Oh how I am LOVING reading so much about each of you. Gosh I wish we could all meet!! What an amazing group of women of all ages and from all places God has gathered here in HIS name! Makes me just about burst with joy! And now, I’m so glad today is here. Some days my written words come easily. Other days I just have to show and tell you what’s on my heart. Today is one of those days.
{If you are reading this via email, click here. You can only see the video on my blog, not in an email.}
Please {like pretty please even if you don’t normally watch video posts} click the arrow to “hear” today’s message from my heart to yours. I don’t want another day to go by without you knowing this…
{Are you a note-taker? If so, I created “Video Message Notes” in a PDF and in MSWord just for you. Even included blanks to fill in. 🙂
Let’s Connect {and how to enter today’s drawing}:
I’d love to hear your thoughts about today’s message… and this is an easy way to enter today’s giveaway too. Just click “share your thoughts” right below this post and do just that – share your thoughts. {I love to read them! And pray over you when I do.} I’ll be there reading and sharing my heart with you too.
For More Daily Encouragement join my Confident Heart Facebook page.
Receive My Posts in Your Inbox
If you aren’t already a subscriber, sign up in my right sidebar where it says “Receive Email Updates” — and you won’t miss a thing! I’ve got more giveaways, short video messages and lots of encouraging posts I’m working on for the coming weeks.
Discover more from Renee Swope
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Thank you so, so much for this study and all that you have shared. I have not had the chance to write before now but did want to say that many of us are visual learners so this video message was an especially helpful
reminder that we need to give Jesus the first place in our hearts and we then will be truly filled!
Bless you, Renee 🙂
I want to say thank you for this video. I was able to share it with my nieces and one said she was amazed how I knew just what she needed. You are a blessing.
Video was great. Not sure I can go through this on line Bible study right now. Just lost my mother unexpectly and I have never felt such raw, painful emotion. Just getting out of bed and dragging myself to school to teach each day has been all that I can do. Mom was a christian, so I know I will see her one day. I just wasn’t ready for her to go so soon. I talked to her every day and miss that so much. Please pray for me. Thanks.
Kathy
I am so sorry for the loss of your mother. I cannot imagine the pain you are going through right now. Please know that I will pray for you.
Thank you so much for your prayers. I feel so lost right now. Having trouble just getting through the day. I teach school (first graders) and I really need to be energized to meet their needs. I can’t wait for the weekend. It has been a hard week back for me. I know in time it will get better but right now the emotions are so raw. My family spoke with her several times a day and spent time taking her to appointments, errands, etc. I just want to speak to her again and I know that one day we will be together for eternity. That brings me peace.
Thanks again for your thoughts and prayers. Be sure to give your momma a call or hug because you never know when it is their time to leave us.
Kathy, I recently lost my mom and can truly understand how u maybe feeling. I want to encourage you to trust God. He will help you as you walk this journey. I will keep you in prayer and if He kept me and comforted me doing my loss, I know He will do the same for you. May He give you peace that surpasses all understanding. Be blessed. Rest in Psalm 23.
Thanks so much. We read Psalm 23 at her service. It was one of her favorites. I read it each day sometimes more than once. I am sorry for your loss. I know I went get through this. It was just such a shock for my family.
Kathy,
Praying for God’s supernatural peace and comfort!
Thanks so much. I appreciate it more than you will ever know. God Bless!
Kathy
I seek God everyday to fill my void… But it comes back in the evening and I cry myself to sleep most nites..my separation from my husband… Which I want to reconcile… Weights on my heart.. I know God loves me and I have grace and salvation but I still feel unvalued ……??
Being able to visually see objects in our life that get in the way be placed in the jar and taken out to be filled with God’s holy water makes it must be realistic. It made me really realize that I need to work on slowly taken things off of the important list in my life so God has more room in it.
I’m so thankful for this study. I have to slow myself – because I keep wanting to just read-ahead! I keep asking myself “what’s God showing me through all of this?” I’ve had the opportunity to share God’s love so much over the past week through this study! I work in an orthodontic office, and we lost our boss and his wife to a tragic plane accident in September. As our patients come in, they want to “comfort” us still and make sure that we’re all ok. I’ve had the opportunity of sharing this book with so many of the moms and telling them, that God has been filling me in a new way for the past week, and that because of Him, I’m ok.
Even though I had a HORRIBLE DAY yesterday, and Satan tried to make today the same, I’m not going to stop spreading hope!! I will continue to fill myself with TRUTH as he tries to sew lies into my heart and mind. I’m taking captive thoughts – and proclaiming truth!
My husband’s employer told him today that they’re closing a part of the company – MY initial thought was to panic. But then I thought, God, I never missed a day of work when my boss passed away, because YOU are my provider!! So I know He’s got this too!!
Like I said – yesterday was HORRIBLE, When I woke today, Satan tried to convince me today would be the same – not even a minute later I got a text from my Pastor’s wife that simply said “I love you, and I’m rootin’ for you!” God’s way of affirming He’s got this! He’s always had this, so I don’t have to have it, I just have to have Him!! God is just TOO good!
Thank you for your obedience Renee!
I have searched my whole life for approval and identification of who I am and my purpose.
All the while I was putting on a happy face and “thought” I was following Jesus and in His will, I was searching in the wrong places. I was compromising who God said I was for affirmation and finding my significance and identity in what others thought/perceived me to be. I was trying to be everything to everyone to please them at the cost of not living by my Christian values and hurting others in the process. I’m learning that the Christian faith IS intentional living. It is not merely reading your book but daily applying the truths you describe of God in my life. It is a daily struggle as I deal with depression, a stressful job, kids in college and home situations. There are so many parallels in my life with your story that I feel I’m re-living my life. I pray that I will allow God to fill me up and I will remove all the obstacles in my way to let Him fill me. I loved your analogy of the items that we try to fill us and yet there is void, but when God fills us, there is no room for more. One example of this for me was on Easter Sunday. I went to church and came home to an empty house. My husband was at work and my children at college. I was lonely and tearful so I began singing praise songs and God turned my sorrow to joy and filled my heart.
