Welcome back to the Promises of God Podcast, Episode number 40 my name is Tracie Rollins, and I want to thank you so much for spending some time with me as we learn and take action on God’s promises in life. This months series is about living life, and we’re working out of the momentum devotional offered by Bible Journaling Ministries titled Live Life. You can learn more about Bible journaling with their free 10-day Bible journaling course at BibleJournalingMinistries.com today we’re reminding ourselves about the importance of rest. In our verse is Hebrews 4:9 and I’ll read that end of the world English Bible. It says, there remains, therefore a Sabbath rest for the people of God. Look up is the most frequent phase phrase I hear from the Holy Spirit. It’s his way of telling me to pay attention and put the pen down. I am guilty of not prioritizing rest and stillness, and I have to write no workday in my planner on Sunday.
Rest is something the Holy Spirit is working on with me. It is something that I have to, as odd as it sounds, prioritize. I have to remember that it’s time to shut the computer off and should visit my kids, to visit my husband and, to maybe make dinner and take a break. Rest appears in the Bible at least 144 versus depending on the translation that you use, and it’s often referred to as Sabbath, which means to rest from labor. The first account of rest is in Genesis 2: 2, and again, I’ll read that out of the world English Bible. It says on the seventh day, God finished his work, which he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work, which he had done.
When God finished creating the heavens and the earth, he rested. Rest is also included in the 10 Commandments in Exodus Chapter 20 verses eight through 11, and again, I’ll read this out of the world English Bible, and it says, remembers the Sabbath Day to keep it holy. You shall labor six days and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath to Yahweh. Your God. You shall not do any work in it. You nor your son, nor your daughter, your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your livestock, nor your stranger who is within your gates for in six days, yellow made heaven and earth the sea and all that is in them and rested on the seventh day. Therefore, Yali blessed the Sabbath Day and made it holy. Rest is included multiple times in the new testament. Rest is more important than I make it out to be.
Sometimes vacations are too busy. So I need a vacation from my vacation or rest from my rest. I can often, especially when the kids were younger, we would go to places like Disneyland, and we would go, go, go, go, go, like constantly going. And then at the end of the day, you know, we would pack up all of our stuff. Like maybe we went to Disneyland for a day or two days or even Disney world where there are multiple parks. And we would go, go, go, go, go. And then at the end of it all, we would come to our room at the end of the day and crash and fall, right to sleep. And then we’d get up, and we would do it again the next day. And then the next day, I remember when the Harry Potter world opened up at it, I think it was universal studios, I think is where that was. And I think that was the first or second year it opened.
And we were so excited because it was, we had planned to Florida trip to go to Florida and, and check out Disney world. And so we added universal studios to that trip as well. And again, we must have stood in line to ride the Harry Potter rides so many times, like back and forth, continuing back and forth and just had a blast. But at the end of the day, we were so exhausted and then at the end of whatever, I think it was five, six days that we were there, and we got on a plane, headed back to Arizona and came home and were exhausted. And then we got up and went to work the next day, and the kids got up and went. I think they were at daycare at that time. I’m not, I can’t remember exactly what we were doing, but we would get up and do whatever the next thing was.
So we would always be on the go, and our vacations were so exhausting, and eventually, I found out that I started to do this thing called time-sharing, which I know a lot of people, I know there are huge influencers that say time sharing is not the way to go. For someone like me. It’s not natural to take a vacation. It’s not natural to go take time off. That has to be forced to do it. A timeshare is an amazing thing. Now, first of all, I would never recommend buying a timeshare from, uh, the original timeshare people who are selling it. I would always recommend buying on the second-hand market, like through eBay. If you’re going to buy a one-bit beach, be sure you want one before you get one because it’s a lot of money that you have to pay.
It’s not expensive. Usually, for the timeshare on the resale market, it’s not that expensive. Like sometimes you can get them for a dollar. I think from the time show that I have now, I spent 1500 on it, and it included like two years worth of vacation points because the person hadn’t used it. And that’s the thing about timeshares. If people don’t use them, then they end up wasting money and spending money annually for things that they’re not going to do. But for me, I don’t like to waste money. So getting into this timeshare that I’m in that I bought on the resale market for maybe 10% of what the original person paid for. It allows me and my family to go on a vacation and stay in a little studio that has a kitchen and a laundry room in it and also has sometimes I can upgrade and get a bedroom or two bedrooms.
