The doorbell rang soon after I got home from dropping off a thank you note at my neighbor house. Surprised to see Janet standing on my front porch, I listened as she held up an envelope and explained: “Renee, this is the most amazing thank you note I have ever read; you have a writing gift and you need to use it.”
I was puzzled. It was only a thank you note after all.
Yet Janet’s words of affirmation stayed with me all afternoon. Her confidence made me wonder if God might use my words to touch the lives of others.
Prayers for direction had filled pages of my journal that month as I struggled to figure out what I was good at.
A few weeks later I attended a women’s dinner series at my church. Taking notes on a napkin, I thought about how nice it would be for the message series to be captured in a booklet so we could remember and apply the lessons in our everyday lives. Then I got the craziest idea: maybe I could write a study guide to give to other women who want to go deeper, too.
Quickly, doubt filtered my idea through reality: Who am I to think I could write something women would want to read?
Unable to get the thought out of my head over the next few days, I finally told Janet. Much to my shock she loved the idea. And she claimed the women’s ministry team had been praying for months about a gift to give the women after the dinners and that this was an answer to their prayers.
A few weeks later, they asked me to write a study guide. I nearly suffocated under the weight of insecurity, but Janet kept encouraging me, praying for me and telling me she believed in me.
With her prayers and prodding I wrote it, and over a thousand copies were given away. Then I wrote another the next year, and then another.
As I think about the impact of Janet’s words on my life and ministry sixteen years ago, I’m reminded of Elizabeth and her words to Mary when she arrived to tell her cousin she was pregnant with God’s child. “Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her! Luke 1:45
What a difference it must have made for Mary to have Elizabeth believe in the promise God proclaimed over her. Today as I think about a thank you note that started the legacy of my writing ministry years ago, I’m so grateful I get to encourage YOU because Janet believed in and encouraged me.
***
Here I sit, sixteen years later, sharing this online study living in a promise I pray almost every day. “Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all I ask or imagine according to His power that is at work within me.” Eph 3:20
This month, I want to honor the difference you make in my life and in each other’s lives through something we’re doing at Proverbs 31 Ministries to recognize and honor women like you and Janet through Legacy Cards we’re sending to those who have touched lives and impacted legacies:
I’m getting one for Janet and my mom {for Mother’s Day}, and a few others who have impacted my life and my legacy.
And today I bought one in HONOR of YOU my amazing online study friends!!
Each time you leave a comment and share your heart, your prayers, your journey with me and with each other — God uses it to spur me on and to encourage one another in so many ways. Whether it’s a few sentences or a few paragraphs, when I read how Jesus is loving on you, how you’re loving on each other or how He’s speaking to you through His words or something I wrote in my book or my blog, it’s a huge deposit of encouragement!! So thank YOU for sharing that part of yourself with me and with us! You impact my legacy sweet friends, and I am so very grateful!
For more details about our Legacy cards click here.
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You are truly a blessing and God is using you in an incredible way! Thank you for putting aside your doubt and fears and falling God’s will and lead. Just know that your leap of courage is helping me and so many others. I am doing the study with a friend and I find the book excruciatingly honest and pushing me to do a deeper dig. I have a lot going on right now and life seems to be spiraling out of control, this study is helping to keep me grounded in Christ and maintain my focus and faith. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR BEING OBEDIENT!!!!!
Kerryann
Thank you Renee for giving me a book and book study online it has help me alot in growing confidence as a women in Christ this book related with my life and I got the chance to trust god and be a confident woman in the new life I began thank you for the words God Bless You.
I cannot express in physical words the impact of this post on me personally this morning. In the way that only God can, this is confirmation of what is DANCING in my spirit for the Lord. How wonderful to find you and this post. I am Elizabeth and Janet, literally. I have these Elizabeths and Janets in my life also. And my imagination, which I have asked God to sanctify has been so prolific, it is almost a blurr. Bless you, dear sister in Christ for bringing so many into the light along with you. When you speak of Jesus ‘loving on us’, I feel His loving arms around me. Your encouragement sinks deep within my spirit, raising it even higher for the Lord. Amazing Post! Super Loved It!!! Thank You. Thank You. Thank you.
