by Tracy | Bad Day Blues, Inspirational, Tuesdays With Tracy
“Many even among the leaders believed in him. But because of the Pharisees they would not con-fess their faith for fear they would be put out of the synagogue; for they loved praise from men more than praise from God.” John 12:42-43
“The fear of human opinion disables; trusting in God protects you from that.” Proverbs 29:25, The Message
There was a time in my life when I longed for the approval of man. I wanted to be a person of great importance. I drank in the praise of man and became intoxicated with what people thought and said of me. Yet my approval addiction was never satisfied and thankfully so because it brought me to the place of brokenness and total surrender to God. I have come to the place where I no longer desire the praise of man, but only to hear my Father say, “Well done my good and faithful servant.”
In our society we are encouraged to glorify the accomplishments of man. Many strive to achieve titles, positions of power, wealth and to be deemed by the world as a noteworthy person. And although we are promised much favor and success as children of God, a lot of individuals believe that the praise of man alone will bring them a sense of worth. They crave to hear man say of them, “Wow, look at her and what she has accomplished.” This is true even in the Christian culture. There is often a mixture of longing to glorify God while also enjoying the seduction of the praise of man.
Let us be reminded today that the praise of man is temporal and it will never bring true satisfaction, hence why you continually see Hollywood and sports stars turning to drugs, alcohol, affairs and such. The only true satisfaction in this life is to have a relationship with God. And friend, God has already deemed you worthy! Through the Cross of Jesus, you are the righteousness of God and He loves you – the real you!
Friend, you can rest your head tonight knowing that no matter what man may think or say about you, God loves you! It is my prayer that each night you will fall asleep pondering God’s amazing love for you. Oh how He loves you! Jesus gave His life for you, what more could He give? Oh how He loves you and me!
Prayer:
“Lord, thank you for loving me. I acknowledge that there is nothing this world can offer me that will bring me true peace or satisfaction but You! I will choose this day forward to meditate on what You say about me. No matter what man may say, I am the righteousness of God, I am the head and not the tail and the blessings of the Lord will chase me and overtake me (Deuteronomy 28). 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 | Bad Day Blues, Inspirational, Tuesdays With Tracy
Please welcome again our guest writer for “Tuesdays With Tracy,” Carol Abersold. Carol is the best selling author of “The Elf On The Shelf: A Christmas Tradition.” She is currently traveling throughout America signing books and bringing smiles to children everywhere. Please check out her wonderful website at:www.elfontheshelf.com. My daughter goes onto her website daily to create cookies, color, and play games.
I know you will be blessed by Carol’s devotional today and it’s timeless message to let your light shine this Christmas and everyday of the year.
“Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and give praise to your Father who is in heaven.” Matthew 5:16
Although I had tried to faithfully serve the Lord for more than fifty years, my light, for all intents and purposes, was out. I found myself in the blackest of pits mentally, physically and spiritually. I had been physically suffering with three herniated discs in my neck, my husband’s business was failing, and my in-laws let me know how much they disliked me after thirty-four years of pretense. I found myself curled up in a ball weeping and crying out to God for help, healing and deliverance. All hope seemed gone.Why was I, a Sunday school teacher, amateur Bible scholar, a word believing, walking, talking Christian suffering from hopelessness?!! My usually strong husband was suffering from his own worries ( I was one of them), and I “turned to God” but He seemed to be on vacation. What was the deal!
My oldest daughter came over to pray for me. She took action and made an appointment for me to get professional Christian counseling, and she encouraged me to start writing. My Eeyore-like reply was, “I have nothing to say.” Determined child (adult) that she is, she looked up on a shelf in my kitchen where my little pixie elf from childhood still remained even though the holidays were past. “Why don’t we write a book about the elf tradition?” she said. My reply was, “Oh, Chanda, nobody would want to read that……Okay.”
And so we began writing what turned out to be The Elf On The Shelf: A Christmas Tradition. While we were in the process of writing the story, I received the professional help I needed from Tracy Hurst. These two women, Chanda and Tracy, let the Lord use them to shine His light upon me. He graciously healed me from my pain, the source of our financial drain was revealed to us, and most importantly… I got my light back.
The point is this: a Christian woman’s light never completely goes out, but it can grow extremely dim. Perhaps, you, like I, need someone to shine their light on you until you can get your “batteries recharged.” Don’t be afraid, just receive it. In turn, when darkness seems present in another’s life do not hesitate to shine your God-given light.
Prayer: Heavenly Father, let me be equally as willing to be set alight, as to shed light. Let the Holy Spirit remind me not to lose heart, because I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Let me not be ashamed to seek proper help when my light seems to dim, and let me be a beacon shedding Your light on everyone I meet today. Amen.
For all you coupon lovers, click on over to my coupon site: www.couponswithtracy.blogspot.com. This week I highlight a $5 off target coupon for any Blu-ray disc, a $2 off coupon on Bertolli Frozen Meals (on sale this week for $6 and a $5 Gift Card when you buy 3) & I share a great price on chicken at Publix this week – just $1.59/LB – a great time to stock up!!
by Tracy | Bad Day Blues, Tuesdays With Tracy
“For I know the thoughts and plans that I have for you, says the Lord, thoughts and plans for welfare and peace and not for evil, to give you hope in your final outcome. Then you will call upon Me, and you will come and pray to Me, and I will hear and heed you. Then you will seek Me, inquire for, and require Me (as a vital necessity) and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. Jeremiah 29:11-13, AMP
There was a time when my husband and I were asking God to bless us with twins…okay…I know what some of you are thinking, but it was our hearts desire at that time. We diligently prayed for a double blessing, but our ultrasound made it clear that there was only one heartbeat within my womb. And although we were thankful for one healthy heartbeat, I will admit that for forty-eight hours, my husband and I moped around our home in disappointment due to what we considered “unanswered prayer.” Another time that comes to mind is with past boyfriends (a.k.a. “potential love interests”). I remember praying that a few of them would fall in love with me and choose me to be their wife – all the while – my prayers were lovingly answered with a “no” because God had good plans for my final outcome.
You see, my husband is the perfect one for me and the same is true concerning my daughter, although twins are a huge blessing, God knew what we could handle and once again we thank God for His way of answering our prayers. God knew the desire of our heart to marry and have a family and He answered us with His plans for welfare and peace, to give us hope in our final outcome.
The scripture above tells us that God always hears our prayers and heeds each one. With some of our prayers requests He answers us with a “yes” (and boy do we love it when this happens!!), there are also times as in my examples above when God lovingly answers us with a “no” in order that our future outcome will be good, and other times He answers us with “wait.” Just recently I thought God answered “no” to a request of mine, only to find out a few months later that I needed to “wait” so that He could make a good situation even better! Bottom, line, we can rest in that fact that God knows about our personal situation and He has good plans for our life.
How many times have we pouted and complained to God for not answering our prayers, when He was simply answering it His way out of His great love for us? God knows all things and He is the One who knows what we can handle. It comes down to knowing God’s will for our life and trusting that He has good plans for us. Our amazing God longs to bless us, heal us, restore us and prosper us. We are promised in Isaiah 5:11 that when we pray God’s Word it will never return back void.
Prayer:
“Lord, thank you for always hearing my prayers. I declare that You have good plans for me. Your plans are full of hope for my final outcome and I align myself up with Your Word today. I give you everything heavy on my heart and I ask that Your perfect will be done. As I seek and inquire of You this day, I will rest in that fact that You gave your life to heal, restore and bless me. I grab onto the Word of God and declare that it will not return back void, but will prosper in the thing for which You sent it (Isaiah 55:11). Amen.”
