Some days my written words come easily. Other days I need to show and tell you what’s on my heart. Today is one of those days.
Please {like pretty please even if you don’t normally watch video posts} click the arrow below 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. 🙂
Today’s Giveaway:
Two friends of mine who serve behind the scenes and are part of our online study, [thank you Donna & Veronica] have donated copies of my book to giveaway today. Together we created 5 gift packs for 5 of you. Each one includes a copy of my book, A Confident Heart {for you or a friend?} and my testimony/teaching message on CD, Letting God Fill My Empty Places.
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.
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I agree with your message and I think your book addresses exactly where I am. Several life changes beyond my control have been used by God to show me where I have been trying to find meaning, confidence and significance. I have tried to walk through many doors only to find them closed and I believe that God is using this time to show me what I tend to run to instead of him. God is ripping the ‘mini gods’ out of my life. Never have I been so aware of how deep my feelings of jealousy run, and how insulting this is to God who gives us all good gifts. He is more interested in changing WHO I am rather than WHAT I DO, and we know from Romans 8: 28 that in all things God works for good for those who love him. We like to think that this will end up in our getting what we want, but what follows in that text is that we were created for HIS purposes and that is to conform us into the likeness of Jesus. My heart struggles to lay down my attempts to find meaning outside of my position in Christ but I am also being strengthened to rest in the truth of God’s word and his promises.
I wanted to cry after I listened to your video. Oh how many times as a young women (I’m still young) I wanted to please my parents and it then went into trying to please the men in my life. When I decided (and this was recently I might add) that I found out what/who God said I was and how he loved me it truly changed my outlook on life. I so much understood you filling the vase with other things other than the living water. Mind you I still have to pray because my flesh wants to go back to that wanting others to fill me but when I get into Gods word he reminds me who I am and whose I am.
Thank you so much Renee for having this online study it is making a difference!
With Love Kim!
Thank you Renee for you messages… I look so forward for your special messages, they are such lift in my life. I have been going through some rockie spots in my life. But thank to our dear Father in Heaven and the care he has given me, with my ups and downs. With lots of prayers and reading his word (Bible) I am having more ups than down. Your message this time was for me. My Father in Heaven is guiding me. I am so glad I know him.
This one has made me sad. It’s too true of me. I have struggled with putting people, especially my husband, in the position of fulfilling me since, well, always. God has pointed this out to my on several occasions, yet I fall into that trap again and again. I want God to fill all my empty places. I want to turn to Him for my fulfillment. I know I keep missing out on a great thing, when I don’t, and this makes me sad. I want to be filled by my God.
Wow, amazing, just what I needed to hear today. God has truely been filling me up and I know that I will find what I am looking for in God. He has proved himeself faithful and true. His love has truely overwhelmed me.Thanks
I love how God’s timing is so perfect. I need these lessons.
Renee I just want to thank you for doing the will of God, our Heavenly Father and for obeying His calling for you. What an inspiration you are to countless women. God’s unconditional love is like no other. His love has gotten me through some ruff days, weeks, months, and years. He is faithful and His love never ending. Thank you for reminding me that He fills us completely and that we do not need to turn to earthly fulfillment. Blessings and prayers to you this day.
Thank you for the video example. I have spent my 47 1/2 years trying to fill my heart with people, things and a career. I’ve been a Chrisian for 19 years, but I’ve come to realise I’ve been “sleepwalking” my faith. Thank you for showing me how to fill my heart with God and that he alone is enough, he alone is all I need.
THANK YOU!
Thank you for this demonstration, Even though I am a day late watching it. You have explained exactly how I have been feeling. I have been searching, even though i know God is the one to fill me I still search. Please pray for me that I will empty myself of the things of this world and fill myself with the things of my heavenly father. I try to do a little breathing exercise every night before i go to bed, I tell myself breathe in the grace of God breathe out the things of the world. Each time i breathe in I ask for Gods grace, mercy…….and as i breathe out i say breathe out whatever was my struggle for the day.
That love that keeps is what we need in us and flowing through us, as I read about the women at the well, I realized it flowed out of her, the living water and many believed. May this flow out of us.
