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.
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Thank you! The illustration was great! I love the practical steps to follow!
I have lived the majority of my 60 years trying to fill my “empty places.” I am a Christian. I am a life coach and counselor. I have been blessed by much healing and freedom from strongholds in my life. Christ is my life….. And here is the “but,” I still long to be loved and known by another person. My feelings are so powerful that what I know and what I believe are lost in a turbulent sea of doubt.
I am grateful for your message. I know that it is Truth, and I long for the day when my heart submits to the one who calms the seas!
Dear Theresa,
I am 65 and was feeling similar feelings today. I am lonely, but I am finding volunteer things to do at church and friends in my neighborhood. I listen to Christian radio and feel that I have accepted Jesus as my savior and that has given me peace. May God richly bless you and those you coach and counsel.
Blessings, Elizabeth
Thank you Renee for this devotional and video message! I need so much to allow God to fill my empty and broken places, instead of looking to friends and family to do so. I haven’t done your Confident Heart study yet, but do plan to. I hope your day is wonderfully blessed as you have blessed my day!
God is currently dealing with me on this. For many years, I was a drug addict and I also saught the love of men to fill the void in my heart. As I grew older, I did settle down, get married, and quit the crazy lifestyle. A year ago, God revealed Hisself to me, and it has been quite a whirlwind ever sense. What God is dealing with me now, is my use of alcohol. After a long line of family history of addiction, watching my father turn to alcohol to solve his problems, turning to drugs to ignore my problems as an adult, and eventually turning to alcohol myself…even though I “settled down” I have realized that I still turn to alchohol instead of God. I’m in the process of ridding myself of this idol and allowing God to fill me. It’s a process, and I still make mistakes, but God is with me every step of the way. I am so greatful for His grace and mercy. And I’m so greatful for you Renee. The first time I was lead to Proverbs 31 I was hooked. You are an incredible blessing to me. Thank you!
Bless you Audrey! Lord Jesus, thank you for the victory Audrey has in you!
Dear Audrey,
May God continue to bless you and keep you strong in your fight against alcohol. Our bodies need water and our hearts and minds need Jesus who is living water. He will sustain you and give you the peace that passes all understanding. I am praying for you.
Hugs, Elizabeth
Thank you so much for this reminder and illustration. As I face a new trial in my life filled with rejection and bitterness from my husband, it made me realize that there’s nothing that I’ve accomplished in our marriage by putting him above everyone and everything. Christ is my unfailing love and as I pray for healing and reconciliation, I pray that Christ fills my empty places first!
I love this illustration! Thank you for sharing and thank you for reminding me that God is all I need!
I have been walking with the Lord for a long time. I am now retired from work and going through a time of adjustment with my husband and I both being home 24-7.
I am also since January learning to fill my heart with God instead of attempting to do that with food.
This video was such a lovely picture of that.
I know I need to be filled with God in order to live a Godly life, especially since I am no longer using food for comfort and having to adjust to new ways of relating to my husband. Since he retired, he has looked to me to be his every thing and from the perspective of someone who someone else is trying to use for their own filling, which can only come from God…it is simply draining for me. I NEED to be filled up with the Living Water so badly all the time.
This is a hard season but a good one. Some days, like yesterday, I feel like I simply can’t go on another day. But by the grace of God I do.
Thank you for writing the book and making that video. It is very timely for me.
Gods words are always timely as long as we keep listening. From another visual learner I thank you for sharing the gifts He has given you.
This devotional really spoke to me this morning because I, too, struggle to find fulfillment in other areas. I think if I could just be “important” enough, I would find this satisfaction, so this following sentence really resonated with me: “I’ve also looked to possessions and positions and accidentally put my hope in recognition. I’ve thought “if only I had or could…”
I’ve prayed that prayer this morning that you posted asking God to help me only find my fulfillment as a person in Him (that’s the only place you’ll find it anyway!). Thank you for this uplifting thought before I start my busy day!
I want to thank you for your encouragement today. I struggle with being able to forgive myself for my sins. I know God forgives me and will never leave me, but when I go back and do the same thing again, it’s hard to forgive myself for my weakness in succombing to the temptation. Thank you for the encouragement to look to God for the fullfillment I’m looking for!
