Praying God’s promises — it’s changed me.
That’s why I included a prayer, at the end of each chapter, weaving together Scriptures from that chapter and others I sensed God wanted us to engrave on our hearts.
“Praying God’s Word has been one of the most life-changing ways I’ve learned to live in the security of His promises…and isn’t what we all want?
“One way God tells us that confidence will come is when we ask Him for what is already part of His will. ‘This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us’ (1 John 5:14 NASB). So there you go: we can be confident we are praying God’s will when we pray God’s Word!” p.25
But that’s not all.
Romans 10:17 tells us that “faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ” so let’s pray these promises out loud again and again.
Out loud. Yes, even if it seems weird. Find somewhere you can be alone and speak these truths to God and let them echo in your heart
Trust me, it makes a difference.
“When we pray God’s words out loud, and hear them, the Holy Spirit engraves them on our hearts and writes them in our thoughts. We internalize God’s truth and our faith grows as we are transformed from the inside out!” p.25
Let’s pray this week’s prayer {together}:
Lord, I pray that You would give me a confident heart in Christ. Take me beyond believing in You to truly believing You. Help me rely on the power of Your promises and live like they are true. You say blessed is the one who trusts in You and whose hope and confidence are found in You. Those who hope in You will not be disappointed, because You work all things together for good for those who love You and are called according to Your purpose.
When self-doubt tells me I can’t overcome my insecurities, I will believe Your promise that all things are possible to whoever believes. I will not throw away my confidence, because You say it will be richly rewarded. I will persevere so that when I have done the will of God, I will receive what You have promised. My confidence is in Christ and I am no longer one who shrinks back and is destroyed, but one who believes and is saved! In Jesus’ name, Amen. {See Jeremiah 17:7; Isaiah 49:23; Romans 8:28; Mark 9:23; Hebrews 10:35–36, 39}
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A Song of Prayer
My friend, award-winning composer and pianist , Chad Lawson, has graciously shared his beautiful, Spirit-filled Song of Prayer below. Watch and listen below for FREE and soak in this God-gift that was filmed while Chad listened to the Holy Spirit for 32 minutes and simply played what He laid on his heart. You’ll see the joy of Christ in Chad’s smile but more than anything, you’ll experience the peace of God’s presence through his music.
Download Song of Prayer: You can find it on Itunes ($1.99) or Amazon ($.89)
Today’s Give-Away: 3 Special Order Song of Prayer CDs
To enter to win one: Click “share your thoughts” below this post and describe how you felt or what you sensed God whisper as you listened to Chad’s Song of Prayer. Also share one or two of your answers to questions at the end of Chapter 1.
If you’re reading this via email: Scroll to the top of your email and click the title “Praying God’s Promises” to go back to my website. All entries must be put in the “share your thoughts” section.
Thank you Lord,for the invitation to come to you ,to run to you as your Love draws me closer. That I am and always will be your loved child you make plain to me .You lift me up as I run to you ,you hold me above the circumstances of the world.You will uphold me ,you ask me to run ,to run ,to run in Your Love for in your strength will I be Revived. Then I may Rest in you ,sing with you ,Be who you intended to be – Your child. You believe in me ,simply You made me in Love.
I just started this study.
Q 4 : What do you think hinders you most from living with God confidence on a concistent basis?
I am feeling inadequate. Like I am not good enough for His promises. Undeserving. They were/ are not ment for me.
Reasoning kicks in and tells me perhaps I am not rightly dividing God’s Word? Can I just cherry pick OT promises and blessings for the Jews from the OT and make them mine? I so struggle with this.
Please. Help me. I want to believe. I want a confident heart.
Hi, Renee and everyone, I have listened to the piano piece, it was relaxing, but need to hear it again. After jusut reading all your comments about how the music made you feel all of you, i need to listen again and really try to concentrate and block out things and get my mind quiet which is hard to do. i’m just catching up in the archives. I have posted my comments in earlier sections and am now posting in this section. I was saying i’m totally blind and have the computer with the speech program. that with keystroke commands, i can do anything with the computer! as I read all the comments, i’m saying to myself i am so there with her. I struggle with self doubt listen to negative thoughts. More and more every day, God is helping me to place my trust in him. I still a lot of times want to do my own thing and then when it doesn’t work out, i’m reminded, I hear a small voice well, you should have listened! I started this study, then, I worked on the seven day diet and now I’ve started the study again at my own pace thank God for those archives! Monday coming, I’m going to speak at a classroom about what it is to be blind. my neighbour asked me to. I’m excited! I have never been asked to do this and I’m thinking Renee when you talked about getting ready to do a presentation. it was in chapter one or chapter two. well, I’m going to listen to song of praise again now that I’ve read all your dcomments about how you all felt about it, and this time, I’m really going to concentrate on keeping my mind quiet so that I can listen to the relaxing peaceful music and really listen to what god is saying to me. One thing I will say about the music is that I have a lot of trouble sleeping, and when I was listening to this, I thought this will help me sleep thank you Renee!
