“In the security of our relationship with Christ, God wants us to ask questions and look for answers that usher us into the depths of His redeeming love. He wants to give us the courage to live in the promise that He offers hope for our future despite the pain of our past.”
from Chapter 4, A Confident Heart
___________________________
Our Word for the week: HOPE
(Download in a PDF or download in MSWord). Please print it and post it everywhere this week.
HIS Word for us this week:
“May the God of hope fill [me] with all joy and peace as [I] trust in him, so that [I] may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”
Romans 15:13, NIV
Today’s Assignment:
Read the prayer at the end of Chapter 4 to begin your day. Then start or continue reading chapter 4. Remember to take your time and highlight or underline sentences that resonate in your heart.
Connecting in Community:
As we read chapter4 this week, let’s share here – answers to the questions, sentences we’re highlighting, thoughts we’re thinking, feelings and fears we’re experiencing. This can be a hard chapter for some because it addresses our past and our pain. Let’s pray for each other each day and commit to memorize this week’s verse together! If you are in, leave a comment by clicking on “share your thoughts” and tell us how you plan to memorize it. I’m writing it on a ceramic plate in my kitchen. I’ll be praying it for you every time I see it.
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I have never liked to read. I really am not a reader. Except for my Bible, no other book has encouraged and spoke to me more than A Confident Heart. I will be 61 in October and for most of my life I have tried to live up to God, my family, my employer, and my friends. It has been thru your book that God is teaching me to simply allow Him to love me. I know now that He accepts me, faults and all. God knew what He was getting when He picked me to be on His team! I know I have failed often in the past. I am determined to put that behind me. I know I will fail again, but I am learning to fail “forward” as you have suggested in the book. I have been so encouraged and so spoken to from God thru your book, I am going thru it the second time now! For me, that’s unheard of.
Today you encouraged us to post the word HOPE all over! Several years ago God gave me a different way to look at the word HOPE:
H—-His
O—-Operational
P—-Promises
E—-Energize
Truly His promises are operational….they work! If that thought alone does not energize us for His kingdom, then I don’t know what will.
You are amazing….I thank you for your encouragement and for being willing to be on the front lines. I’m sure our enemy is not happy and in many ways attacks you and your family. I will continue in much prayer for you, your ministry, and your family.
Blessings and hugs……….Dea
I like that Dea, and I am going to save it to my computer! What a great way to think of this week’s word, especially in light of us learning to trust in His promises 🙂 Thanks for sharing it!
Love that acronym for HOPE!! Thanks for sharing it!!
When I read through Chapter 4 it brought up so many things from my past! Emotions I had suppressed for years were like wounds torn open. Even after days of tears I still am struggling to leave the past behind and let God heal me completely. The timeline made me remember things I wanted hidden and forgotten- that was the most difficult. Letting them go. But, God has started bringing a healing only He can and a hope that He can redeem the time I think has been wasted. Thanks for the encouragement to not throw the book and give up! It would be so easy to do. Push everything back inside and seal it up, but it needs to all come out and God has placed us together to encourage each other the best is yet to come. Keep hanging in there!
God takes the worst and uses it for the best! He has the ultimate reversing power. Bless you, Sarah!
Coleen,
I love how you are such an encourager! I’ve been blessed reading all your encouraging words. I’ll be praying that God always gives you just the right words. I’m an encourager also and i have a pretty positive attitude and great smile!
right back at you, dallena! i SO appreciate your prayers! <3
This is a hard chapter, but me very timely. The verse of the week about hope was shared with me earlier today and then in here and in the book. Forgiveness is HARD work. Life is hard. I had a daughter who left her daughter here for us to raise for 16 years then 4 years ago came and they both left our lives. Lots of forgiveness and always more and deeper. Dealing with other hard issues also in my life right now. For me there is comfort in the chapter because I know from other times, that God does not reveal what he is not ready to heal. Do I want to go through this? Not really and at the same time yes. Some things/situations in my life seen so hopeless and so I loved this reminder: “May the God of hope fill [me] with all joy and peace as [I] trust in him, so that [I] may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”
Romans 15:13, NIV And that will be my prayer.
Good Morning. I am taking the verse and writing in on a dry erase board on my fridge, desktop wallpaper, facebook, etc.
Thank you, Renee, for staying committed to serving God by encouraging women such as myself. I pray that my faith will grow and I can get to the place where God wants me to be used for his purpose. I still struggle with doubt and don’t want to tell the world my story. Maybe I just need a place to start and don’t know where to begin. I’ll continue to put my trust in Him. Am I ready? I don’t know.
