Let’s Study Psalms Together!

Are you ready to start reading Psalms with me?

I hope you are because I believe God has something to teach us as we pray and read through this book leading us into Easter.

Here is the Reading Plan.  It explains how we will read through the entire book of Psalms these. Ext 5 weeks.  You can find the discussion and videos in the Private Facebook group Here 

Let  me know if you are joining in the comments. I would love to welcome you!

Bless you friends

-tracy

September Positivity Scripture Challenge Day 16

Today is Day 16 of the Positivity Scripture Challenge 

“Whoever speaks the truth declares what is right, but a false witness speaks deceit.”

‭‭Proverbs‬ ‭12:17‬ ‭CSB‬‬

Speaking has always made me nervous.  I think it makes a lot of us nervous but is there anyone who doesn’t get nervous about public speaking? 

I use to never want to be the one who spoke up.  I was saved at a 13 but was never a confident girl. So speaking about God’s Word or my faith was something I wanted to do but like some of us we hide it in a compartment in our lives and don’t speak up much about it.  I mean when we aren’t confident in an area we usually aren’t the first ones to jump up to speak. 

As the years have passed and with the Holy Spirits guidance in my life, wisdom from the Word of God has filled me with Christ confidence to speak about God’s love for me and how He changes us.  

For years I lived in bondage to shame of my past sins, I knew I was forgiven but still couldn’t get beyond the lies of shame and guilt.  I wasn’t good enough to do the job God has given me.  I wasn’t equipped. I was a terrible person for the things in my past.   These are the lies I would replay in my mind.  

The lies I heard kept me quiet. I wanted to be hidden and it seen.  When I went through a time of prayer for one my children was when I realized God had a purpose for me that I wasn’t fulfilling. I saw God work in my life because I was praying for my child. I was praying for change in him but Jesus changed me! 

I believe God is working in our lives everyday and speaking Truth and believing God changes everything.  

So today I am a woman who wants you to know we can have the confidence to speak up for Christ when we are grounded in the Word. Dig deep into the Word and daily you will grow wisdom and be watered by the living water, Jesus Christ. 

One thing that I know is that God calls us to a purpose. It is as a Christ follower to share about His great love, forgiveness and the salvation we have through Jesus Christ. 

Blessings friends! 

Tracy 

Blessings -

Tracy 

September Positivity Scripture Challenge Day 11

Hello Friends! 

 If you are just joining me this month, you can find all the daily devotionals and more here so far 

http://handmadeknitsbytracy.blogspot.com/?m=1

Today’s Positivity Scripture day 11

“Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”

‭‭Lamentations‬ ‭3:22-23‬ ‭NIV 

Praising God is a posture of the heart.  It sometimes can be hard if where we are isn’t a good place. God is faithful and worthy of our praise even in the bad as well as the good. 

Today no matter where you are currently, stop and find praise toward God. Can you think of things maybe we take for granted each day?  

There are things like the car ride with my son I thank God for each morning. Those precious few minutes go by  fast and one day I will wish I could have them again.  Maybe it’s as simple as having just enough money for the week ahead.  God provides for us in every way and gives mercy when we don’t deserve it. 

Praise Him for His faithfulness in our life today!  Amen 

Have a great day!  Talk to you soon! 

Tag me on social with #knitthegospelintoyourheart  

Blessings -

Tracy 

September Positivity Challenge Day 8

Today’s Positivity Scripture day 8 

“For I will restore you to health And I will heal you of your wounds,’ declares the LORD, ‘Because they have called you an outcast, saying: “It is Zion; no one cares for her.” ’”

‭‭Jeremiah‬ ‭30:17‬ ‭NASB‬‬

Have you left God behind?   I have before. There was a time I thought I can do life without Him.  I believed lies and thought my sin wouldn’t affect anyone else.  

When we turn to God from sin, He is there!  He never left you.  He can forgive and heal the wounds of your own sins or the sins you have endured from others.  

We only have to call on Jesus! 

Pray today for healing in your heart if you have believed lies of the enemy.  Thank you Jesus for your amazing grace and loving us with an unending love! 

Blessings friends- 

Tracy 

September Positivity Challenge Day 4

Hello friends!

Welcome to day 4 of the positivity scripture focus this month.  Read the scripture and then write it out.  This practice can help your mind focus on God. Have a prayer time with God and respond.


Today’s positivity verse:

“O LORD, be gracious to us; we have waited for You. Be their strength every morning, Our salvation also in the time of distress.”
‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭33:2‬ ‭NASB

•We can be confident God is with us when we call on His name. He is sovereign.

Let’s meditate on these truths about Who God is  throughout our day!

•God is sanctifying us everyday. He saves us from sin.

•God is gracious to us.

•God is our strength everyday!


Have a great day!

Tracy

How I read my Bible in a Year

Handmade Knits by Tracy

Hello there friends!

Last year I decided to read my Bible in a whole year. Yes one year. You see I had decided to do this many times in the past. I just had not gotten very far when I got behind a day or so. Then months went by and my daily reading the Bible was a thing of the past.  I would just resolve to try again next year.  I easily gave up but I realize now that I was giving up on God. I was giving up on something like spending time in the Word for the World even if I was "behind" according to these expectations I had set up for myself.

God doesn't care about a reading plan! This is a lesson I learned this year while doing this discipline which by the way is what it is. The spiritual discipline of reading our Bible daily.  We have to learn to do things in our Christian faith that doesn't come naturally like reading the Bible.  How else will we know what it says.  For some of us reading is not our favorite thing to do.  I actually enjoy reading when I actually stop doing other things and sit down and read.

So for me to dedicate time to read this year this is what it looked like :

1.  Set a time to read/spend time with God, set an alarm if you need to.  I would write this down in my planner so I would schedule the time and not forget.

2.  Gather your supplies for your reading time such as Bible, journal, planner, notebook and pens and place them where you can easily have them together.

3.  Prayer time before and after reading my Bible. This is so important and should come naturally while reading your Bible. Ask the Holy Spirit to illuminate the time spent in the Word because to be honest we wont understand everything or always know what is going on sometimes while reading. This is the beauty of the Bible. We can live a lifetime and never know everything in the Bible.


The last lesson is that you dont have to read the entire Bible in a year.  I do think we should at some point do it but do it at your own pace.  I also study slowly other books of the Bible if you follow along, you know that we have studied this past year 3 books of the Bible in   KNIT THE GOSPEL INTO YOUR HEART GROUP
Reading through the Bible this year has grown my intimacy with God so much this year.  The more you are with Gods Word the more of a desire He places in you to share Him with others.  I had not had that desire before and this year God has shown me He equips us for the work of ministry even when we doubt and have insecurities.

I will be doing this another year. In 2019 I will be reading through the Bible from Genesis to Revelation in the THE DAILY WALK  You can find all kinds of reading plans but I like using a Bible with dates and a guide for me to read as I go.  Last year I read through the Everyday with Jesus Bible
It was a really great one to read through because it read some from the OT, NT, Psalms and Proverbs everyday.

Here is my challenge to YOU!

Just start!

Just begin with me and so many others January 1st reading your Bible. It will change your life.   I wont tell you it will be easy to start something new if you have never done it before but I will tell you that God will show up in your life if you show for Him.

Let me know if you will be joining me again this year and we can encourage each other! I really enjoyed all the encouragement I received this year and I believe you will too once you join the community.  Share pics on social with the tag #bibleinayear so we can cheer each other on in 2019!

Blessings
tracy