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Winner of a copy of A Confident Heart – melissa SAVINGMONEY09@LIVE.COM
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Before we get started delving into our own doubts and insecurities together – I want you to know I’m just like you.” I know I mentioned yesterday but if this is your first day joining this is meant to be a “sharing thing.” So, before everyone runs off to your prayer closet to read by yourselves hang around for a while and fellowship. Yesterday we laid down the foundation we’re going to build from. Here’s day one, Are you ready to take God’s hand and trust His heart?
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Day 1: Don’t Throw Away Your Confidence
Taken in part from Chapter 1 and 61 1
Did ya’ll totally relate to Renee’s story? (Get your free devotion here.) I can totally relate. Several years ago, a friend was helping me clean out the playroom. We were on a serious mission to get rid of junk – if anything looked like a Happy Meal Toy, part of a toy we coudn’t find or something totally random it was going in the trash. Fast forward a couple of weeks, we have a blow up bed that we set up when our families visit. Guess what? One of those “totally random” pieces that we threw away. Well, not so much……..it was the valve. (We had to buy a new one) Much like Renee’s example, I thought that little piece was insignificant and threw it away without a second thought. It may have been small compared to the size of the rest of the bed however that valve determines the beds future. Without it, the blow up bed was just a flat rubber rectangle.
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Renee heard God speak to her that she tosses her confidence away the same way she tossed that piece of rubber away without a second thought….. What about you? Ouch…..Guilty as charged. I too, have thrown away my confidence more times than I can count without realizing what was happening. If you haven’t received day one yet of the devotion, the rubber piece was the power button to the remote control.
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Renee heard God speak to her that she tosses her confidence away the same way she tossed that piece of rubber away without a second thought….. What about you? Ouch…..Guilty as charged. I too, have thrown away my confidence more times than I can count without realizing what was happening. If you haven’t received day one yet of the devotion, the rubber piece was the power button to the remote control.
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It doesn’t take much, it could be one word from a loved one that triggers insecurity. Everything Renee listed – the worry the creeps in and says I’m not good enough, no matter what I do I’ll never measure up. Then worry changes to fear – fear of the disappointment that is sure to follow, fear that I’m going to mess up, never finish what I started or lose something Fear, worry, disappointment, insecurity they all lead me to one place, the road of self-doubt.1
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Then, when Renee said,” I see a pattern in my thinking that led to the pattern of my doubting.” It hit me, I do the same thing every time I go to Chattanooga, or Georgia to visit my mom. I usually take the same route without thinking about it. I just hit autopilot and go. Sure there are other ways, but they aren’t familiar as least I KNOW what to expect. I do the same when fear, insecurity,worry, disappointment whatever you want to call it begins to creep. When someone says something that hurts me, or I feel rejected what do I do?
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What about if I make up my mind one morning determined that I’m going to change everyone’s sheets and somehow life happened and I never got started. I know what emotions are coming. Do you? I know that even though I home schooled my kids, washed a load of clothes AND put them away, worked, then cooked dinner it’s not those accomplishments that my mind surrenders to – it’s the one thing I didn’t do. I’ll tell myself I’ll do better tomorrow, why can’t I be more organized, if I would just stay focused then I’d get everything done.
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What about if I make up my mind one morning determined that I’m going to change everyone’s sheets and somehow life happened and I never got started. I know what emotions are coming. Do you? I know that even though I home schooled my kids, washed a load of clothes AND put them away, worked, then cooked dinner it’s not those accomplishments that my mind surrenders to – it’s the one thing I didn’t do. I’ll tell myself I’ll do better tomorrow, why can’t I be more organized, if I would just stay focused then I’d get everything done.
I know myself well enough that - no matter how much I do I always think I can do it better next time.1
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The Challenge: Recognize when we start turning down that familiar path of self doubt to TURN AROUND! Just like a GPS God is whispering in our ears Recalculating turn right in .8miles on Promise Lane follow it to your destination, A Confident Heart.
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- Recognize the power I give self doubt.
- Stand up to it and claim the confidence God has already given me.
- Pray and ask God to show me when I turn around to toss my confidence in the can.
