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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Two things touched my heart 1) moving beyond believing God – to really believing Him – and on page 25 – to ACTIVELY trust God – for me – circumstances that are past difficult for the past six years and the ending of a dream – that is extremely difficult to keep actively trusting God – God’s promise – all things work together for good – God blesses those that wait on Him – so I am looking forward to moving into a Confident Heart –
look forward to learning to walk away from those shadows and dwell in the assurance of Whose I am and who I am in Him–to have a confident heart, gaining confidence in what I do.
What a powerful group of verses in Jeremiah. Verses 7-8 really spoke to me yesterday, but verses 5-6 are the result of putting your faith in people instead of God. Of trying to please the world instead of God, which I do a lot. I curse myself (and my family is affected) when I turn away from God to seek after the world. Such a simple truth. I am posting this on my fridge and in my car tonight. I really want to make changes. I want a renewed mind and confidence in God alone.
I struggled many years because I put my trust in man desiring man’s approval. I’ve come a long way, but I have not “arrived”, because I know I will always struggle with it. I’ve come to realize my this weakness is a reminder of my need for Him and proves His power is made strong in my weakness. Jeremiah 17:5 is kin to the Proverb I have leaned on many times: “Fear of man will prove to be a snare, but whoever trusts in the LORD is kept safe.” Proverbs 29:25.
My biggest struggle is believing God.I believe in Him and love him very much. His will for my life and my dreams do seem to match and I have a hard time believing he has a good plan for me. I keep telling myself that God’s plan is better then any plan I could come up with but some days are easier then others to believe it. I am going to give up some televison to spend more time with the Lord. I work 2 jobs and go to school and often find myself staring at the television. I want to spend more time with the love of my life, Jesus!
A few statements really stuck out for me: “Or Maybe you’ve sensed God calling you to serve Him in a way that requires steps of faith, but insecurity has you convinced that you’re not smart enough or gifted enough…The unknow is too scary.” I feel there are things that God has put on my heart but it requires steps of faith and I always here the you’re not good enough or you won’t make it voice, and then all the doubting I do I never take the steps of faith.
Also the moving beyond believing IN Him to really BELIEVING Him has been hard for me..I see little blessings and answered prayers here and there but I really want to move to were I BELIEVE all His promies and don’t have any doubt.
I’m very excited to be doing this study and for the change that is going to take place.
Have a blessed day!
i went to your blog and tried to listen to video,but my sound on my computer didnt go very high. so didnt get anything,i am sorry. looks like a very interesting bible study,one i am much neeeded for. but dont have the book either,so cant really comment on anything other then what i just said. its disappointing. oh well,
have a great study and would still like your devotionals i been getting through e-maIl.
thankyou,
in christ
judy hoff.
The statement that really stuck out for me is to stop just believing IN Him and start believing Him! I’ve believed in Him all of my life, and have read these scriptures SO many times in my life, but actually hearing the Word and believing that they will make a difference has been a stumbling block for me. I really want to TRUST that I can believe what He is saying is true!! I suffer from panic attacks so I have doubt whispering to me all of the time. I am HOPING and praying that my self confidence will grow as we continue this study!
I wanted to post the reason I bought this book and am participating in the Bible Study. There is sentence in Chapter 1 that grabbed me and made me think “wow, it’s not just me?” – that sentence is “although you’ve been miserable, at least the misery is familiar where you are now.” That thought has held me back in so many ways and has also made me think very negative thoughts about myself when I have moved forward. I am really looking forward to finding God’s peace and BELIEVING in it – this study will be wonderful! I am BLESSED to be here with this great group of women and with Renee!
I think when things are repeated, we ought to pay attention — in the Word that is. And, today, I was all over the place (as I’ve been lately actually) and needing to honestly get into God’s Word. Eventually, the idea came to start at Psalm 1. Here is a snippet:
Oh, the joys of those who do not follow the advice of the wicked or stand around with sinners, or join mockers. But they delight in the law of the ord, meditating on it day and night.
THEY ARE LIKE TREES PLANTED ALONG THE RIVERBANK, BEARING FRUIT EACH SEASON. THEIR LEAVES NEVER WITHER, AND THEY PROSPER IN ALL THEY DO.
Just like in Jeremiah 17: 8.
I, too, have been struggling with my confidence and I do not like it one bit. It is embarrassing to me. I had improved and was EXCITED, but managed to be here…again–and worse, though I know better now Thanks to God. It is time for me to live BLESSED in my present and future and not mope over the progress I had made. We are not to be complacent–riding off of our blessings and our quests after God… of yesterday. Frustration and fiery arrows of defeat get me nowhere I have experienced, but bitter and worse off. I believe if I turn to God, humbly, and seek after Him, wholeheartedly, He will truly heal as only He can. So, I pray that I am disciplined (a recent struggle), humbled, and genuine/sincere in His Word and in this study–not just going through the motion–because we really NEED God desperately. I am tired of questioning my faith because of my struggled. I do not want to waver and let the enemy mess with my mind ever few months. I need Him. I need Him. to rescue me from this place.