Thank you so much for sharing this link Renee and thank you Leslie for this wonderful song of prayer.
I know GOD led me to these Bible Studies and to all you wonderful Ladies.
Stay strong in the LORD!!
GOD BLESS U ALL.
Sonia.
Good morning Renee – I am loving this study! I’m a few days behind; which is great that we can just pick up where WE are in life. Chad’s music is the perfect prayerful music and thank you so much for sharing that with us! I think the question that I found the most important and summed up the other’s was question 5 at the end of Chapter 1. What hinders us from living with God-confidence on a consistent basis? I would have to say the world around us. We have the media; televsion – magazine ads everywhere / things telling us how we should look; the latest fashions, the latest hairdo’s, etc. We are bombarded with the world says we shoul look like and it can really wear you down when you want to put those things away. About 6 months ago I cut all my hair for my 13 yr. old daughter that was about to begin chemo for ovarian cancer. I’ve had many people say they like my hair short and other’s that have said I looked better with it long. I did it for a reason; not to glorify “other’s” but to support my daughter. This is just an example of how the world says we should look one way and for so many women this will make them very self confident and shy away. Satan loves that – he only needs but a few seconds to paralyze your thought process! Thank you again for this study! -CiCi-
Ok, so I am totally playing catch-up. The day this all started I got the flu. Then my husband arrived home from ND after being gone for 4 weeks. Now he’s is on his way back to ND and I totally have some time to catch up. Here is a thought on the question #5. “What hinders you most from living with God-confidence on a consistent basis?” For me, I am still learning that He is not a punishing God. That He is a merciful and loving God. I was raised to believe that if I didn’t have enough faith and something happened then God was punishing me. If I didn’t do my devotions then God would allow something bad to happen in the day. When my car broke down it was because I didn’t have enough faith that God would get me to where I was going on time with the car. Mind you, the car was an old car and it was more than likely to break down! This believing led me to doubt in God’s true love for me and also the success of my life. I would doubt my own ability to accomplish certain tasks because I was afraid that if I made a mistake or didn’t have enough faith that god would punish me. I now know this is NOT true. The verse that gives me confidense to accomplish tasks wether they are big or small is ” all things are possible to [her] who believes. (Mark 9:23). NOT her who has enough faith!
I began listening to this last week, but quite honestly, didn’t have time to sit and listen to the whole video. It went right along with what I’m studying in a Bible study with a few friends, how we need to sit still and just be with God. Sadly, I’m just getting back around it sitting and listening. You don’t realize how long 30 minutes is until you actually make yourself sit without doing anything else for that long. Chad’s music was absolutely beautiful – a song of praise to our God. I was very moved by it and it has inspired me to work a bit harder to find that quite time to spend with God each day – undistracted, not asking, but just sitting….listening.
Thanks so much for sharing this link Renee.
I am in agreement with Kristin about the online class being awesome. This is my first time participating in an online bible study too. I am so glad that I am a part of this and I look for to what is yet to come. But I cant wait to share my experience with others so they too can be BLESSED.
Thank you for sharing the Song of Prayer with us. It is absolutely beautiful that I had to share it with my son. The words we both came up with is peaceful and relaxing. As I closed my eyes I was dancing in my mind and smiling and I felt free. No worries at all. I know that I will be listening to this song over and over again. My son said he was definitely going to support this song.
First off, I am far from the one that would normally post something. What an amazing week this has been! Thank you, Renee! Thank you to all of you women, who have shared your comments along the way. (Just as a side note, I lift up prayers for you after I read your post.) This whole “online study” is such an awesome idea! (This is the first one I have participated in.) What a blessing it has been thus far!
I, like most women, stay busy busy busy, and wonder how the 24 hours in a day fly by so quickly. As I listened to “Song of Prayer,” I found myself totally at peace. Completely relaxed. Not caring what time it was. Calm, yet excited. I felt as if God was right here next to me with His arms around me allowing my tears to roll off my face onto His shoulder. Shed slow peaceful tears (hard to describe) but had a soft big smile on my face at the same time. Talk about feeling the peace of God’s presence!!!!
