Surrender the Joy Stealers With Author Doris Swift

It’s been awhile, hasn’t it? After three years of covering All God’s Women, I made it through the Bible women twice, then took a break. Now, I’m getting back to blogging and making a few exciting changes.

First, I’m continuing to review Bibles, Bible studies, and other books and movies that are spiritually enriching.

Second, I’m bringing back interviews. Years ago, I interviewed filmmakers for my Faith Flix blog. Now, I’ll be interviewing female authors and other Christian women whose stories will encourage you on your spiritual journey. I kick off with my friend Doris Swift. She’s an inspiring author, speaker, podcaster, ministry leader, and counselor whose Bible study Surrender the Joy Stealers just released.

Interview with Doris Swift

Surrender the Joy Stealers Bible study book cover

Doris, tell us a little about Surrender the Joy Stealers, your new Bible study coming out.

Surrender the Joy Stealers: Rediscover the Jesus Joy in You, is a strategic six-session Bible study rooted in John 15, that will help women rediscover the overflowing, ever-present Jesus joy within. When the struggles of this world drain us dry and wring us out, our desert mentality becomes fertile ground for the enemy’s lies to grow. We place our trust in what we see and feel instead of in the God we know and love.

The enemy may threaten to steal our joy—but the truth is, he can’t crack the code.

Here is a glimpse of our journey together:

Week 1: Reveal

Through the power of prayer and the truth of Scripture, we begin our journey by revealing and naming what threatens to steal our joy. Identifying our joy stealers is the first step in revoking their power over us.

Week 2: Respond

Once the joy stealers are revealed, named, and brought into the light of Christ, it’s time to surrender them to God. In Week 2, we walk through what it looks like to surrender our joy-stealers to God. Surrender is key, and I share personal and biblical stories to help you in surrendering what threatens to steal your joy.

Week 3: Receive

In Week 3, we receive with open hands the joy Jesus already gave us and wants to continue to give us when we abide in him. We receive with joy our calling and purpose.

Week 4: Renew

A healthy disciple abides in the vine and bears much fruit to the glory of God. In Week 4, we learn to walk with a fresh and renewed outlook, are reminded we are transformed by the renewing of our minds through God’s Word, and find renewed strength, a renewed spirit, a renewed mind, and a renewed purpose.

Week 5: Rest

What does rest truly mean? Rest is never optional in God’s economy. Rest is more than taking a nap in the middle of the day; the rest we need is a deep-down-to-your-soul kind of rest. In Week 5, we explore what resting, like Sabbath rest, looks like and how we can be rested in Christ and ready for our calling.

Week 6: Reach

Are we bearing enough fruit or any fruit at all? In Week 6, we explore the meaning of bearing much fruit. Through God’s Word, we find what it means to bear much fruit, how the fruit is produced, and how we might use our gifts to impact the world for Christ.

What was the inspiration for writing it?

Several years ago, I spoke at a women’s event on joy. I prepared small strips of paper with the question, What threatens to steal your joy? and had a handful placed at each table. During my talk, I asked women to write down what threatened to steal their joy, bring the slips of paper up front, and drop them in a box in an act of surrendering them to God.

After surrendering their joy stealers, each woman was handed a white carnation to symbolize acceptance of the joy Jesus gave them and continues to give. Also, once surrendered, they wouldn’t take the joy stealers back.

After the event, I brought the box of surrendered joy stealers home to pray over them and ask God to help the women not take back what they had surrendered that day. I expected things like chaotic schedules, struggles with weight, and unruly kids, and those were there, but those were not the only ones. Others wrote about addictions, marriage issues, health issues, and one woman wrote LIFE in all caps followed by a period.

My heart broke for them, and since they were all anonymous, I didn’t even know their names. But God did. That simple exercise at a women’s event opened my eyes to the realization that we never know what women are going through, even when they’re sitting right next to us at a women’s event.

What do you hope women will get out of it?

My hope is that women will identify and name what threatens to still their joy, surrender those joy stealers to God, and walk forward in their calling and purpose. We talk a lot about bearing much fruit since the study is rooted in John 15. The weeks intentionally take women on a journey to walk free in the joy Jesus already gave them, and to use their gifts to impact the world. When we abide in Jesus, we will bear much fruit.

Yet often times women feel stuck and feel where they’ve been, what they’ve done, or what’s been done to them disqualifies them from being able to be used by God.

My heart and passion are for women to see that God sees things differently and he can and wants to use them for his glory, regardless of past, present, or future circumstances. He wants to use all of us, and all we have to be is willing. I want to encourage them that joy is a fruit of the Spirit–it’s supernatural and cannot be stolen.

Since Jesus tells us in John 15:11 that he placed his joy in us, that ours may be full, the joy we have is constant and is not dependent on our circumstances. Joy and sorrow, joy and sadness, joy and difficult seasons can exist simultaneously, and I pray women will grab hold of that truth and promise.

Tell us about your writing journey that led to the writing/release of this book.

It has been quite the journey, Sharon! After leaving a banking career spanning almost 30 years, I started a blog. At first, I shared family happenings and general life lessons. Over the years, as I engaged in writing groups and training, I could see how God was equipping me and helping me develop the craft of writing. At that same time, I stepped into the Women’s Ministry Director role at my church. My blog transitioned into devotionals and encouraging messages with a purpose for women.

