It needs to be with God and he will lead me to the right paths. As the prayer said, (put in first person) “I will persevere so that when I have done the will of God, I will receive what he has promised.”. What an uplifting and inspiring start. So long since I’ve had hope that it could be different.
Hi, I guess the one thing that really spoke to me the most was that one about only seeing the shadow, because you turned away from the light. I have to keep focused on the Lord at all times. The scripture I picked was Is.49:23 “Those who hope in me will never be disappointed.”
It is so easy to constantly turn from the Light and be confused by huge, dark, confusing shadows of doubt. God’s probably whispering, “Turn back to the Light my sweet daughter!” Yet I find myself floundering in darkness and forgetting how logical it would be to just turn to the Light!
I want to start with a thank you, for sharing such an inspiring book and online study to go along with it. Just the title of the book is an encouragement. I hope to come away with insights I’ve never had before and to be a strong woman of God. I’ve always lacked self confidence and have never had the courage to do much. I am hoping to build myself up with the help of your book and Gods will to become the person God has for my life.
“When self-doubt tells me I can’t overcome my insecurities, I will believe Your promise that all things are possible to whoever believes”.
That is a powerful statement. I need His reassurance daily. I seek him more now than I ever have in my whole life. I realized at 47 yrs of age that I need Him more than anything, things or person of this world. He has become first in my life.
The sentence that resonates with me is, “He’s led me beyond believing in Him to really believing Him by relying on the power of His words and living like they are true no matter what my feelings tell me.” Two job losses and spending too long in a bad relationship have left me with little self confidence. On one hand, perhaps God has taken my self confidence from me so that I can depend on His confidence and not mine (as Jeremiah 17:7 says). On the other hand, my lack of confidence often leads me to believe that God’s promises don’t apply to me. I turn the promises around in my mind to justify this thinking: I’m often disappointed, so I must not be one of the ones who hopes in him. I don’t see God working for good in my life, so I must not be called. Etc. I don’t think this way all the time, but I’m certainly ready to put the doubt behind me and live in God’s confidence.
Claudia – You are right where I am – 2 job losses – This study will help both of us – God will do good work in our lives!
This is the sentence that ‘hit’ me too…’He’s led me beyond believing IN Him to really believing HIM by relying on the power of His words and living like they are true no matter what my feelings tell me.’
Our feelings will come and go, moan and groan…but our GOD NEVER changes!
I think I’ve always had this ‘abnormal’ fear of God…not a godly fear…therefore I believed the judgements but I couldn’t bring myself to believe that the promises were a part of this too. I find it waaaaaay to easy to see the ‘negatives’ in life…my life…it’s only been over the last year that I’ve realized how merciful our great God is. However, I still REALLY struggle with this…which is why when I read about this Bible study it sounded just like something I needed…I thank our God for you Renee!
Doubt frequently whispers to me, despite my faith, despite my intelligence, despite all common sense, so many times the shadows take over and overcome the light of God. I pray that this book and bible study helps me to always reach for the light.
Hi there – thanks so much for Chapter 1 – it was me down to a tee!! I’m now on the journey from believing in Him to Believing Him. I live in New Zealand and am unable to purchase the book from here until February (I’ve ordered it) but I look forward to doing the study be it a few weeks behind the rest of you!
After reading Chapter 1, I was reassured to know that I am not the only one who has doubts and fears. The fact that they whisper to me in my own voice makes it easy to feel like it is, indeed, an ingrained part of me and will therefore determine my destiny. I agree that not having a father to affirm those needs and replace feelings of inadequacy have made my adult life and thinking patterns broken. Praise God, He is my Father and the author and finisher of my faith. I don’t have to believe the lies that I tell myself, but getting to that point is going to be a journey and I am so thankful that God has given Renee this message. I can already tell that it is going to be powerful and life-changing! I was really touched by the statement that I need to move from believing in Him to believing Him. It’s amazing how taking that little preposition out reiterates our “position” and relationship with our God! Lastly, I loved the verse of scripture from Isaiah 49:23, and, upon reflection, it caused me to think about the “appointments” that God has in store for my life versus my own ideas of being appointed. If I rely on Him to appoint me, I will be fulfilling His call and be perfected and complete; on the other hand, if I follow my own will and way, I will be DISappointed. Pun intended!
