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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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.
I have spent most of my life searching for empty promises to fill my heart and the void in my life.
I thank God that He never gave up on me but through personal tribulation and sin I was lead back to Him and I know without a doubt that only He can fill my heart ,soul and mind with “the peace which surpasses all understanding”…I love the Lord with all my heart and am so thankful that I see the truth of what His Love can offer me that wordly possesssions can never do. Thank you for your wise illustration of empty promises.
You are a blessing to so many out there!
I spent most of my life searching too and just lost all hope when all those people and things wouldn’t fill me up. I:m so thankful that when we put our hope in HIM we are made complete — filled and able to spill. Praying He drenches you with His love and grace today!
funny how God works. I decided to print the message notes and was so surprised to see you called the woman Sam, (my initials) i say God really wants me to hear this today
SAM
🙂 Yes, He most certainly does. I love that name!
Your words spoke right to my heart today. God has been whispering to my spirit that HE is my friend and I can get everything my soul longs for from Him. I only need to seek Him in His Word. Thank you for sharing!
Renee, i really loved seeing you talk for the first time. I started reading your book a Confident heart a while back and just can’t seem to get into it. the devil has been on me so much in my life and at present it seems he is winning. I would love to win your othher book. please pray for me that god will show me my purpose in life and I will ignore the devil and these times of depression. God bless you and I look forward to more videos!!
Thank you Renee for your wonderful illustration of how things cannot fill our emply places. I cannot wait to read your book A Confident Heart. I have heard so many good things about how this book has spoken to so many lives.
Thanks so much Renee! What a wonderful object lesson to really visualize all the “things” that we fill our lives and hearts with that just don’t fulfill us. How freeing it is to allow God to fill those empty places and THEN be able to add others back as HE leads in His time. I have shared your message with my college age daughter. I hope and pray that she can learn this now while young and not walk the same path as her mother for all these years. I pray that God continues to use you in a mighty way to touch the lives of so many who need to hear! God bless you!
Thanks Renee, I love the illustration. This message and chapter has learnt me so much. I am guilty of filling my emptiness with earthly things. Now I am filling my emptiness with God’s love, let Him filll my emptiness. The Lord has spoke to me in this part of my life. I felt the weight coming of my shoulders. I love this study. Thank you.
Thank You so much for that Renee. This is definitely a struggle for me. I am always looking for everything around me to fulfill my empty places, when God is waiting for me to look to him to be fulfilled. This message is very encouraging. I am so grateful that we have a God that is so faithful even when we aren’t. He is such an Awesome God!!
While doing my quiet time this morning, this message and something I am dealing with right now absolutely collided with each other! While trying to fulfill a homeless child’s basic needs, I volunteered to take her shopping. We did this, not only because it is Christ like, but also because it hits close to home for my spouse. There seemed to be no question we would contribute to this cause in some way, whether monetarily or by putting out info on Facebook for all my mom friends who are cleaning out their daughters’ closets and collecting things for this girl. Everything was fine until the person who started asking for help put out a message on Facebook thanking everyone BUT me for their help with the situation. And as non-Christ-like as it was, I felt a twinge of hurt because of not being recognized. I felt so much guilt for that and asked God to cleanse my heart of whatever was making me feel left out. Then I opened up my email and saw my daily message from Proverbs 31 Ministries. Thank you God for giving me this word at absolutely the instant I needed it!! What He reveals, He will heal. I am still a work in progress but isn’t it amazing that there are NO coincidences when it comes to God and his work in us?
For years I have struggled with thinking my cistern would be filled by physical beauty.
Just this weekend, God was so kind to reveal to me how He allowed me to struggle in that pursuit a bit so that I could see for myself it would never fill the deep desire in my heart. Had he given me the desire I thought would have filled up those empty spaces, I would have been disappointed. But, in His goodness He wanted me to actually see for myself the emptiness that comes with vanity. I came accross a woman who looked on the outside, the very way I desired to look. She had beautiful clothes and hair. She had an incredibly fit body, but her soul was empty. Those things I so badly wanted, she had. And yet, she wasn’t happy. I am happy God allowed me to see this. He showed me that my happiness and joy can only be found in HIm. This was a life changing moment for me after YEARS of battling this area of my life. I am so glad to be free of this.
