As Lisa tells us about her “doubtful moment” it brings me right back to one of my very own doubt-filled moments….
It had been several months after my very last therapy session. I knew in my heart of hearts that I was healed, but as I stepped into my counselor’s office that day, the doubt that had been filling in my heart since the last time I was in that room followed me in. Even with a beautiful sign from God’s heart to mine that I truly was healed and made new, I still somehow let doubt get in the way. As I was explaining all of my doubts my dear counselor asked me a simple question, “What are the things that you know that you know that you know are true?”
I am safe. (Proverbs 18:10)
I am loved. (John 3:16)
These were the only thoughts that I was able to muster up, but somehow they proved to be just enough!
Each truth above comes from God’s Word. Apart from Him we have nothing, we are nothing. God’s Word is our source for confidence. He is our Source for power and protection. He is our all in all. He is our portion forever and ever. He is all we ever need and He has come to RESCUE YOU AND ME from doubt and all of the hardships of life!
My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. Psalm 73:26
Knowing the truth is just not enough to keep the doubt away. I have found that the more we “know” something, the more Satan tries to convince us that we don’t know anything at all. Prior to this moment in counseling I had found the more confidence I had, the more doubt consumed me. How does that even make sense? It makes sense because my confidence used to come from the wrong source. Think to yourself, do you find confidence from the shifting sands of circumstances or do you find confidence in our Mighty Rock? It is still a struggle from time to time for me to let go of the false advertisements for confidence we find ourselves surrounded by in our world. We think we know what we need—the best make-up, the finest clothing, the right man, the popular friends—the list goes on and on. These false eye-catching traps just leave our hearts filled with doubt. Truth be told, even the best this world has to offer will never give us the confidence that we can find in God alone. Again, I know this is true because Scripture backs it up!
Proverbs 3:26 assures us, “…for the Lord will be your confidence and will keep your foot from being snared.”
We can have confidence in God because of His Word! When we fill our hearts with God’s truth, His confidence seeps into every crack and crevice of our soul! God’s confidence in us will enable Satan’s lies to stay tucked under our feet as we press on in our journey with the Lord of our lives!
It is clear to us, friends, that God not only loves you very much but also has put His hand on you for something special. When the Message we preached came to you, it wasn’t just words. Something happened in you. The Holy Spirit put steel in your convictions. (1 Thessalonians 1:5 MSG)
Knowing God’s Word will not suffice in the spiritual battle at hand. I know this personally. Since I have started this study, God has been using many hardships to show me just how true it is that knowing scripture is not enough, and we must be trained to use it. God’s Word is our training manual. Everything we need to know is found in His Word, not the lies of Satan. Our sword must be filled with the truth—God’s truth—which has the power to strike down Satan’s consuming lies and doubts. As a princess warrior in training, we cannot let doubt consume us. We must empty ourselves into God so that He can consume us.
The more we know who God is, the more we have confidence from Him in who we are created to be. No two princesses of the King are the same. We are all created for a unique and important purpose. It is time to wash away the doubt caused from past hurts or maybe current hurts and hold tight to God’s promises that will never shift. It is time to call out to God…He promises to answer. All we must do is empty the doubts that have been filling up our hearts at His feet. When we seek God with our whole empty heart, He will fill our hearts with HIS blessings. No more room for doubts, only His love.
When I left therapy that day, I was supposed to write what I knew on a rock, to remind me of the solid hope I have in God alone. I never did find a rock big enough to write down all the truths God has reminded me of since that night as I spent some time seeking Him. Spend some time today thinking about the truth that you know that you know that you know God is craving to fill your heart with.
(From Christi & Colleen Dent: Here is your Rock, Diane! We made this especially for YOU!)
Let’s all echo Lisa’s prayer for us on page 117:
Dear Heavenly Father,
May we, Your daughters, be one with Your heart and heaven’s purpose. May our very lives be an intricately woven expression of all that You long for us to live, touch, see, hear, and have. Make us one. We submit to Your process. Have Your way in the fiery forge and in the baptism of water. Shape us into something so fierce and flexible that every facet of our lives would declare Your love and power to save. In Jesus’s name, Amen!
Thank You Jesus!