I get this! I have looked for love in all the wrong faces. I’m the Samaritan woman, having been married 3 times, looking for someone to fill me up. I am happy to say I am not doing this any longer. Jesus is my soul satisfier, and this was such a great lesson to remind me of that!
Right now is my busiest time! There are still 9 more days of school (I teach 7th graders), and since I also manage our pool during the summers, I am there each evening cleaning and training lifeguards. I am exhausted! It was wonderful to be able to sit down for a few minutes last night while my boys were at youth group, and watch the video. It reminded me that even though I am busy now, soon I will be able to rest. Both of my jobs are unmistakeably gifts from GOD. I just need to be reminded every once in a while:)
Thank you so much for this encouragement! Because of past hurts perpetrated by His church, I am in a place where I find it hard to trust Him and all that He says I am. I, too, look to people & food for comfort. But, thankfully, He hasn’t given up on me like people have. I pray for eyes to see what I have instead of seeing what I don’t…….easier said than done sometimes. God Bless you.
This video thoroughly illustrated the objectives of this week’s lesson. I really didn’t want to watch it (so, thanks for begging us to do so, Renee), because I thought, “What’s the point? I’ve read the Chapter 3 lesson, so what more is she going to say in the video?”
Well, I’m happy to say that I realized another area of my life in which I need confidence as a result of watching this video; being satisfied with God’s love despite the “unconditional acceptance” I receive from others..
I’m a performing artist – an emerging performer, to be exact, so there are people in my life who are just beginning to see me in that realm. After I deliver an excellent performance some of those people who would only say a “hi”, or “by” to me, in the past, suddenly want a closer relationship with me. On the flip side, some of those closest to me begin to distance themselves from me. This hurts.
This hurts because I’m a people-person. I like being around others which is one reason why I enjoy performing so much, because it gives me an opportunity to share with others the gifts that God has given me. However, when I’m not in front of a congregation, or on-stage in front of an audience, I long for the friendship/companionship of those who accept me as “just-me-who’s-not-performing-today”. Sometimes I feel isolated, rejected, misunderstood, and used. My weakness is not having completely learned to be “satisfied” with God’s acceptance of me – all of me.
Hi, Beloved Renee, this is spirit – lifting. I have been so blessed. II is amazing that we fill our emptiness with unsatisfying junks. No wonder we go on without being refreshed, unsatisfied and unfulfilled – daily crying for SATISFACTION. I have shared it with my children, Christian Sisters in my Parish and at our BIBLE STUDY Group. We were so blessed. May THE LORD Bless the Ministry of Proverbs 31. We are praying for you. REBECCA
Fill me Lord Jesus. Please fill the empty places. Fill me to overflowing. Amen.
Thank you for that lesson. I know I need him thank you for showing me how to get to him or actually how to open my whole heart to him. He will do a great work with my heart!
I was so inspired as I watched your video this morning. What a wonderful way to begin the day…being reminded to put the Lord first in my life. Being told it is he who can and will fulfill me; he and no one else. No one else has the capability…just as I am not capable to fulfill anyone elses life. We all need the Lord. He completes us. He is the fulfillment of all. Thank you for your video Renee!
Renee,
Last Friday when I got the message to take a look at the comments from the first two chapters. I went to the first chapter and the date was January 23rd. That Friday evening my dad and I were talking about my mom. I came home and opened up the e-mail and January 23rd was my mom’s birthday. WOW! It was a sweet blessing for me.
Mother’s day is Sunday. The video was an awesome illustration! Yes, I want God to fill up the empty place in this single girl’s life and flow through me. Thank You Renee.
Just watched your video message three times over and underlined it with your message notes. All that you said and so brilliantly illustrated with the jar and contents has beenboth deeply encouraging and challenging. I give some of my time to helping in a Women’s Pastoral team in our church family and I desire to know deep in my heart this message so that I can encourageothers who I know are struggling so much in the search for unfailing love. Thankyou for being so faithful to God and sharing truths with us all in such a gifted and creative way.