I am reading chapter 7 of Confident Heart now and I recommend the book to every woman I meet. As Director of our local Pregnancy Care Center, I hope to add it as a resource for the women who visit us who struggle in their own pursuit of validation and acceptance in empty cisterns.
Thanks Renee for your candor in Confident Heart. God is using it to heal me of so much. And I believe He will use it to heal many more.
Jennifer
This came at a perfect time…
I am wrestling through recognizing the times when I am choosing food for comfort – and learning to make better choices, filling those hurting, empty places with the Lord. I am weeping over the broken relationship with my parents – having been told they don’t ever want to see or hear from me & my family again. I am fighting the “being a Mom is a thankless job” feelings yet knowing that I would rather be home than in the workplace. I find myself feeling “unworthy” based on the size/age of our home (and it’s a rental!).
This SO resonated with the battle that I find myself in… and was SO INCREDIBLY ENCOURAGING to see and hear your message today! Looking to HIM to fill my empty places today!!
Thank you, Renee!!!
Renee,
Thank you for your timely message. I see I am not alone in my struggles. I can’t remember if I first heard of your book from Courtney @ Women Living Well, or my friend Lisa Smith who is reading your book–or she has already done the study. She posts a lot of quotes/verses from “A Confident Heart” and I keep thinking I sure need to read that! Struggling more than I should and I’ve been a Christian for 40 years! I’m already following you on facebook/ twitter/ and Pinterest. I hope I win the book…but if not I hope to get it soon. I know the answers are simple and just need to commit to being in the Word and prayer more. Thanks for saying you will pray for us on here too.
I love the illustration! I am going to use it at home with my kids. I have a 16 yr old, 13 yr old and a 10 yr old. I think it is appropriate for all ages. I am excited about the give away!
Thank you Renee for these words of encouragement and reminders that we need to look to Jesus to fill our empty spaces – all the spaces. Today I hit a bump in the road but God has used this message and another study I am doing to get me back on track. Thank you for listening to what God is telling you and sharing it with us. It is a great encouragement.
Thank you for your message! There is so much going on right now and I needed the message to ground me and to shift my focus where it needs to be. God Bless you!
Thank you for this visual. I love flower vases so this really speaks to me. I have been searching for words for my emotions and your video gave me words to speak to God. I have been taught that we are always going to be searching or longing for something…it is how we are made. I will focus on what really matters by using this visual when I feel like I don’t get what I want.
Renee,
Thank you for allowing God to use you. I needed this today. I have tried to feel my empty spaces with people, relationships and things. Always seeking others approval and not God’s. When we allow God to enter in and take full control, he will make us whole and fill every space. Thank you.
Thank you Renee for being willing to be used by God to help us realize that only He can fill our empty places. 🙂
Awesome!! God has really used your message to speak to me today. You are such a blessing, thank you for all you do.
Thank you, Renee. I know I have been looking to other things and people to fill me. I recently realized that I was trying to prove my worth in order to be filled. Since I began reading your book, I realized that I have been looking to other people to fill me. From childhood, I have heard the concept that I have to let God be my all before I can do anything else. This has been stuck as head knowledge all this time, and I think your words will help me begin to change this. I feel like I am still grasping at it, not fully getting it, but I am trying. I pray God will grant me the grace to embrace this, embrace Him, and live in confidence and freedom.
I am a mother of four, public school teacher about to retire, and a wife second time around. I have been a full time Christian Educator, always taught and volunteered at church, and home schooled. What haven’t I done, but I also leak and need to seek that relationship daily that fills me. Thanks for your encouragement!
Can I just say WOW! Such a powerful visual to demonstrate what I’ve been looking to, and what so many of us women look to fill and satisfy us.
