In chapter 5, we talk about Gideon who, like us, doubted his strength and abilities. When God called him to defeat his enemy’s immediately Gideon’s insecurities started shouting excuses, listing all his inadequacies. Yet through his story we see God wasn’t limited by Gideon’s limitations, and He’s not limited by ours either.
God could see beyond who Gideon was to who he could become. He promised Gideon he would defeat his enemies, but he would not fight alone. “The Lord answered, ‘I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites, leaving none alive’”(Judg. 6:16).
Gideon’s first steps out of the shadow of doubt would require he focus on God’s promise and power, not himself. Eventually, with God’s help, Gideon defeated his enemies and his doubts. In today’s video message, I share how we can do the same by intentionally identifying our doubts and throwing them away, so that we can take hold of and live in the security of HIS promises instead! Please click the arrow below to watch.
- Don’t Throw Away Your Confidence printable (click here)
- Message Notes: You can download video “Message Notes” in a PDF format here or in a MSWord doc here. I encourage you to watch it once and just let God speak to your heart. Then if you want to, watch it agagin and follow along with the message notes which include parts of the message, verses and blanks to fill in. 🙂
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I don’t know about you, but whew – this chapter was just what I needed this week. God used it to remind me of how good HE is at being strong in my weaknesses – and unlimited by my limitations. Being really sick for two weeks, with an injured teenager and a 3-year old who has sleep/anxiety issues that have caused her to wake up all night for the past three out of five nights will make you think it’s time to resign from just about everything you do {but don’t worry I’m not}. 🙂
Connecting in Community: Ok friend, let’s talk. Overwhelming circumstances will send me to the trash every time! What’s tempting you to throw away your confidence this week? Did chapter 5 help you identify your triggers? What promises are you going to take hold of after writing down and throwing away your doubts? Or share other answers to questions 1-7 at the end of the chapter.
Share your thoughts below this post. I really want to hear from you – yes you! You are an important part of our community and conversation!
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One of the best things I started doing this week is to tell myself to put my focus back on Christ. When my stomach turns because I’m doubing myself or getting into what others are thinking of me, I immediately know, I took my focus off God. I need to turn to the light, I need to turn to God. I have been praying over and over againt that when my minds starts to get negative that God helps me put my focus back on him. Within a couple of minutes, my mind has settled down and I feel peace within. It seems so obvious now what I needed to do but I just never got it until now. I’ve put my focus on me and I need to put in on God. How awesome! I can do that!
That is so encouraging how you are applying these truths and steps of action and seeing what a huge difference it makes when we choose to change our focus. Thanks for sharing Lucy!
So many thoughts and verses came to my mind when reading this chapter. First I remembered an acronym I learned back in high school: LIGHT = Living In God’s Holy Truth…I thought about how that related to Renee’s revelation in the bathroom. We weren’t meant to block the light with doubts and insecurities but our hearts were created to live in the light of God’s truths and promises and then reflect that truth to those around us. Just as the moon (at its fullest and brightest) is reflecting the light of the sun…we were created to reflect the Light of the Son to the people around us. This also brought back to my mind a few verses God showed me when I was going through a very lonely and dark time in my life:
Esther 8:16 “The Jews had light [a dawn of new hope] and gladness and joy and honor.” Esther clearly had reasons to fear rejection and even death but chose to believe God and acted in faith and courage. She saved her people and gave a nation a future of hope and joy and honor.
Micah 7:7-8 “But as for me, I will look to the Lord and confident in Him I will keep watch; I will wait with hope and expectancy for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me. 8Rejoice not against me, O my enemy! When I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, the Lord shall be a light to me.”
Malachi 4:2 “But unto you who revere and worshipfully fear My name shall the Sun of Righteousness arise with healing in His wings and His beams”
During that time in my life I felt so attacked by the enemy with loneliness, fear, doubts, rejection and abandonment. They say that the night is the darkest just before sunrise…so on the days I thought I just couldn’t take anymore pain this verse encouraged me that God’s hope and healing were just over the horizon, like the rays of the rising sun. Persevere and keep living in God’s Holy Truth and security and confidence will reflect from your life and bring healing to someone else.
I love the acronym you shared: LIGHT = Living In God’s Holy Truth…and the verses. Great stuff! Thank you for taking time to leave a comment and share your heart!
Thank you, Audra, for sharing that awesome acronym: LIGHT!!!
You, too, are an inspiration and I’m thankful that God has brought you to sharing with this group!
God bless you mightily, Sister in Christ!
