I’ve got 10 MORE BOOK GIVEAWAYS this month!
To find out when I have a giveaway, sign up in my sidebar where it says “Receive Email Updates.”
“What a [woman] desires is unfailing love …” Proverbs 19:22a (NIV)
I had everything I wanted yet felt empty and confused.
My life was full of relationships and accomplishments I’d worked hard to gain, but none could fill or fulfill me.
Frustrated by my aching emptiness, tears streamed down my face as I thought about the guy I dated through high school and college. Our future plans had crumbled under the pressure of me expecting him to be all I needed.
I had been crazy about him — a little too crazy.
Like the time a friend mentioned my ex-boyfriend was heading to our hometown for the weekend. We worked near each other, so Friday afternoon I parked by his office and waited for him to leave.
We both “happened” to be at the same fast food restaurant, at the same time and bumped into each other. After getting my order, I got in my car and followed behind him, hoping he’d see me, realize he couldn’t live without me and signal to pull over so we could talk.
Seriously, what was I thinking? As you can guess, he never stopped. I was hopeless and humiliated…
A few weeks later, I was taking a walk around my college campus. My eyes drifted to the buildings, dorms and other landmarks of memories. Suddenly my mind filled with a collage of faces, reminding me of my efforts to win the approval of advisors, friends and professors — hoping their affirmation could fill my emptiness.
Although I was graduating soon, had a few great job offers and achieved success in many ways, my heart still felt restless. And I couldn’t help but wonder: Why was all that I had never enough?
A thought rushed through my soul, stringing together two words I had never put next to each other. I sensed God answering me.
Renee, all you have ever wanted is unconditional love.
Unconditional love? I didn’t know there was such a thing. Then God whispered into my soul: You’ll never find the love you long for in anyone or anything but Me. I AM the unconditional love you’re looking for.
The thought of God loving me without any conditions was inconceivable, yet something deep in my soul told me it was true. I’d been looking for love that didn’t have to be earned. Love I didn’t have to fear losing.
Honestly, it was hard to see how God’s love could fill the emptiness in my heart. It took time, but I came to understand that God created me with that need for fulfillment so He could meet it.
Proverbs 19:22a, says, “What a person desires is unfailing love.”
The word “desire” comes from the Hebrew word ta’avah, which means: to greatly long for, deeply desire or crave. Interestingly, unfailing love is mentioned over 30 times in the Bible, and not once is it in reference to a person. It is only attributed to God.
Could it be that God gave us a desire for unfailing love, because He knew it could lead us back to Him?
If today’s post resonated with you, I hope you’ll ENTER TO WIN (This giveaway has ended, but I’d still love to hear from you!)
a copy of my new Confident Heart Devotional. I truly believe the stories and truths in it will change your life {like they have mine}!
Based on honest struggles we all have with comparison, self-doubt, fear of failing, and the life-changing lessons God’s taught me and ten other women, {whose stories are in the book} you will discover how to change the way you feel by changing the way you think – which will transform the way you live!
Expanding on what readers of my first book LOVED most: “When I say … God says …” statements, I’ve written 60 new devotions and new {WISGS} statements to equip you with a new a thought map and a promise – to live in every day!
ENTER TO WIN (This giveaway has ended, but I’d still love to hear from you!)
Share your thoughts in the comments below to WIN one of 5 copies of my A Confident Heart Devotional or a copy of The Five Love Languages: Singles Edition for you or a friend. Be sure to let us know which book you’d like to win!
Unconditional love is not easy to fully grasp. If it was, I could comfortably hand the reigns to Jesus and sit back and relax. I would truly know in my heart that anything that He brings me to He will bring me through. He is still working on me.
I really struggle with unconditional love. I truly want to love this way, but first, I have to know God’s unconditional love myself! I somehow try to ‘skip’ this step, and then I get so discouraged when time and time again, I fail to walk in love! My prayer is that God would make me a vessel for His love. That it would flow through me to others. That I would stop trying to love others in my own strength. That I would remember that, “apart from God, I can do nothing.”
My sister and I have been thinking for quite some time to start a small bible study at my house. We finally decided to take a leap of faith to do it. As we began searching for a good devotional to use to share at the bible study she found the crosswalk website, which lead us to the piece written by Renee. The message was for me and I’m really excited about getting the daily messages from her. Of course winning a copy of the book would be awesome, not just because I’m excited to get to know her heart but I seriously think it maybe a real good resource for the bible study. Thank you Renee for being bold enough to share your story. It is comforting to know that I’m not the only one and I’m certain there are so many other woman who feel the same way. Thank you and God bless!!
I really enjoyed your post…it spoke to me. Thank you
God has been working on me to fully surrender every area of my life to him. i have been feeling so much peace knowing he is in control of everything.