Lately, we’ve been doing two bedrooms now that the kids are more significant, so I have to either wait a year to do that or figure it out. I figured it out, but once I discovered us, I bought this timeshare. We started going to the beach because the beach is I think six to eight hours from my house in Arizona, so we go to California, and this timeshare was one that was across the street from the beach. So I think my annual fee on the timeshare is like, it’s less than $800 I think it might be 750 it was a lot cheaper when I first got it, but they raised their prices over time, but still for like 750 blocks. I get a week on the beach and like a one bedroom or studio depending on, depending on the location. So the first time I did that, we as the whole family, we packed up, and I did this thing called like trading into a timeshare.
Like I traded with somebody else in his program called RCI, which I don’t even do anymore, but I did at the time, and I traded in, and we went to show up for our timeshare, and they didn’t have any room for us. So they gave, they overbooked the timeshare. And I was so disappointed because that particular timeshare was right on the beach and we were looking forward to it. But what they did was they comped us two weeks. So they gave us our current week and then they gave me two free weeks at a different location. That was a few miles away. But still it came at, it was such a blessing because it came at a time in her life where we didn’t have any money, and it was hard to, to even save enough money to be able to take that trip. You know, because of we, every quarter I would pay for the timeshare and of our out of our dollars.
And that was our vacation. It was, you know, can I take a family to afford to the beach for less than a thousand dollars. That was kind of like the plan every year. If I could do, that would be great. They ended up comping us two weeks plus Disneyland tickets. So it was amazing. We were able to go and um, go on this beach vacation and the Disneyland tickets, I can’t remember if we went that time or if we, we save them for the next time. I don’t remember all of the details, but we went to the beach. It was the first kind of time we were supposed to go to the beach, and we spent the entire week at the beach. Like literally we sat at the beach and played football on the beach and played Frisbee on the beach and play on the waves and swam. And then we’d go back to our apartment, or I guess the timeshare, whatever you want to call it.
And we would sit down as a family, and maybe we’d play games, or maybe we would go, they would have like little places for kids to play and little activities and things for them to do and we would do that with them and we just, it was so nice to take time off and just rest and enjoy it. It wasn’t, we weren’t going from one place to one place to one place to one place. It was we were at the beach, and we’re just going to enjoy being at the beach, and I would read a book, and it would be nice, and we didn’t have to worry about things. And what was great about the timeshare is that I could do the laundry while was there and I know that’s not resting, but hey, you know, when you’re just kind of hanging out watching TV, I could do the laundry and then not have to come home and do the laundry.
It was just nice. Now again, I don’t recommend timeshares to everybody. It’s not for everybody. It is something that I like to use because it forces me to go on vacation. I can do it economically now. I mean to get even a week in California for under a grant is amazing and do a beach vacation for under $1,000 is amazing. So maybe there are cheaper ways to do it like camping or, or um, our being and all that stuff. That’s great too. I think those are great things to do as well. I, for me at this time in my life, having a PR, being the person that doesn’t like to take vacations, that doesn’t like to do that. This doesn’t naturally take breaks or naturally take vacations. Having the timeshare just really helped me out. So to each his own and I just really, really enjoy it.
For me, my family, it works well for us and what I’m trying to say is that sometimes we can go on vacation and then we’d come back. We need a vacation from your vacation. And so I have to work on it. And I wonder if that’s something that other people or even you have to work on as well. I don’t know. I’m curious to know. So this week, take some time to write a journal about what you do when it’s time to rest. Do you fill it up with activities and do go, go, go, go. Next thing, next thing, next thing, right Or do you sit and maybe read a book or maybe watch your kids or your family or your dog and enjoy your surroundings If you’re here today and you’re tired from the business of life, I encourage you to rest in God.
