After reading your comments and emails last week week, I’m so encouraged by how God interrupted what I was doing and prompted me to check on you. That prompting led me to invite you on an unplanned journey through my 7-day Doubt Diet. Over 4000 of you signed up, and hundreds of you shared how much you needed this, at such a time as this.
Friend, God hears your prayers. He knows your needs and He is pursuing you with His love. I’m so honored that I get to be a part of what He is doing in your life. I want us to give ourselves time to let God speak to us as we apply these devotions in our lives. So, I’ve decided to stretch the 7 days over 2 weeks, with a post every other day on weekdays only, after today. Day 2 will be posted on Tuesday, Day 3 on Thursday and then day 4 next Monday, and so on.
Each day we’ll have a key verse called “Food for Thought” and a “Doubt Diet Tip” to help us apply that day’s message. I’m praying for you, friend, and I want us all to pray for each other. Let’s pray that no matter how hard life is or how much doubt tries to weigh us down – we will ask God to help us know and rely on His love and live in the security of His promises – so we can lose the weight of self-doubt and gain a confident heart!
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Day 1: Don’t Throw Away Your Confidence
Taken in part from Chapter 1 and 6
© 2011 by Renee Swope with Revell Publishing.
Food for thought: So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. Hebrews 10:35-36, (NIV)
One night I was cleaning the kitchen and threw away this little rubber thingy that was on our counter top. Suddenly I realized it was the power button for our TV remote control. As I dug through the trash to find it, I regretted how quickly I’d thrown it away. Then, as I reached to pull it out, I sensed God showing me that’s how easily I throw away my confidence—without even recognizing it.
It’s usually very subtle. Sometimes I’ll be thinking about something I want to do or sense God calling me to, and a feeling of uncertainty comes over me and whispers to my heart: You can’t do that. You’re not good enough. Out of the blue, I’ll just get that awful, insecure feeling.
Too many times I’ve gone along with it, tossing my confidence into the trash without even thinking about it.
For the longest time, I didn’t tell anyone about my lack of confidence because I figured if I told them all the reasons I doubted myself, they’d see my flaws and agree with me. Honestly, I was convinced I was the only one who struggled with doubt.
However, I didn’t call it doubt. Maybe you don’t either. Sometimes I called it worry—worry that I was going to disappoint someone, worry that I might make a mistake and get criticized for it, worry that I might start something but not be able to finish.
Other times I’d call it fear—fear that I wouldn’t measure up, fear that I’d look stupid, fear that I’d look prideful thinking I could do something special for God. What I’ve realized over the past several years is that these feelings may end up as fear or worry, but their source is self-doubt.
Looking back, I see a pattern in my thinking that led to the pattern of my doubting.
As a child I thought I wasn’t worth keeping. My insecurity kept me from riding amusement park rides, because I doubted my dad would wait for me. In school, I doubted I was smart enough and avoided some great opportunities because they came with the risk of failure. As a young bride, I doubted my husband’s faithfulness, although he gave me no reason to fear. Our newlywed memories include a lot of arguments about trust.
What about you? Do you ever agree with the whispers of doubt and throw away confidence that should be yours as a child of God? Are you tired of questioning whether you have what it takes to become the woman you want to be, or the woman God is calling you to be?
The first step to living with a confident heart is for us to recognize the power we give to self-doubt, then stand up to it and claim the confidence that is ours through Christ. That is what we’ll be doing for the next seven days as we learn to live in the security of God’s promises in our everyday lives.
To get started, let’s ask God to show us when we throw away our confidence this week, and help us throw off the weight of our insecurities instead.
Lord, I want to become a woman with a confident heart in Christ. Show me how to recognize when I’m tempted to throw away my confidence. And please help me throw away my insecurity instead. I want the reward of persevering in Your truth so that when I have done Your will, I will receive what You have promised. I don’t want to be a woman who shrinks back and is destroyed but one who believes and is saved. When doubt or insecurity tells me I can’t do something, I will remember that all things are possible to her who believes. In Jesus’ name, Amen. (See Hebrews 10:35–36, 39; Mark 9:23)
Doubt Diet Tip: When you start a diet or physical training plan, experts recommend you take a Body Mass Index analysis to determine if you are overweight, underweight, or in a healthy weight range. As we get started, our first assignment is to complete the FREE “Doubt Index Analysis” I created to help identify your most common doubts, see how they affect you and determine just how much self-doubt could be weighing you down by.
Let’s Talk: I want this to be a journey we take TOGETHER, where we talk to each other, encourage and pray for one another and talk about what God is showing us. To do that, please click here to go back to my website (if you’re reading this via email) and then click on “Share Your Thoughts” below this Day 1 post.
That’s where we’ll share our hearts, our stories, our struggles (so others can know they’re not alone and so we can pray for each other) and read others stories too. I believe that is where real community and encouragement will come – and Jesus will meet us there and minister to us through one another!
This forum isn’t for women only so count me in.
