I have a P31 devotion today and want to say hello and “welcome” if you found your way here through it! I’m so glad you stopped by!
I wish we could sit in a coffee shop and chat today.
I’d love to talk with you about things that are weighing you down or worries that are making you weary. They always seem to lighten when shared with a friend.
I’d tell you about the year I let my problems pile up and how all that pressure almost took me down. It’s all in chapter 9 of my book including the story about how I accidentally took my dogs medicine one morning.
In my devotion, I shared how God has been changing me and rearranging me. I also promised to share three steps to overcome worry and a practical way to physically give God your concerns! Since we can’t chat in a coffee shop today, I decided to share my heart in a short video post.
Message Notes: You can download my “Video Message Notes” in a PDF here or in a Word doc here. They include the points of my message, verses and blanks to fill in. {If you’d like to watch more FREE Confident Heart videos based on my book, click here.}
Let’s Connect & A Giveaway: I’d love to hear your thoughts and one thing you want to apply after reading today’s devotion and hearing the video message. Click “share your thoughts” right below this post and do just that. 🙂
Your comment enters you in today’s “Come to Me” stress-relief gift pack giveaway which ncludes a Bath & Body Works Eucalyptus Mint candle, God-iva Dark Chocolate and an Chamomile Lavender scented Anti-Stress Comfort Wrap that can be refrigerated or microwaved depending on your preference – my favorite home spa treatment!!
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I was looking for a good devotional and came across this website. I really needed to hear this! Thank you for your words!
After listening to the devotional today, I know the Lord is talking to me. Over the last 2 weeks, worry has taken away my spirit, my hope, not to mention feeling totally drained even after 8 hours of sleep. Your idea of index cards and writing down your worry is a wonderful way to share your worries with the Lord, especially when you do not want to share with other in hope that you will not bring them down too. But for me I think I will make mine a Worry/Blessing Journal.. this way I can write down my worries, continuing each day if I need to, but also I can include scripture along with the blessing in which I need to say thank you for. This way I can be very specific with my Lord, because it will be between us even though He already know all and especially my heart. I thank you Renee for the idea, your dedication to help others grow in their relationship with the Lord. And I will to install in my daily life PPT: Press Pause – to stop worrying, P- to pray, and T to thank the Lord for all the blessing I have….. I pray that each one of us is becoming closer to the Lord with our own relationship, that we have and will be given the opportunity to witness to others and share His love and forgiveness. God Bless
Hi Renee,
Reading your devotion today, I felt as if you were talking to me. I saw you at a Women’s Conference in Iowa a few years back and felt I could relate to many of the things you discussed. I too constantly have many thoughts fluttering about it my head and a hard time slowing them down! I’ve always been a worrier and have now had a child who suffers from a severe CHD (Congenital Heart Defect), so this problem hasn’t gotten any easier. Worry is something I’d like to rid myself of. Thanks for sharing this.
What perfect timing…so like our caring Father. I’m living in India and just returned from a small, quiet town on a hill, where I was in language school. It was peaceful, beautiful and COOL. Now I’m back in my desert city, faced with the noise, dust heat and sewing women I’m working with. On top of that, after being gone for 5 weeks, there is so much to do that needs to be caught up on…cleaning, shopping for food and household items (there’s no one stop shopping here, so this in itself can take days), people to reconnect with. Yesterday I was feeling overwhelmed and I shared this with a few ladies I pray with. In the evening a mentor asked how my quiet time had been. What? Why that question? I had to admit that I hadn’t had any quiet time for a few days. Leaving me very convicted. And this is what was waiting for me this morning. Thank you. My roommate and I are working through your Confident Woman book, it’s touching me in unexpected areas. Thanks for your ministry.
This is my greatest area of weakness. Thanks for the resources!
You have hit the nail on the head! I tend to let Galatians 6:9 beat me up instead of listening to the Lord tell me to slow the pace and dwell with Him in the moments. I hear, “Don’t get tired, must keep going…” like the Energizer Bunny beating in my head instead of hearing the Lord’s calm voice saying, “Don’t try to do it all at once; spend some time with me along the way; My grace is sufficient for you.”
I am going to try your suggestion of making a list and giving it all to the Lord. I am a list maker – not so much on the checking off, but I am working on this.
Thank you so much for your words of encouragement especially through the video part of your blog. It was nice to have the transcript to keep with me as a reminder of the verses, too.
