Welcome to my NEW website!! I’m so glad you stopped by today! If you found your way here from the Proverbs 31 Ministries invitation to join us on The 7-day Doubt Diet, click here for more details or simply sign up in my sidebar.
If you’re visiting after reading my P31 devotion, “When Worry Makes Me Wonder”, thanks for hopping over. In my devotion, I shared how a few years ago I felt like I was suffocating under everything that was going on in my life. Have you ever been there?
Slowly, I let worry weave it’s way into my thoughts and wear me down. Eventually, I came to a point where I was exhausted and ready to resign from just about everything…life, ministry, etc.
I ran out of fuel and felt like I didn’t have enough energy to handle all of my roles, relationships and responsibilities.
I also ran out of faith. I started doubting my ability to to hear God clearly and to do all I assumed He wanted me to do.
All my worries started making me weary. And they made me wonder… I wondered if I could manage my life. I wondered if God noticed and cared about all I was doing for Him, and others. And I wondered why God wasn’t doing something to make my life easier.
One day I was reading in Luke 10 and noticed Martha felt the same way. She couldn’t get everything done and it was making her come undone. That day I noticed something. She went to Jesus. Yes she was freaking out, but she went to Him about it.
And she asked Him the same question I’d been asking in my heart:‘Lord, don’t you care?
“She came to Him and asked, ‘Lord, don’t you care?that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!’” Luke 10:40b (NIV)
And how did Jesus respond to Martha’s doubts and demands? “’Martha, Martha,’ the Lord answered, ‘you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.’” (NIV)
I knew God wanted the same for me. He did care. He did notice. He’d left a note for me right there in scripture to show me what was going on in my own heart. And He’s done the same for you.
I sensed He wanted me to come to Him and talk to Him, instead of talking to myself (in my head) which only made me worry more. And when I did come to Him with my concerns, He replaced my thoughts with His thoughts. He replaced my worries with His peace.
Some days I needed to do more than pray. I needed to give my worries to Him. So I wrote them down on index cards and put them under a cross I have next to my bedside. Physically placing them there, and giving them to Jesus was so powerful.
I also looked up promises in scripture to replace my worries and doubts. I found verses like Psalm 55:22 that says: “Give your burdens to the LORD, and he will take care of you…” (NLT) I also found 1 Peter 5:7 that reminded me: “Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you.” (NLT)
We need God’s presence and the promise of His care as a dwelling place for our hearts. And on those days when we we just can’t do it all and we wonder if God notices how hard we’re trying, He wants us to know He notices and He does care. He cares about us and He loves taking care of us and all that concerns us, too.
I’ve got a list of “Peace-giving Promises I’d love to share with you on my FREE resources page. And I’d love to pray for you today, too. Be sure to leave “share your thoughts” below and let me know one worry you want to leave with Jesus and I’ll pray for that concern. And also be sure to enter my drawing for my “Contagious Confidence” Give-aways.
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Peace-Giving Promises GIVE-AWAY!
In my book, A Confident Heart, I share in chapter 9 how we can turn our fear-filled thinking into faith-filled believing and stop Satan from stealing the confident peace that’s meant to be ours in Christ. Today, I’m giving away 5 copies of A Confident Heart to ONE of you – along with a Free “Confident Heart” Q&A Conference Call. That way you can gather some friends to go through the book together and we can talk about it if you want to! And, because I want more than one winner, I’m giving away 2 more Advanced copies to another one of you, too.
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I would love for you to join me in sharing God ‘s peace-giving promises today! Here are a few things you can do to enter today’s give-aways:
1. Share this post or a link to the “Peace-giving Promises via email, Twitter, your blog or Facebook. Let’s encourage as many women as we can and disarm the enemy from his weapon of worry. My “Tell a Friend” buttons below makes it really easy.
2. Sign up for the 7-day Doubt Diet (if you haven’t already) and invite friends too! It includes a week’s worth of devotions with more powerful promises, personal encouragement and scripture-based prayers to help you lose the weight of worry and doubt so you can gain a confident heart!
3. Sign up for my email updates in the little box at the top of my website to receive news on give-aways, free resources, blog posts and more! I’ve got all kinds of announcements coming up!
Leave a comment by clicking “Share Your Thoughts” below and tell me how I can pray for you. Also, let me know which or all of these you are doing to share God’s peace-giving promises today. Your comment will enter you into the drawings. I’ll announce the winner on Monday, July 18th!
And be sure to download your copy of more “Peace-giving Promises. “
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I have already signed up for both…and am going to share the link on my facebook page. I could have sworn that I wrote the words you posted on your page. I have become so overwhelmed and worried (not trusting God)… Tears came to my eyes as I read your words,
“I ran out of fuel and felt like I didn’t have enough energy to handle all of my roles, relationships and responsibilities.
