by Tracy | Inspirational, Tuesdays With Tracy
“Love your neighbor as you love yourself.” Luke 10:27, NKJ
As women we tend to wear a lot of “hats” everyday without even realizing it! We just know that we are exhausted each night – can I get an Amen? Within a twenty-four hour period women often fill the roles of: wife, mother, business woman, chef, chauffeur, counselor, daughter, aunt, bible study leader, school teacher, fashion consultant, friend and this is not comprehensive list by any means! It is no wonder studies have shown that women in America feel overwhelmed and dissatisfied. Needless to say, it is imperative that you take care of yourself!
Notice in the verse above that in addition to loving your neighbor (i.e. preparing meals for a family grieving, volunteering at your local church and listening to a friend in need), we are also commanded to love ourselves!
So let me ask you: Are you good to yourself? Do you take time for you or does everything and everyone else take precedence? I am going to guess that most of us reading this blog (including myself) often fall short in this area. But the truth is, if we don’t take care of ourselves – we will eventually reach the point where we can no longer function! When we find ourselves exhausted and overwhelmed, depression can creep in if we are not careful. So, if you are reading this today please know that I love you and I plead with you to take care of yourself:)
I give you permission to take care of you! Let’s start right now – I want you to think of something that you can do for yourself today… go ahead and think about it and then DO IT!
Prayer:
Lord, forgive me for taking care of everyone else, but me. I choose this day to take better care of me. You have entrusted me with a special purpose while here on earth and by taking care of myself – I WILL fulfill my destiny in Christ! Thank you God for this gentle reminder and I will love my neighbor as I love myself this day.” Amen.
by Tracy | Bad Day Blues, Inspirational, Tuesdays With Tracy
“For I am persuaded beyond doubt (am sure) that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities, nor things impending and threatening nor things to come, nor powers. Nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:38-39, AMP
There is nothing you can do that will separate you from the love of God. His love for you is not contingent on what you have or will do, but it is solely dependent on the work of the cross. You don’t have to “do” anything to deserve God’s love, it has already been freely given when Jesus gave His life for you on the cross. When we give our lives to Jesus, He takes away our sin, sickness, and poverty and replaces it with His forgiveness, wholeness and prosperity for our mind, body and spirit.
No matter what you are currently going through – God loves you. You may be going through unbearable circumstances or you might have recently made the biggest mistake of your life, but God is and will forever be in love with you friend. God made you in your mother’s womb and He understands you better than yourself. It is when you are in a time of crisis or transition that you need to fall at the feet of Jesus and receive His love, mercy and never-ending grace. People will fail you, but God will never leave you nor forsake you.
There are many barriers that keep us from receiving God’s love. The enemy longs to torment God’s children with condemnation, but there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1). He wants to weigh down the righteous with despair, but God has given us a garment of praise instead of a spirit of heaviness (Isaiah 61). The devil desires to oppress us with fear, but God did not give us a spirit of fear but of power, love and a sound mind (2 Timothy 1:7). All authority over the enemy has been given to us. Jesus made a public spectacle of him through His death and resurrection and it is time that you and I take our authority in Christ and declare Romans 8:31, “If God is for us, who can be against us?”
Friend, you are the righteousness of God and He is deeply in love with you. As our scripture tells us above, there is nothing – no height, no depth, nothing, that can separate you from His love. I pray you rest in this truth friend and receive all that He has for you this day and forevermore.
Prayer:
“Lord, thank you for loving me – all of me. I give you everything I am and everything I am not. You know what I am going through right now and I run to You today. I am in desperate need of Your mercy, grace wisdom and love. I take authority over every plan of the enemy in my life and ask that only Your plans succeed. I declare that goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. Amen.”
by Tracy | Bad Day Blues, Inspirational, Practical, Tuesdays With Tracy
“Who is the King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, O you gates! Lift up, you everlasting doors! And the King of glory shall come in. Who is the King of glory? The Lord of hosts, He is the King of glory.” Psalm 24:8-10
At one time or another we will come face to face with difficulties and trials. Even Jesus had to endure crowds that wanted to stone Him to death, people that spoke evil of Him and friends that betrayed Him, yet in every situation, He was rescued and Jesus did not leave this earth until it was His appointed time at the Cross. And friend, I want to encourage you today that no matter what you are going through, the same God who saved Jesus at every point and turn is the God who will also save you!
