Redeemed be His Grace

Redeemed Bracelet

What this words means to me...

𝘙𝘦𝘥𝘦𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘥 brings to mind the life I lead before Christ was empty. I was self seeking and lost. I struggled with the bondage of guilt and shame.  It honestly crippled me from most things.  ⁣
I heard this quote that resonated with me about sin and I am paraphrasing because I couldn’t find it again to share with you. ⁣
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“𝘖𝘶𝘳 𝘴𝘪𝘯 𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘮𝘴 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘸𝘦 𝘥𝘰𝘯’𝘵 𝘣𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘷𝘦 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘎𝘰𝘥.”  𝘛𝘪𝘮 𝘒𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘳 ⁣
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Is that why I confessed my sins but never left the shame and guilt behind?  I think so. It took me years to leave it all at the feet of Jesus.  Trusting God is daily dying to self and a surrender.  My natural bent is to take control but God has walked beside me and shown me that I have no control. It is all Him in my life redeeming it and holding me together and my family together by His grace. ⁣
Satan like a thief is still trying to destroy what God is doing in our life But Jesus is greater!  ⁣
When I pray now I believe God. I know that He has taken all of my sins yesterday and everyday and is continuing to sanctify me for His kingdom.   ⁣
This scripture from Corinthians is a reminder that when we repent and rid our heart of pride we will be free and saved!  Don’t let pride or surrender keep you separated from Gods goodness. ⁣
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“𝘍𝘰𝘳 𝘨𝘰𝘥𝘭𝘺 𝘨𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘧 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘥𝘶𝘤𝘦𝘴 𝘢 𝘳𝘦𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘢𝘭𝘷𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘳𝘦𝘨𝘳𝘦𝘵, 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘴 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘭𝘥𝘭𝘺 𝘨𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘧 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘥𝘶𝘤𝘦𝘴 𝘥𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘩.”⁣
𝟸 𝘊𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘢𝘯𝘴 𝟽:𝟷𝟶 ⁣
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Bless you friends! ⁣
~tracy  ⁣

What is Spiritual Discipline?

Pray Hand Stamped & Hand Knit Bracelet in my shop! 

What comes to mind when you think about spiritual discipline? 

Do you think of a set rules or things that maybe you don’t think know how to do? Or maybe you don’t even know what spiritual discipline is?  I will share as a young believer I didn’t either. We use these words as we grow in our faith and then we forget that other believers may not know what we are talking about.  

When we became a believer in Jesus Christ, He expected us to continue the road of faith learning more about Him in His Word and through prayer. 

This was something I did for awhile as a young believer then fell off quickly into the mind set of I attend church, I listen to the pastor, and prayer happens there and that’s it.  I never took it farther or read the Bible for myself to dig into it deeper and know what it says for myself instead of what someone else was telling me it says but to grow spiritually we must practice discipline kinda like an athlete training. We can’t grow in our faith or more in love with Jesus if our hearts are only focused on our work places, sports activities any idol that we hold more dear than God. We need to practice the spiritual disciplines such as thankfulness to our Heavenly Father, Meditating on God’s Word, Praying and Fasting(this will look differently for everyone and fasting doesn’t happen as often.)  

As I am ending this weeks #makeyourhomeahaven bible reading Daniel chapter 6 was a good one. Daniel was an extraordinary spirit, trustworthy and without fault. Wow! Daniels character sounds perfect.  I can’t help but want to be called an extraordinary spirit☺️ Don’t you? Daniel’s trust in God through men’s jealousy and then imprisoned in a den of lions😳 well in this chapter it shows us how Daniel did three of the spiritual disciplines. He walked by faith and knew God would rescue and deliver him. How? He was strengthened through prayer and his petitions were heard. It is the same for us. Lord, let us be changed daily and have trust like Daniel. God through our trials and weaknesses will be glorified. I am so thankful there is no lion in my life bigger than my God🙌🏻   

Have a great weekend friends! 

Tracy

September Positivity Scripture Challenge Day 17

Today is Day 17 of the Positivity Scripture Challenge ‬‬

“We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.”

‭‭Romans‬ ‭8:28‬ ‭CSB‬‬

God’s plan can’t be thwarted by our actions.  Even in the midst of our lives we make decisions and God already knew and does knows what will happen.  We still are to pray and to be used by Him to fulfill His purposes.  I have felt like the decisions I have made have really messed things up before and that’s just not the case.  Jesus called us to walk by faith so in that we are to trust Him and know that good will be the end result for us. 

Have a blessed day friends! 

Tracy 

Jesus Follower is the only title I want!

Hey there friends! 

There is a lot of weight given to the number of followers you have in the world of influence online and I have to stop myself and remember these things often.

*Remember that follower of Jesus Christ is the only title I need in this world. .

*Remember who God is in my life .

*Remember His Word and power is where I can be strengthened to teach and share the gospel with others. It is Not the number of followers or the title someone has. It’s my spiritual growth and relationship with Jesus that matters. .

Who else needed to hear this? 

 I sure did because these past few weeks I have felt the pull of striving and I don’t want to strive for anything other than Jesus follower! Jesus is my future and hope! 