One step at a time Girl! He will lead you. Thank you for being open to share with Renee on this site; that’s a step, did you think of that? 🙂 Blessings to you!
I’m afraid to look at some of the things in my past. I’m afraid I will fail. Yes I know that is one of the feelings that was thrown away but it seems I dug it out again. Renee you sound so strong. I was doing well with the first three chapters and now I want to give up.
Christine, I just recorded a video message for you and anyone else that feels like you do. I just posted it above. Here is a link:
http://reneeswope.com/2012/05/dont-throw-awayyour-book/
Asking Jesus to give you the courage to do what you sense HE is leading you to do. He knows what you need. You don’t need to dig up your past, but identifying the cause of our pain and then asking Jesus to heal that pain is an important part of our journey. Looking back only so that we can move forward. Just taking it a day at a a time. We’re going to be doing a lot of talking on the blog about all of this – this week and next.
Praying for you!
Renee
Thank you Renee for your video. I tried earlier in the day to pick the book back up but couldn’t. I’m so glad I got back on the website and heard you speak about chapter 4. I’ll try again tomorrow. I didn’t realize how hard it would be to bring up some of the things that I’d worked through and obviously found out there is still more work to do. I appreciate your love for God and for your readers. Thank you for caring so much. I will not throw away my confidence or book.
God, please fill Christine up with your strength and encouragement. Fill her with your courage to pick the book back up and continue reading the pages one by one. Not only fill her with your courage to read, but fill her with your courage to face her past and to put her trust totally in you. Go before Christine, hold her hand as see moves forward with the book. Protect her heart. Guard her thoughts and fill her with understanding. Cause her to lean into you and your truths. Fill her with your promises that Renee has laid out in Chapter 12. Do what you do best, draw her closer to you and your truths. Replace her shadows of doubt with your promises. Replace her fear with your faith. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Christine, I was there. I lived there for about 40 years. I let my past with my Dad rule my life along with the fact that I was molested as a child dictate my life until last summer and fall when I went through A Confident Heart for the first time. I am so blessed and so thankful for Chapter 4 and how God used Renee’s book and her story to change my heart and my life. Yes, it was painful at the time and I didn’t want to face it all – but I wouldn’t change it for anything. Take Jeremiah 29:11 as your very own promise from God. He is your future. He is Christine’s HOPE. He wants to prosper Christine. He wants to lavish you with His amazing love as you move closer and closer to His heart. I was once challenged about a year ago to read Psalm 139 every day for 30 days. I would like to challenge you to do the same. It gave me great understanding of who I was in Him and who He is in me. I finally made the choice to accept my past because I knew I couldn’t change it. I also made the decision to accept my Dad, cause I couldn’t change him. My one job was and is to pray for my Dad. And so now, my choices are to believe that God loves me like crazy, so much that He sent His son to die for me. And the choice to believe that God will use my pain for His purposes. And He has. He has used my pain to bring others healing. What a privilege to be used by our God for His kingdom purposes. God is good all the time. All the time, God is good!!
Hello Renee and all my fellow sisters in Christ
This study/book is so timely!
I am and do struggle with doubt. Over lunch today, my (atheist) husband and I had a discussion about my faith again which he loves to debate and argue. It leaves me exhausted and I usually end up in tears, feeling defeated. After he left for work I re-read chapter 4 and among the many things I identify with, the follow struck me:
” We find the One who can lead us to freedom from the captivity of our doubts and insecurities. I know this without a doubt because I have walked it, wrestled with it, resisted it, and finally surrendered to it.”
Can you please help me understand how you REALLY WERE ABLE TO SURRENDER? I read and hear about surrending so much and I feel as though I have done this, but I wonder what I AM NOT DOING? Just like with my FAITH, sometimes because I don’t feel or experience God’s supernatural power/gifts : I believe that I am doing something incorrectly.
Do you understand what I am trying to express? It sounds ridiculous when I re-read what I have typed.
Blessings
Karen
Karen,
The way to surrender is found in chapter 5 of 1 Peter verses 6 and 7. Usually the focus is on verse 7
“Cast all your cares upon him for he cares for you. However in the King James version verse 7 is not separate from verse 6 but a continuation and tells us how to put verse 7 into practice.
Verse 6 “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time, casting (note the word is casting not cast) all your care upon him: for he careth for you.