Thanks for inviting me to be part of your study. I’m certainly blessed thus far!!
This video is so simple yet so powerful. I am guilty of the exact same thing. I am trying to open my heart to God and let him fill me and fulfill me. It’s so easy to type the words but not an easy task. I am so glad that I found this bible study. Doubt and insecurity have plagued me all my life. I have wanted to continue my education but the threat of failure has kept me trapped. I am now looking into going back to school and pray to God daily. With Him by my side I can do anything I set my mind too.
Loved the video! The visual illustration of how we try so hard to let “things” fill our empty hearts was powerful. I was really struck by the fact that the term “unfailing love” is never attributed to a person but is only attributed to God. And how I love that description of His love – unfailing. His love will never fail us and will never fail to fill us if only we ask. Wow!
I have been struggling these last two years living in a different state that is so beautiful yet SO lonely. I have yet to find anyplace I feel at home or fit in. I long to be back home so desperately and have tried everything from praying, crying, begging, anything you can think of. I miss my church back home, I miss family, and FRIENDS! I have prayed for friends here and the ones I thought would be friends are only interested in selling me their product as long as I listen or buy they will call. I nor my husband never dreamed it would be such a culture shock like it has been. I have primarily only positive things on facebook now and read and listen to positive messages and some days it just isnt enough. I have never been in so much doubt before not knowing what God is wanting from me or what I should be doing. Thank you for your devotion to share your love and word I appreciate it very much. God Bless you!
Hugs Tonya! Praying for you.
I am such a visual learner…always have been. This was big for me. I have to admit that I still have to get my book, but I knew I wanted to join this study because of your first video introducing this book. I know I need to stop doubting and be confident in God’s love when times are hard. And right now things are hard in my house. What a great illustration showing that no matter what is going on around me that I need to fill my heart w/God’s whisperings of his love and his promises instead of satan’s whisperings of worry and doubt.
Thank you!!
Thank you Renee for sharing this with us. I have been that woman who has held out the jar for others to fill. Go has been working in my life teaching me total dependance on Him is what will fill me, not others, my job or my ministries.
Renee,
Thank you for this study and for today’s video. I’ve struggled my entire life filling my calendar, desiring to be involved in anything and everything I could. As long as I was doing that, everyone would think I had it together or so I thought. I have so much to be thankful for yet at times feel so empty and begin questioning my purpose. Raised by an abusive father, I never felt good enough no matter what I did. I carried that into my relationships with men just seeking someone to love me… To be proud of me. This type of behavior has followed me in many aspects of my life..marriage, parenting, work, accomplishments… Many things. Today reading through your study I could so relate to the “I’m fine” mentality. Thank you for the video and for reminding us today that it is only Jesus who can fill the deep wells of our hearts. I watched as you put all of those things in the jar. God showed me that with all those things as wonderful as they may be there are still so many gaps after we fill our jar. His love (living water) completely covers us and fills those gaps. Thank you so much for such a wonderful visual! Thank you for sharing your heart and your story with so many of us!
I too have spent much of my life, certainly my adult life, seeking something or someone to fill my needs (my husband, my children, my friends). The only time I feel at peace is when I’m right with God. And that is when I seek him daily, spending time reading my Bible, just opening up my heart and talking to and listening to Him. My struggle is, however, not having the discipline, or maybe it’s just desire, to do this on an ongoing, continual basis! I am SO hot and cold in my relationship with my Lord. I have lately begun praying for Him to place a desire in my heart to seek Him, not out of obligation or guilt, but a true desire because I WANT to be with Him, because I LOOK FORWARD to my time with Him. Life can be so hard. It is through an entirely new perspective that I view life, when I view it with Jesus at my side. I only wish I could learn to stop pushing Him aside!!!
Thanks so much for this visual, encouraging lesson Renee! Your book and study are helping me chip away at that wall that I’ve placed around my heart!
Thank you for this video. Thank you for showing me what my jar should look like. This really spoke to me and where I am at right now. Thank you so much !!
This message is very timely for me…..there’s a scripture in Psalms that says, “Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart..” God showed me that He is the one who puts that desire in our hearts……I’ve been single for a long time since my divorce. I’ve had longings for brief moments from time to time to have someone in my life…..but nothing like these past 6mos. The desire is soooo strong and I have had opportunities to meet men but they just weren’t cutting filling this huge hole in my heart. I’m beginning to realize that the desire God has placed in my heart to be loved can only be filled by Him…..he began to show me this right before this study and now this week’s message has only confirmed what He has already been showing me. I so love how His timing is always perfect!
What a great illustration! ESP for those mommies of young kiddos who can relate to the “little people”! Unfortunately it’s not always little people that affect us. It would be a lot easier! Thank u Renee! You’ve been a blessing to remind me that God is who I need to please. Not people!
Thank you Renee and all of you ladies for writting your experiences. I don’t feel as alone any more.
Yes, agree,
This is definitely a safe place to share our struggles, as well as encouraging others, and making new friends in Christ ♥
I know that for me I have done this for my whole life practically and have just recently learned that it is to God that I should have been looking.
Thank you Renee. I loved the great demonstration and clear explanation, what a great teacher you are! I felt like you really understand me and want to share what you have learned!