Hi Renee
Thank you for your post. Right now I am really searching for God’s will for my life.
I quit my long term job because I was no longer happy. But, I have no idea as to what I want to do. I don’t want just another job. I want to make a difference in someone’s life through my job. It is important for me to really enjoy what I am doing.
Your post encourages me to keep praying, seeking, trusting and be patient.
Thank you
Iris
Thank you Renee for your very thoughtful gesture. I am the one who should be sending a card to you! This study feels like it has been very long already, but I know that God is doing great things with my heart and spirit. You truely are blessed with teaching and you are blessing all of us in return. Thank you again, Britney
I had wanted to read this book for a while, put it down on the list to grab from the library or the bookstore. When this bible study came up, I thought – I’ll try this format out but I’ve never been able to get into online studies before. I’ve been so encouraged by it though! Your words in the book that you share, God always knows when I need to hear what and I’m walking through my own journey of insecurity and believing God’s plan and purpose for me and He’s showing me He has one and its been quite the journey for me to listen and claim it! But each chapater has come at just. the. right. time. Love that! It makes me know that the Holy Spirit is at work in my life and I’m more and more eager to dive in, to dig deeper and am thankful that you did the same and that it’s been something you could share with many women around the world.
Thank You Renee!
I bought your book last November after going through a rough job that really did a number on my already low self esteem; I quit my job and went home to visit family I hadn’t seen in 6 months; I took the book with me to read on the plane. Not being much of a reader, I didn’t read much while I was visiting my family and read some in the airport on the way back again. After I returned home, I didn’t pick it up much, though had great intentions. When I saw you were doing an online study of course I knew I HAD to pick it back up and read it. I am enjoying it very much and can relate to so many things in there. Thank you for sharing and blessing so many women who feel much the same!
This study has been such a great blessing to me. I have read some of the chapters to my daughter and she said, “How is she looking into my head and saying just what I think each day?” I have been encouraging her to study the book with me and it has really helped her as well as helped me. Thank you, Renee. God bless you.
It is a great blessing to bless others, in words of encouragement and praise. I thank God someone encouraged and believed in you so that you can encourage and bless me too. God bless you Renee
Thank you for spreading the words that the Lord has gifted to you. Eph. 3:20 is exactly what I needed to read for I am at a place in my life where I have all my Faith and Trust in the Lord for I do not know what to do next.
With your study I am gaining the Confidence to know that I can do it with Christ who strengthens me and blesses me with his power.
Thank you will never cover what you have provided me!!!
Dear Renee, I am so thankful that you wrote your book. It speaks to me so much. I was debating between doing this online study and another one, but I really felt that God was leading me to do yours. I have been so blessed reading each chapter. I am still meditating on the first few chapters because I don’t want to rush through this study. I really want to be transformed and truly have a confident heart. I have done many online studies, but I have always been a silent participant. I don’t usually make comments, but I just wanted to let you know that God is using you in mighty ways to touch so many hearts and lives. Thank you for sharing your story and experience with all of us.
I know that God loves everyone, but it’s hard to always believe that He loves ME personally. I think that if I really believed this, my life would look different. Jeremiah 1:5 has been such a comforting verse for me. Ever since I started memorizing it, I have used it in my prayers to help me remember that God truly KNOWS me and loves ME. I have also started to use this verse when I pray with my 7 year old daughter every night. I want her to truly know in her heart that God knew her even before she was born…even before I, her mom, knew her. I want her to know without a doubt that she was set apart by God and that He has a plan to prosper her, to give her hope and a future.
