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. 🙂
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I have been playing catch up…I am so excited and ready to break the chains that keep binding me. I have a hard time leaving the past in the past and I worry about everything. I want more confidence with it comes the ability to spread his word to more people..if each of us that has joined this group would talk to one or two people what an amazing testimonial you would have. Praise God for you and your ability to spread the word. I look forward to the next several weeks. Thank you for spending your time to help others.
Thank you so much for the encouraging video and more so, for doing this study online. I heard you on the Encouragement Cafe last week and ordered your book right away.. I was delighted to find out you were offering a study on this very book, right now! I LOVE God’s timing!!!! I look forward to the encouragement in this book and through this study!!
I have no idea what I’m doing here. I’m way over my head. I have no idea how to do any of this…
Melinda,
I felt the same way too but I am slowly learning that it’s okay to feel that way. Just ask God to lead you and you will start to see/feel a change and also some peace in your life. Just let go and let God take over.
I am going to do it!!! Thank you so much! Breathing…letting to…
letting go… lol
Thank you for making the video. It is wonderful that the God of the universe is willing and able to fully fill us. It must break his heart when I fill up with other things
A powerful message in the video. I have a hard time expressing my feelings and I hope that you will be able to understand what I am saying. I have questioned many why was I even born and then have tried to fill my life with things that I thought would bring happiness. And then I would try to fill the emptiness with work and other than getting totally exhausted I found that it too failed to meet my needs. My family I grew up with live on the east coast and I live in the mid west and so I don’t get a chance to visit them like I would like. This week the Lord has been reminding me of a time of learning and how I was starting to grow. I just want to continue to grow in the Lord and have Him fill the empty places in my life and to guide me in all that I should be doing. I know that He loves me and yet I feel so unworthy of that love sometimes. Didn’t have a very good childhood as I always felt like I wasn’t good enough. Thank you Renee for taking the time to teach us and to help us with what God has shown you.
Hi Renee,
I love the jar and water illustration. Jesus is our living water. Like the Samaritan woman, I need to be honest with several things going on in my life and my heart that only God can heal.
Thank You
I am in a season of loss. Both of my daughters/grand kids have moved away with husbands for new jobs in ministry. My Dad passed away and just a couple of weeks ago my best friend died of a short battle with cancer. Sorrow upon sorrow as I adjust to a new normal ………..but learning truly He is the One who fills my life….”.Satisfy me in the morning with your unfailing love ! ” I have been mediating on this verse this week….and it is now on bathroom mirror and chalkboard in great room. Constant reminder to look to Him for the holes in my heart where people once occupied. Thanks for the video !
I love this example. Far to often than I’d like to admit, I have filled my jar with “stuff” to fill the void in my life. I’ve noticed that it’s not just stuff like people or positions etc. A lot of times it’s feelings that fill my jar. Fear, anxiety, worry, frustration, anger, etc. I’m so glad that God is loving and understanding and PATIENT. It’s not easy to let go of all of the “stuff”. We cling to it because it gives us a sense of security and control….but it’s a false sense of security and it’s a lack of control…self-control. We gobble up anything and everything that gives us that sense of “security” & “control” and when it doesn’t fulfill our needs we look for something else. I was thinking of the jar filled with stuff. I was imagining that God was pouring Himself into that full jar and all the “stuff” floated to the top and spilled out. He took the place of all the stuff and completely filled the jar with His unconditional love. We can see the stuff but we are so filled with His love that we don’t have to let it back in. He has quenched our thirst.
I really enjoyed the video message. Actually seeing the things going into the jar provided such a wonderful visual for how we look for fulfillment in everything else first when Christ is the foundation and everything builds from there. It is my desire to become confident in Christ and to find my value in Him.
Thank you for today’s video. It is just what I needed to hear today, as I am feeling a bit rejected by important people in my life. First and foremost, I need to look to God to fill me completely. He must be my all in all. He must be more than enough. I prayed and asked Him to fill me with all that I need, and I know He will help me be confident in Him alone, not relying on others to affirm me. Thank you, Jesus.
Reading through these comments I am just overwhelmed. I pray for each of the ladies participating in this study that God would move in your lives in a mighty way. May He be the only thing we choose to fill our lives with because that is the only way we will be fulfilled. Thank you for this wonderful video, Renee. You are touching and changing countless lives as God is working through you. Continuing to keep you in my prayers as well.
Great video! Great message! Great encourager! Keep up the great work for the Lord! 🙂
Unfailing love… Only available to us from God…. But truly available to us from God. It takes us so long to figure out that only He can fill those places. I am still salvoring the connection of the verses in John about eternal life and what that means. I want to “get it” to my last cell.