Casting is a continuous action and should not be interpreted as tossing aside but “casting” is throwing with great force. We take our worries, concerns, doubts, fears, emotional baggage and physical pain and throw it at the foot of the cross. Have you ever tossed something and have it roll bag at you? When you throw it, it’s gone for good. But you need to throw things away daily because daily negative thoughts creep into our minds, so we need to cleanse them daily.
That is wonderful Karen. I never thought of it this way. This is something I need to start doing. I have lived my entire life based on fear and this is something I really need to start doing. Doing this will have the potential to change my life and my relationships with others. Thank you for sharing this.
For me to grasp the surrender thing I had to simplify the act of surrendering down to my choices – my every day choices. You see, we all have choices to make every day, just like the choice to believe. I used to think that believing was all about my point of conversion or the day, the exact minute that I said “yes” to Jesus years ago as kid at summer camp. But now through several conversations and lots of others teaching me, I have come to realize that me believing in Jesus is a 24 hour 7 days a week choice and journey. Every day, I am faced in my daily life with the choice to believe that God is who He says He is, that Jesus is His son, that Jesus died on the cross for me, that Jesus will one day come back for me. Every day I can make the choice to surrender my will to His. Every day I can make the choice to believe that He chose me, that He redeemed me through His death on the cross. Every day, I wake up with the choice to believe that He loves me like crazy. Every day I have the choice to pick faith over fear, His truth over my doubts, His love over my insecurities, etc. So for me surrender is my choice to let go and let God do what God does best. And yep, there are days when my choices aren’t the best … I choice to pick back up something that I had thought I had already surrendered to Him, but for some reason, usually pride or me thinking that I know better than God causes me to pick it back up. The key in picking “stuff” back up is how long you don’t hold on to it again the second time and the quicker release time in letting it go again. I call it rebound time…and we all want shorter rebound time.
Hope that helps and hope that it didn’t confuse anyone.
Renee, thank you so much for leading this Bible study. I love the beautiful artwork you featured on your blog. first I thought I will memorize today’s verse by repeating it to myself. later, I decided I should organize my desk so I decided to make new art for my office space. I cut out a heart shape from scrap book paper and I wrote “today I choose hope” and the entire bible verse on the heart. I am making another heart shape featuring the word “dreams” coz what do we hope for if we don’t know our own dreams and finally the last heart from scrapbook paper will feature the word “beauty” coz I want my God of hope to give me a future filled with beauty. Thanks and God bless,
Anna
renee, i love how you inserted the “me” and “i” into our scripture for this week! such a powerful tool for planting the truth of the scripture into our hearts! <3
I loved this part of the chapter also!
Hi Everyone, I have decided to change my name one here. You see the name I chose means “Lord, have mercy”, but when just Kyrie is used, it is one of the Lord’s names. I hadn’t considered, as is most easy, people shorten it. I just wanted to use something that would bring attention to the Lord, and I gave it’s meaning too when I first came, but we get so many new people each day, and it’s so long, that I am changing it. I would use my real name, but I am just scared to reveal so much when you never know who from your community, or church could be on here. I will now be known as Esther Smith. Esther is someone whose story will all know from the Bible, and I aspire to be more like, and Smith is just a last name that many have, so it doesn’t give anything of who I am away. Sorry, I just wanted to post this so people would know it’s still me (and I will put that by my new name for a bit) and why. I am sorry to be so timid with a fake name. I just feel much more at ease telling you my story this way. I have been hurt so many times, by so many who professed I could trust them (I’m not saying anyone on here is like that. I am just overly protective now).
hello, esther!!! you are so brave! <3
I’m trying, fake name or not, what I say here is from my real heart. God knows who I am, and as long as we help each other with our stories told in truth and love, and do what is comfortable to allow us to tell those stories, a name doesn’t really matter, right? 🙂 Thank you for saying I am brave when I feel so much less than brave so much of the time. That is a nice compliment 🙂 I will pray your week in this chapter goes well for you, and for all of us. I know it will be a hard one, but with Christ all things are possible. I just keep reminding myself of that. (((HUGS)))
I’m scared that I’m not going to have enough money to pay my utitlies this month I know I have my parents but I really don’t want to go back to them. I love them so much but I’m hoping this week will be the end of my job hunting if it is God’s will. I know He is with me but sometimes you just want to see the evidence that it will happen. However, I try to look at the things I do have such as my health, Zumba, positive attitude, and I’ve heard I have a great personality.