I did not grow up in a Christian home. I became a Christian during my first year in college, and I am so very thankful that God’s grace was upon me. I did not grow up in a violent or abusive home, but I still carry burdens that have weighed so heavily upon me. Even though I have become a Christian, it’s hard to be joyful as I watch my family struggle so much. They continue to live in darkness and it pains me to watch them go through life without God. Although I have prayed for them ever since I became a Christian, no one has become a believer. My father passed away 15 years ago, my brother has been living in and out of prison for almost 20 years now, and my recently divorced sister has become addicted to gambling and has been in and out of relationships since her divorce. I have not seen my brother for 10 years and my sister and I have not been close. I don’t feel like I ever got to fully grieve over my father’s death, and in many ways, I feel like I am having to grieve over the loss of a brother and sister too. Because they are not in my life, I feel like I have lost them too, even if they have not physically died. My 3 children know that I have a brother, but they have never seen him and they rarely see my sister. My widowed mother has had such heartache losing her husband and watching two of her kids live the way that they are living. I want so much for her to find comfort in God, but she has a hard time believing in God’s goodness because life has been so hard for her. Because I have this kind of family life, it is so hard to share these things with others. On the outside, people would not guess that I have a troubled family. My husband can’t really relate to anything that I have gone through because he grew up in a Christian home and his experience has been so opposite of mine. So, I have been carrying such a heavy burden and I just feel so alone carrying it.
In Chapter 5, you wrote that “our family of origin does not define our true identity. Once we become daughters of the King, we have a royal inheritance that determines who we are.” I cannot tell you how comforting those words were to read. I know that God has a purpose in all things and although I often ask why He gave me the family that I have, I know that I need to just trust that He has a reason. It’s not that once I become a Christian, I can just live my own life and forget about them, but it is freeing to remember that they don’t define me. I am first and foremost, a daughter of the King. I will continue to pray for my family, but I don’t need to let my family weigh me down. I feel like I have let my family be like a cloud that has always hovered over me. I don’t want to keep living like that.
Sorry to write so much! I just wanted to share the thoughts that have been on my heart. Please know that your book is bringing healing and comfort to many like me. May God BLESS you, Renee. I am not a big hugger because I did not grow up with affectionate parents, but if I saw you in person, I would want to give you a big hug. Thank you…
Lola it sounds to me like you ARE being “truly transformed and have a (more) confident heart” already! Praise God! I agree – I want to take this study even more slowly than I am too … want it to seep down deep in my bones … and not fade away like so many other times.
Be proud of the time you are spending with your children and the truths you are obviously sharing with them – already helping God infuse them with His nuggets of truth.
Keep loving your mom, being an example of Gods love before her… she’ll come around as she sees transformation in your heart…. and the woman (& friend) you’re being.
No need to be ashamed of the state of your family. As has been witnessed to in this blog of ‘sister style’ sharing, we ALL have life issues that could weigh us down (& DO weigh us down often). That part of living seems inevitable. Somehow though we have to continue down the road (short as is it actually is – time goes so fast!) and keep looking toward the Light, the Son for our daily sustenance. (Preaching to the choir here – yesterday wouldn’t have been as encouraging of words coming from me…. a “daily” task indeed!)
Thanks for bringing to mind Jeremiah 1:5 and other scripture this morning just reading your comments. I love that you’re building up your young daughter already with the word of God on a regular basis. That will be a treasure to her throughout her life…the Word, and the fact that YOU took that time with her. She will tell you so in about 15 years when she seems more like a “friend” than a daughter oftentimes. (My two are grown…. I’m in “that season”!). Keep on keeping on, as its said! You’re being a blessing right where you are and making great strides to positively change the growth of the “family tree.”
Dear Tammy,
Thank you so much for your kind, encouraging message. I pray that your heart and life will be transformed through this study. I am finding that memorizing the verses and remembering the key words have helped me to keep what I am learning fresh in my mind. Otherwise, it is so easy to forget all the great things that I feel like I am learning in each chapter. Thank you for taking the time to reach out to me. I appreciate it so much!
I am finally posting on last weeks study. I read each chapter twice. I came here and read what others have been sharing. I have been working on my time line (ouch). I have been praying the scripture prayers at the end of the chapters. I have been preaching the Gospel to myself, as encouraged in the book The Gospel Primer. I have gotten a better grasp on some things in my life and heart.