I also ran out of faith. I started doubting my ability to to hear God clearly and to do all I assumed He wanted me to do.”
How that sounds like me right now in this season. I try to move closer to God but doubt my ability to hear Him clearly…and feel so lonely for Him.
I have a little cross (something like yours) and on it it says “TRUST” and “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.” I had put one of my sons name in a little silver box next to it…but I think it’s time to add some more things and look up some Scriptures to replace the worry thoughts….
Thanks for the reminder…you have blessed me!
I’ve done all the above. Please pray for an event coming up at our church July 25-29. It’s our 3rd annual Youth Week which is for 6-12 grades.
Thanks!
I already signed up for the 7-doubt diet–that is why I pre-ordered the book.
I tweeted: http://twitter.com/#!/ruthhill74/status/91163053135101953
I signed up for your e-mail updates.
If I do win this copy, I plan to give it away on my blog:
http://www.mydevotionalthoughts.com
Thanks!
Thank you for the words of encouragement today. I have three teenage daughter’s and some days are easier than others. The devil definitely has a way of putting doubt into your head and reminding you of the fact that you are ill qualified to deal with it all. I am so thankful for God’s grace. I am so sick of falling prey to the devil’s lies about who I am and what I am. I have dealt with a lack of confidence my whole life. I keep praying to God to remove it from me so I can be who He created me to be. I am thankful that He does not give up.
Btw.. I am linking off to this post in Facebook, am signed up for your Doubt Diet and also get your emails. Whether I win your book or buy it….I will read it ! God Bless you Renee 8)
I meant to say as well that I absolutely love your new website. It’s inviting and welcoming in every way!
Renee.. your book and its timing is Timely for me! 8 years ago my late husband chose to take his life and the earthquake cracks still linger within me. Some days I am soo full of worry about the unknowns, the regrets, the haunting memorys, the spaces full of deep pain..that I find myself soo overburdened by them. Its not so much the fact that he died this way but how I look at the world now & its changes that keeps me FATIGUED. I am still at HIS FEET but the second I have to deal with the flesh of this world I am back to Doubt, fear, worry, not being confident etc. He chose to die…to walk away…to leave. THAT shakes me to the core that I wasnt VALUED enough to love me still.
Thank God that Jesus isnt that way. I’d be dead right now if not for His Grace.
Plz pray for me…my life is in constant CHANGE and it feels like CHAOS.
I know HE is tugging at my spirit…I keep wrestling with what to do now.
There is MORE than just this LOSS that defines me.
Its ME thats sits at HIS feet.. yet I know he has SOMETHING out THERE for me now .
Anyhoo…thank you Renee…I look forward to this book.
For such a time as this.
Isaiah 61:1-3
I’ve shared via Facebook and I am intending to blog about it as well. I’ve signed up for both your emails and the Doubt Diet as well.
I’d love to win one of the giveaways! After reading the first chapter I’ve been excitedly waiting for the release of your book to read the rest. 🙂
Dear Renee,
I am a co leader in the youth group of our church. God has been dealing with be about the peace giving promises. With all the distractions, worries, and turmoil the devil has been throwing at us we have lost sight of things just as in the story of Martha in Luke 10. We have worried over so many things lately that we were missing the MOST important thing. Our kids are at camp this week and we are praying for a change in them, but most of all I am praying for a change in us as leaders. I just wrote another leader, who is at the camp, about this very thing. God has shown me to put all this worry aside and get back to basics…..and HE is the basics. Through your 7 day doubt diet I realized the devil had put the doubt in me that I wasn’t good enough to lead this youth group. That maybe I didn’t know enough, or know how to teach these teens what they needed to be taught. I have claimed our youth room back, in the name of Jesus, and sitting down today to lay out a mission, purpose, and goal. Thank you for all your words that God has truly blessed you with. They arrived just on time…..Gods time!
Wow! I seem to always find something to worry about!! And I seem to be slowing learning that worry does nothing to help!! I am trying not to worry about our upcoming family plans and just let God have control. Things like do we have a third baby try to find a larger home- where to find that home. My son is starting kindergarten – am I doing the right thing by not home schooling him. And as you can see the list goes on. I am so very blessed and know these are little issues but they still creep up and can cause big worry!!!
I met you in June in Muskoka and I really enjoyed listening to you speak. I find myself worrying over things that I cannot change but I just keep reminding myself that God is in control and he will take care of me. I look forward to reading your book. Thank you for the beautiful words; they are very inspiring.
