Quote of the Day: "She chose to be herself because she realized that everyone else was taken." -paraphrasing of a quote by Oscar Wilde
Recently I've been having a problem with self-confidence. I constantly felt like I wasn't good enough, I couldn't possibly ever be good enough, and I was consistently bombarded with an not-ignorable fear of failure.
I started looking up Christian books, and one stood out very clearly: Renee Swope's 7-Day Doubt Diet. Feeling convicted, I signed up via her website (reneeswope.com) for daily devotions to be sent to my email. I discovered that her bible study parallels her book A Confident Heart and goes into how Christian women very often throw away their self-confidence, leading to lots of uncertainty and insecurity and a serious lack of boldness and faith in Christ. Let me tell you, even the introduction to the bible study helped my self-confidence and God-confidence. Before I discovered Renee's messages, I was very back-slidden, I had lost almost all my faith in Christ, and I was confused about and insecure in myself and the rest of the world. I had even forgotten how to BE myself! I would put on a different face when I talked to my friends, not that I have many (but that's a whole other post), and I would feel terrible about it afterwards because it was not me that was talking. It was a different me, a me that I wanted to be. I often did the same thing with my family, because I was very insecure about my identity in Christ and the world, and I wanted to be a person who everyone liked and accepted, rather than myself, especially if I wasn't liked or accepted. I would fear that my family would judge and reject me if I had a bad day. Reading this devotion has helped me realize that that is not the case. My family loves me, no matter how many mistakes we make and how many faults and imperfections we have. It's the same thing with God! He loves and accepts us no matter who we are or where we are in relation to Him. That does not mean that we are perfect the way we are and shouldn't change, but it does mean that we can have confidence in God and in the fact that by doing His Will, He won't let us fail. We can succeed and we will if we just have confidence and faith that Christ will succeed through us! I sincerely hope that whoever reads this sees God's truths and is helped the way that I was helped. God Bless!
To sign up for the 7-Day doubt diet, click this link: reneeswope.com
On the right you will see a picture of the cover of the booklet and a sign-up. Just enter your name, e-mail, and state, and you will immediately receive the intro to the devotion, and the next seven consecutive days will be the actual devotion. Enjoy!