As far as the Chapter 1 questions go, most of my answers were pretty long. Simple and sweet though: I love how reading God’s word turns my “down and out, sad, feeling conquered, feeling like a failure” into being “uplifted, full of life, reminded that all things are possible with Him” mindset. His words help me feel more confident!!!!! I am praying to be that confident woman with a confident heart. A woman full of His promises engraved on my heart!!!!
This is so beautiful. I feel it in my heart and my soul. I’m going to buy the mp3 on Amazon so I can carry this with me wherever I go.
Tears just streamed down my face as I listened to this. Why am I doubting God? Why am I trying to figure out what’s best, when He already knows? A wave of peace fell upon me as I looked at the pictures of my five children hanging on the wall and realized God has everything under control — even my husband’s health (which has been a concern lately). Question 6 really struck me and reminded me of the need to feel at peace in my life. I don’t need to have everything perfect, or even OK, in my life. But if I’m confident, I will be at peace with God and what He is doing in my life. Unfortunately, that has not been the case for some time. Doing this study and just taking time to be with Him is helping me to find that peace again. Lord, thank you for people like Chad, Renee and others who work to bring us closer to You!
I can easily see how one could picture ice skating while listening to Chad Lawson’s Song of Prayer. I could also imagine snowflakes falling-each unique and beautiful. I guess that should be an encouragement to all of us–unique and beautiful on our own. I enjoyed listening while I worked on this and another Bible study. I enjoy how verses from separate studies come together. My first thought in the music was “Be still and know that I am God” since the music started so softly
This music just makes my mind and heart float to think and speak to God. Awsome!
What a beautiful song of prayer!
Chapter 2 stuck a chord in my heart. It was not my father, but my mother. And she didn’t leave us, but she did reject me. I’ve actually recently learned that she thought that I – as a newborn – looked in her eyes and communicated that I didn’t need her. And, because of her own issues, she wanted a “needy” baby. So she rejected me repeatedly and to this day, is jealous when I succeed in anything. I spent all of my childhood and most of my adulthood trying to understand what I could do to please her. How I could measure up. So I’d work harder, get better grades, etc. but nothing worked. For example, I graduated 7th in my high school class. My mother’s reaction was that I could have been valedictorian if I’d just tried harder. A few years ago, she admitted to all of this and told me that my sister is her “favorite” because she’d always needed my mother and I did not. My sister cannot have children and my mother has lamented that “fate” is cruel because my sister should have had children, not me. (I have the only children in the family – her only grandchildren).
This translated into my first marriage, where I tried SO hard to be perfect. I’d have the house perfectly clean when he came home – he’d find something wrong. (Once it was because I didn’t vacuum the rug in the right pattern). After 2 years of working with a priest (which my husband refused to talk to because he saw the problems as all mine – he even told me if I could be more perfect we wouldn’t have any problems) I filed for divorce. It broke my heart but I couldn’t see living like that any more for my kids’ sake (plus my own).
I am remarried and have a strong Christian bond with my husband. He knows all of the above and accepts me anyway – even when I spend all weekend on my recliner! (LOL)
Trish,
Your life story has so many elements of my own. I too felt rejected by both my mother and father. My sister is the favorite in the family too – and I understand that pain that comes with that. My father has admitted it – but my Mom can’t admit to anything. My father told me to “forget I ever had a father” – and for now, while I realign a few things in my heart – I think this is for the best. I found myself as a nearly 40 year old (!) who was still trying endlessly to gain their approval. I realised it was time for things to change. I think it is going to be a process, but I believe that God is whispering to my heart and assuring me that He doesn’t play favorites – and to Him, I am perfect! I just wanted you to know that you are not alone in your journey and I really do believe that God works all things together (including the experiences which have left us with scars) for good. 🙂
Thank you so much Reene for this wonderful journey you are taking us. i too suffer from low self esteem, doubt and insecurities. My parents divorced when i was 3 months old, i never really felt the love of my natural Father because he was never a part of my life. i ended up getting into relationships with guys i thot would fill that gap. i made a lot of mistakes in my haste to get love and i ended up giving away my virginity before marriage. the Guy dumped me afterwards. i have confessed my sins and rededicated my life to Christ but some times i feel God really hasnt forgiven me for all my sins, i feel that i have to try so hard to be forgiven. Thanks to this Study , i begining to realise that God really loves and he is MY FATHER who will never hurt or abandon me.