I loved Confident Heart. The devotional would be a great tool. I want to develop a closer relationship with God and go to him first for the love instead of others or things.
I do seek God but find I have compartments where He fits into my life. How I long for Him to fill me completely and allow me to know His love – His unconditional love. This is my prayer. I would be blessed to get “The Confident Heart Devotional” to help me with my journey.
You have to be content with yourself and love yourself first before you can allow someone else to love you as well. Love is not meant to complete each other but compliment each other. Thats why I don’t watch shows like “The Bachelor” watching all those desperate women makes me sad. You complete you and God completes you!!!
I am very interested in winning your Confident Heart Devotional. Until I read today’s Proverbs 31 Ministries devotional I did not realize that is what I am constantly doing, looking for unfailing love, and sometimes that leads me to push people away, or as my husband say it makes me look as if I lack self confidence. Thank you so much this makes me want to read your book. I have been a Christian for years now, but not really because it is only recently that I have been actually making efforts to walk along side Jesus. During this journey I am learning so much about myself and although some of it isn’t making me proud, it is making me excited on how I can change and develop my relationship with our Savior. Thank you for the opportunity to win and Many Blessing to you and your loved ones.
Found this via your Facebook page. I really enjoy your posts, quotes, and beautiful photographs.
I struggle with separating my “who” from my “do” and think I’d relate to and benefit from A Confident Heart. Thank you for hosting this GiveAway!
Thank you Renee again for your transparency. Through our stripes, we are healed and help others heal.
This devotion was perfect for me today. I missed out on a parent’s love growing up and I do long to be loved unconditionally. Expecting that of my human husband has led to disappointment and too great a load for any man to carry. I know with my head that God loves me unconditionally; I am praying to know it deep in my heart and soul. I keep asking Jesus to renew my mind with His word and truth.
thanks for your post. It really resonated with me.
This really touched me and spoke to me. I have been going through a lot lately and this was exactly what I needed I hope that I win one of the devotional books!!!
Hi Renee! I would love to win a copy of your A Confident Heart Devotional! I have your book and I must confess that I stopped at Chapter 8. The bible study group that I convinced to do a study of the book, disbanded before we finished. I want to finish it, but I am currently doing the Made 2 Crave online study. I have always struggled with low self-esteem and confidence. My father died when I was 13, and I see know that I chose my husband because he was like my dad in some ways. The problem was, he could live up to my expectations. He was not a Christian and he was very verbally abusive and demeaning. After 17 years, it got to a point where he almost took my life infront of my children. I left and 10 years later, I still struggle with guilt for choosing the wrong guy, staying too long, ruining my children’s childhood, etc. They don’t blame me, but I blame me. I am realizing my issues with food are related to this. Since the day I left my ex, my relationship with my heavenly Father has grown by leaps and bounds, but I still have a ways to go. I feel your devotions would be a great inspiration to me.
Thank you for being so honest and open with all of us!
I’ve been struggling with feelings of emptiness and have been trying to fill that with all of the wrong things. I’ve been praying that God help me to focus on Him and allow Him to fill the void I know only He can. I’ve gotten several reminders over the past few days. Seeing a portion of your devotional pop up on my FB newsfeed was another and I really appreciate the encouragement!!
I know that when people look at my life they all think, “her life is perfect. She doesn’t have a problem at all”. If they only knew how distant I feel from my Father, how much I strive to feel His love. I am reading this on my computer and I know that I need to get “The Confident Heart” as soon as I can. I would love to have the Devotional to go with it.
It is so easy to look for love in the wrong places, I need assuranance sometimes that God is all I need, I would love the confident book
I do this with many things. For instance, when I’ ve left jobs, I still want to know what is going on and it takes a while to let go, even if I am unhappy in the situation.
Most recent days have left me feeling like a lost soul, empty, unfulfilled. So many things have changed in my life lately and I have felt the need to feel Gods love and be still to try and find my way and my place in this life. Today’s devotional spoke volumes to me as a reminder to seek that fulfillment from God and not others. I can relate to almost every post here and it’s reassuring that I’m not alone. I would love to read both of you books, as a single mother, maybe love languages would best benefit me. For so much I am uncertain, the one thing I can be certain is that I need to put all my faith on Him and trust God has a plan for me, even when I feel so very broken.
I have always found myself wanting to feel accepted and constantly go out of my way to do things for others so people will accept me and yet I always find myself getting burned, used, still feeling like I’m not good enough. My faith withered away at one point thinking that I wasn’t even good enough for God to take care of and love due to some awful things that happened several years ago that I’m still trying to overcome. My mind is still in constant worry, despite going to church and praying and even still I feel that sometimes I’m just not important enough. Thanks.