The major struggle for me is that I hate to ask for help. I’m still learning to be humble seeking help but it is so hard for me to do. I think because I don’t want to become a burden to someone else because they have their own storm their going through. However, on the otherside I said sometimes when I go through this when I help someone else it makes me feel like I did something good and it helps me overcome the obstacles in my way. Just wondering does anyone have trouble asking for help too? This is my major obstacle for me.
omg, this is exactly how I feel. I think it’s because all my life I have felt undermined. Growing up I felt I had to fend for myself. My mom was a fighter and took care of my dad who became disabled. It does take humility and healing on our part. Let’s continue to go to our Lord and overcome this obstacle. Thank you for sharing!
You are welcome, I will be praying for you and all of you in this study. I know with this Bible Study I have been more open to strangers and friends. I will keep you in my prayers so God can use us for His Will. God Bless
When I was trying to sleep last night. I was crying due to the fear that I might have to go back to my parents home. I really don’t want and working harder and harder so I can get a job. It is tough to keep on persevering but as it says in Jeremiah 29:11-14 (The Message) I know what I’m doing. I have it all planned out-plans to take care of you, not to abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for. When you call one me, when you come and pray to me, I’ll listen. When you come finding me, you’ll find me. Yes, when you get serious about finding me and want it more than anything else, I’ll make sure your won’t be disappointed. I’ll turn things around for you…You can count on it.
It seems everytime, I feel week or discouraged that verse comes up. It gives me the strength to keep on going.
I am finding that posting the weeks verse on my computer has been the best way for me to memorize it. I have just read the prayer at the end of chapter 4 and I know this will be a difficult chapter for me. Not only because of the sins of my past but because of a painful childhood. Thank you for your prayer and showing me Christ wants to give me a hope and a future so I may forgive and be forgiven.
Bless you, Peggy. God can take the worst and use it for the best- that’s His incredible redeeming power! He loves you so very much.
Yet in the security of our relationship with Christ, God wants us to ask hard questions and look for answers that usher us into the depths of His redeeming love. (p. 66).
There was a time when I thought it sinful to doubt, to question God. I am coming out of a time of depression and finding my way back to the joy of the savior’s love as I transition into “senior-hood”…and lots of “why me” and “what next”. I have so much to be thankful for including a loving Jesus who has, like me, visited the depths and was resurrected to new and greater love of our Father, Praise the Lord!
Renee, I know this is off topic, sorry, but I just had to ask. Do you have a book like this for pre-teens/teens? I would so love for my daughter to learn all I am learning, and read a book like this. I don’t want her to have to wait the many, many years I did to have this kind of close relationship with God. I know I can share this with her, and I will, but you know how it is at this age. Often what mom says is “corny” or it just goes in one ear and out the other. She is a sweet girl, but just at this age I wonder if hearing it from a book wouldn’t be better. Perhaps you need to write a book like this for teens (hint, hint :). If you don’t have one, is there another book like yours, for her age group you would recommend? Thank you in advance for any help!
oh, do not ever discount the effect your living your life for God has on your daughter! my own sweet girl (now 31) tells me this all the time; and shares examples of things/events and how she–and her friends–observed what God was doing through and in my life…and how it spoke to her (them). keep letting your little light shine! <3
Thanks Colleen 🙂 I truly believe in trying to put the Lord into all we do. When we are driving we pray for accidents. When she is afraid at a doctors or dentist’s appointment, we pray together. I try and read the Bible to her nightly. I also tell her about the things I would have done differently, had I known the Lord earlier in life, and when I backslid as well. I have sin in my life, and mess up (I guess we all do though, right?), and my self-esteem has always been poor, and I fear that also is being transferred to her. I am working on my sin, it’s not a lifestyle of sin, but they are some things I have to work on, and be more aware of. I know I can’t be perfect (I have to break myself of that trying to be perfect syndrome), but I always worry what I do isn’t enough, and those at church, or in the ministry will do a far better job than I will, due to my sin. I guess since we all have sin, no one could minister if a sin free life were the criteria. Only Christ is sin free! Thank you though for reminding me of that. How important it is to remember the example she is getting at home, and what she sees me do. It’s wonderful how your life in Christ was an example to your daughter! 🙂