; – )
I have found that doing that very act of actually throwing away that which is hindering my confidence really works! What an awesome visual. Throwing away those things has given me like a new perspective as well as a freedom to do that which God has called me to do! Thank you Renee! Week by week i am learning and putting the lessons into practice for my life. I have had many difficulties and supprisingly enough am finding that those things that i was holding onto are really not worth living in despair. It is a new day for me i am so blessed to be a part of this! Looking forward to seeing what God has in store for me next!!!!
Yay, I love hearing how you are “applying” these truths and seeing the difference. God is so good!
I so needed to hear about persevering. I have been seeking a small group for prayer or study and felt lead to open my home to do that. I asked about 23 in my S.S. care group to join me. No one showed up. So I want to give up. I’ve been without companionship for 26 years and I don’t have a best friend to share the ups and downs of life with. I covet your prayers.
Brenda, you have my prayers and,, the prayers of the beautiful women in this Bible study who will lift you up to the Lord. My best friend is the Lord Jesus Christ himself who cares for me, walks with me, listens to me, loves me, and,,, i talk with Him, and then silently listen to Him as He whispers back to me. Brenda, never give up, never give up, never give up on what you feel the Lord is leading you to do.
Renee, what a blessing you are to each and every one of us who have come together in this Bible study. Thank You.
Hi girls, I started out full of God’s confidence and peace today. A harsh phone call with my husband sent me into such a tailspin. You see the last 3 yrs of this marriage have been extremely hard. I am wondering if I can ever heal while I’m still in it. This Bible study has been helping me immensely. Just knowing you sisters are out there dealing with your own issues and that we are all praying for each other really helps. God bless you all.
I’m praying for you, your husband and your marriage. Always remember that God can heal us where ever we are as long as He is in the center of it.
Thank you Linda, I pray God blesses you in a special way. Love in Christ, Becky
Renee,
I know that you have had your own challenges with health, etc. during this study but thank you for perservering and reaching out to others and myself. I’ve had a tough couple of days…mainly due to my thoughts and baggage that I carry. I was encouraged by a comment to “repent”; go the other way. Please pray that hurts will heal by the grace of God. I know He wants me to keep HOPE alive..in my thoughts and words…and I hate it when I fail to please Him because I’m forfeiting victory in this area of my life. Thanks for the printout and video.
I am praying for all of you.
I am having a big struggle this week with my husband suddenly losing his job and having a huge debt and alimony from his first marriage now staring us in the face (we can’t afford it on only my salary). What I’m battling with is fear – fear of losing my security, fear of the “what if’s”. It’s making me lash out at my husband and then get angry at myself for feeling this way. I’m trying so hard to give this to God and I’m clinging to the verse: ” The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” I am trying to be confident in God’s promises but keep questioning why I deserve His love, especially when I keep lashing out at my husband. (This may not make a lot of sense – I’m just typing it as it’s in my mind.)
God has spoken to me and I actually heard it (I know He speaks to me always but I’m too stubborn to hear). He planted in my heart the need to start a Prayer Group at my work. I’ve never done anything like this before and certainly not as a brand new employee. But, start it I did and He has put other Christians in my path, so I can see his Glory all around me. I just can’t accept that I’m worth it.
Trish: I hope that you have written “I’m not worth it” on a piece of paper and then crumbled it up and threw it in the trash!
You are God’s masterpiece! (though you may not feel like it).
Act as if it’s true. When you feel like lashing out at your husband – think to yourself: “I am God’s masterpiece. How would His masterpiece respond to this situation?”
It is so hard to put into place this changed (turned) way of thinking. (I struggle with it every day!)
Blessings and prayers for your situation.
Thank you Carol – reading your response brought tears to my eyes. What you said is so true and has really blessed me. THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!
Trish
(PS – last night, I shared with my husband some of the stories from my childhood that really hurt – situations with my mother that made me question my self worth. I’ve never shared those stories with anyone and, although it was really hard, it has brought us closer together. I know that God is working through this Bible Study to help me (and others) heal those old hurts and help us move forward into the abundant life he planned for us!!)
I’m glad it was helpful Trish. I had afterthoughts that perhaps I had stepped out of bounds, so it means a lot to me that you’ve replied.
Bravo that you were able to share past hurts.
I will pray for your husband’s job situation.
Blessings.
I’m so glad you shared with your husband and you are seeing God work in such a sweet way in your relationship with your husband. Im praying for you both tonight!
The way I am bombarded by thoughts of insecurity, I feel like Im going to need to carry my own personal garbage can with me, but if thats what it takes – pen and paper in hand and a trash can rolling around behind me I will do it.
Im tired of being hunted by lies.
That makes for a funny thought – lugging around a huge garbage can! But perhaps it is just the image i need! Thanks.
