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We’re going to read chapter 1 and 2 this week, so today I wanted to lead those of you who are ready to go with me to the next chapter.
From Chapter 2, A Confident Heart
“Jesus knew Sam’s (the Samaritan woman’s) story and He knows yours. The Greek word for “know” is yada. It means a deep emotional experience; a bonding between two people when one truly feels the emotions of the other. Jesus knows your pain, fears, doubts, and disappointments. He understands your dreams and desires.
Although some of us feel uncomfortable that God knows so much about us, it is good to be known, to be listened to and not judged. Jesus is the only One who can meet our deepest needs to be accepted and delighted in simply because of who we are. We can offer nothing but our presence, and He will desire us just the same…”
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Our word this week is “Known”
Our verse of the week is Jeremiah 1:5 – “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart…” (NIV)
This week’s video message is below. Please click the arrow to watch it – all the way through. You’ll be so glad you did.
(from video script)
I WANT TO BE KNOWN
I want someone to look at my face
And not just see two eyes, a nose,
a mouth and two ears
But to see all that I am, and could be
all my hopes, loves and fears…
And YOU know me
You actually know me
all of me and everything about me
Every thought inside and hair on top of my head
Every hurt stored up, every hope, every dread
My past and my future, all I am and could be
You tell me everything,
You tell me about ME
And that which is spoken by another would bring hate and condemnation
Coming from Youu brings love, grace, mercy, hope and salvation
I’ve heard of One to come
who could save a wretch like me
And here in my presence, You say
I AM HE…
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Today’s Assignment:
- Download Free Printable PDF of this week’s word and verse — or find it here in a Word doc format. Please print it and post it everywhere so you can remember God KNOWs YOU and He loves you!!
- Read this week’s memory verse (Jeremiah 1:5). Ask God to remind you all week that He knows the way you long to be known, pursued and loved!
- Start or continue reading chapter 2. If you already did or you are just starting, read it slowly and highlight or underline sentences that resonate in your heart. Journal your thoughts if you want the lessons to stay with you.
Connect in Community:
What about today’s video or sentences in Chapter 2 resonate most with you?
- Please click “Share Your Thoughts” below this post and do just that. (REMEMER: If you are reading this via email, you will need to click here to go to my blog to watch the video and share in the comments section.)
- Optional: If you are on Facebook and/or Twitter, I’d love for you to share your favorite quotes on our Confident Heart Community Facebook Page and/or share them with me on Twitter (@reneesswope) I’d love to retweet them! Also let’s use #AConfidentHeart as our hashtag. 🙂
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Again, I’ve joined this study late, but am finding it to be so helpful.
Listening to the video clip brings back the hope that the desire for love and acceptance without judgment and condemnation is still within reach.
The quote from the book: “Maybe you know God loves you and forgives you, but you still beat yourself up for mistakes you’ve made and the ways you think you’ve let Him and others down.” This so hit home. I live with daily condemning thoughts, and so need to be able to battle these thoughts in a way that I can gain victory.
It seems like every chapter so far is written for me – it’s my life instead of Renee’s. The quote on page 33 ” I tried to earn my worth through a performance based value system, convinced that if I did the righ tthings, said the right thigns, wore the right things and looked the right way, then I’d be worth staying for”. That is how I lived/trying not to live my life. I feel that if I act perfect, if I am perfect then why wouldn’t people want to love me and be around me. I usually end up failing miserably because I get so overwhelmed I break down. Someoen called me an overachiever the other day. I just laughed it off but when I really thought about it, in a way I am an overachiever. I have to prove myself. Growing up, I thought I had to do great things in order to be recognized by God. That is what I was taught in school. After a while I knew I would never live up to God’s worth (or so I thought) so I gave up with God but still tried to get other’s to love me. As my view on God’s love for me is changing, I feel like I don’t have to do so much anymore. I am slowly trying to relax and just enjoy life but when you act a certain way for such a long period of time, there are many set backs. Those setbacks are so heartbreaking at times too.
The story of the Samaritan woman and this video spoke to my heart. It too like others spoke to me about the seasons of my life, I have felt downcast, walked on, used, abused and so many other negative feelings that when Jesus spoke to “Sam”, and made her feel like she was worth something and reading in this book all the positive things and just feeling tired of feeling so bad about me, my life, my choices and wanting so much better for myself, I feel like enough is enough already, I want to feel like somebody, and in reading this chapter, I know that I am something to God and Jesus, I know I am known, loved and wanted. All the subtopics I have struggled with, the “i’m fines”, the putting up walls, the not feeling perfects. I just feel like I have been in the prison called myself and I want to experience freedom, and I know that in God and Jesus, I WILL experience that and they will make me see that.
When I fell away from God ten or so years ago- I was Sam at the well. I had stolen someone else’s husband and I walked away from God knowing I had let him down and he would probably never forgive me and satan kept using Gods word against me. I was without hope once again as I was for twenty years before becoming a Christian. I was in fear of being lost again. I pulled away from the things of God, from the people of God, I felt like the Holy Spirit had left me. But then one day as I was driving, I heard God speak audibly to me, He said, “I know why you did it”. And I said, why? And He said,”you needed to be the other woman.” Then I felt Him continue to speak in my spirit and show me how because of how horribly my father had abused my mother in every way but how he was always so sweet to his girlfriends, bringing them flowers and they only ever saw his happy side, a side he rarely showed at home. And I understood, I was afraid of being anything other than the other woman. As people of the church all around me sat in judgement and pushed me away and just when I thought my sin had pushed God away forever too- it was then that He pursued me even harder, proving His love for me and never once leaving! I realized in time that the Holy Spirit had not left me but that feeling of despair was the dread of my purposeful sin and He was allowing me to feel the weight of it. I am so thankful for His great love! And I love how time and time again He takes people in scripture and real life who are thought as useless by the world and restores them! God has restored the years the locusts have eaten:)
I was on vacation when this started, and got behind, so I’m posting this now, and then will catch up with the rest. To me, reading this chapter the word “victim” jumped out. All my life I’ve watched as people in my life, mostly my mom, have acted like victims. It’s as if they seek out sympathy from others. They wallow in it. I strive against this, and because of that I don’t share everything. I don’t want to be seen as someone who’s just looking for sympathy. I don’t want to be seen as a victim. I read in Lysa Terkeurst’s book, Made to Crave, a quote she shared that said, “Either you can be victimized and become a victim, or you can be victimized and rise above it.” To me that meant to keep moving forward and just keep it to myself, my thoughts and feelings that show a weaker me.
But then I read this chapter, and these are the sentences that grabbed me: “We don’t want to be high maintenance, right?” “It’s embarrassing for people to see our flaws and failures, so we work hard to look like we’re doing fine from a distance.” But that’s not I saw it. I just didn’t want to be viewed as a victim. I didn’t want people to hear what I had to say, roll their eyes, and think that I just wanted sympathy.
Then I read these sentences: “Pretending leads to hiding and isolation. What we need is someone who will pursue us and accept us even though we’re flawed,” and “Eventually, though, we find ourselves in the shadows of doubt, convinced that we aren’t worth knowing or pursuing.” I realized here, with some thought and reevaluation, that I was making myself a victim in my pursuit not to be one.
This is my next task. I need to rely on God, seeking Him to help me to stop making myself a victim. With His help I will eventually be able to share my feelings with someone else, taking me out of “victim status.”
I WANT TO BE KNOWN was so powerfull I cried. This is so much my life right now and reading A Confident Heart is going to help me. I just KNOW this is coming from GOD.
I loved that video! I am known, not for who I want to be, but for who I am!! Wonderful!