________________
Day 4 of our Anniversary Celebration!
Well, have you enjoyed our week long celebration so far??? We sure have! I can’t wait to tell you what our next giveaway is! Another exciting gift!!
How many of you struggle with taking care of your body physically? If you are like me, you want to, but maybe you just don’t know how to get started! You don’t know the first thing about eating healthy, or what exercises may be right for you, and so on! Well, we want to bless one lucky winner with a ONE-HOUR SESSION with Wellness Coach / Fitness Designer Crystral Breaux!!
I am so VERY EXCITED about this giveaway. Crystal is new to Girlfriends Coffee Hour, but she is not new to wellness, fitness, or blogging! She not only blogs for GCH, she blogs for CreatedWoman.org, as well. She offers some amazing wellness tips and fitness advice in both blogs! Beginning in June, Crystal will begin taking your personal questions and answering them on her blog right here on Girlfriends Coffee Hour! No matter what your question is about (food, or fitness, etc.) she will address them on our At Home with GCH blog the 1st and 3rd Wednesday of each month.
The question of “where do I start” is just one “comment” away!
All you have to do to enter this drawing is read today’s blog and then make a comment below in regards to what God spoke to you in today’s blog! That’s it!
About Diane Meyers
Diane, what an amazing blog and what an awesome God we serve. My doubting moment was about 3 years ago. God had done a mighty transformation within my heart and was moving me away from my hometown and all my past that was held there. I had just finished my first round through Life’s Healing Choices. Where you wrote promises on your rock, I actually wrote hurts on mine. I had travelled to Florida to check out where I was moving and God had prompted me to take my rock to the beach. As I was standing looking out as far as I could see he reminded me of Psalm 103:11-12/For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward them that fear Him. As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us. I threw that rock with all the hurts on it as far as I could,knowing I would never see them again. Our God is so personal for each one of us.
Laurie,
Thank you so much for sharing:)
I LOVE that you did that with the rock. How special that moment is for you and God! God is so personal with us and I surely do LOVE that about Him, and many more reasons too!!!!!
Laurie, I also love what you did with your rock! What a beautiful way to release all the things of your past!!! WOW!
There have been many times of doubt and “afflictions” in my life too. The verse that has brought me through each time is Proverbs 3:5-6. I make it personal to remind me of my conviction and responsibility and of His promise to me. “I, Clella, WILL trust in You, Lord, with all my heart; I will NOT lean on my own understanding. In ALL my ways I will acknowledge You, Lord, and You WILL direct my path!” Pressure does come and doubt does raise its ugly head, BUT God’s Word is my release valve and His unfailing promises are my confidence builders.
Lisa, “God loves when we pray boldly without a shadow of a doubt…God invites us to pray in such a way that it scares what is scared within us!…if you are not praying the type of prayers that scare you, your prayers are certainly not frightening our enemy.” God’s Word says, “come boldly to the throne of Grace..” (Heb 4:16) As daughters of the King, that’s what He wants for us.
Clella,
I love that you made the verse extra personal for you! I like doing that as well, after all God’s Word is FOR US! I also love love love the sentence you wrote: Pressure does come and doubt does raise its ugly head, BUT God’s word is my release valve and His unfailing promises are my confidence builders. You said it perfectly there! Confidence gives us the ability to approach God BOLDLY! Thanks for reading and sharing 🙂
Clella, I would LOVE to pray with you sometime! I just know you are one mighty warrior!!
Thanks Diane and Christi, you are both such encouragers! I love the way God is building in each of us our confidence to be the mighty warriors He wants us to be! I can’t wait to worship and pray with you around the campfire tomorrow! 🙂
Diane,
Your blog today hits right at home. Thank you.
Tina,
God took this one in a direction I was not too confident of, how ironic, but I knew He was guiding the pen so I am glad that He wrote this one for you to hear today!
Diane,
Getting to the point of knowing that you know, that you know, that you know is really hard, but man, once you are there, there is such freedom. I have been right where you spoke about and it is a really rocky path. It is nice to be on a smooth surface in some areas of my life. Great post!