I would love for you guys to tag your bible study thoughts and notes on social with this tag 

#knitthegospelintoyourheart

Also the free bible study group on FB is starting a new Summer study of the women of the Bible

Join us here!  https://www.facebook.com/groups/177043056429871/?ref=share

  

Is my behavior reflecting my beliefs?

Knit the Gospel into your Heart
 wearing a Custom Knit and Stamped Bracelet

Hello there friends! 

If my behavior doesn’t reflect my beliefs, How much value do I hold in them? I read this in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People  by Stephen Covey, "We are shaped by what we love."

My status was that I love Jesus and He saved me but my behavior did not always reflect my belief in God. In a God who saved me, who has forgiven me of my sins and lavishly loves me.

My actions were a reflection of what I was still believing about myself not of what God says about me. 

I had walked for years in shame and guilt of my past that in my own strength I tried to forgive myself of.  I had repented to God but why didn't I immediately act like it?

Shame is a painful feeling of humiliation. I felt others would reject me if they got close and knew me.  

I was locked in chains because I wasn’t living out what I claimed to believe about God. I had repented years ago and God had forgiven me from my past sins. I was also living with a lot of fear in several areas of my life. I had some legalistic thinking going on that kept me following man made rules and never finding God's grace and truly nurturing an intimate relationship with God. So I could lead my heart from listening to feelings toward Gods Truth. I had not thought at this time reading my Bible was that important but that’s further from the truth.
How else are we to know that the "feelings" and our hearts we listen to can lead us astray.

Genesis 6:5 says," The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually."

My relationship with Jesus went from a “Jesus is my God and saved me"  to  “Jesus is my everything."

My thoughts changed because I was replacing those lies with biblical Truths. I stopped listening to the world. The enemy wants us as believers to be inactive and to listen to him  more than God's Word.  I had not taken the discipline of reading my Bible and hiding God’s Word in my heart seriously but when I did my actions started changing once I started taking God at His Word. Believing Him. Trusting Him. Praying to Him. Loving Him more than anything else. I learned the hard way like most of us I am sure but I am grateful God never gives up on us.  

Soon my actions started to follow my beliefs. I began the discipline of scripture reading and studying God’s Word for myself. Then I realized, if I believed God then His scripture commands me to be a doer of the Word not just a hearer.
"But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves." James 1:22

God wants me to claim His promises and proclaim the Gospel to others and bear fruits of our faith. So others will see that Jesus heals the broken sinner, takes our shame, and gives us right thinking.  God never leaves with shame or guilt and no rules will ever make us good enough. God’s grace and power in our lives is real when we pray fervently.

Friend, I pray you find that change of heart by changing your relationship status with Jesus and listening to His Word more than anything else.  Our hearts are continually thirsty and Jesus is the living water to fill it.

2 Corinthians 12:9  “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me."


I pray this encourages you today my friend!  You can always leave me a comment because I love hearing your stories walking with the Lord.

knit the Gospel into your heart❤
trAcy

Eat God's Word Everyday

Are you eating with Lord?

Hello Friends!


Are you hungry?   I mean hungry for something that lasts forever and can never be taken away. The love, joy, peace  and forgiveness that can only found in Jesus Christ. We all have sinful desires and each of us can easily seek the things of this world to fill us up, to give us temporary satisfaction but it will disappoint or even send us down a path of destruction.  This hunger can only be filled with Jesus.  We were created to want something more.  We were meant to be His image bearers. This is why we as Christ followers need the Word of God to drink and eat of His Word.  How can we reflect Him if we aren't looking in the mirror of the Bible. 

So our provider of everything is waiting to feed His children not only physically but spiritually.   
God has equipped us with His Word so that our "eyes would be opened to recognize Him" daily.  I am praying that we would not be "slow of heart to believe" but keep His Word close so our "eyes will be opened". 

I am reading through the bible in a year. I don't know if you are taking this challenge this year or not but just this one act of obedience has changed my life. You see I use to never be confident about what God's Word said because I didn't know what it said. I was not reading it to really dig in and learn. Sometimes I read the Bible out of obligation or because I needed something and on Sundays it would be like a crash course from sermon notes.  Then I realized if I wanted more confidence in Christ and have true growth in my walk with Christ I needed to learn what God's Word said for my self. So I started reading and writing scripture daily. The writing really helped my mind see the words and then reading them helped me memorize them. I have even written scripture on my hands to give myself truth to focus on during my day.  Try it for yourself and see God change your day and open the eyes of  your heart throughout your day to see His abundance and recognize His work all around us. 

I want to challenge you to read scripture everyday too.  I think we can all relate to being lead by emotions and our own strength. It is through God's Word that we can distinguish  between lies of this world and truth. This is were we will grow roots so we can stand firm in our walk with the Lord and truly be Spirit lead through our days. 

I am rooting for you this year to get started reading through God's Word for the first time or continue on in the faith my friend. 
I shared more here on this  Facebook Live Video  about being lead by the Spirit if your interested.  I hope to keep encouraging  you guys so go ahead and leave me a comment whether you are joining me or if there is something you would like to hear more discussion on.  Walking this Christian life isnt easy and we must rely on Christ to do it. 


"But you beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit." Jude 20



Grace to you! 

trAcy