I will never forget when my liver began to fail during my senior year at Asbury College. I was twenty years old and fighting for my life. I literally fainted in the doctor’s office when she stated that my name needed to be placed on a liver donor list. I had already been through so much in my childhood and the thought of dying at a young age seemed surreal and yet all too familiar. For so long I had longed to take my life, but it was God who radically saved me and with every breath that was now within me, I longed to tell others of what God had done in my life! Thankfully, I was placed on Asbury’s intercessory prayer list and mighty prayer warriors went before God on my behalf. The truth is that others believed for my healing when I did not have faith for it myself. I was experiencing physical difficulties to the point that I could not even walk to the bathroom a few feet away without becoming totally exhausted.
Friend, there maybe times when others will have faith for your miracle even when you don’t. When this happens, simply receive their faith and let them believe for you until you can believe it for yourself. And you can rest in the fact that the prayers of the Righteous will alter your destiny and destroy every plan of the enemy.
It was when my doctor performed a liver biopsy (with no anesthesia I might add) that my miracle manifested. The physician team was amazed and perplexed when they discovered that my liver would in fact heal itself within a year’s time and that I would not need a liver transplant after all – our God is mighty to heal! I found out later that my testimony greatly affected my attending physician and she later left her practice to pursue her dreams – our God is mighty to encourage!
I can give you story after story of testimonies from my life and the lives of others that would further demonstrate the fact that God is a God of miracles, signs and wonders. I have seen God restore marriages, rescue those in deadly accidents, heal those sick in body and mind, and provide finances in time of need (I’ve literally seen cars given to those in need with no strings attached and I’ve seen bills miraculously paid). God is the One who can save, heal, restore and bring peace to your mind during the trails of life. I encourage you to run to Him today friend because He is mighty to save! Who is the King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty!
Prayer:
“Lord, I profess that even when I cannot see You with my natural eye, I know that you are always moving on my behalf. You are the God who is mighty to save. I give you every difficulty I am experiencing at this time and I ask that you strengthen me and put people around me who will believe in my needed miracle till the end. I also ask that you put women of faith around me to believe for my breakthrough even when I cannot believe for it myself. I declare that all things are possible with You. You are my refuge and strength, my God in whom I trust. Amen.”
If you are currently going through a trial and would like prayer, please click on the “Need Prayer?” button below and myself and my prayer team would honored to cover you and your confidential prayer request.
by Tracy | Bad Day Blues, Inspirational, Tuesdays With Tracy
“Jesus answered and said to her, whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life. The woman said to Him, ‘Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw.” John 4:13-15
As I enter the New Year it is my desire to give God everything that I am, but more importantly, I want to give God everything I am not in 2010. Although I have been blessed to achieve some goals in my life, what I am aware of most is my utter dependence on God and everything that I am not. I will be the first to admit that I have not always made the right choices and my failures are many, but through God’s amazing grace He has taken everything I am not and somehow, someway, used it for His glory. Bottom line, I shouldn’t even be alive today but thanks to God I am here and I will serve Him all the days of my life. As it states in 2 Corinthians 12:10 (NLT), “That’s why I take pleasure in my weaknesses, and in the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I suffer for Christ. For when I am weak, then He is strong.”
The Samaritan woman in our scripture above understood what she was not. She had failed in five marriages, she was not considered worthy as a Samaritan to serve Jesus a simple drink of water from the well that day, not to mention, the numerous disappointments she had experienced in life which brought lack in her mind, body and spirit.
Yet Jesus was not concerned about her accomplishments (everything she was) or her failures (everything she was not) in life. He was there to give her EVERYTHING HE IS which superseded everything she was not.
You see, it was the Samaritan woman who was in need of a drink that day. She needed more than what natural water could supply, she needed a drink of everlasting life. What she found out that day was that one drink from God’s well would quench the deepest thirst within her soul. This living water brought healing to her body and peace to her mind.
It is God alone who fills our longing to be loved because He loved us so much that He sent His only Son to earth. It is God who fills our hunger to be accepted because He calls us the apple of His eye. It is God who fills our need to be valued because He sees us as precious in His sight. It is God who fills our yearning to be cherished because His thoughts of us each day are more than can be numbered. It is God who fills our desire to be taken care of because our Father in Heaven shall supply all of our needs according to His riches in glory. And like the Samaritan woman, we to need to drink from the well of God.
What are you in need of today? What do you need in 2010? Whatever it is, God is your solution. He is faithful to complete the work which he begun in you. All we have to do is give Him everything we are and everything we are not and receive a drink from His well today. When we give God our everything, the rest is up to Him.
