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!!
For More Ways to Live Worry-free
Receive daily promises and more encouragement by joining
my Confident Heart Facebook community.
Receive my posts (like today’s) in your inbox!
Just sign up in my sidebar where it says: Receive Email Updates.
Discover more from Renee Swope
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Talk about a nail on a head. We just got back from an amazing vacation in the mountains last night. The whole flight home I was worried about stepping back into my busy, hectic life. My husband always talks to me about cutting my list and he’s right that I need to do so. So starting today I will whittle it. Even so, I am reminded that worry is part of my problem and can keep me from being productive. Today I woke up and read this devotional and it will surely remind me how to start my day and set the tone. Thank you!
I am facing a really big change in my life and that your words were exactly what I needed to hear. Thank you so much for your inspiration and encouragement!
Renee! Today’s devotion confirmed the very things ( down to the specific scriptures) that God has been trying to get through to me! Thank you! The past two months, I felt exactly as you described in the devotional: dreaded my responsibilities, entitled to a sabbatical, and worried constantly! This message really put things in perspective for me. Instead of assuming I’d taken on too much, I can Stop worrying so much, and take my concerns to God in prayer. I’ll admit, my reading and prayer time had taken a dive at the same time I started feeling the stress rise and tension in my neck. Thanks again for sharing this. I’m on vacation now, Thank God, but this is a lesson I need to remember regardless of what my actual schedule looks like. God Bless!
I just found your blog and I am so thankful I did. I worry ALL the time. I worry that I worry too much. It definitely weighs me down and sucks the life out of me some days. Thank you for helping me feel like I’m not “crazy” or alone.
The enemy of our soul wants rob us, above all, of our faith. Your message points out that by hanging on to our worry we are playing into the palm of his hands and not HIS hands. He wants to keep our thoughts and emotions churned up and in a tizzy. I love how you pointed out how that stupid devil tempts us to tell God what He should do then take control when we think He isn’t listening. That does steadily errode our confidence in the Him and we don’t even realize it! I’ll be sharing with many this morning! Thank you for your loving heart!
Thank you Renee for an inspiring devotion from God! I myself struggle with letting go of life’s cares & concerns, when I should “Just Let Go & Let God” take full control because he knows just what to do, I don’t! He knows how to give us that siren peace that surpasses all understanding! Thank God for loving us so that he lovingly invites us to cast all our cares & concerns on him, because he “Constantly Watches” over EVERYTHING which concerns us. Thank God for being so great & awesome to us! His love is so deep & marvelous for us! Blessings on each of your days!
Renee: Thanks again for your insights and wisdom. Worry has always been a big part of my life and something I must give back to God constantly. Your idea about the index card and physically placing it at the cross is excellent. I think a physical reminder like that will really help with learning to leave things at the cross. Blessings to you and yours.
Thanks for sharing, such a good reminder to rest in God rather than worry. I shared it with a friend this am who is so concerned about issues with her family and she really appreciated it. I again will commit my worry and concerns to the Lord.We have a son in Afghanistan and another making decisions about his work and will totally commit them to the Lord.
Thanks for the reminder
I like the very first sentence! “Rehearsing your troubles results in experiencing them many times, whereas you are meant to go through them only when they actually occur.” I have the tendency to play things over and over and over in my mind. This chapter has helped me to use a different approach. Whenever satan tries to make me worry or play the incident over and over, I start to quote scripture. Sure enough satan and his lies go away and God’s peace comes into my heart and mind. I’ve resolved myself to memorize even more scripture so that I’m ready to fight satan with my sword (the word of God). Thanks Renee for this study it is truly changing me.
Thanks for the reminder to go to God with my anxiety. His yoke is easy and burden is light!
Renee,
Thank you so much for your devotion. I find myself consumed with worry. I worry about things that haven’t even happened yet. I worry about my 15 year old son and the choices he makes and how those choices could create a positive or sometimes negative impact on his future. It seems my days are spent earnestly searching on how to make my days better. I have tried to lay my worries at the foot of the cross but as always I tend to take them back when I don’t see results. I know results are in God’s timing. I know God’s ways are the best. Just as the heavens are higher than the earth, God’s ways are higher than mine. I am just impatient. So, I pray today that I will no longer feel weary but will find rest in my Savior. I pray that I can cast all my cares upon the Lord because he cares for me.
A great video and reminder of the cost of keeping my worries instead of giving them to Jesus. I love love LOVE your table top cross idea!!! We have one on our piano. I cud keep some paper and pencil by it and anyone in our family could “give” a worry to Jesus. Thanks so much!
Renee,
Once again, God’s timing is perfect. Your words “I’m so busy serving God that I’m not spending time seeking Him,” spoke to my right to the core of my heart.
Your gift of encouragement is awesome! I follow your blog through email and on Facebook and I admire how often the Lord uses you to speak just the right scripture to me that day.
Thank you for being obedient to His call on your life. You are a blessing to many.
I have to sometimes let go and let God. It is ery difficult when I think of all the things coming my way and I think that I need to take charge and keep things moving. I have had to learn that I need to have FAITH. I need to TRUST that God can and will handle anything that comes my way and He is always in control. Just like it says in Jeremiah 29:11.
I was just reading your Proverbs 31 message today. I makes me feel good know that i’m not the only one that worries. Thank you for the message i printed it out to keep and read over again when I need too. I love the pray that you always put doen for all of us to ready and say to are selfs.
I also read your Sometimes worry makes me wonder and it was right what I needed at the time.
Thanks again for all you do.
Anna
Once again both the devotion and video are on time words I needed to hear. One thing that I took away is that I need to pray more and thank God more. I like the idea of concern card and I will probably need to do that as well. I have been taking take my time reading the chapters and really try my best to make some changes in my life. The things are worry about are just things that I can’t control and I need to let God handle them. I’m so glad I decided to get the book and do this study. Very encouraging. Just pray for me.
Thank you for today’s devotion. It was exactly what I needed to hear. We are trying to sell our house and move to a different town. It has not gone as quickly as I would like! I catch myself giving in to the devil’s words of worry, starting to doubt decisions that I felt were from the Lord. I am going to use your 3 tips to stop the worry in it’s tracks! Thanks again!
Thank you for this devotion! I often need the reminder to push the “pause” button, give my worries to God and pray more, while thanking Him for everything. I really like the tangible idea of writing persistent worries down and giving them to Jesus and will definitely use this.
I receive “encouragement for today” as my daily devotional. I can’t begin to describe to you how long I have been seeking an answer from God as to how I should “handle” all this chaos in my mind. My mind is a whirlwind of despair, condemning thoughts, loud voices shouting, people pulling me in all directions and God was getting more quiet by the moment. I seriously thought He had left me because I wasn’t being a God christian. Even though His word promises that He would “never leave me nor forsake me”, I still bought into the lies of the enemy.
I was going crazy. In May I had convinced myself that depression and despair would be the way of my life. That I would forever be saddled with this “mind chaos” because the problem was internally me. I couldn’t be fixed. Also, having a non believing husband, I have nobody to encourage me in the Lord.
Needless to say, this devotion and video was exactly what I was seeking. HONESTLY, I do not usually listen to the videos and often dismiss what is said because that is for “other” people. For “better” christians than myself. Daily I have to remind myself that “if God is for me, who can be against me”? And that “He delights in me” and that He desires relationship with me.
Thank you for helping me to get back to the “heart of worship” starting with prayer and praise. That the answer is really that simple.
I hate that I worry but I’m trying to trust God more and more on a daily basis as I continue to grow in my faith.
Blessings!