Great video. I yearn to be to the place where I am completely fill with Jesus. I am still at the stage where I am trying to fill my jar. Thank you for the reminder.
What a great video! When I moved from the UK to the US 10 years ago, I gave up the familiarity of everything I knew, my home, my work, my friends, my church, and most of all my family. I married my true love but he became so much more than that as I felt alienated from all of the other things and had to “start again” on a new continent creating the same things here. I think I put my husband before ANYTHING in my life because I needed him so much and he was willing to be what I needed so that made it easier. I always knew the Lord and that He would never leave me, but personal issues between me and God made me alienate him also. I have since realized that HE is the one true love that will NEVER let me down and be EVERYTHING that I need, I am learning to put my husband back in the “safe box” and allow the Lord to be the one who fills my jar. Of course now I have the other things too that I had once left behind, but what a great reminder in this video that Jesus STILL must be the one to fill my jar and not make the mistake of putting him in the box and other things in the jar.
Renee, that was a powerful illustration. At first I thought “Oh, I’ve seen this before ” but then I guess the Holy Spirit began to break through my jadedness. I was thinking about all the remaining empty space and thought you would fill it with water to fill in the gaps. Then you emptied the jar! It struck me that God doesn’t want to just fill in the gaps, He wants to fill the total emptiness and have all the “stuff” be blessings and things that we hang on to loosely – they aren’t our identity. Now if I can relinquish control and trust and allow God to make this a reality in my life. : )
Great message. So true, we look way to much on buying material things that only bring us temporary comfort. I’m learning everyday, it’s just stuff and I don’t need it and it will not make me happy or whole. Thanking God everyday for what I have and not what I have, cuz what I have is him in my life.
Love it! God is sharing with me that if my heart is full with anxiety, fear, sadness that there is no room for Him to fill it with joy, love, happiness. I am now searching my heart because I know I am full of worry, fear and anxiety since I lost my job of 15 years. My job meant so much to me. I become more than I ever thought and made more money than I could ever believe. now it is gone. I have often asked why He took it away from me. After all, He gave it to me. I believe He took it away so that I can be where I am today. Married, with children, supporting my husband and kids and yet, He is still giving me a voice, still allowing me to build a business. It is a slow process. I am scared, worried, full of doubt; however, I realize that I must let all of that go so that He can continue in me the work He started. Wow. I am amazed by His love, His timing, His everything. Patricia
I really enjoyed this chapter very much. “A confident heart is found in a woman who knows beyond the shadow of a doubt that she is loved no matter what. Lasting security comes when we bring the empty well of our hearts to Jesus and ask Him to fill and fulfill us with the security of His unfailing love.” This is an awesome statement and one that can be very difficult for those that have been touched by some sort of abuse in their lives. Always seeking that unfailing love in so many different places. So very sad but they have to know that God’s unconditional love is all that we need. It does not come easily but God waits patiently for us to say enough is enough and seek Him in every aspect of our lives. Through His unconditional love we to can love unconditionally and find peace and comfort in that. Thank you Renee for laying your life out so that others may see and know His unfailing love. God has asked me to write a book called “Unconditional Love Hurts” I am anxious to see where it leads.
I am enjoying the book very much & it has a great message. This may be a little off topic but today I am really struggling with my husband/best friend & soulmate working 7000 miles away in Afghanistan. He has been away almost 5 YEARS & the last 3 weeks I have been so down & in tears because of our separation. I have read, prayed, cried & talked to God over & over about how we are to work on our marriage this far apart. To come home requires a local job & there isn’t much good news on that. And of course he needs to find something in his job skill. I don’t work, have no small kids & the days, weeks & months drag by while I wait to see him again. We see each other every 6 months. SO we are together 60 days a year & apart 305 & it’s killing me. I feel like I have no one to talk to who can begin to understand the pain. I know God has the solution & it will happen in his time, but being a normal female with emotions I find it hard to cope lately. I hear women complain if their spouse is away for a weekend. I think Oh you have no idea. I find myself staying home, & avoiding people who can only say Oh that must be hard, or I bet he will be home soon. Two years ago wasn’t soon enough. When asked at church how am I – I am faking a smile to say Oh I’m fine while fighting back the tears. I pray yet feel like God has my calls on hold. It’s like I am a broken record with my prayers. I pray my hearts desire & ask for comfort & strength & I STILL feel empty inside. Maybe someone has some advice.
I can’t begin to imagine what you are going though, so I don’t really have advice, but please know that I am praying for you and wishing you the best.