Prayer:
“Lord, I give You 2010 and ask that You take everything that I am and everything that I am not and use my life for Your glory. I am in need of a drink from the everlasting well of life today. Please fill my mind with you peace, my body with your healing power and my spirit with faith for the New Year. I declare that in my weakness, You are made strong. Amen.”
by Tracy | Inspirational, Tuesdays With Tracy
For a child is born to us, a son is given to us. The government will rest on his shoulders. And he will be called: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” Isaiah 9:6, NLT
Merry Christmas Friends,
I want to share with you some exciting news and give all the glory to God because it is through His favor and love that First For Women Magazine has published an article about my “Christmas Miracle” devotional. It was freelance writer, Diane Nichols who after reviewing hundreds of stories, stumbled on my “Christmas Miracle” devotional, written over three years ago, on my website. Diane has told me that finding my miracle story was like finding a needle in a haystack, but as soon as she read my story, she knew it was the one for their December issue. You can pick up your copy of my story in First Magazine (page 42) at your local grocery store or newsstand throughout America and Europe.
The thing is friend, if God can do this for me…then what will he do for you? It is my prayer that you will have a miracle filled Christmas this year!
Here is the full, expanded version of “My Christmas Miracle” published in 2006
“My Christmas Miracle”
As the Christmas season beckoned at my door, I could not help but reminisce about the memories of Christmas past. A lot of my flashbacks revolve around running to abuse shelters from my stepfather who was physically abusive. Even when things seemed calm on my home front, I could always count on the never-ending drama within my family to spice up the holiday season. Holiday drama and my family seem to go together like macaroni and cheese. While the majority of my early memories could put anyone in therapy, I did think about one Christmas that still puts a smile on my face even to this day.
It was the Christmas that my aunt, uncle, and cousins drove 12 plus hours in the sleet and snow to be with us during the holidays. I was in sixth grade and I still remember the smell of burning wood in the fireplace and the amazing meals my mom prepared. But, the best part of that Christmas was a present I received. To the outward eye it appeared that my aunt gave me a game, “Stop Thief” by Parker Brothers, but it was much more than that.
You see, that evening my family gathered around the dining room table and played until the wee hours in the morning. The entire room was filled with laughter as we chased the fictitious thief all over the game board. As an abused child who later nearly took her life at the age of 15, I held onto the laughter of that night during some of the hardest times in my life. The memory of that Christmas is still with me today. I am not sure when it happened or which state I lived in at the time, but I lost my most prized game, “Stop Thief.”
Now in my thirties, I decided it was time to replace my favorite game. My research uncovered that Parker Brothers no longer makes the game, and to my dismay, “Stop Thief “ is now considered a vintage game! My husband suggested that I attempt to locate the vintage game on E-Bay. I held my breath as I typed in the words “Stop Thief” on the E-Bay website, and there it appeared before my eyes, not only one, but several “Stop Thief” games were being sold that very day. I placed my highest bid, and to my surprise, won the game. I eagerly anticipated its arrival, and just three days later it was placed at my front door in Atlanta, Georgia. I opened the package, pulled out the game and saw my very own handwriting on the front cover that stated, “I love Michael Jackson” in red ink. The memory of using my brand new ink pen with multiple ink colors flooded my mind and I remembered choosing red because Michael Jackson wore a red leather coat in his Thriller video. Tears filled my eyes as I realized that I had not just received any “Stop Thief” game, but my original game from my childhood.
It was a miracle and I knew who had done it for me- my sweet Jesus. I had known of His love for me, but the fact that He found my original game that I had lost a long time ago is beyond amazing. God led a stranger in Illinois to end up with my game, sell it years later on E-Bay, and then have it delivered several states away to my front door. That shows me the restoration power of God! Joel 2:21-26 talks about how God will restore the years the locusts have eaten. I don’t know what you may have lost over the years; maybe the locusts of life have stolen from you as well. I encourage you to ask God to restore unto you things that you have lost. God is able to not only restore former things, but He always brings things back with increase beyond its original state. Jesus truly is the restorer of all things lost. After all, we once were lost, but now we are found.
Prayer: Lord, I declare that the enemy must give back everything he has stolen from me! I proclaim that 2010 will be a year filled with the restoration power of God. I ask that you restore my body, my mind, my spirit, my relationships, my family, my reputation, my finances and anything else needing the restoration power of God. I love you Jesus and it is because of your love that I believe 2010 will be a year crowned with Your goodness and dripping with abundance (Psalm 65:11).” Amen.