Don’t worry Max we’re all there with ya!! You def made me laugh, thank you 🙂
#7 I have viewed doubt as an emotional weakness in the past. I have asked god to remove doubt from my heart, but I have not asked Him to replace it with cinfindence—I will have to try this.
I have doubted for a long while that things in my marriage would change. this week for the first time I was able to see this clearly that things are changing.
I was late for work on Wednesday and thought that my husband didn’t care because he didn’t say anything as he usually does. So I became very upset and emotional over this, and most of my day didn’t go well because of this. When I returned home he had cleaned the house (it was his day off) and did a pretty good job—for a man that is. He did all the things he said he was going to do for a change. Normally he does some and not all and doesn’t do a very good job. the next day when I questioned him on all this, I found myself doing things differently. I began with an encouraging word which is something I never do. I complemented his work the day before and thanked him for doing it. Then I asked him if he knew I was late he said no, and said he was sorry for not realizing it and saying something like he always does. This small menial emotion lead to other feelings and things going on in our marriage. which is why I became so emotional sometimes small emotions can lead to bigger ones when not dealt with. we are getting with another couple to talk thing out more on Sunday (unless things change). Please pray for this to go well for us and that both of us can be open.
What I learned through this is that I need to stop doubting things will change, because they have and I can see that now. so there is hope for us yet. I need to trust god is always at work in my life and an the job—-because He is–I saw this clearly this week, that my husband is trying. Also that it truely benefits to pray first, which is what I did (I normally don’t but getting better at giving things to God first) before I talked to my husband. I also sought advise from other sisters as well as prayers. So God was already on the job before i even went there. Thanks to the sisters for volunteering to pray without being asked by me. I even had one pray for me at work in my presence. God is answering my prayers I have had for a while.
All the glory for this goes to Christ, my Lord and Savior, who loves me and didn’t leave me after all. I was wondering if He was there or not, but now I am confident that He truely is and always will be. I just need to keep that in mind always.
May God bless all of you and sorry this is so long but it is a great victory for me that I wanted to share with all of you. I also feel it is due to reading this book. I was meant to be reading it. thank you Reneee for writing it it has truly ben helpful to me thus far May god Bless your ministry. LOL
Wow, I love how God is working. thank you for sharing this with us Caroline!! We’ll keep praying. You keep believing and trusting and praying and watching :-).
GREAT video and GREAT chapter! My comment is kind of a combination of the two. I was thinking about what it is that causes me to throw away my confidence so easily. And I think a lot of it has to do with a quote from Chapter 5…”We find ourselves in the shadow of doubt many times because our thoughts are mostly about ourselves: how we’re performing and what others are thinking about us.” Indeed!
I have actually struggled with this very thing the past two weeks. I had worked really hard on a couple of things and felt pretty good about the work I had done. But then, it seemed like every one of the things I did was overlooked…as in no one noticed and no one said, “Wow, Kimberly! What a great job!” or “Thank you SO much!” So then my confidence took a big dip. Maybe I hadn’t done such a good job. Maybe I had been fooling myself.
So there you have it…finding my worth first off in how I had performed and then worrying about what others thought about how I had performed. SO thankful God is working on me. Helping me to see I have got to fix my eyes on Him, my hope in Him, my confidence in Him. SO glad He ADORES this work in progress. 😉
Love you bunches! Praying you feel better. Praying for your whole family. Praying for the women you are sharing with this weekend. THANK YOU for helping all of us place our confidence in HIM! (hmmmm…and apologies for the blog post sized comment!!!) 🙂
Thank you so much for sharing so honestly!! And for you prayers – and your blog post comment. I love reading your words and your thoughts. I just love everything about you friend!!
I got a little bit behind in my reading, but as I sat down to begin Chapter 6 this morning, I just felt so thankful, Renee. SO thankful to not be alone in this struggle. Honestly, I thought there was something wrong with me for so long. Reading your book is like reading my own heart spelled out on paper. I know I have thanked you before, but I want to thank you AGAIN for having the courage, for trusting the Lord, and writing this book. So glad He has me reading it again. 🙂 MUCH LOVE, K
I was reminded that when I doubt my ability, I am really doubting God. In actuality, anything I do is through Christ anyway; so when I say I can’t or I won’t I am actually saying God or telling God no. Thanks for reminding me of this.
. . . and I will write down those thoughts and throw them away. Thank you for what you do for all of us.
Renee,
Thank you so much for this video and how not to throw away your confidence. I made a choice to change teacher positions and I have struggled with it all year. Others have said mean and hurtful things when I thought they were suppose to support me not just in actions but in words also. I am believing God allowed me to see this video to encourage me and allow me to see HE is not finished with me yet( Phillip 1:6) and that he that he is leading me into a place of confidence through him as I seek him on my job and in relationships -both profesionally and personally. I am so grateful for your book and how it speaks God’s Truth to my emotions and thoughts.
