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.
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This really hit home with me today. I can see now that I have been looking to the gifts to fulfill and validate me instead of the giver. Thank you for opening my eyes to this!
I wept when I read chapter 3. I felt the words were taken from conversations I had with my first husband. We were high school sweethearts married for 17 years then divorced. I realized how much I was looking for him to fill me up and when that wasn’t working I thought something was wrong with us. Well, there actually was other things wrong with us but there was a lot of me expecting him/ people to satisfy my needs. I’m now recently remarried (2 years) and and feeling I am still waiting to feel satisfied! I yearn to be filled by God! I am learning so much from this study already and come eagerly with expectation to meet with God with a burning desire to know Him deeply. Thank you for your faithfulness, your wisdom and your encouragement!
Thank you for your post. I am married 22 years to my high school sweet heart. It hasn’t all been sweet. Your post made me look a little harder into myself. Thank you!
I know what you are saying is true. It’s getting that truth to my heart and walking in it that is the struggle. I can see with a recent loss of a love interest (it didn’t work out) that I have to put him back in my “gift box”. (We were always friends first). And ask God to fill those places I was wanting him to fill.
Thanks for allowing me to join you in this study of a Confident Heart. Your illustrations are amazing. You are so right, nothing created by man can fill the empty spaces in our heart. A lot of times it’s not only things that you can see and touch that take up space in our hearts , it’s emotions( bitterness, hatred, forgiveness, doubt, fear etc). Once we can let go and give it all to God, He will fill our heart completely without any empty spaces. I really do not see how people exist without daily walking with Him.
Precious Lord and Savior please help each one of us to come before you with our emptiness and offer it to you alone to be filled to overflowing with your Holy Spirit, “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may OVERFLOW with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit”, Amen!!
What a wonderful illustration of how God completely fills us with His Love. Thank you for this video!
This was powerful and eye opening. Your illustration with the vase and what you filled it with opened my eyes to just what you said. Looking at the gifts instead of the giver.. Blessings instead of the one who blesses us . I think the hardest part is remembering when your feeling… low self esteem that He is the one that will always love us, esteem us, want us ..
Really powerful demonstration. I’ve always thought that the theme song of my life should be : “Looking for love in all the wrong places.” I see that it should be titled “unconditional love” instead. Looking to my Abba Father today to fill the voids! I have enjoyed the study so far, thanks much for a great book!
Thanks for this video. Like many others, I have spent most of my life looking to others or other things to fill my emptiness. I feel while looking for that fulfillment I have not made the best choices and often times have broken relationships. I feel that I am now at a place where I do not know where to turn. I know I have to turn to God and I want to turn to him, but how? How is all this going to work? How long is it going to take for me to trust The Lord so I can work on the other relationships in my life that are slowly slipping away? My fear is that by the time that happens, everything else will be gone.
Hi Nicole. Your story breaks my heart. I just want to tell you, don’t give up. Don’t let fear rule your heart. Just take one day at a time rather than trying to “fix” everything at once. Trust is a life long process. Go before the Lord and share your heart with Him. Tell Him about your fears, failures and faults (He knows about them anyway). Ask Him to forgive and heal you. HE WILL DO IT! Read the Bible daily and search for messages of His love and acceptance. Talk to Him constantly and ask Him to give you wisdom regarding your relationships. If you don’t have one, find a good Bible believing church. Join a small group or ask the Pastor or his wife to put you in touch with someone who can mentor you. Most of all, remember that GOD LOVES YOU AND HAS A PLAN FOR YOUR LIFE!!! I’m praying for you, dear sister, and know that God will come through for you. Can’t wait to hear your story of victory!
Nicole, by joing this Bible study you have already made a choice to turn to God. Just keep walking, talking, trusting, and believing in Him. He will fill you with love, peace, hope, and joy. It is all there and it is freely given to you. You just have to ask for it!
Loving God, I pray you will fill Nicole with your abundant blessings. Walk with her daily as she puts her trust in you, believes in you, and loves you. In Jesus’ most precious name. Amen
Nicole, I am really glad you asked! I am like 1/2 a step ahead of you in process from what you have said. (*Not* saying I am better than you or anyone else)
Trust is a life long event, and the more we trust, the easier it gets.
The more we spend in prayer and God’s Word, the more he will begin speaking to us.
This time last year I gave my heart to Jesus. I didn’t fully understand what that meant, and still don’t.
God is revealing himself to me as I quiet myself before him.
It’s not easy. My flesh always wants to do something else, but it’s worth it.
Hang in there and keep putting your trust in Jesus.
Simply put, I must decrease so he can increase.
For myself, I have been living with the void all of my life; a family of emptiness to learn from. I struggle to be full, look in all the wrong people and places waiting for that booming declaration from God and I miss the small whispers, so I am learning to quiet myself to listen for those nuances, the small voice, the things that find their way to my life to make me smile and hold on to them tightly realizing they came to me not by my own ability but because God is being patient and those small taps, those whispers will chip away at my resistance and bring me closer to the Lord.