I know I lack confidence and am really struggling to gain any. My husband left me for another woman and I found out from him that it was not the first affair he had. I feel like he made the last 20 years of my life a mockery – everything I thought I had and was working towards just wasn’t. I am a 39 year old in a wheelchair due to muscular dystrophy which leads me to have very little confidence. I want nothig more than to have a marriage again with the right man but I know how men look at me (like a burden). I have 2 wonderfuls sons, ages 16 and 7, but I do not want them to not live their lives because they have to stay home with mom. I was always a romantic and wanted so much to be a part of a couple and I know I rushed into this relationship with my exhusband when I know now that God had something much better in store for me. My husband was physically, mentally and emotionally abusive and an alcoholic as well as a drug abuser. I am only thankful for our time together because of my sons. I am hoping this 7 day doubt diet will remove some doubt and get me through to the study on A Confident Heart in January – I got my book ordered! I feel like so much of what I read is true for everyone else but I cannot help feeling like the exception.
Renee,
I am really unsure where to begin. My greatest struggel is myself. I have a hard time believing I am worth much. I have a hard time not letting fear and other peoples opinons matter in my life. Right now I am struggeling because I am the only woman in my church who is not dating or married. My parents are dead and sometimes I feel like I have no body. I have tried to talk to people but no one understands they I need to reach out to others more. I am a christian school teacher, I help in our youth department, I am in choir and do special music for the church. SOmetimes I just want someone to reach out to me. I am trying to stay focused but sometimes it is so hard. Please pray for me.
It’s now day 3 of the 7 days, and I’ve finally read day 1. Pretty much the story of my life lately — lots of things I’m ‘supposed’ to do, yet time spent doing other (usually much less productive) things. Being very familiar with fitness analyses, the Doubt Index Analysis was a welcome tool for me. I actually scored lower than I thought I would, which I guess is a good thing. Although it could also mean that I didn’t answer as truthfully as may really be the case. I did go back through and make some changes, but I pretty much went with my first impression answers, which is usually the best way to answer these types of things. I’m looking forward to the next 6 days, and will use the time between now and Monday, when Day 4 comes out, to read days 2 and 3. One thing I have learned already, though, is that self-doubt is a lie from satan, and when it’s feeling the strongest it’s usually because we are threatening him in some way. Stopping the doubt is like putting up a wall, and the more we stop it, the stronger that wall will be. This wall, unlike some, is a good wall, though, because it’s sole goal is to keep out the evil one, while allowing us the freedom and confidence to walk out God’s plans for us.
I can’t tell you how much I needed this. After getting the courage to go to She Speaks this summer and coming home full of confidence, I have once again almost completely stopped forward progress these last few weeks. I am determined to pick up my confidence, even if I have to dig through the trash. Thank you, Renee, for always speaking to my heart.
Over the Summer while Asking God to show me what I needed work on he kept on making me think back to my past that I had tried to shelve and never think about. …School . I was Bullied from age 9 to age 16 and felt desperate all those years and only having God as my friend kept me from doing things that others have sadly done as it gets so unbearable. I could not figure out why this was constantly coming back to me, but I was also asking God where all my confidence had gone in recent years. About 2 days before you invited me to join you on this doubt diet He helped me see that the affects of the bullying were still raw and needed healing. My Doubts and feelings of self doubt were from those days… thanks for inviting me on this Journey, I am sure God wants me to heal fully from this as the Pain is still there.
This Journey will be totally worth it.
Although I’m getting a late start, I am going on this diet! I am praying for God to heal some broken places that I’ve been hiding for a long time. I didn’t fully recognize how much my fears and doubts have their roots in that brokenness. Thank you Renee, and thank you God for giving us this source of healing.
I am struggling with so much right now but mostly with major depression that has sapped me of all self confidence. I want to get better but I do not even have the confidence that it will happen. This morning my husband (who is an amazing man who has stood by me through so much – Parkinson’s Disease, son with Asperger’s, a suicide attempt last May) told me he doesn’t know how much more he can with stand. I need the confidence to move forward and trust in Him. I do not want my family to “blow apart”. We’ve come so far.
Renee
I am part of Mellisa T.’s study using your book. Your prayed for me online regarding the loss of my two boys. I wanted you to know I was woken up this am to my cat dragging something around my room, from out of “nowhere” he had a necklace that my son made at church camp when he was young. Haven’t seen it in years and have been encouraged that God sent me this gift this morning. Thank you.
Your well said thoughts and stories are such a blessing to read. I have gone through this issue of doubt lately and my spiritual family encouraged me to face it and i learned a lot. I learned that God does not give us the worries, doubts, condemnation,guilt, unforgiveness, bitterness, etc- these are all lies from the enemy trying so hard to eat all the love in our heart. Our love for God, our love for each person we care about. Now i know, and asked for God’s perspective. He showed me… He gives us Hope, Direction, Guidance, Love, He is faithful, generous, kind, He Provides, He Forgives, He Saves/ our Saviour, He’s our Redeemer! So many positive attributes to find about our Father as we get to know Him. As His children, we ought to know more our Father in a personal way and have a personal relationship with Him. I thank God for His wisdom! God bless you more and more!
Thank you so much for the message today Renee. My husband and I have been trying for several years to have a child. I had a miscarriage and have been diagnosed with “unexplained infertility”. During my journey I have consistently prayed for trust and faith, but doubt always creeps back in. I’ve also lost confidence and have tried to be in control of the situation and seek answers through people instead of waiting patiently on the Lord. The past week I’m putting doubt and insecurity behind me and am trusting God’s will for us. It has given me such peace just to let go and have confidence that God is in control. We are open to adoption down the road if it’s in God’s plan. Thank you for all you do. You are a true blessing to us all!
Renee,
Am so enjoying your book and these lessons and comments. And… I really needed your book.
So God continue to bless your ministry and your writing.