Yes, I’ve had a quite a few caring moms like you ask me if I have another book for teens or one for 20 somethings. This is my only one {and Im not sure of future plans yet for another version for another age group} but for now I have two resources I’d recommend for younger girls –
His Revolutionary Love by Lynn Cowell
http://www.lynncowell.com/books/
http://www.lynncowell.com/
Made to Crave for Young Women by Lysa TerKeurst and Shaunti Feldhan
http://www.proverbs31.org/store/product/made-to-crave-for-young-women-satisfying-your-deepest-desires-with-god/
Thanks Renee! And really consider writing a book like this for young women please! You have so much insight, and your book comes across as being from the heart so much (as I believe it is) that I think young girls would really respond to it. It never seems “preachy”, as so many books for young people are, but rather as one girlfriend speaking to another. I think that is why I am enjoying it, and getting so much from your book, it is genuine, and humble. Thanks for the great ideas for other books however as well. I will definitely look into them for my daughter! 🙂
I plan on putting my verse everywhere I can think of to memorize it. I think that will be the best way for me. I have a lot of trouble with memorizing things. I can remember the general idea, but never word for word 🙁 I really want to do this though, so I am going to pray about it, and put it everywhere! 🙂
Renee, Chapter 4 is already hard for me. I must admit I do not like to look back on my past and see all my sin before me. I was wild, I drank every single day, sometimes all day. I am ashamed to admit some nights I have no idea how I even made it home in one peace, I now know that it was God protecting me. I woke up one Easter Sunday and thought to myself…this is NOT how I need to be living my life, I stopped that very day. The mind is a very powerful thing when it is made up. I went from literally consuming straight tequila, bourbon, whiskey with no qualms to barely being able to drink a glass of wine! How amazing is our God? I am proud to say that I can’t remember the last time I actually had any kind of alcoholic beverage. I plan on changing my background to this weeks Bible verse, putting it on my fridge, mirrors and on the steering wheel of my car, no matter where I go, the verse will be there for me to see and read.
paula, praising God for His awesome lovingkindness, mercy & grace towards you! He is SO good! <3
I have loved every moment of this study. Hope has always been the word in my heart. I know there is hope. I lived with shame and guilt over my past for many years. Divorced and held captive in a drug/alcohol addiction, with 2 children, I know shame. 2 Abortions. I know shame. Raped. I know shame. That was my past. 5 years ago, I began my journey to where I am today. God showed me I am not useless. I have a purpose. He has a plan for my life. He restored my marriage after 9 years of divorce. He has shown me I can forgive myself for horrible decisions I have made. I am the Ladies Chemical Dependency Leader at our local Celebrate Recovery and I have learned that the only story I need to share is my own. God has blessed my husband and I with another child 2 years ago and we are expecting another child in July. He has taken every hurt and healed it. I am thrilled to tell as many people as possible about my past. Even my pain has a purpose. And I know there is hope for my anger and control issues. He’s still working in me. There is always HOPE!
Tina, as I read your post, I was compelled to just tell you I think you are wonderful and I love you! You are an inspiration. You are Jesus to so many.
Tina, I too have found MUCH healing & sanity in CR and am a leader in the Hurts, Habits & Hangups group, as well as a co-leader in the Step Study program. Although I have been a believer for decades, I hadn’t found healing from past abuse until CR and another study (similar) called ‘Wounded Heart’. I have also found that I now – find JOY in ‘sharing’ my pain! and am literally seeing ..’what satan meant for my evil, God intended for my good – to save MANY people alive ‘this’ day” (Gen. 50:20)…so I can SO relate to your statement that ‘even your pain has purpose’! I too am loving this ‘Confident Heart’ study and this weeks memory verse- Hope – has been what’s led me to CR and this online study! I too know, our God- IS The God of HOPE & restoration!!! Nice to meet you on here:)
Oh Tina i am so inspired by you! You remind me of one of my favorite songs from long ago in my high school years – Something Beautiul. The chorus goes… Something beautiful, Something good. All my confusions He understood. All I had to offer Him was brokeness and strife, But He made (Is making) something Beautiful of my life. I can relate so much to that song and i thank you for sharing your story and being the inspiration God wants you to be to others. You go girl!!!