One is that my total distrust of my dad (justified) and my Pollyanna personality (God-given) have contributed to my keeping my distance from God, without animosity, but without a great deal of trust. What futility! But I realize that, while I have no actively hostile thoughts toward God, and I love my Savior and am thankful for His Father’s sacrifice, and I am aware of the activity and working of the Holy Spirit in my life, I have had a hard time trusting my Father in heaven. It mirrors my relationship to my earthly father: I have forgiven him for many things, and I am the only one of his 5 first children who will maintain a relationship with him, but I do not trust him, and rightfully so. I am so excited to really grasp that I have been superimposing my relationship with my dad on my God and on my husband so that now God and I can sort this thing out!
Second, what we tell ourselves really, really does form us. I have been “talking trash” to myself for far too long. The first 10 years of being a believer, I knew what a problem I had in this area, and really worked hard to talk to God, and speak His truth to myself. The past 10 years, I have slipped back into the habit of negative thinking, and I am ready to quit that. I really appreciate the message of the last couple chapters that we have a CHOICE to DO and SAY and THINK and LIVE what is good and true and pure and uplifting. Ours is not a passive faith, but an active one.
So, some truths that are really coming home to me are:
1) God saved me from a life of slavery to sin in July of 1989.
2) I have a God-sized void in my heart that is made only for God. If I try to fill it with other things, those things will be like a drop of water in the vast empty basin of the ocean ~ they will not even begin to wet it, much less fill it, and will be totally unsatisfying. But if I allow God to fill that vast ocean with His love, then the other things, like the love of my husband, the pleasure of blessing my family and friends, will simply make my “ocean” overflow. Until God has filled that void with His own love, the other things, as good as they are, will never satisfy, and will in fact disappoint.
3) While my salvation was secure the day I trusted Christ as my Savior, my living in the victory of God’s gift of salvation is a daily, moment by moment thing. I need to remind myself of God’s truth at all times.
4) Mine must be an active faith, not a passive one. I must CHOOSE: to think God’s thoughts; to read God’s Word; to walk like I believe it, which I do, until my feelings conform to His truth about me; to pray at all times; to be thankful in all things for the salvation He has given me and the hope I have for my future; to trust Him to replace the ashes of my past with the beauty of Himself.
Thank you, Renee, for the real encouragement that this study is, and the safe place to share with others who are walking this with me. May God richly bless you and your efforts!
Thank you Renee for the card, it’s beautiful, I love it. your study has made such a difference in my life, On my journey I know that I still have healing to do from my past, but we have “forever” to look forward too, this is just temporary; God is good and in control. I’m so grateful to our Saviour that your “Thank You note” and Janet’s prayers brought you here to all of us today. God Bless You and Thank you and Bless you Janet….
What a wonderful way to honor the women in our lives who have made an impact. I have been receiving the Proverbs 31 devotionals for a few years and I look forward to them and am encouraged by them every day. I love having the opportunity to share them with the precious women in my life. They don’t need anything material and I feel as if I could never express adequately what they mean to me. Thank you for this:)
This study has been a blessing. I have had the pleasure of being able to do it with
another sister in Christ. This has allowed me to see not only the good parts ,but to really
look at the worts that have attached themselves along the way. My prayer is that we all
have the courage and grace as we do the study, To be honest with ones self and to know
GOD loves us! and would never give up on us …My pray is that we can do the same.
Go Team Christ!!!
Love,Jodi
Thank you Renee and all of those women who listened to God and encouraged you! Amid my thoughts of wanting to give up and leave come your cards of encouragement. My only daughter went away to a college 8 hours away because she fell in love with a boy. Now he has broken up with her and her heart is broken and so is mine. I have been able to share many things from this study with her about how our confidence comes from God not from people.
Renee,
Thank you for the card. God knows when we need to be uplifted and this was one of those days!
My struggle seems to continue with attracking disrespect from others. I’m not sure why this is a continuing problem but I am sure God is trying to teach me something from this experience. Yesterday I saw a beautifl angel in the store and I bought it because it looked like me. I am going to put it in my garden and pray for myself, for healing from the dynamics of these type of relationships. I never pray for myself but if God loves me just as I am, then I need to love myself as well. I loved your book Renee and am reading it for the second time! I may need to do a third reading as well!