I’ll be honest with you, about a year ago, I decided to take a relationship that I knew was God’s will for my life, and take it into my own hands… so I broke up with him. He didn’t do anything, I just rebelled. As soon as I broke up with him I knew in my heart, and God made it clear to me that I made a big no-no. In the beginning of our relationship you couldn’t seperate us, we were so in love… and I was going by my feelings. Since we have broke up, he is now with another girl… but God keeps telling me he’s going to work it out. To not look at those things which I see but believe what he has promised me (and it’s him.) God gave me a promise about him about 2 or 3 years ago… so now I’m waiting. I have been putting him as a priority with my mind, thinking and letting him consume my mind… and God through this study and since our break up have been trying to get my attention saying KIM, I want you! I love you, and I want my love to be enough for you. I’ve been waiting and looking for Adam to come back, but God has and is changing my focus back to him the way it’s supposed to be. I want to draw from his well of unconditional love for I’m learning in his presence, I am satisfied. Love the video Renee!!! God is in you and this study is amazing!!! I’m so glad that God brought me to this study, for I am learning so much!!!! Amazing!!!!
Renee , this video reminded me of a time in my marriage when I had the things I thought I wanted but at one point something happened and I wasn’t happy anymore but i didn’t know why. When people asked me what I wanted all I could say was “I want to be happy” And when they asked what would make me happy, I couldn’t tell them because I didn’t know myself. But what you said touched me and reminded me just how far I have come thanks to Jesus. I am happy and more content then I was. Before the only end I saw was suicide. Now I see living for Christ one of the greatest things ever. Thank you for all you do.
Thank you Renee!! I needed to hear and be reminded of this truth today!!!:) Thanking God for you and all those who have helped you provide this excellent resource for all of us women! Such a blessing, such an encouragement, such a gift!! Thank you for sharing your beautiful heart, gifts AND your time with us! I forwarded your offer to many of my friends who have purchased your book and have also joined your generous online study offer – we all LOVE it!!! Your book, this study and all the resources that go along with it have been an oasis for me- truly life giving water for a dry & thirsty soul!!!:) Many blessings to you & your family! Praying you have a very Blessed, refreshing & restful Mothers Day!:)
Thank you for the reminder that only Christ can fill my heart. And oh what peace he gives.
How timely and comforting this reminder is for me Renee! This past week, I had to bury my brother who committed suicide. He was a wonderful man but a man without hope. I prayed earnestly through the years for him to accept the message of Christ’s love and sacrifice for his soul. Being with the family brought with it not only the grief of saying goodbye to my “big brother” but also the painful reminder of parents who have cut off all relationships with me, my husband and children because we represent a family of faith in the ministry which is not welcome. My heart has longed all my life to be loved by my parents in the way my four brothers were loved, thinking this would be what would make me completely happy. Although the knowledge of this lie is obvious in my head, my heart often wrestles to connect with it, and once again, as I offered the comfort of Christ to my family throughout the week, my heart grieved deeply as this comfort was met with rejection and hostility in the midst of such a difficult and heartbreaking situation. Yet, once again removed from the pain and back home, I stand completely loved and accepted by my God who has continually filled me with such intense love to overshadow what has been taken. “He has loved me with an everlasting love and has drawn me with lovingkindness.” Jer. 31:3
This was a great lesson. I have only had three cigarettes in the past nine days. Today I found a pack and smoked one feeling like I am weak and trying to fill up my self confidence with my addiction. Thank you for showing me I don’t need to do this anymore, that I can let God fill those empty places. I really needed this message today.
Bless you, Peggy! He will fill that void!
Renee~
God has been showing me that I am lacking in my walk, faith, inheritance, because I haven’t accepted it. I carry hurts, rejections, scars and this affects my ability to accept more of him. I’ve been saved 16 years and am ONLY JUST started to let him dissect me. I am SO HUNGRY for him. I am SO HUNGRY to see who I AM to HIM. So HUngry to have the victory of my royal inheritance flowing through my body and my life. I sit here surrounded by my stuff..and still am listening to your message and crying….NEVER…by the way, do I go to the blogs and nevermind LISTEN to your personal message. I recieve proverbs 31 mesaages and you so intriqued me with what you have learned that I followed you to your blog. It was only the alluring words you used….pretty please….don’t leave without hearing my message…your concern for me. Your longing to share with me what God has shown you…..is EXACTLY what I needed. Thank you. And of course….I would love a copy of your book. This is only the beginning of a sanctifitying journey. I want to be HOLY like he is HOLY.
Thank you for your message today, it was truly timely and I felt as if God spoke directly to me. I have been praying, longing and asking him for a good Christian mate for the longest while, and sometimes even have taken things into my own hands and (of course) it didn’t work out. Today, I understand completely that only He can fill my empty spaces, my loneliness, my tiredness, my searching for love, for God IS love.