It’s hard for me to keep up with everything in this busy spring season of ball games(5 out of 7 family members are on some sort of team), so I haven’t been taking advantage of the comments, but I just want to thank you, Renee, for writing this book, for leading this study, and for your prayers. God has been bringing similar verses, teachings, etc. my way over the past few days and it’s been awesome to know He’s communicating to me through them! Demonstrating His love for me! <3
Renee,
Good morning! I read your book at the gym on the treadmill. I go at 5am so its quiet. I am so blessed that God bought us together for such a time as this. I have to be honest I struggled with Chapter 3. I have read Chapter 4 and am going back over it again. We have been through so many similar things and my thoughts were so similar to yours that I sometimes am just blown away! The scriptures that God has led me to that are personal and special to me were in both chapters of your book! Confirmation that I am in the right place is just seen over and over the more I read your book. Thank you for being who God created you to be! I pray that I will just let go and trust God completely. I have to admit I do struggle with my past. I want to just let God satisfy me in every area but I think back on my past and I get stuck thinking how could He allow so me to experience so much pain? and how do I let that go and not think about it? Thanks for being there for me and the rest of your book crew! We need you! Stay encouraged and know that you are a blessing to the body of Christ!
HI Renee and all of you,
My name is Sheila and I live in Colorado. I am 65 years old and for about 63 of them I have lived in fear. I was just wondering if there was some way to write Renee and e-mail to her. Also, I wanted to know if you would all pray for me this week and next. My father in law died on April 22nd and on the 19th will be his celebration of life in California.
I am so anxious and nervous about traveling and the whole thing. My stomach is hurting and my BP is up and the dr. had to put me on some medicine for it. I don’t know why I am so afraid because I have dealt with my fears and anxieties for many years, but this time I am having a very hard time and would so appreciate your prayers. I am going to read Chapter 4 prayer and Chapter 4 and take the book with me to CA. Maybe it is time for me to be completely delivered from all of these mental and emotional issues. Oh thank you so much.
Sheila in Colorado
Dearest Sheila,
I commit to pray for you, that God’s peace and love woud shower over you and the entire situation you walk into. I encourage you to take these feelings before your heavenly Father and ask that He would help you to understand and heal from all that troubles you now. Know that you are never alone!
Your sister in Christ,
Jennifer
Thank you so much Jennifer! I am planning on doing this. Your sister in Christ, Sheila
Dear Sheila,
I just wanted to let you know that I just prayed for you, praying that God will give you courage, strength but most of all peace. Just give it up to Him. Sometimes what helps me is I look at what I’m feeling like a dandelion that has gone to seed and my prayer as the breath that sends those worries, anxieties, angers – whatever the feelings are – straight up to heaven for God to take care of. I know it may sound simplistic but it works every time! Plus remember that all of our prayers are blowing those fears and anxieties away as well!
Praying!
Lynda
I just wanted to let you know that I understand and you are in my prayers. I went by myself to Colorado last Wed. for my nephew’s graduation. I am 64 years old and I didn’t share with anyone how I was feeling but I was so nervous about the flight, traveling alone in the airport, etc. I made it to Denver safely and returned home to Michigan safely on Saturday evening. I will pray that your travel experience, and your time in California, go well and will definitely remember you in my prayers.
I am proud of you Kathy! That was a very hard thing to do by yourself but God was faithful to take you there and back. He loves us so much and wants the very best for us and never leaves us. I know that in my heart and soul but it is my physical body that reacts and causes so many problems. I just need to BE STILL AND KNOW THAT HE IS GOD!
Your new friend, Sheila
Hi Sheila,
I am praying for you as well. I too have suffered from intense fear. One thing that is helping me lately is choosing not to be bullied by it. I talk down to it, I even get mad at it and tell it to go away, that it has no place in my life and then I choose to put my trust in God (despite my feelings). This can be really tough, especially when the fear appears overpowering. However, when I do this I am realizing that it takes me out of the “victim” role and puts God in charge. (I don’t know if this helps. If not, please ignore!) Either way, just letting you know you’re in my prayers.
Grace
Oh ladies! I just decided to check in on the blog and I cannot believe what wonderful things you wrote to me and how supportive of me you are. Thank you so much for the prayers. In fact, today I felt more peaceful than the past days and I told someone, somebody is praying for me. IT IS YOU LADIES! Thank you and thank you.
I just got done packing the big suitcase and then took a shower so I am feeling better. My chest feels a little tight, like I am nervous but I am going to get done here and then try to relax tonight. I live in the middle of the mts. in Colorado and my husband and I will drive to Denver tomorrow, spend the night and leave for Phoenix at 8am and then on to Santa Barbara, CA. Then we return the same way next Tues. so please pray for God’s peace for my nerves and body and for both my husband and I too both being feeling well.
Words cannot express what your posts meant to me. Thank you again.
Your new friend in Colorado, Sheila