May God continue to bless you and your ministry. I have been encouraged by your bible study and I look forward each morning to read the daily messages. I ask that you pray for me as I pray for you and that God get’s the glory in all that we say and do in his name.
Thank you, Renee!! What a blessing you are! I am thankful for your ministry and for you!
Thank you, for being faithful and reaching out in this way to other sisters in the Lord. I have been struggling for five years after burning out from being in a prayer ministry that I allowed to take all of my strength and energy. Now, I am struggling to find once again, who I am in Christ. It’s been a roller coaster and I have so much to be thankful for, but I keep sinking into depression, doubting myself and not being confident in whose I am! I had purchased this book last year and never read it, and now I’m so thankful that I can walk through it with you and all my sisters in Christ that are on here!! Blessings to you!!
Renee,
Thank you so much for your obedience to God, thru you he has used this bible study to heal my heart and take me to a deeper understanding of his will for me. I have known for quite sometime that God had a plan for my life and little by little he has revealed that to me, a Women’s Ministry ( for Abuse, Drugs, Trafficked and their Children) has been stirring in my spirit, but like you I thought how can God use me ! I am a Hairdresser not a Speaker. The Lord always has a plan we just have to be willing to hear and obey, Proverbs 3:5 Lean not on your own understanding , but acknowledge him in all your ways and he will direct your path. Moving myself out of the way has been my hang up and because of this bible study he has showed me his way, 2 weeks ago our Pastor was preaching on “Everyone has a Calling, you just have to be willing to obey” little did I know that the Lord had spoke to several Women in my church about the same Women’s Ministry, another lady and myself have a meeting with our Pastor and I KNOW that God has given him the vision to!! I want to say Thank You again for this Study and I am Praying that the Women involved in this foundation building of this Ministry will be open to doing this Study as a group. Free Women Free Women!!!
Renee. Thank you for saying YES (against the barriers of fear and doubt) to using your talents to serve the hearts of women. Your study has been a fundamental step in helping me recover from crippling fear and self doubt . I thank the Lord for your lovely and obedient heart and for the many blessings that flow through you to me and the others in the group.
As an aside…God keeps putting the Luke 1:45 verse in front of me…and, through you, here it is again! So thankful for you and our loving Lord.
Renee, all I can manage to say is thank you! From the bottom of my heart, you have made such a difference! I think you wrote this book just for me 🙂 God always is at work. I was able to get the last book on the shelf, and I think that was no accident. God is using you to do an amazing work in the hearts of his children!
I have truly enjoyed reading your book and going through this…I will be honest and say that I highly doubted (ohhh no there’s that “word”) that you would read all of our blogs thinking you couldn’t possibly read all of these or maybe even truly care about someone you don’t even know. See I have dealt with this for so many years that I am never good enough(I to have issues from my past that still haunt me) or that God couldn’t possible care about my petty little issues when there are so many “BIG” problems out there. I have failed and I have fallen down more times. But I do manage to get back up and keep going because of what God has done for me. But I want to have that confidence, I want to be free from my guilt and shame of my past…Thank you for what you are doing and the blessing you have been. God bless.!!!
ditto. echo. right there with ya! thank you!
Renee, thank you for turning from any shadow of doubt you have had about writing for women, and using a gift God has truly blessed you with. A few months ago when I read your devotion that had the invitation to your study I knew it was an invitation from God because I need this so much! Thank you for following God’s plan for you so that you may teach us where to find God’s promises in the Bible and how to use use God’s Word on a daily basis (sometimes hourly or even minute) to fight of satan from the control he can gain on our minds. This study is really helping me and allowing me to draw even closer to God. Thank you!
Renee.
