WEEK 8 Update: My week 8 email update included the wrong link which brought you back to this post. Sorry about that. Please click here to go to week 8’s word of the week.
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Our word for the week: CONQUEROR
Be sure to print it and post it everywhere! You can download in a PDF or in MSWord.
God’s WORD for US this week:
“No, in all these things you are more than [a] conqueror through Him who loved you.” Romans 8:37
Share Your Thoughts: As you read Chapter 7 , are there sentences or verse you’ve underlined or highlighted? Click “Share Your Thoughts” below to give your answers.
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# 2 Yes from the abuse I went through growing up I felt it was the end of my world. I let it define me by turning to alcohol and smoking and promosquity. After becoming a Christian I learned that I am free from past hurts and failures and God does not condemn me. From reading this book I was reminded how failure produce wisdom. As long as we are open to learning from them. I have learned plenty from mine, God’s path is definetly the better path to take.
# 5 condemnation brings down and causes shame and guilt to control us.
conviction builds us up and causes us to change our ways with the help of the Holy Spirit.
This weekend I am going away. My husband and i will be helping our teen ministry drive the teens to the mountains for their winter teen camp. Then we have the weekend just the 2 of us yea should be a blast. So I leave my sisters with this prayer i received in an email.
I thought you could use a GOD hug.
Dear God:
This is my friend, whom I love and this is my prayer for her help her to live to the fullest. Please promote her and cause her to excel above her expectations. Help her to shine in the darkest places where it is impossible to love. Protect her at all times, lift her up when she needs You the most, and let her know she walks with You, she will always be safe. Love to you all God Bless and have a great weekend.
Wendy…just to share with you…ask the Lord to show you..when to meet with Him, for me He lead me to have a time I called “lunch with Jesus”….so I committed every Wed./even put it on my calendar ( just like we would with a lunch with a girlfriend..)…. trust me…you will want and desire more time, more days!!….He is just waiting to be with you!
Praying for you, as when we are ‘still’…He draws you so close to give you His love, healing touch.
I wanted to share what the Lord showed me yesterday regarding failing forward. I sent it to the ladies in our “A Confident Heart” group to encourage them and hope it does those who read it as well. I did encourage me! 🙂
We conqueror through Him who loves us! He has the best for us! He will never let us down! It’s like parents and children. When your child falls, do you leave them there? No! You go and pick them up, dust them off, kiss their boo boos and then send them on their way. When children are learning how to walk they fall time and time again. Do we tell them not to try again? No! We pick them up and encourage them to try until they finally learn to walk. Jesus is just like that. When we fail, and sometimes it can be more than once a day, week or whatever :), does He tell us we’ll never make it, we’re failures, we’re useless? No! He helps us get back up, dusts us off, and tells us to try again. He will be with us, walk with us, encourage us and He has given us the Holy Spirit to show us the way. He doesn’t look at us as failures. He looks at us as winners, conquerors. He loves us! I hope this encourages you today to not give up even when you feel like you have failed in an area of your life, because He doesn’t and will never give up on you! I am so thankful for that promise! 🙂
I love what you shared Suzanne it is so true and an excellant anaogl to use. Thank you for sharing it.
I am hoping that, although I am a couple days late….someone reads this and can provide some suggestions to me.
All my life I have been “busy”. I have come to realize that the constant running and doing was out of fear. Fear that my past will catch up with me and the awful nightmares and feeling of unworthiness and shame would catch up. I have found strength through this study and know that no matter how fast I run, God is with me.
I have looked at my early years of life as a failure. I’m struggling to really truly embrace the thought that I can’t be responsible for the behavior of adults when I was a child.
What verses or prayers have worked for you when you struggle with looking internally and feeling good about yourself and not a failure for what others have done to you?
I want to slow down and really know and love God but am so afraid.
Wendy, I came to a similar place earlier in my life after my second child was born. He was colicky and the lack of sleep led me to kind of an emotional breakdown which ended up being one of the biggest blessings in my life. I came to realize that my relationships with God first and my family second were really the only things that matter in the end. One of my favorite verses is Matthew 6:33 – “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” Blessings to you and feel free to send me an e-mail at [email protected] if you want to “talk” more. 🙂
I relate to chapter 7 as much as chapter 6. I very much have felt like a failure after separating from my husband four months ago, failing God as a wife and step-mother. I know this is not true, but it is how I felt. I am so glad God led me to my counselor and through her, this book and study.