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Please continue to pray for me as I give him my entire heart so He can fill it up with His unfailing love.
God bless you as you bless others!
I don’t usually comment but here it goes. 🙂 There have been so many times in my life I have felt this way and said it to my husband. I feel like I’m missing something in my life. Each time I never knew exactly what it was and I would buy the new furniture, feel like I needed to change my career path but Nothing would work until I began praying Again. Asking God to help me thru this lonely part in my life and even though it helped I still didn’t feel fulfilled until I realized my all still wasn’t focused on Him. I still struggle with this everyday. Finding myself trying to eat healthy, workout to lose weight, changing jobs and my list goes on. I really appreciate your words today because they have given answers to Why life feels empty and incomplete. I need to not only pray about the things going wrong or right in my life but pray and seek God’s Love in all I do. Thank you again for shraring and being a living testimony of how truly amazing God is.
Thank you for the great message. God always seems to know what we need when we need it. Thank you for being such a willing vessel.
God Bless
Thank you for the encouragment you have shared with us today. Pray for us as we look to the giver instead of the gifts each moment of each day.
God Bless you for your ministry.
Good Morning Renee,
I just want to say that I enjoyed your video. The way you used the props to help describe filling that void we sometimes have in our lives was great. “Letting God Fill That Empty Place” is what I have been slowly, but surely doing – working each day to empty all of those wants and turning it all over to HIM. I know that all that is needed will be provided by Him if we just let go and let God. Thank you Renee, you are a blessing. : )
Love the illustration!
Pray I will continue to abide in HIS word!
Thank you, thank you, thank you! I am always in awe of how God works. I have been floundering around for awhile and one of the reasons I decided to take this online study is for guidance. I am a single mother and I feel as if I can’t ever get it all together. I have so many commitments, so many things I want to do for my son and for myself. I believe in Jesus and I know He is my Savior, but here the last couple of months I have been questioning my faith. I know I should go to church, I was raised in church and LOVED it, I want my son to experience that….it’s like I know what I need to do, but doing it is totally different. I am so grateful and thankful that I was able to get your ebook for free when it was offered. I must admit I prefer hard copies but I have come to realize that I NEED this study and God is speaking to me through you. So again, thank you for doing this.
Renee,
Thank you sooo much for sharing from your heart today. It was such an encouragement to me and I plan to share it with the women at our church here in Brazil. Your visual, object lesson was fantastic. May the Lord bless you in a special way today as He has blessed me through you.
This message truly spoke to me this morning. I have been feeling empty lately, and didn’t really understand why. I have a wonderful husband, a beautiful daughter, a good job, and will moving to a new house soon. But still, I was feeling empty and felt so ungrateful. Now I see why; I was letting the gifts fill my heart and not the Giver. Thank you so much for your Word from God.
I’m lacking in confidence — and I’m lacking in A Confident Heart (the book) — so winning one of these prizes would be a blessing!
Thank you so much for this. God always directs me to the places He is trying to get me to go. I am in the middle of a divorce from and abusive man, and it has taken me 2 years to get away. Only because I kept looking to my ex husband to fill those empty places in my heart. I was afraid to be alone, I have MS and my son has a rare terminal genetic disorder. I am afraid to lose my son and my own health all alone. I kept thinking the abuse was better than hurting alone. After completing this study, I now am at peace with the fact that even though I will hurt and even feel physically and humanly alone sometimes, the only way I will feel completely at peace is to seek Jesus to fill my heart. Afterall, He is the only one who will always be there for me and for my son!!!!! Thank you Jesus
Amen, dear Tara! Jesus fills the void no man can fill. Blessings to you.
Your video has dealt directly with where I am. My husband and I have struggled with each other for a long while but neither of us could put a finger on the problem. We know that we love one another but we felt this dissatisfaction. The blog today was another answer for me. It is obvious to me that this is the problem. I am trying to fill God’s place in my heart with my husband- he cannot fill it! And most importantly he is not to blame. He was not created to fill that place! I was not created to fill it for him either. Thanks for being so real.
