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’ve tried for years to fill that spot with food, I’d rather have God fill it with Himself. Thank you for your encouragement.
God’s timing is so perfect. This is just what I have needed. Isn’t it amazing how we try everything else when the solution is right there in front of us? I am just thankful that God knows how to reach my heart. He sends me sisters with His personal message just for me, at just the exquisitely correct moment so that I am able to understand what He is telling me. Now I can release the deep, penetrating, profound, longstanding hurt with His deep, penetrating, profound and permanent validation. Thank you Sweet Jesus.
I can’t explain how much I needed this today. Struggling through a marriage that has had too many heartbreaks and ups & downs, I have longed for my husband to truly love me. What I’ve learned today is that my longing needs to shift back to Jesus and the rest will then come together perfectly. Thank you.
Wow! So many times I have asked Jesus to fill me with his Spiritt. But what I didn’t realize was all the stuff I’ve been carrying in my jar and how difficult it is to try & fill those {limited} empty spaces with Him. What a great visual reminder that the more junk I get ride of, the more He can fill my jar! Thank you Jesus 🙂
love your outlook!! 🙂
Today’s message was an awesome and powerful message. It also has confirmed what I have been studying and asking God to fulfill in me. I so want to be confident in who I am in Christ. However, I too look to the gifts and not the Giver to make me whole. As I was studying the passage about the woman at the well, I began to long for the living water Jesus spoke of. And like a ton of bricks, it hit me, that was what I had been searching for. I wanted the living water to spring forth in me so that I could be confident in knowing that God is all I need! Thank you Renee for the confirmation in your message today.
Thank you so much for this teaching. I totally needed to be reminded of this today. This is one of those areas of struggle for me and I’ve been working on chipping away at it with the Lord over the last few years. He’s been so faithful as I’ve been holding captive my thoughts on Him! Not only was this a good reminder for me today, but it’s something I’d like to share with my children as well. Thank you again for sharing your heart!
Thank you for the visual to really see what Gods unfailing live looks like and how we like to fill it for him with things and stuff. My favorite part was learning about unfailing love and how it’s not ever attributed to a person. God is Good all the time!!!
Great video! I have heard of this idea before but the new take-away for me today was your suggestion to ask God what is taking priority over him. I usually try to figure that out by myself. No wonder I don’t get a clear answer. Thanks for this encouragement!
This is my first time visiting your page and boy am I glad to have found it! I am a new mom and it has been so difficult for me lately to keep my relationship with Jesus thriving and intimate. I am guilty of looking for my husband, my son, my friends, etc to fill my heart and I know it’s a silly choice anyway, because God is the only one who will really satisfy me! Thank you so much for this video and the blog because it’s an amazing picture of how God wants to fill our hearts. And if we leave the stuff in our heart and try to have Him fill it, there’s too much stuff in the way and not enough of Him!
Thank you so much!
Abby, hang in there! Being a new mom is a huge challenge; may God use this time to draw you ever closer to Him, relying on Him for your daily portion of strength and grace. His mercy is new every morning- remind yourself of that!
Renee thanks for the message. Right on time. The illustration was great!
Renee,
I wish I could express to you how timely your message is for me. Only this week I declined a position which provided more job security. However, this position also included a longer commute, time away from my family and a greater burden of responsibility. Ultimately, I had to ask myself, which was more important – my career and money or availability for my family. In agreement with my husband, we chose family. Some may think this should be an easy decision, but in today’s market, all options must be reviewed. I believe however, for me, part of the attraction was looking to “things” to fill the spaces – the days where maybe I don’t feel appreciated as a mother, but know in my heart, it is where I am to be. Thank you!
Blessings to you Friend! I travelled a long career path to find my way home with my family. So thrilled to hear that you feel confident in your decision. God is good!
Thank you so much for this message. God needed me to hear these words today.
Renee, that was a really good message. there are definitely times when I am always looking for something to make me happy and I seem to never be content with what I have. For instance, I have been wanting a house and have asked God numerous times for that blessing and it has times taken over my thought process. Listening to your message tells me that maybe God will bless us with a house, maybe not as soon as I want it but that I need to remove it from my mind and put him in the forefront. Not just for what I know that he can do for me, but just because I love him and he loves me. Thank you for taking the time for making that video, it made the empty spaces a lot more clear to me.
I woke up early today, very much unlike me. I was debating on whether or not I should go meet friends for coffee, which was set for the time I usually get out of bed. I was frustrated that this time had been chosen, I never plan anything this early…I need time to wake up. I’m a crabby morning person. I grudgingly got up and checked my email to find out if someone changed their mind and wanted to meet later. All I saw was ” can’t wait to see you!” and “see you there!”
Argh! Really?!?
After those emails to the delete bin my Proverbs 31 email popped up, I looked at the title and cringed. Oh my stubborn, crabby heart was pierced!
After reading it, I wanted more! Fill me up Jesus!
Thank you for the video, I needed that beautiful face to tenderly give me Gods truth and soothe away the crankiness.
If I had stayed in bed I would have missed this precious time, this beautiful sunny morning and seeing our hummingbirds come back for the first time this spring!
Thank you.
Sweet! 🙂
Thank you Renee ! You have no idea ( maybe you do ) how true what you speak of in this video describes me. God has helped me overcome many personal struggles over the last few decades, but I stubbornly still struggle with many. The fact that I never completely an education or reached “my” ideal body size still keeps me in bondage. I admire your honesty and am so excited to be following your online study ( my very first online study!!) thanks again for your continuous prayer. I am hopeful that by completing this study there will be victory!!!
I loved this message. God sends us just what we need to hear at the right time. We sometimes hear these stories over and over and they just don’t sink in. Then we listen with our heart as welland it all comes together. Thank you for speaking to my heart today I really needed this.
Dear Renee,thank u so much for ur encouragement. Ive been so down due to the empty places in my heart,searching for God to fill them,bt it still stayed empty.now i knw better,to let God show me how to position my heart so i can be filled by the power of His love. God bless thee.
Thank you Renee for your illustration today. I’ve been going through some of life’s biggest struggles and despite all of them someone has been placed in my life with an encouraging word or invited me to a bible study. I am so thankful for this bible study this moment in my life. There so many hurting women out there and I just want to learn and share. Gods word to help someone else know His unconditional love.
Dear Renee,
Isn’t just like God to keep knocking on the “door” of our hearts, over and over until we open up and say; OK!!
For 3 years I’ve been trying to leave a toxic relationship with out much success. 2 weeks ago I finally ended it. I’ve known all this time he was not the right person for me, but I kept looking to him to “fill my jar” -please!!
I had been listening to a Beth Moore series and she also spoke on us filling our jars with other people, things, addictions. I couldn’t get it out of my mind. After a very verbally abusive encounter with him, I ended it. It’s been truly like going through detox, but over and over I keep hearing this story in my head. Today when I was still laying in bed, I said; God, help me to remove him from my heart and head. I don’t want him taking up so much space. Then I got up, checked my email, and here you are today with THE SAME BIBLE STORY!!! This is NOT a coincidence!! When God speaks to me, He has to say it over and over again until He really gets my attention. Today, He has. Thank you for this powerful message.
OH girl! I’m a hardhead too. 🙂 Such repetition it takes to get our attention. Blessings today.
Thank you Renee,
So good to be reminded of where to place our trust. You telling us to “Shift our dependence from the gift to the Giver, along with the end of this weeks verse, “Show me the way I should go, for to You I lift up my soul.”
Keeps us in a place to be filled by God.
Blessings!