I love this study, I have highly recommended this book and study to so many women and even one man that I know. I think this book allows you to go deep in your heart and discover stuff you didn’t even know was there. Wow I am kind of in the mist of it. Not sure where it is all taking me but I am kind of getting thoughts from all over the place in my heart and bringing it to Jesus who is the center. I haven’t really felt a healing yet, because I feel like the Holy Spirit is still uncovering stuff. I grew up in a religion that did not teach me about Holy Spirit. And I feel like I have a new found friend, I know that sounds weird but this book has opened me up to a new relationship with the Holy Spirit and I feel a stirring of excitement in my spirit I can’t really explain. And I am not really sure where it is going. So I would like to thank you for being obedient to God . Stay tuned right 🙂 . Renee my prayer for you is that you even go deeper with The Lord as you lead many women to be totally free in Jesus…
I think uncovering is part of the healing process and it’s amazing to see God do this wonderful thing in your heart. Your are excited because the Spirit now lives within you and is giving you guidance and encouragement at every turn. I’m so excited for you and may He continue to bless you abundantly through this study!
Hello Renee, I just want to thank you for this online Bible Study. When I started on this journey with you, I was also starting a new journey in my whole Church life. This study has gone hand in hand with what I am learning at Church. Yesterday our Pastor talked about hoe words have an impact on our lives, we can either by built up, or broken down. I also read this last night in chapter 6. I must say that reading encouraging words from you, about your journey, has really been building me up. I am very grateful to the Lord for leading me to this Bible study, and to my new Church. I feel like my love for the Lord has been reignited. Much of this is because of the encouraging words here, and the confirmation of thes words at my Church. I love how the Lord makes everything come together so simply. So easy to understand. I am coming out of the shadow, the Lord is shining His light brightly, so that I can follow. I want the fullness of God, and I want to be a light for others. Thank you Renee, for sharing your legacy with us. God Bless YOU!!!
Morning Renee
Thank you for following your heart and finding the confidence to do what your doing…it has and will impact women for eternity….I have copied and cut out each trinket you have placed in this study and placed in my journal of my confident heart that is flourishing and spreading to others as I share what God is doing in me through you…
Blessings to you !
Patty
God bless you. God is using you in great ways. God gave me a message for a friend that He had delivered to my heart. This message largely came from your book. She said it was an answer to some things she had been Praying about for 2 months. Wow! Draw close to Him He draws close to you.He has been ignited a fire in my heart during this study and another study. Vision greater than me and prophesies over me about a year ago. This is the time to begin, he softly whispers, a new season, for such a. time as this!! Wow#This is God!!!
Thank you Renee for what you do for us women . I n a busy and crazy world like ours, most of us claim that we have no time to pray and study the bible, you a real busy woman, spare quality time with thousanda of us on a daily bases..May God continue to use you.
I too sruggled with who I am and what God wants from me.He Put a wonderful lady in my life who encouraged me and taught me that I am a princess in God’s eyes. She continueously reminded me that I am the daughter of the King of Kings and there is nothing He will not do for me. (n I grew in an orphanage all my childhood). Now I live like a princess and there is nothing I will not do for my heavenly king and FATTHER. i still have my little moments of low self esteem but in those moments I reakise I am not walking alone.He is right there beside me.
Thank you again for ministering to all of us
Kim
Renee, Renee, Renee, Thank You, Thank You, Thank You.
God bless you and your family. When we started I said it was going to be a phenomenal life transforming experience for us all. I wasn’t wrong. The last few weeks have been wonderful, going through the study and reading through your book has so much imparted my life. Thank You so much and God bless you real good.
Thank you very much Renee! God has truly sent persons my way to encourage me. I think of my current situation, desiring to go back to school yet am so scared of the GRE. If I can get over this hurdle, I’ll be accepted. Yet I’m so overwhelmed everytime I pick up the book to prepare for it. My friends encourage me, yet fear seem to reduce me to being frustrated and giving up, everytime.
Your card of me being a blessing is an awesome thing and because so many persons have blessed my life and says I’ve blessed their’s its hard to pin point one person or even 5 that I can send this card to without feeling I’m skipping someone who’s blessed me greatly. I’ll get a few and prayerfully God will show me whom is most in need of a little reassurance in their walk with Him or even a standardized test like myself.
May the Lord continue to keep your heart, keep your mind and keep you soul. May His peace, presence and promises resound in your heart and expressed fully in your deeds, continue to bless women like me all around the world. Thank you for being a blessing to me.