Some things I high lighted in Chapter 7 were, “Jesus also knew that her sin was not who she was. It was what she had done.” “God wants to give us a new starting place. He sees beyond who we are to who we are becoming.” “God’s Spirit will convict you, but His heart will never condemn you.” “Although it seems contradictory, failure can help us become the confident women God created us to be. It can make us stronger and better – if we go to God for help.” I like the failing forward, that “even when she falls, she doesn’t have to stay down. Instead she reaches for God’s hand and rises again.” Thank you so much for sharing your story Renee.
I definitely like the gold miner analogy! Also relate to the smaller, everyday things as main source of “failure” right now. At times need to keep reminding myself that God does not condemn me for my past (or even present). He has forgiven me & is waiting for me to forgive myself & allow Him to use those experiences to work in & through me.
Dear Renee,
I have been so inspired and uplifted the last 7 weeks. I have made copies of the verse for the week, and they are hanging on the fridge as the memory verse. I thank you for sharing so wonderfully and openly. I live in South Africa, and am using your verses and encouragement in my life and women about me, especially in my office environment…God bless Sonia
If anyone would like to be encourage through powerful messages that are perfectly aligned with our reading, visit North Point Church’s (Andy Stanly is the lead pastor) website: http://www.northpoint.org/messages. There is a two-part series titled Vengeance and a three-part series called The Comparison Trap that are excellent–well worth the investment of time to listen. As I took these in, it felt as if Andy and Rene had surely been working together to align the timing of this information. It simply reinforced for me the importance of this message to God for His people.
Regarding chapter 7, “I’m such a failure”….seems to have been my “mantra” over the years. If I didn’t say it aloud, then my inner voice was telling me this often. Being an at-home mom in a society where value is found on employment…has been difficult. I had to tell myself that I was doing what God wanted me to do and that is all that matters. But, there were plenty of other voices (and not much support when I was raising my kids). The thing is that in thinking that being a mom and trying to raise good(godly) kids was my worth…when they failed/stumbled in their life, I took it as a personal failure (still do at times)…God has been trying to show me that my value is entirely separate from what I do (gasp! how un-American!). ;^j
In Chapter 7 I was reminded again to focus on the good (“Whatever is good, noble, …”) To look for the positive…and “think on these things.” I need to apply that to my children, others…AND myself (sometimes I forget that one.) Something that does help me is remembering that the LORD is the Author AND Finisher of my faith. He is faithful and will complete that which concerns me (and my children)…. When I lay my burden (and my head) upon His chest…and rest it there…listening to His heart of love….then I am comforted!
God bless you!
God bless you too, Carla. I have struggled with the same lie that my life is a failure because I chose to stay home with my children and their lives have not turned out perfectly. But I know that realistically no one’s life ever turns out perfectly, no matter how wonderful the parents/environment/teaching etc. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Thank heaven for God’s grace in sending us a Savior for that very reason.