Thanks,
Arlene
I so loved today’s devotional & chapter 9… I giggled when you mentioned you took your dog’s seizure medication instead of your allergy medication-oh my, The most I’ve done was take my medicine-but wonder later if I did or not? Thank you so much for sharing such deep and personal actual events they touch me to the core-and that’s a God thing! 🙂 I need to repeat this to myself stop worrying, start praying, and keep Thanking. I wanted to share this with you- I subscribe to “Our Daily Bread” RBC ministries- and my Saturday Devotions just meshed with what you have been teaching & helping us with:
WONDERFULLY MADE
I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Psalm 13:14
When I was a child someone close to me thought they could motivate me to do better by frequently asking, “Why are you so stupid”? I didn’t know how much this had affected me until I was a teenager and heard someone behind me say, “Stupid!” Ath the word, I quickly turned around, thinking he was talking to me. Knowing Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord helped me to realize that because God created me in His image(Gen.1:27) I’m not stupid but am “fearfully and wonderfully made” (Ps.139:14) God declares that all He has made is “very good” (Gen.1:31) and the Psalms remind us that we are “skillfully wrought” (Ps.139:15) The psalmist David describes how God knows each one of us intimately: “O Lord, You have searched me and known me. You know my sitting down and my rising up; You understand my thought afar off. You comprehend my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways” (vv1-3) Not only are we wonderfully made, but because of Christ’s death on the cross, we can also be wonderfully restored to a right relationship with God. “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation…All this is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ” (2Cor.5:17-18 NIV)
I just thought this went hand in hand with what I am learning from “A Confident Heart” It’s such a positive feeling-being surrounded by His love, in everything I do, see, and hear… I feel like a sponge-thirsty for more!
Aloha from Hawaii xoxoxoxo
P.S. I used to be a BIG TIME WORRY WART- I worried for everyone – I carried the world on my shoulders- besides trying to keep the perfect spotless house waiting for guests to come eat off my floors that’s how clean my house was…I’m not saying it’s not clean today- it’s more lived in- You see God helped me- I am a survivor of stage III Invasive Ductal Carcinoma- Breast Cancer- I never looked at this cancer as evil, but a blessing.. I learned to STOP worrying and start LIVING! I do things in His time not mine- those little dust bunnies can wait until tomorrow if need be- and I don’t rush no more either-I get there when I get there (doesn’t mean I’m always late- I just have a better grip on time management) and reading this book “A Confident Heart” and being able to share with all these lovely women from all over, helps me tremendously- Thank you God for showing me the way. Amen!
I spent most of the day in bed, worrying about my son and other things. I needed this so badly today!!! Jesus knows just what we need and in perfect timing!! 🙂
Yes I know God is in control of my life ,no job in hand, living in a foreign country at the mercy of the sponsor ,a broken family relationship ,no husband and children ,left at the mercy of the Almighty ,still at peace, because i know my creator is busy working for me ,so i spent my time prayering for others ,while My lord is working for me .
Praise the Almighty
Your devotion was exactly what I needed today. I need to give my worries and concerns to God every day–even multiple times throughout the day. I am a big worrier and get very easily stressed. I have been dealing with this lately and I needed the eye opening reminder to give it to Him and lean on Him for every situation.
Wow! “Too many good things but not the things God has for me”–this is such a great thing to keep in mind. Also, “serving God more than seeking Him”–that’s the second time today that I have “stumbled” across this idea. I think He is trying to get my attention:) Thank you!
Thank you for these simple, practical & helpful tips! Love the cross by the bedside idea with notecards. I sometimes get so overwhelmed that I feel almost paralyzed. Looking forward to trying these ideas!
Today’s devotions has given me encouragement I really needed. Burdens have me weighed down. Family problems and health. I needed to hear the words you gave today in the devotion. Thank you and God bless
After reading your devotional today, I can totally relate. I dont have a full time job but yet my day is so filled with deadlines, appointments, getting the kids to the games on time, practices, swimming lessons, grocery shopping, paying bills, taking care of everything and being responsible for everything!..overwhelming..I do have a quiet prayer place I go to talk with God. It has been very difficult this year though, as I loss my super best loyal canine friend, Wishbone. I couldnt speak high enough of him. God knows how much joy Wishbone brought to me and he died on March 17th this year. He used to go to “our special prayer place down back” all the time and this year it’s been hard for me to go to our special place knowing he’s not physically there, but I need to still make that time for me and God. I must tell myself I need time alone with God, as I did before. I try to tell myself Wishbone is still with me spiritually and wouldnt want me to stop going to our special place, neither would our almighty God who knows my busy hectic schedule and the love and joy Wishbone had brought to me
Worry doesn’t necessarily make me weary, but stress sure does! I could really use the give-away.
Thanks so much for reminding me to hang out in His presence and let Him be my refuge.
He totally “gets” us and we need not avoid taking in a healthy dose of Vitamin C-hrist!
Be Blessed – Sending Prayers your way from Alaska…A.E.
Really needed this right now. Thanks!
I used to say that my mom was such a worrier that if there was not really anything about which to worry, she would invent something. I have since learned that all my worries are of my invention because I never learned to take them to Jesus. I like the idea of writing them down on a card and offering them to Jesus, but I would also add tearing them into pieces before putting them into the Jesus basket to give me a visual of destroying and giving up the worry completely [until it hits me the next time ;-)].
Thank you for the scripture references that guide me. With God’s love, care, guidance I can learn to cast my cares to Him. Worry isn’t going to solve anything.
God is so good, He will take my burdens and give me rest
I can so relate just like so many women out there about trying to do so much and worrying about not getting things done. I love the story about mary and martha because so many times I am martha and am slowly learning to be mary! Thank you for being so obedient to God’s calling on your life so you may bless other women!