By purpose, I mean that no longer was I writing just to write, but I was writing to help women experience some type of change or transformation. This might be in their thinking, calling, and actions based on the truth of God’s Word. I’m passionate about helping women walk deeper in the Word and to take action where their passion, compassion, and conviction intersect. That is my definition of a fierce calling.

The original book proposal I wrote was based on the fierce calling concept–that every woman of God has a fierce calling. I planned to tell stories of several women who either birthed a ministry or started serving in an existing ministry, in the areas where their passion, compassion, and conviction intersected. However, once I submitted the book proposal for Fierce Calling to my now agent, Blythe Daniel, at the Spark Conference several years ago, she wasn’t sure another book on calling would be well-received by publishers.

That conversation took place in 2020, right before the world shut down. It wasn’t until about a year later, Blythe asked if I’d ever considered writing a Bible study. She saw something in the story about that women’s event with the joy stealers and thought it might be worth pursuing. As soon as she said Bible study, I immediately felt the Holy Spirit guiding me in that direction.

It was another year before a book contract was offered, then several more months finishing the manuscript and finally publication. The world of writing and publishing sure emphasizes our need for the fruit of the Spirit, mainly patience!

How would you describe your personal style of studying the Bible?

I love reading the Bible but really love digging deep into the text, especially learning the word translations in Greek and Hebrew. It’s important to also consider the cultural aspects, like where the events are taking place, who was present, who was speaking, who the audience was, what was the culture of that time, and what was the purpose of the text being written and included in the Bible. What is God trying to teach and reveal to us?

The most important reason to dig deep into God’s Word is to know him more. The Bible is a book about God, but sometimes we make it all about us. It is about us in regard to a personal relationship with God, but the Bible is the inspired Word of God and is about God, who wants to reveal himself to us in a personal and powerful way.

Of course, the most important action we can take before studying the Bible is to pray. We can pray the Holy Spirit would reveal things to us through the text, which is living and breathing and sharper than a two-edged sword. We can pray for help in understanding the message in the text, and the Holy Spirit will help us. That’s a promise. The Word of God is the Sword of the Spirit.

As we read God’s Word, he will reveal to us how we can apply his truth to our own lives. We find God’s solutions to all of our needs right there in his Word.

I love how Scripture comes alive on the page, and we find we can read a verse today, then read that same verse tomorrow and gain a fresh perspective and exactly what we need at that moment.

What is your favorite book in the Bible?

Well, currently, it’s John! Mainly, because my study is rooted in John 15 and the Book of John and I have spent many months together. What I also love about John, is his gospel is great to point new believers to. You can really get to know Jesus on the pages of John.

Having said that, I love so many other books, like James, because of all the beautiful takeaways, one being that mercy triumphs and also that when we ask for wisdom, God will give it to us in abundance.

I love the story of Esther, the encouragement in Philippians, which tells us the things we should think about, and Ephesians, where we find one of my favorite verses, Ephesians 4:1, which says, “I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called,” (NKJV). I love it so much that I made sure this verse was on my graduation cap when I walked in my college graduation ceremony at age 59.

Who is your favorite woman in the Bible? How are you like her? How are you different?

So many amazing women make it hard to choose, as you well know, Sharon! I do love Deborah, and I can’t wait to meet her in glory. I’m going to ask her how in the world she could juggle being a wife, judge, and warrior woman! She’ll probably tell me it was all in a day’s work with the help of the Lord, and how we women can multitask.

I’m like her in that I’m a wife, I counsel people, and I passionately strive for a balance of grace and truth. I’m different in that we are all uniquely, fearfully, and wonderfully made by God, even down to no two thumbprints being the same. Also, I’m not too keen about going into battle, although we do face spiritual battles while here on earth.

I must say, though, I do love Esther for her courage, Lydia for her hospitality and passion for evangelism, and Anna for her strong faith and perseverance. I could go on and on, and I’m sure you could too, Sharon. I am thankful that God made sure to tell their stories so we could be encouraged to tell ours. It’s so important to see how women in the Bible were used in great and mighty ways to further the Kingdom, and the same is true for us.

What is your favorite scripture?

I mentioned Ephesians 4:1, but I also love 1 Thessalonians 5:11 (ESV), which says, “Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.” My heart is to encourage others, so that verse is precious to me. I also love Isaiah 41:10, Jeremiah 29:11, and Romans 8:28, and there’s a story I could tell behind Micah 6:8 I wrote about years ago, so that verse is especially meaningful as well. See, I couldn’t pick just one!

Anything else you’d like us to know?

We all have an overarching calling, and that is to make Jesus known and to share the gospel with a world in desperate need of hope.

Although we have a common calling to share the gospel, each one of us has unique callings which flow into our common one. I picture it as being like multiple streams flowing into one large body of water. That is the beauty of the body of Christ. We all have our gifts and talents, and God continually equips us in whatever he calls us to do.

We can be encouraged that his plans for us are good, our worth and value are secured in our identity as children of God through Christ, and God can use us no matter where we’ve been, what we’ve done, or what’s been done to us, to further the Kingdom and bring him glory.

Thank you so much for inviting me to this space to share what I hope has been a word of encouragement for your readers!