Hello my sweet sisters,
For me, on page 123 “Setting traps is exactly what Satan does. He lures us into wanting something, and than he turns it around and accuses us on the basis of the very thing he enticed us with.” This is what hit me with so much truth. Coming from alcoholic parents and such a dysfunctional home, I have worked at this all of my 55 years of life. I have struggled with addiction all my life and I do believe it is one of Satan’s biggest weapons. It is in fact becoming epidemic in our country!!! I live in Florida and it is the worst state. I heard the other day on the news that FL is worse than all the states put together. Doctor’s freely give pain meds out to the max. I have never used the system by going to different Doctors but the one I have gives me pain meds as needed which is way to much than he should. I started a year ago on pain meds for my arthritic knees and before I realized it and it came to the place where I knew I was habitually sinning I was so addicted!!! In December I had a mental breakdown and sort of went crazy, without all the details, it was one of the worst experiences of my whole life. I thank God for the Godly woman, who is an addiction counselor in my church, God put in my life. She helped me wean off without me having to tell my husband or my 3 sons who knew nothing about it. I work as a companion to the elderly and go into many homes where pain meds are right in front of me…I love my work and feel I am called to do it by God. I go back now to the sentence I quoted …I will go into a home and see them and I just want them again…It is like trying to tame a lion as I just read in article about a famous actress who deals with it. When i get the script I am enticed and then beat myself up for doing it…As He does…Satan uses the very thing to turn around and use against me…I pray for the confidence in myself only God can give me and that I realize that when I am weak God is strong and He helps me get past the temptation…When I fail I try to fail forward and realize I have to learn from this life long lesson I have to learn over and over again…I am weary from it. I have thought of leaving this type of work so I am not tempted but I feel God is calling me to it…for many reasons…It is good for me to do for others, I feel so loved and appreciated after I leave a home, I am helping them and also He is teaching me self control when I am faced with the temptation…Help me Lord I hate, hate this battle and this cross to bear throughout my life….Thank you sisters for listening, my heart aches over who Peggy is sometimes….
This is a perfect find for today…Thanks!
Renee I thank God for using you in encouraging me every now and then. May your Ministry grow to help others who are worried.
I love this chapter….it is one of the things that I have been learning in my life. Satan wants to derail us in any way that he can. Living in a M*slim country and ministering to a people group who are very resistant has it’s challenges and Satan’s lies are one of the things we have to battle with daily. I love our verse for this week and the song from Casting Crowns ” The Voice of Truth” The question that I try to ask myself when doubts arise is what is truth and what are Satan’s lies. Thank you Renee for sharing with us. This book is a great encouragement to me.
..after reading ‘all’ of these posts…and hearing from my sisters in Jesus…’all over the world’..wow…
I am getting into the chapter tonight..and I can’t wait!
Lenten season blessings to each of you.
p.s…..’thank you’ Renee in advance!
dear Leslie,
The enemy would love for you to believe the lie that you are not forgiven but according to 1 John 1:9 you are
Are forgiven the minute you confess. Who are you going to believe? Sometimes our sins have consequences that result, that does not change Gods love. I pray in time, things will heal between you and your friend and that God will use thiscin your life to fail forward. Could God be showing you an unresolved issue that you and he need to work on? blessings, Kelley
Thank you, ladies, for all of the inspirational messages. I don’t post often but love reading the posted verses and comments. I am starting to get that small sense of belief that maybe my past doesn’t really have to define my present and my future. If God is for me, who can be against me!!
Praise The Lord Fiona!! I am singing for joy over our new sister in Christ! There have been many blessings throughout my walk with Christ but, to be there when a sister accepts our Lord into her heart has to be one of the all time “highs”. I am so happy for her and I will be praying for her faith and that she will take up the whole armor of God. Ephesians 13-17. As we know she will need to gird her waist with truth, have the breastplate of righteousness and the shield of faith to quench all the fiery darts, the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. So, she can know that “in all these things you (she is) more than a conqueror through Him who loved (her) you. Romans 8:37. It will be a blessing to be faithful to pray for her.
Authorine says Feburuary 28, 2012
On page 125 this section with God starring me in the eyes saying you are right,Authorine. In your own strength and through your own perspective. you cannot do this. But I am here with you. I will help you.God can do more with our failures than the world can do with our successes. Failures often the back door to success .if we persevere.Falure always made me try harder next time.As we encounter our ups and downs,it is helpful to remember that God never fails and that His mercy never ceases. His compassions fail not; they are new every morning, if you’re brooding over a failure today, place it in Christ’s hands. He can turn it for good
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God bless all my Sisters in Christ. Love Ya’ll.
I can’t wait to come to “my place” here….. I am so bless having everyone of you.
Reading all your comments and blessings make my very happy. =)
Blessings,
“It was Peter’s faith in Christ as Messiah and his love for the Son of God that, despite his obvious shortcomings, gave him potential to be used by God.” These words really hit and have been a great reminder that it’s not about what I can do, but WHO God is!! Faith in Him is going to accomplish all He wants me to do! Then add love for Him to the equation and that gives the motivation to obey and follow where He leads!