Yes there is such freedom, God’s freedom!!! Thanks for sharing Jackie:)
Thank you for your pink, sparkly honesty. I love your transparent heart. God has done a mighty work in you life, my friend. Much love to you.
pink, sparkly honesty…love it, and love you too:)
Great Blog Today Diane 🙂 I can relate with self doubt. I used to be so bad when I was in my 20’s about doubting myself about everything, even little things like what i did with my keys. id get out of the car, lock the door, put my keys in my bag, walk off, and instantly doubt where the keys were. id stop to check once or twice on the way to class; while in class id check my bag for my keys as well. it took me awhile to let go and trust myself on something that simple. this morning i woke up at 230am because my oldest son was sick,i begin to start doubting my parenting abilities, my relationship, my health, my choices; i also was sad because today is the day my dad died 8 years ago, so i was emotional about that. i finally decided to pray and not make such big decisions at 4am while im grieving my dad’s death. Prayers worked. When i take control, i dont have as much love in my heart for myself. Giving God that control back this morning and believing everthing will be okay, some things take time to change…
You said it so perfectly Amy “When i take control, i don’t have as much love in my heart for myself. Giving God that control back this morning and believing everything will be okay, some things take time to change…”. You are so right…giving God control is your first step, and believing that by doing so, everything will be okay. Isn’t that a much better feeling than hanging on and trying to handle things ourselves? It is so much more freeing! God bless you Girlfriend. I’m praying for you today!!
Amy,
How awesome that in that moment you chose to pray. That is what I have been learning lately, that you must make the choice. The choice really is ours, are we going to choose God or choose our own control. It most certainly does take time, the more you choose God the more He will help you:) Praying for you as you remember the happy memories you share with your dad.
thank you, diane, for sharing your growth (and stuggles)! as you wrote in that paragraph about doubt, “It is time to wash away the doubt…and hold tight to God’s promises that will never shift. we must…empty the doubts that have been filling up our hearts at His feet. No more room for doubts, only His love.” amen and amen! <3
i am always encouraged when i read about abraham (the father of faith!) and his strong desire to believe God, to trust in His promise, to not doubt His Words. i.e., Romans 4:20-22 "No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. That is why his faith was 'counted to him as righteousness.' "
I am always astonished by Abraham too! When I first really started reading the Bible, I started with Abraham…His faith inspires me, His obedience to God inspires me. Thank you for sharing that passage. I need to remember that in the moment that doubt tries to fill my mind, I must immediately get rid of it, it does not belong:)
Wow! Diane, God really did a work here, not just in your life, but on this page. I will have to read this blog over and over to completely digest all of its goodness!!! I, too, was going to quote the phrases mentioned in comments above, but I’ll share this one instead. Proverbs 3:26 assures us, “…for the Lord will be your confidence and will keep your foot from being snared.”
“We can have confidence in God because of His Word! When we fill our hearts with God’s truth, His confidence seeps into every crack and crevice of our soul! God’s confidence in us will enable Satan’s lies to stay tucked under our feet as we press on in our journey with the Lord of our lives!”
This goes perfectly with my study in my quiet time this morning. In my Max Lucado Bible the margin study in Micah talked about the perils of New Age beliefs The quote I wrote down in my journal is:
“The ultimate deception of Satan: to rob men of their relationship with the God of the universe… (the author of this quote, Billy Graham, specifically targeted false religions here and the rest of the quote addresses that, but I like to end the sentence there because that is truth in and of itself.
Satan will do his best to rob us of our relationship with God through any means he can use, including doubt in ourselves and in our God. Thank you, Diane, for being the mighty instrument that you are in God’s hand! God bless!!!
Thanks for reading. God truly wrote this post today. I was struggling even as I was typing, but I must remember that these writings come from God there is no need to doubt His words. I am finding lots of joy in God giving us confidence!!!
I’m going to get a rock!!!!