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The following is an excerpt from The 7-day Doubt Diet:
When you start a diet or physical training plan, experts recommend you complete a Body Mass Index analysis to determine if you are overweight, underweight, or in a healthy weight range.
When you start a diet or physical training plan, experts recommend you complete a Body Mass Index analysis to determine if you are overweight, underweight, or in a healthy weight range.
Food for thought: So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. Hebrews 10:35-36, (NIV)
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“I’ve created a FREE “Doubt Index Analysis” to help you identify your most common doubts, see how they affect you and determine just how much self-doubt could be weighing you down by. There is a link to download here.” Renee Swope
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A Message from Renee:
“Please don’t get discouraged if your score reveals that self-doubt is weighing you down more than you realized. I used to check “always” on all of them. But I didn’t want to stay there, and I don’t want you to either. That is why I wrote my book A Confident Heart , and why I’m offering “The 7-day Doubt Diet”- a week’s worth of devotions from my book for FREE.”
- Sign up for “The 7-day Doubt Diet
- Download Chapter 1 of “A Confident Heart.” by Renee Swope.
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By the way I scored 146 on the Doubt Index Analysis. How did you do?
154 – 110: Self-doubt comes and goes for you. When it’s present, it keeps you from all God has for you.
By the way I scored 146 on the Doubt Index Analysis. How did you do?
154 – 110: Self-doubt comes and goes for you. When it’s present, it keeps you from all God has for you.
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A Personal Prayer Request from Kasey
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God is calling me to walk this journey out, please keep my family in your prayers today. My husband is a pharmaceutical rep and his main drug just went generic. To make a long story short – we’re waiting on a phone call today to find out his job will be eliminated. My heart screams with doubt – we’ve already been through this twice in the last 8 years, you have got to be kidding me. At the same time, I’ve heard God gently whisper in my ear all day – remember where I’ve brought you from. I did not forsake you then and I won’t now. He’s calling me to take HIS hand and trust His heart.
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I hear you God, I really do……..but to be 100% honest I’d rather you just answer my prayer that he won’t lose his job. Why do I automatically trust more in the security of a job, than the security of God’s promises?
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I hear you God, I really do……..but to be 100% honest I’d rather you just answer my prayer that he won’t lose his job. Why do I automatically trust more in the security of a job, than the security of God’s promises?
I scored 134. Doubt does come and go for me. I know it is the devil putting that doubt in my heart. I am on the second chapter in A Confident Heart. I am really taking the time to read and absorb everything I read. My sister (Melissa) and I are both signed up for Melissa’s Bible Study. I was also happy to hear my sister won a copy of the book on your website last week!
Kasey, I know you are worried and it is hard not too. Just put your trust in the Lord and know that he is right there with you. It may be that He has something bigger planned for your family!
Thanks for all you do!
I scored 158.
198-155: Self-doubt is a heavy burden that seems to weigh you down and keep you from living fully.
I’m waaaay behind on the devotionals, but clearly I need them. Thank you for sharing them. Everyone needs encouragement and I am certainly no exception. Kasey…I will pray for your family that God’s Will be done concerning your husbands job. We were in that same place just 2 years ago. My husbands hours were cut by 60% and we were so scared. God has really helped me understand that if He brings us to it, He will bring us thru it.
Sarah – WOW!! First such a gorgeous coulpe!! Second I love the shots of them at the ceremony site with empty chairs reminds us that despite all the glitz and all the loved ones that surround the coulpe, the day is really just about the two of them.
Kasey I am praying for you and your husband! Thank you so much for this devotional! So much can shake your confidence! Then i just want to go hide in a hole and forget about it. But I know that is not the plan God has for me. Thank you for this reminder! I am loving this devotional!!
I scored 164.
198-155: Self-doubt is a heavy burden that seems to weigh you down and keep you from living
For a good part of my life I thought I was the only one who felt this way. Now that that I am older (and wiser, I hope) I realize that there are lots of people that feel this way; we’ve just learned to hide it well from others. I already have my copy of ACH and am looking forward to Melissa’s Bible study. Thanks for this 7-day ‘prep’.