So sorry I would love the Confident Heart book to maybe learn how to be stronger.
I have been expecting the unconditional/unfailing love to come from people, especially relationships for too long and they always end because they cannot meet ALL of my needs. I always thought I was putting complete trust in God, but if I had, I wouldn’t have felt so lost and devastated when things ended. I would love and be so thankful to have either one of the books.
This post hit home as it has been something I’ve struggled with a lot. Thanks for a great giveaway. I’m keeping my fingers crossed for the Confident Heart book. 🙂
Thanks Renee for giving us the opportunity to win a book!
I loved “A Confident Heart”, as our women’s bible study group went through it as our bible study last year. I learned so much and so did the rest of the ladies who attended.
I would love to win the “A Confident Heart Devotional”!
Thanks and may you be blessed!
Susan
I would dearly love to win The Things We Do for Love. . . All of her books have helped me one way or another and have been reread many times!
I am reading your book right now and I love it. I would love the devotional. You have been such a encouragement to me
Understanding and truly believing that God is my first love. Knowing that I can only look to Him to fill those empty places. No other being can do that.
If there is one thing our Heavenly Father can give us that no one else can, it is unconditional love. Through my struggles with my marriage, deep depression, job loss, & weight loss over the past six years, I have always felt the presence of the Holy Spirit in my life. When I felt like I was not worthy, didn’t deserve forgiveness, & I hated the person I saw when I looked in the mirror, God was always never more than a prayer away. Even though I didn’t think I was worthy of His love, forgiveness, mercy, or grace, He believed I was worth it & made for so much more! He has always loved me despite my sin, my failures as a wife & mother, & my obesity. Bearing the weight of my sin on the cross & giving His life for mine is the greatest gift of unconditional love I could ever receive. I desire to be more like Him everyday & it’s because of Jesus I have hope to be an overcomer!
My husband is pretty good at it but still I struggled for yrs. to understand his love so to comprehend the love of God I’m thinking will take me a lifetime. I know He is unconditioal but not sure how to receive it & let Him shower me in it. Still a work in progress as we all are.
The Lord speaks to me through your post. I have been going through an illness that makes me depressed because I can’t do many things that I would like to do. I have congestive Heart failure. I am recovering right now from 5 days at John Hopkins .i was retaining too much fluid,so they had to get the fluid out of my body so that I could breath easier. Have a blessed evening!
i read Confident Heart…my youngest daughter is reading it now…beautifully written Renee~ thank you…perfect timing~ would love to win the devotional.
I would love to win a copy of the Confident Heart Devotional.
Hi Renee! Your book “A Confident Heart” was my very first OBS and I loved it! I learned so much more about myself and my relationship with Jesus! And have since shared the book with others. I would love to read the devotional as it would daily remind me of who I am in Christ! A daughter of God, uniquely and wonderfully made! Thanks for the opportunity! God bless!
Last year on Christmas Day my aunt gave me “A Confident Heart Devotional” and “A Confident Heart”. When I started reading “A Confident Heart” I knew this was God’s way of answering my prayer. I had been asking him to help me to let the pain of rejection from my past go so I can move forward. After reading the book my attitude about myself has changed and I thank God he used you to minister to a 22 year old like me. I’m still reading the devotional and it has ministered to me as well. I would like to win “The Five Languages of Love” for myself.
When I went through a divorce, I struggled. When I say I struggled, I mean I STRUGGLED. I was totally caught unaware. Looking back I can’t believe how I tried to change myself to be something he wanted and trying to fix what was wrong with me. This time was really hard on me because my dad had also left when I was younger. Because of these situations I have a hard time trusting. This impacts my walk with God daily. He is with me and I know he has done great things for me and my children. I know this, but it seems I continue to struggle with totally trusting Him. Please pray for me. I truly want to be the woman God wants me to be. I have just started the A Confident Heart study. Please pray I have the courage to complete the study. I feel like God keeps pulling me to this, and I believe He has something in this study for me.
Sometimes I feel like I’m the only one who thinks like this. But I know its just Satan’s attempt to make me feel bad. I do need more confidence in my life. I have really low self esteem. Ive never read this book. Sometimes I feel lost.
Either book would be appreciated.
Just trying to stay focused in this overwhelming journey. This devotional sounds like a great resource
I, too have felt that way. To tell the truth, I continue to off and on. With that said, I have discovered how important God is to me and I to Him. So…it would be great to win your book to help remind me that I am important and matter more to God and it’s okay if others cannot fill that hole within me.
I needed to hear this. I always jump into new relationships and lose myself and who I am as God’s child. I am trying to slowly learn to live myself. Thank you for sharing. If my name is picked I’d like your devotional.
Always enjoy your post!
