by Tracy | Inspirational, Practical, Tuesdays With Tracy
Arise [from the depression and prostration in which circumstances have kept you—rise to a new life]! Shine (be radiant with the glory of the Lord), for your light has come, and the GLORY of the Lord has risen upon you! (Isaiah 60:1)
The sun shall no more be your light by day, nor for brightness shall the moon give light to you, but the Lord shall be to you an everlasting light, and your God your GLORY and your BEAUTY. (Isaiah 60:19)
To my utter delight, I awoke early from slumber last week and tip toed to the kitchen while my precious ones were still asleep. I giggled with joy as I put a Starbucks capsule into the Kerig machine and pushed “brew.” Then with my coffee in hand, I found my favorite spot and pulled the Word of God close. This was a rare treat from heaven and I knew that God had ordained this time for us.
Time with God – my glory, my beauty.
With every sip of caffine and bite of God’s word, I began to feel invigorated and ready to ponder the New Year. You see, with the state of our country and my own personal brokeness within 2012, I was somewhat apprehensive of the New Year. But then I found Isaiah 60 and just as the clouds are lifted due to a change of atmosphere, my concerns quickly floated away as God’s presence filled the room.
Embracing God – my glory, my beauty.
God began to show me that even with present darkness – there will be an unleashing within God’s people as we embrace Him as our glory and our beauty in 2013.
- Instead of grief, there will be His Glory
- Instead of despair, there will be His Joy
- Instead of defeat, there will be His Victory
- Instead of shame, there will be His Honor
- Instead of ashes, there will be His Beauty
- Instead of devastation, there will be His Restoration
- Instead of retreat, there will be His Rising
God – your glory, your beauty.
- Glory – “everything that makes God beautiful and great, it is a bright light from God.”
- Beauty- “qualities that delight the eye, ear, mind or heart, loveliness, elegance, a particular grace.”
- Hence, the closer we live to the Lord, our outward appearance will be transformed and become more glorious and beautiful.
2013 is the year to arise and shine and to be radiant in the Lord. It is not a matter of how we feel, it is a matter of allowing God to be our glory and our beauty. No longer will the sun or moon be our light, but the Lord will be unto us an everlasting light. May His glory and beauty shine through us as never before. And remember – do not allow this world to darken your spirit for this is the year to rise up and shine as never before.
2013 – God’s year of Glory and Beauty.
Happy New Year!
Tracy
PS:
For all my Atlanta peeps – I am doing a series in January & February at Cumberland Community Church. Let me know if you can attend. Blessings!
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.”