So so relate to all you said! I love the appointed/disappointed analogy. =)
Thanks!
Isa 49:23 ans Jeremiah 17:7 both spoke to me because both of them mention HOPE. At times my confidence is so small that I cannot even HOPE. I am so glad to be doing this study and plan to recite those two passages along with the prayer daily, sometimes hourly, this week.
The sentence that hit me was In the shadow of doubt, insecurity paralyzes us with statements like: I can’t do this, things will never change, my life isn’t going to get better and I will never have the confidence I need. These sayings are constantly running through my head. I do like how it is interpreted into shadows to keep us from becoming who we need to be.
The sentence that hit me was In the shadow of doubt, insecurity paralyzes us with statements like: I can’t do this, things will never change, my life isn’t going to get better and I will never have the confidence I need. These sayings are constantly running through my head.
“He’s led me beyond believing in Him to really believing him by relying on the power of his words and living like they are true no matter what my feelings tell me”. The last several months I have been challenged to really believe the word of God. When I talk to others I say that the bible is either true or it is not- you either believe what it says or you don’t. You can’t pick which part you think is truth and which part you think may not be. It’s all the truth or it is all a lie. I have chose to believe it is the truth and if God said it then it can happen- no matter how big it seems to us. When he says, “nothing is impossible” he meant nothing. He speaks truth and only truth. We just have to believe it!
Thank you Renee!
🙂
pg 23 – Isaiah 49:23 “Then you will know that I am the Lord. Those who hope in me will not be disappointed.”
Isn’t it amazing how little He asks of us, and how much we ask of Him??
The things that stuck out for me the most were, “Turn back toward the light”, “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”, “He led me beyond believeing in Him to really believing Him by relying on the power of his words & living like they are true no matter what my feelings tell me”. That’s big for me! I also want to learn to pray God’s Word better. Thank you so much for this book! I can’t wait to see what’s ahead!
On page 20 the first thing that caught my attention was the “What if….? I am always asking God that!
So, I would never commit to much. I grew up in a very bad family life. We were told we (my siblings & I) were good for nothing. So I have never felt good about myself or could do anything right or was good enough for anyone…even God! This chapter said everything I have been living with for my 51 years. I am a believer. I believe I am a child of God. It is hard for me to really hard for me to believe in my heart God loves me! Thanks again for this study! This is going to be hard journey, but, with the help of God my Father I can do it, right?
Yes, Audrey…“all things are posible to her who believes!” Mark 9:23
-But, I’ve found that when I choose to dwell in the assurance of Whose I am and who I am in Him, I HAVE A CONFIDENT HEART. page 24
-We will find our heart’s confidence in Christ as we learn how to rely on the power of His promises in our everyday lives.page 25
-As Gods’s girls , we need to know and believe that change IS POSSIBLE. page 23
“all things are posible to her who believes” Mark 9:23 page 23
The unknown is too scary. Althought you’ve been miserable, at least the misery is FAMILIAR where you are now. page 21
Praying God’s Promisses: every single word is beautiful to my heart. Amen
I love all these quotes!! I have found hope for change as I have dwelled in the place of God’s endless grace and all-consuming love. For the first time, I have found rest in the belief that He is enough.
My favorite part of this chapter is Renee’s vulnerability in sharing her innermost thoughts and struggles–because I can totally relate to wanting to do the safe and familiar thing instead of the thing burning inside of me that God has gifted me to do!! I look forward to stepping out in confidence…
Pg. 20, par. 5: “I questioned if I was good enough…, so I avoided some great opportunities because they brought the risk of rejection.”
This has happens to me time and time again. I end up feeling angry a myself after-the-fact and even make a pact to never let it happen again. However, when opportunity comes knocking again, I’m right back at square one, questioning my abilities and eventually passing up another great opportunity