I love this reminder!!!! As a single never married woman in her late 30’s (the only single one amongst her Christian friends as well) it is easy to compare and believe that life would be more fulfilling when in the RIGHT loving, reciprocal, God serving relationship with a husband. However, I need to step back and take to heart what this video is reminding me and receive God’s love and unconditional acceptance and forgiveness.
Jess, I am 42 and never been married and I too have felt the same way. I need to start focusing on God more and what he wants for me instead of my own wants.
Hi Jess and Stacey!
I am 37, single and never married too. (I was wondering if I was the only one doing this study who was.) I have always desired a husband and children. In the last few years, I have really struggled with being single. I find it so easy to compare myself to others and wonder what I am doing wrong that I am not receiving my heart’s desires. As a result, I have HAD to turn to God for fulfillment/ answers but I find that I keep turning away from Him – not believing He can fulfill me. In the last few months, God has used a tough experience to break this stronghold in my life. The sweet communion I have had with Him has been amazing. One of the things that has helped, has been when one of the pastors from my church spoke about how we are each placed in our life circumstance – whether single or married- for His glory. He also said that if we could better glorify Him in a different situation, He would bring that about. I still struggle and question God about why I am single but I almost instantly know I need to turn back to Him instead of focusing on my desires or on the lives of those around me. He has been so faithful at filling my jar with water esp. when I turn to Him to fill it. God bless!
This is so amazing ! Thank you . Love how u demonstrated all this.
Thank you for sharing that visual. I’ve seen you do it somewhere before, but great reminder. I struggle so hard to find my worth in Christ. I know I can’t find it in worldly things God has allowed me to go through a season of loss of job, church, health, and marital issues, to show me I need to depend on him completely. But I’m still struggling giving him everything. Depresson seems to be my best friend right now and I don’t like it. Hoping that this study will help me to completely be filled by Jesus, so that none of my problems will be so overwhelming.
I have thoroughly loved reading “A Confident Heart” and reading your messages via your web site and also by reading all of the messages of everyone taking this class wi th me. There are so very many women who feel the same way I do. And to think that I thought I was the only one!
I have that jar! I’ve had that jar my entire life I could remember. Being born to a 16yrl old mother & 17yr old father started my jar. My father abandoned us very early on…and while my mother was still growing up herself and trying to fill her jar…I had my jar held out too. My mother eventually married a wonderful man when I was 10, however more children came & my jar was still void in places. I was the typical type-A first child…honor roll, job, sports, chores @ home…yet my mother rarely came to any event I had…and at most times I felt more the parent than she. I still rememeber the time she forgot to pick me up after being away @ cheer camp for a week when I was 16.
For the longest time, my husband would tell me to ‘let it go’…however to me it told me ‘I was not worthy enough for her to love me that much to remember her own child’…nor was I worthy enough for my bio-father to be my father…nor was I worthy enough when my husband made be feel abandoned & alone in our marraige thru his sin.
Only thru extensive individual therapy w/ a christian counselor, me surrendering to the Lord, intensive marriage therapy w/ same therapist…did I begin to heal those wounds and let Jesus fill my jar. Less than a year ago my husband and I experienced a restored marriage by the grace of God…after 38 years I was finally aloowing myself to fully trust someone other than myself…that was tough for me…but my trust started w/ the Lord…and He led me thru the healing.
The Holy Spirit recently showed me I was still focusing too much on the relationship w/ my mother…to trust that she is on ‘His hook’…that I don’t need to carry her on ‘my hook’ anymore. That allowed my heart to see the relationships I need to focus on is the one I feel safe, loved, worthy, not alone…my Jesus…and my husband because I believe God gave me my husband as an example of His love & grace here on earth.
I look back on my life…childhood till now and I see abundant finger prints from God. I am so thankful that He chose me as His adopted child to love. That He placed safe people in my life to show me His love here on earth. That I am worthy because of Him, even in the times I doubt…to have my husband wrap his arms around me and give me a ‘physical God hug’ reminding me how much God loves me makes my heart soar.
I will hold that jar out in the future…I’m sure of it…I’m not perfect…but I may be more aware & quicker to pull it back & protect my space for Jesus not things or people.
How beautifully transparent! Thank you for sharing yourself.
What a great video. I too have looked at different things to fulfill my life instead of looking to God. I just also wanted to add that I too was to a point where I wanted my life to end that I felt worthless and helpless. Your book is such an inspiration.
Renee,
Thank you for the video. It is helping me to look at what I am trying to use to fill the void in my life when I should really be looking for God. God is good and only He will satisfy my being. I am the one who turns to food and I know that the satisfaction of eating is temporary. God’s love is forever. Thank you for sharing.
Thank you for this wonderful video. I am in tears realizing how true this is in my life. I grew up as a pastor’s kid and even though my life has been good, it has had an unexpected shaking that has left me in a very hurting place. But Jesus is teaching me so much through this suffering and through your book I’m realizing how much I need his unfailing love. Thank you for being a blessing to me and many.
My closets, my schedule, my mind and my life are not only full, they are cluttered. However, there are many empty places that only trust in God can fill. There are many cluttered areas that need to go so there is ROOM FOR TRUSTING GOD!