You can share the one Colleen and Christi made for me:)
Thank- You Diane for being honest and open!!Last night I got a call from my youngest daughter in Florida who was hysterical. I won’t go into detail but she has a very controlling husband who has a drinking problem. I know what my initial response would have been if I wouldn’t have been in this group. Praise God for the Lord directing me to Girlfriends Coffee Hour and studying Girls with Swords.I like Christi am fiercely protective of my family and children. Well the Lord did use me to witness to her husband and my daughter. I told each of them they have a choice to follow Jesus or the world. My daughter was brought up in a Christian environment, and her husband was brought up in an abusive environment. I told him if he follows the world it will lead to destruction, if he follows Jesus it will lead to healing and numerous times I had to remind him that Jesus was his answer.I asked him if he wanted me to pray with him but he said he had a headache. I did pray with my daughter before we hung up.and she seemed calmed down.I was firm but loving but doubt did enter my mind after we hung up. I put on my amour and began praying in faith. I claimed the blood of Jesus over them and told Satan he had no hold on them. I got a assurance from the Lord that he was with them. I prayed for a verse to comfort me so that I would be able to rest.I have this verse on my refrigerator and I claimed it right before I went to bed. Hebrews 11:1″ Faith is the confident assurance that what we hope for is going to happen. It is the evidence of things we cannot yet see.”I can’t focus on the circumstances but instead know and claim the assurance that GOD WILL be working in their lives and TRUST that HE has the perfect plan.
I don’t remember my dreams but I know for sure they were Faith dreams because I fell asleep and felt rested when I awoke. Yesterday the Lord led me to the verse Hebrews 12:1-2 And let us run with endurance the race that God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, on whom our faith depends from start to finish. God prepared me for that moment, he gave me assurance afterwards when doubt arose, and he comforted me during my sleep. He is all knowing and wonderful!!!All I need to do now is rest in that assurance that he has the perfect plan and praise him for what he is doing in their lives.
Lorraine, I am so so happy that God is using you to minister to the lives of your children. God totally knew you were going to have that conversation, and He gave you the words to say. I went through a very abusive and controlling relationship so I can truly understand those circumstances. Prayer is powerful, and you found out a glimpse of just how powerful last night! Hebrews 12:1 is one of my favorite verses. So glad God brought you to Girlfriends Coffee Hour. SO glad to get to know you more and more:)
Diane, when I read that you had not found your rock yet, I was on a mission!! I immediately contacted Colleen Dent and said, “We need a new graphic!!” Knowing how important that rock is to be in your life, one that you can carry around with you wherever you go…hold in your hand…I pray that you will take the time to find that rock. There is much meaning in that rock. More importantly, the biggest rock that you have found is the only one that really matters…Jesus! I LOVE this blog!!! I LOVE You Sister!!! Awesomeness!!!!
Christi,
This makes me tear up! I love that you went on a mission for my rock, and yes I really do need to make time to find a rock, but in the mean time, focus on MY MIGHTY ROCK!!!! love you:)
I am new to this blog but am very thankful I came across it! I am so thankful that I don’t have to find confidence in myself, I can lean and rely on “my rock” to see me through even the most challenging circumstances that with my knowledge seem impossible…through Christ ALL things are possible.
Welcome to GCH, Ashley! We’re glad God brought you here today! May He bless all that you put your hands to today, and always!
Amen Ashley!! With God all things truly are possible. Glad God bought Girlfriends Coffee Hour along your path!
this hits me right at home today as well….in this world filled with insanity, I know I need to go to my Rock for the Truth….Satan has been waging warfare in my life recently….upon my mighty Rock I must stand!!!! thank you for your words….they fill me with joy, hope and peace…thank You God for these wonderful women You have brought into my life to guide me and lift me up. May You bless them in their struggles, give them comfort and peace.
Thank you so much for reading. Your kind words make my heart smile. What you said reminds me of that one song….I will have to find it now! Stand firm with the Armor of God, you have victory in Christ! Lifting you up in prayer my dear sister in Christ!
I am late getting in tonight what an amazing chapter!!! It’s funny because since our conference last week end I have been reflecting not on my relationship with my husband but on my relationship with God. What a confident woman warrior I am becoming learning how to pray and opening my heart to His Word. Finding strength for each battle but mostly asking God to reveal to me what I am to learn and then waiting for Him to respond – quietly. Not acting when my flesh woman tries to take contol but waiting in joyful anticipation. Remembering all Jesus gave so that I could be in this relationship and holding firm that the Holy Spirit will do a work in me.