Btw, Thanks for the prayers.
all of the readings/questions and prayers were so true for me personally. like someone was in my head and following me around each day. The insprining hope that I ended with is……….” Blessed are those who trust in the Lord; the Lord will be their trust.” Jeremiah 17:7 this personally gives me a prayer of Hope each day to implement in the food choice actions as well as in my thinking and doing things that are physically challenging for me right now…………………Hope is such a strong motivator for me and with this verse I have that with God. ty for this service!
The lines in Chapter 1 that stood out the most to me… words I have said over and over again in relation to my job situation…. are: The unknown is too scary. Although you’ve been miserable, at least the misery is familiar where you are now.
I have been working to correct this thought process and hope that this study will do just that!
“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.”
Isaiah 43:19 See-I am doing a new thing!
believing IN GOD to BELIEVING GOD
away with the what if’s, self doubt, risk of rejection, insecurity, robbed joy, wondering if I’m good enough, uncertainty, and replaying questions over and over…
Looking forward to this study and some life changing knowldge!
I agree and feel or have felt what so many of you are posting. I am so excited to see how God will change me with this study because this is one I REALLY struggle with.
One part that struck me was…”there are the voices of insecurities that cast shadows of doubt over our perspective and keep us from becoming the women we want to be- the women God created us to be! 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.”
THE WOMEN GOD CREATED US TO BE! I pray daily for God to show me the woman He has created to be and to use these gifts He gave to me…. I really need to let those voices fade and stop living in self-doubt, He created me! And He created me for great things!
THe acknowledgements and the amount of love and thankfulness you have for each of the blessings in your life was the first thing……the shadow of course: the big shadow of doubt that always is looming overhead,even in ministry, where we should be confident because we are doing the work God wants us to do, but here too, it slips in unawares and changes our thoughts. We are what we think, it influences every aspect of our behavior. God intended us to have a Christ like Mind and to do that we must make the decision to increase our time in the word and soak in it and renew our mind and do it now!!!!! This first chapter so lined up with our sermon yesterday> I have a feeling there is going to be a lot of “ONLY GOD” on this journey.
The opening of Chapter 1 with Hebrews 10:35-36 weighed heavily with me because it puts the reality of self-limiting beliefs into a different perspective. When I find myself getting down on myself, it’s obviously not to intentionally limit myself but that is what it does and this passage reminds us that a clear head and confidence in God’s plan is necessary to accomplish anything and lead a happy/healthy life. That in itself opened my heart for what was to come throughout the chapter. The “shadow of doubt” analogy was brilliant. The way you showed the correlation between the physical shadow when turned away from the actual bathroom light and the shadow of doubt when turned away from the light of the Lord was so true and is something I find myself inadvertently doing pretty often. Being mindful of these types of things ultimately is what will help with eliminating them and the way you present instances of them does just that. Tying in the scriptures is also very helpful with bringing it all together spiritually and building that God-confidence.
You had my heartstrings in the foreword, with that line about the little heart-shaped cup. I too grew up in a dysfunctional family, with a father who not only wasn’t loving and attentive, but was also abusive. It’s interesting how those early experiences formulate how we go about our relationships for the rest of our lives. After that, the line about the light and the shadow, and the part about how doubt and hope cannot live in our hearts at the same time. What a beautiful moving book. You had me at hello. 🙂
Many setences resonated with me in this first chapter of “doubt”. I have struggled with doubt in myself since I was 10 when i was first picked on for being chubby. It started a lot of the doubt that continued to plague me and still does these past 22 years. I am fit now, physically, but emotionally the doubt is always there. One sentence in particular, “Even as a young bride, I doubted my husband’s faithfulness. Our newlywed memories include a lot of arguments about trust.” This really spoke deep to my heart. I met my husband in our church choir, and knew he had walked longer than I and had a heart for God; even still, I worry about his faithfulness to me. In Renee’s video message, she states that we need not worry what man thinks, or we will be cursed, and I am living proof that her statement is right and that scripture is truth. I have been cursed, though not by God, as he wants nothing but blessings for me, but I have cursed myself and that needs to stop. I need to find my confindence in Jesus, and in doing so, I will know what it means to be truly loved for my heart alone and the faith that I feel in God and His son will guide me to true confidence – the confidence that only comes when one is BLESSED.
Like so many, I have struggled with self-doubt and insecurity since I can remember. God has been working on me regarding this for quite some time now, and although I trust Him and want to believe I am not worthless, the scars from childhood go deep to the marrow. The phrase that hits home for me is “Or maybe you’ve sensed God calling you to serve Him in a way that requires steps of faith, but insecurity has convinced you that you’re not smart enough or gifted enough.” I KNOW where He wants me to serve. I have surrendered over and over to it. But as soon as I motion to step, I pull my spiritual foot back, and there I remain. I know that God can make me move. I pray that He would shove me thru my wall of doubt, because I am too scared to do it. Lord, please smash my wall to crumbs.
I too am waiting for that shove through the wall of doubt, or all the courage in the world to take that step. I have to ask Him for the courage to do more than believe that He will help. I read somewhere once that faith is not believing God will – it’s knowing He will. I guess it’s how Renee says in the book that we have to move from believing in Him to Believing Him.
I to have been dealing with doubt and fear of not being good enough and I know that God is helping me turn back to his light .I just have to stay in his word and not be afraid of what I feel all the time and know that GOD is in control of my life.Your book is really helping me thank you!