I got the doubt diet and get the newsletter- thanks!
Can’t wait to get the book. Prayers for peace appreciated.
My mom has always called me a “worry wart”. I worry about everything. If my children are making the right choices in thier lives, I usually want to make them for them, or aleast advice them my way. If my husband and I have done all we can in raising them? Have we prayed enough? Have we disipilined enough? Have we loved enough? It’s a never ending cycle. My husband was diagnosed with CHF and type 1 diabetes just 8 yrs ago and I worry about his health all the time. He used to have a hospital stay aleast once a year for the first 6 years. The last couple of years have been better, alot better. I have always believe that God knows that Matthew is needed here, especially to til all 5 of our children are grown. Some days are better than others, but your 7 day Doubt Diet has helped alot. I have done all 3 things requested above, and am so excited about doing the bible study coming at the end of August. I have had this peace for the last fews weeks, and I think that is because you allowed God to use you to touch our hearts. THANK YOU!
Thank you Renee I needed to see this I am currentlyfacing unemployment and have been for tha last yr and a half and sure does not look good out there plus taking care of an elderly parent . So sometimes I wander what I will do when I get a job how to balance both. I am looking forward to your book and would love to do the study . So much going around now with all the bad stuff in this world thank you for loving us women and praying for us . Prayer for me would be a job soon and what God wants me to do and how to live life thru all of this.
Carol
Renee I have posted your link on my Facebook page and joined the 7day doubt diet. I have been fighting against the spirit of doubt for some time now. I am not sure where I allowed the enemy to get in but it has been a battle to get him out of my mind. I know GOD loves me and I have been speaking his word but sometimes it just seems like the walls are closing in. When I read your devotion today it was a GOD wink for me. His way of telling me that he sees what I am going thru and I just have to keep seeking him. He wanted me to know that he has not left me. My family and I are in the middle of a housing problem because the home we have been leasing for 3 years is in foreclosure. I will be honest I am very upset becasue I don’t understand why the owners would not pay the mortgage for 17 months when we have paid on time for 3 years. School starts in less than 3 weeks and now we don’t know where we are going to live. Our credit scores are to low to buy but thanks to GOD’S provision, we make more than enough money to pay a note. We just have to find a place. Everytime the enemy comes to attack my thoughts I immediatley reply “I Trust in GOD” . I just need peace. Thank you for this devotion because I can make it one more day. Be Blessed and continue to allow GOD to use you.
I really needed to read this post, it is as if it was written for me. I have been living with worry and frustration for over two years and sometimes I just felt like my praying was not enough. I have started writing down my worries and concerns on the index cards at night and it has helped me to not lay at night and worry as much. I feel more at peace and that I am truly giving my worries and concerns over to God. Thanks so much for your posts and encouragements!
thanks for the great thoughts, it’s so easy to listen to doubt instead of truth!
I,ve done all three , I’m a worrier and have overcome some .Thanks for Proverbs 31 I really enjoy this site.
Renee, thank you for your devotional–I so desperately needed to hear this. I signed up for the 7 Day Doubt Diet before this post and plan to forwad your devotion to my friends this evening. It never ceases to amaze me how God uses the words of others to touch my heart and whisper words of encouragement when I’m crying out to Him. My worry is for my teenage children; primarily a teenage daughter who has run away from home. She just turned 17 in June and has been gone for over a month now. I also have 15 year old twin boys who are on probation for underage drinking and marijuana. Needless to say, I am brokenhearted and worried for their futures. My cry to God has been that my children and my husband would all come to know Him as I do, for I know that without Him our family will continue to crumble. Don’t mean to sound crazy, but I feel as though Satan has a bulls eye on me and my family right now. However, God is my rock and I keep repeating “I can do all thing through Christ who strenghtens me” to get me through one day at a time. I also keep reminding myself of all that God has provided; one of them being the adoption of my children when my husband and I weren’t able to conceive. I’ve shared with my children that when we accept Christ as our Savior that we become His adopted children and how that means so much to me because I know the depth of love in my heart for them so for God to feel that way makes it even more special. Please pray that my daughter remembers this and runs to His loving arms. Thank you so much.
I have done all of the above 🙂 and would love to receive a copy of your book to share with our weekly ladies Bible study group. We are so human and female… does that say it all or what???? I’ve really enjoyed reading over your sight and love your words of encouragement. I’ve actually shared your information with many — especially one of my dear friends who is going through a rough time right now. God knew I needed His words and direction — and you were the vessel to deliver it at the right time. Thank you. I’m excited to see and read your daily devotions and looking forward to the 7-Day Doubt Diet. God bless you for all you all allowing God to do through you.