It’s such a hard truth to accept that God could love me unconditionally when I don’t love myself. I get so frustrated when I have to correct my own children for the same things over and over and over; I feel like surely one of these days I’ll use up all the patience God has with me and He’ll be done, frustrated that I’m struggling with the same sin business over and over. I’d understand! I’m frustrated with me too!
I’d love to win the devotional.
Thanks for this post and for using your life to point others to Him. I too am a people pleaser and strive for everyone to like me…all I really need is His approval. Would love to have a copy of the devotional. Thanks for the opportunity.
As a current college student, I’ll be the first to admit, albeit somewhat abashedly, that I’ve spent the vast majority of my academic career doing this exact thing: time and time again, I’ve looked to other people—my friends, my family, my youth group leaders, and not to mention guys—to fill and fulfill me, only to be met with overwhelming disappointment. And each time I was met with disappointment, I would run to God and ask Why? Why are you allowing this to happen? Why can’t I find someone who will satisfy this craving, this desire? Is a {good friend/caring boyfriend/interested mentor} really so much to ask for?
It hadn’t occurred to me that the answer I was so desperately seeking was right in front of me. And I was utterly convinced that because I was involving God in my life, things like this weren’t supposed to happen. Isn’t this your will for me, God? Don’t you want this for me? I would ask, time and time again.
You see, I had a lot of knowledge about the Bible and about who God was, but putting my knowledge into practice was something else entirely. It hadn’t really occurred to me that merely involving God wasn’t enough: sure, I’d go through my daily devotions and spend time with Him regularly. But I wasn’t trusting him with everything—no, that special undertaking was reserved instead for my closest friends and family members; and I was setting them up to fail.
I’d love to tell you I’ve got it all together: that I’ve figured out the secret to consistently keeping God at the center of my life; that after countless misfires and failures, I’ve learned to trust him with everything.
But I haven’t. It takes practice. Lots and lots of practice.
I think that’s why this devotion had such an impact on my life today. It was such an incredible reminder of God’s UNFAILING love for me—for all of us.
God took the few minutes I spent reading through this devotion to speak to my heart: to show me that only He is enough, and to show me that he is using all of those failures—the times I’ve been let down, the times I’ve felt so lost and alone, the times I’ve felt hopeless—to draw me closer to him.
And the incredible thing is, God wants to reveal these things to us: he wants to show us that He is dependable, that His love truly is unfailing, and that when we finally trust Him with everything, He will not disappoint.
Malachi 3:10 (NLT) says, “’Bring all the tithes into the storehouse so there will be enough food in my Temple. If you do,’” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, “’I will open the windows of heaven for you. I will pour out a blessing so great you won’t have enough room to take it in! Try it! Put me to the test!’”
I loved the devotion today. I could really use this devotional book and the five love languages singles edition. I have been divorced for a few years and God has brought me through so much but that is one of my hardest things is to believe that there is true unconditional love. I am a born again christian but I still struggle with love.
And I couldn’t help but wonder: Why was all that I had never enough?
I’ve thought this so many times. I’m so thankful God has been speaking to my heart and helping me to learn that He is all that I need to fill me. His love truly is unfailing.
I love your writings. this one, on unconditional love, hit close to home. It took me years of struggling with loneliness also before I found God’s love and grace.
I would love to win “The Five Love Languages: Singles Edition” for my daughter who is a single mom with 3 children, (ages 14-8) after 17 years of marriage to a man who left (232 years ago) and no longer provides any support financially or emotionally to her or her children.
I am working my way through “A Confident Heart” and is is already helping me transform in so many ways. I would love to get the devotional as n additional resource. Thank you so much for your words Renee.
I loved this blog post. I think sometimes we get so caught up in pleasing those around us, we put our relationship with God on the back burner. What He has for us is eternal and yet we put our hope in things that will pass away. Thanks for the encouraging words! Also I would love the Confident Heart book if I get chosen for the giveaway. 🙂
I would love to win your “Confident Heart- Devotional” to give to my 17 year old daughter… She is struggling a whole lot right now, with her relationship with God, me her brother, basically everybody who loves her… She deals with SEVERE depression and with self-htarm a.k.a. cutting. She LOVES to read and I am hoping tht this book will help her to realize that unconditional love our God offers to us that she doesn’t have to “earn” it and all she has to do is accept the free gift He is yearning to give to her and that He is all she needs to help her out of the dark pit the enemy has convinced her to be in because of the lies that satan has filled her head with… So good luck to everyone…
I would love to win and read A Confident Heart. I’m always looking for ways to improve myself therefore making myself stronger so I can be there and help others too. My confidence has had it’s ups and downs over the years and I believe this book would be a great guide to help me become the strong and confident woman that I know I can be. 🙂