This music was a much needed blessing! The past two weeks have been very hectic. It is hard to relax sometimes when the week is so unsettled. But I have been pressing in to God and can feel Him close! Satan just tries to make me unable to stop and be still sometimes.
#1 – My earliest memory was when I was really little saying over & over that I am stupid. I was so frustrated that my dad didn’t want me or love me. I wanted to be delighted in so badly! Also, I read really slow and people in Sunday School & regular school made fun of me. I didn’t stop saying I’m stupid until recently, I am 28 now. I say God’s promises out loud when I feel discouraged. I am always amazed when I hear that I am smart or doing good. (Like at my job or at church) It is so nice to hear it! I could soak it in forever 🙂 By pressing in to God, I have noticed an Amazing difference in my confidence already!!!
#2 – It kept me from developing real, deep friendships b/c of fear of rejection. It made me not think I have what it takes to be a leader. It has kept me from doing my best sometimes if it involves other people.
… I have recently made friends & was asked to possibly be a leader at my work 🙂 I cannot believe it still, but by pressing in to God, I know that HE is my Confidence and I am only successful because of Him!!!
This book has been a way for God to change my life in less than a month! Thank you so very much Renee!!!
I realized more than ever the power of praying God’s word when my husband was deployed to Iraq. During a Bible study that focused on praying for our husbands, we discussed how God loves it when we use “His” language to talk to Him. That was a revelation for me that changed my prayer life forever! Thank you Rene’ for being God’s vessel and messenger to us!
What a beautiful song I love it!! What I love is his smiles when he plays, it’s at that moment you know he is hearing from God!! I too am like all of you, I have no confidence in myself or any of my abilities. As I type this i struggle with my job, my kids, my walk with the Lord. I don’t know why I am here n I don’t know why it has to be so darn hard. I heard in the pastors service this morning talk about how we think God doesn’t hear our prayers but in truth HE is ALL OVER IT!! That gave me such hope as far as the job n kids are concerned.
This music is a perfect backdrop to my studies. I think I may listen to it everytime I am having my time with the Lord. It is the beautiful noise I need in the background to keep my mind from wandering.
#6 – I believe that a woman with a confident heart is head strong and heart strong. This is not because of her, but because she is in a relationship with God, she is in His word and because she has moved beyond believing in Him to believing Him.
As others said, I felt Peace and Comfort, the song is like a warm blanket wraping me up in God’s love. I have been slow to get going on this study. Making time for the Lord is something I have always struggled with, I think partially because of confidence! I also have a newborn at home and am struggling to find our new routine and fit time with God in to that but I am determined! And I hope through this study to build confidence that will further encourage that. I have always struggled with confidence all my life. One thing I keep thinking is that lacking confidence as a Christian is selfish! As we have read, we need to have confidence in THE LORD not our self, so when I stumble and show doubt that I think is in him I am really taking Confidence away from HIM! That is what I am going to try and focus on!
This is going to be a great study for me. In doing the questions I am surprised by myself at what comes to my mind right away. I’m really mulling over my responses.
Especially #4 When I read these scriptures I am enveloped with doubt and my self says REALLY????
I feel like I”ve been waiting and hoping all my life and I do feel disappointed. I do know we serve a Good God and he will prove faithful. I need to really know this in my heart. Thank you Renee for putting this together. I’m expecting some changes in myself
Peacefulness!!
I loved the music you posted! I had to work several nights very late so I listened to Pandora. Anytime the words especially spoke to me I wrote the name of the song down. I am building a playlist for our Bible study. Thought I would share the songs: Blessings by Laura Story, Lift me Up by the Afters, You Love me Anyway by Sidewalk Prophets, Before the Morning by Josh Wilson, and My Hope is in You by Aaron Shust. Also this verse was shared in my Life Group this morning: “Every word of God proves true. He is a shield to all who come to him for protection.” Proverbs 30:5
I am going to start a list of God’s promises and a list of God’s character to read and meditate on, especially on the doubting days. God says to think on what is true, lovely, and of good report. It is sometimes the verses that you know so well that you never practice. At least I find that is true of me. Blessed to have this sisterhood all striving to know Him better. I think of us filling a gymnasium and the joy we are bringing to Jesus’ face as we study His words.
I felt a lot of peace listening to the song. I remembered how when I surrender something to God, it’s then well taken care of. It’s no longer a worry of mine. I have to remember this every time something difficult comes up in my life. Because I remember of the reality that God loves me. That God loves us. My trust is rooted in his love for me/us. So I can surrender and dwell in that bubble of peace because of God’s love, his heart of love.