Enjoyed this & printed out the page. Last year my husband went back to his addictions & took on a mistress. Two months into it, he died from a drunken fall down a flight of stairs, after drinking all day & evening (much with the mistress until 4 or 5 a.m.). He did not survive the severe brain damage and coma, dying about 17 hrs. later. It was a terrible year of grieving – first struggling with tremendous anger, and finally after forgiveness, the sadness & sorrow. Now, a year later I’ve found a lump in my breast and am waiting to find out if I have cancer. Have had a mammogram & ultrasound, and Feb. 15th a biopsy (actually 2 tumors – 1 large & 1 tiny) and must wait another 2 wks. for results. As I went through the biopsy I prayed, and I felt there were angels in the room. I strongly believe that my life is in God’s hands, and He will help me through this next trial. If I should sometimes feel, as in your printable sheet, “I don’t have enough courage”, “I’m nothing special”, “I’m overwhelmed”, etc, I will remember your reminders of what God says and will hold onto His truths.
Maryilyn, My heart goes out to you. I will keep you in my prayers!
Praying for you, Girlfriend!
Praying for you friend!! We love you and WE are with you too!
In keeping with the royalty theme, I have decided we need to “dethrone ourselves” in other words give up control and truly crown Jesus as Lord of our lives. In this way, we will be anxious for nothing, but thru prayers make our request known to God. Faith is so simple when we take ourselves out of the equation and allow our Heavenly Father to truly be the head of our household.
I loved the video and the advice that you gave us Renee! TO throw away the lies and doubts…big reminder when we write it and throw it to remember to not doubt ourselves. God Bless
I really needed this message this week because my confidence level has been at an all time low. I find myself full of insecurity and doubts. It has been so hard to put some things in my past where they belong, in the past. I am constantly throwing away any small bit of confidence I have left in me. My husband and I just celebrated our 7th anniversary. It is a second marriage for us both. Only a year ago we were separated and he disclosed some indiscretions to me. He asked if I could forgive him and I have. But I can’t seem to forget them. I am also comparing myself to unknown women that I imagine he could be comparing me to. I know this is really silly of me, but I can’t seem to stop. I want to be perfect which is impossible. Yet I am still trying for perfection. I don’t seem to be able to get past it. It just makes me feel less somehow. I really need prayers.
Hi sweet friends!! I’m in Pennsylvania getting ready to speak at a womens conference tonight and tomorrow and I have you on my mind. Just prayed for each of you. Oh how Jesus has given me such a love for you and such a tender place in my heart for your stories. I’ve read all of your posts here but haven’t had time to respond to em all… Though I want to! Do u know how fun I think it would b to hang out together?? Oh my that just makes my heart smile!
Well I need to get prayed up and go speak but just had to say hi and send a a virtual hug. Have a great weekend and I’ll b back soon to chat it up. Still hoping to hear from more of you about your answers to chapter 5. Don’t b shy now. Connecting is the best part of an online community!
I loved the video this week. Coming off a situation at work which made me doubt if I could even be in the right profession (teacher), and I realize that I have taken my eyes off the light and allowed myself to be swallowed by the shadow of my doubts…..this video/chapter really brought that into perspective. It’s been such a heart opening adventure so far. Thank you, Renee, for following God’s calling for your life!!
Karie, I think teachers require a lot of work in faith. Rarely do teachers see the reaping of what they sow since it becomes more and more evident the years following the year that the teacher actually works with the student. Also there are many non-curriculum demands as well. The children need those of us who love children to be with them every day and that is most frequently in a school setting. And even though those of us who work in a public school setting may not be able to verbally show God’s light in us, as we treat the children with His light in us, they can feel it and benefit from it. There are many days as a school psychologist that I remind myself that my God is with me so who can stand against me and ultimately if I keep my focus on doing His work with the children then there are no enemies who will stand in His way or mine. God bless you and your work as a teacher.
I have not read chapter 5 yet or watched the video for this chapter. I am catching up on the things I need to finish in chapter 4, but I did want to tell you, Renee, I so needed to hear that I am important. Those few little words before this comment section meant more than I can ever explain. After an unwanted divorce last May, after 29 years of marriage, I don’t feel important, I am realizing I don’t even feel loved or wanted. This is a little difficult when I do steal have to nurture and love the 18 year old daughter I have at home with me. She has Down Syndrome and I am realizing I have gotten really good at hiding things, if for no other reason than so Caitlyn will not see them.
Thank you for what you do, Renee!!