WOW! What a truly great way to express what so many of us are feeling. Running from one thing to another and one appointment to another… life is SO FAST now. Even though we know God is our refuge, we still try so hard to be and do everything for ourselves. Thank you for this wonderful illustration. I normally do not watch video posts, but I am so glad you encouraged us to and so glad I listened this time! 🙂
Women tend to fill their hearts with the needs of others. The hardest thing to do is to put ourselves first before God. I try to remember if we don’t care for ourselves, who else can we care for. God tells us this every day, he knows we need to be filled by him. My children are grown, but we still think they need us. . . the joy and blessing of grandchildren are part of my life now, and I look at the retirement of my husband. I know that it is only with God’s guidance and strength that I will be able to do all of the things that I need to do. I will pray to be filled by God’s love first, and then, and only then, I can share his blessings to others. Thank you for the reminder of who should be filling our hearts and our lives.
This video helped direct me on the right path/mind set this morning. I have been on a quest for that certain something, but had no clue what I was looking for. I have reached a point in my life that nothing fills that restlessness in my heart. Sometimes, I don’t know if God hears me, or if I am asking too much, just complaining, or not worthy because of my sins. I will ask God to fill my heart with his spirit and keep praying for more faith.
Thank you Renae, I loved your message. There always seems to be a longing in my heart for something or someone else. I know I need to open up to God and those around me. Materials things fade away. I crave close friendships with Christian people. Knowing Christ is the center of my life, makes everything bearable. Thank you for these wonderful messages of inspiration.
Renee,
Wow! My brain is screaming at my heart, “Guilty, Guilty, Guilty!” In the last 3 years, due to still unresolved medical issues, I was forced to leave a “job” that “defined who I was”. My adult children moved, married or began new relationships ~ ones that limited their need for “mom” ~ The Other “who I was”. My sweet husband, exhausted from my illness and striving to maintain work, home and his own sanity, pulled into himself ~ in need of solice, rather than a wife who needed to be all things to all people ~ the 3rd “who I was”. Yesterday included many hours of tears, anger and questions. The things I had filled my basin with, those things which gave me my identify, have been stripped away…I don’t know “Who I Am” now or “who I am supposed to be”…but thanks to your message this morning, I know, without a doubt now, where to begin to look. Thank you for sharing your message.
What a wonderful affirmation. Thank you for sharing, Candy!
Renee,
Thank you for your thoughts today. I to have been struggling to know what to ask God for. We want to sell our house to move to another and I have been taken over by these thoughts. My question has been should I pray for god to find the right person to buy this house? I think you have answered my questions today that I should let god fill my heart for the right reasons and the right things will happen.
Again thank you
Thank you! The visual illustration will remind me to focus on the Giver and not the gifts. My children are grown but I do remember those times when they didn’t know what they were looking for and wouldn’t be satisfied with what Dad and I found for them. Many times they were just so tired and really wanted love and attention from us but didn’t know that our love and care was what they wanted. Thank you for your thought provoking messages. They continue to provide me with guide posts that refocus and lead me back to my Father.
What a great parallel- to the times when our little ones just want our love but don’t even know that as the reason for their distress. As a mother of two ‘littles,’ that insight struck me. Thank you!
Thanks for sharing the word with us. Loved the illustration.
Renee, thank you for your insight and illustration. Before you put the items back into the gift box, I realized that as the vase is transparent, others see what fills our lives due to transparency. As believers, are we consumed with material things and activities that reflect that we are His children? Do we bear a resemblance to our Heavenly Father as our faces, eyes, hair, hands, skin bear the resemblance of our parents? If He fills me, I will reflect Him. Thank you for allowing this teaching moment through the power of the Holy Spirit.
That is a powerful insight! Love that – thank you for sharing too!!
Thank you Renee for reminding me that I need to seek Jesus to fill my empty places when I feel sad, alone and unloved, etc. It’s so difficult when the world and even those around us tells us otherwise.
You bring up a great point, Teresa. The world is so convincing with its ideas of all the things we “need” to fill us. Yet those very things create more emptiness of soul. Bless you today!
Thanks for a timely reminder!