This realization in a marriage can be LIFE CHANGING! It has allowed me to extend so much more grace towards my husband, and protects me from being bitter towards his ‘shortcomings.’ Let this truth sink deeply into both of your hearts; “…then, stand still and see this great thing the LORD is about to do before your eyes!” (1Samuel 12:16)
Fill me up Jesus – Fill me UP! This world has a way of making us feel inadequate, insufficient, unworthy, insignificant – so I always tend to try harder, look longer and deeper, become frustrated and stagnant and almost depressed….. so very thirsty! Thank you for this beautiful analogy – I am a very visual person and this was just what I needed to hear! Thank you and God bless!
Simple but very powerful illustration of what we fill our jars with! I long for God to be filling me more and more. Thanks for what you shared here.
Dear Renee –
Thank you for your message today! I’ve been blessed to have heard much of God’s Word over the years, and intellectually KNOW many of these truths, yet sometimes the heart has a difficult time truly accepting them. Or maybe, it’s vice-versa! Our heart knows them when we hear them but our minds tell us that we’re still lacking, even in His sight. Ah, another truth just came to mind – the enemy is at work primarily in our minds.
Your video was an effective demonstration of this message – thanks for encouraging your audience to listen!
This is the first time I have visited your site, Renee. Years ago I was doing what God wanted and my life was good. Still, I felt I did not have the approval, the love of people I tought I needed to be “good enough.” It took three decades of wandering – earning awards, recognition, and other “things” that seemed important for being loved – before I realized the answer was always within me. Two years ago I found a church family that embraced me with the Love of Christ. Your message today illustrated what I went through for half my life. There are days when I still look for love, for acceptance in and from the wrong places. Everything you put in your jar can float. As God’s Living Water fills us, those “things” can float to the top and disappear as more Living Water is allowed in. Thank you for this image. Thank you for your message. To God be the glory.
Thank you for this wonderful visual. I’ve been struggling a lot lately as both my kids have moved out and I am now an emptynester. I have been divorced for 13 yr. and am really starting to feel the loneliness and the desire to re-marry. I have grown a LOT closer to Jesus over the last 3 years, but something still felt off. I am hoping this week, with your suggestion to just ask Him, I will be able to start to fill this emptiness.
Rachelle
Renee:
I just recently got back into receiving the devotions from Proverbs 31 Ministries. I have been so inspired by them and sharing them with others. I pray to God everyday to open doors for my business, but I know I have been selfish. I prayed to HIM today to open the doors of his choosing and to Fill my heart with HIS guidance and love. I have been unemployed for 6 months, but I told my husband that I believe that we remained faithful in our tithes and God has provided all our needs. He is gracious and I love him. I need prayer to seek him more in EVERYTHING I do.
Thank you for your minsitry. Kimberly
That is beautiful!!! Thank you so much for sharing your love for Christ with us! I really needed to hear that!!! I have always looked to my husband to fill my heart and of course he always falls short. I have put so much unnecessary pressure on him that should go to God. The visual will be a constant reminder for me. My husband and I thank you and God!!!
What a precious confession! God loves your honesty and I’m sure your husband does too! 🙂
God has done an amazing work in me, I was severely abused and neglected as a child and have come thru so much by the Grace of God….I praise God for that. I still have a few areas that I am not totally dependant on God…I need prayer for that…thank you for the visual, it really helped me…
I recently left a very good job for a Congressman to refocus my priorities. Working between DC and Co and leaving my family in search of who knows what, I finally realized that I was chasing ALL of the things you described and more. The emptiness far outweighed the fullness the world offered. The past 4 weeks have been a time to de-stress and refocus and yet I still feel I am fumbling. In an effort to glean some wisdom and encouragement I have gone in search of daily devotions to help me start the day in proper focus…today I came across this one and it has spoken to me greatly. Thank you.
Thank you Renee. The illustration was very helpful. I know God is the only thing that can fill us and satisfy us, I just wish it was as easy as emptying a jar. He’s working in me to teach me to be content with what I have. I am so blessed, but it is very difficult to not look to friends, family, and church to fill us. They all mean well, but, like me, they are not perfect and will and have left me broken, unfilled.
Thank you for your book and this study. I am trying to keep up and involved. I really need God’s confidence in my life.
So great that you have a strong desire to be learning! Blessings to you.