Ask him to, to fill you with the Holy Spirit and find your rest there. If you know God and you feel that the business of life has got you out of whack, and maybe you’re prioritizing things that don’t matter, call on God and ask him to help you prioritize so that you can find their rest in each and every day. You’re not promised tomorrow, so don’t put this off. Romans 6:23 says, the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Jesus, our Lord. So turn to him, confess your sins, and follow his will in your life, and you will feel the love of Christ that surpasses all understanding. Thank you so much for tuning in today, and I’ll see you in the next episode of the promises of God. Goodbye. Thanks for listening to the promises of God podcast. This podcast is sponsored by Bible Journaling Ministries where thousands of women grow in the word creatively. It’s your free 10-day course for other ministries and other episodes resources at ThePromisesofGodPodcast.Com.
Episode 039: What Are You Running Away From?
Welcome back to the Promises of God Podcast, Episode number 39 my name is Tracie Rollins, and I want to thank you so much for spending some time with me as we learn and take action on God’s promises in life. This months series is about living life, and we’re working out of the momentum devotional offered by Bible Journaling Ministries titled Live Life. You can learn more about Bible journaling with their free 10-day Bible journaling course at BibleJournalingMinistries.com. The thing that we might be running away from our verse is Isaiah 32:8 and I’ll read this out of the world English Bible it says, but the Nobel devices noble things and he will continue in nipple things. I’m going to read the entire section out of Isaiah 32, and the NIV version says, see, a King will reign in his righteousness and rulers were a world with justice.
Each one will be like a shelter from the wind and a refuge from the storm like streams of water in the desert, and the shadow of a great walk in a thirsty land than the eyes of those who will see will no longer be closed. And the ears of those who hear will listen. The fearful heart will know and understand, and the stammering tongue will be fluent in clear. No longer will the fill be called noble, nor the Scoundrel. Be highly respected for fulls speak folly, their hearts, our beds on evil. They practice in godliness and spread error concerning the Lord the Hungary. They leave Auntie in front of the Thursday. They withhold water scoundrels, and she’s wicked methods. They make up evil schemes to destroy the poor would lies even when the plea of the needy is, but the Nobel makes Nobel plans, and by noble deeds, they stand.
I love this whole section because it starts to get me excited about our kingdom in heaven and helps me look forward to something that is just super and amazing and towards something beautiful instead of escaping things in my current life. I was watching a commercial the other day about escaping life and having fun, fun on this cruise line. These passengers were gambling. They were dancing, and they were swimming and jumping off the diving board and just having so much fun being entertained. There were games and shows. It just looked like so much fun. But then I got to thinking because the whole was about escaping your life and going on this cruise. And I start to think about the characters in the commercial, like what were they escaping from Are they running from a job they hate. Perhaps they’re trying to forget about debt that’s been piling up for years, and maybe they want to escape their responsibilities in life after much thought, it occurred to me that escape isn’t what I, what I desire.
I’d rather run towards something than away from it. Don’t get me wrong. I’ve had days where I’ve wanted to quit my job. I remember just sobbing in the bathroom after I was humiliated by my boss is completely humiliated. After she was done humiliating me, I got up and walked out of her office, and the tears just started coming down my face and I just, I literally ran to the bathroom and closed myself in the stall and just let them fall. I was so miserable being in that particular career and work smart work situation. Not only was it an hour drive to work and an hour drive home, but it was like I could never do enough. Everything that I gave was just never enough, and I was taught performing. It wasn’t like I was, I, I was, you know, progressing in my career, but it just was never enough for anybody and it just, it was so hard.
I just wanted to get out of it. And I remember after that day I wanted to quit. Like right away. I just wanted to go to HR. I put my notice in and just quit. But I didn’t. I waited through the day, and once a day was over, I got my car. I drove back home and came home and talked to my husband. Of course, my husband’s so supportive. I mean, we couldn’t afford for me to quit, but he was like, quit your job right now. You don’t have to go back. We’ll make it work. And we always make it work. You know we don’t, we can downsize life. It’s not like we need to have; each kid doesn’t need to have their bedroom. I mean, we can downsize life if we need to and we can get rid of a car and go to one car.
We’ve been, we’ve had one car in our family before. We don’t need two vehicles and just amazing that he is so supportive and he was ready for when equipped quit. But I said, no, I’m not going to quit. I’m going to look on the internet to find out how to quit my job the right way because I didn’t want to throw in the towel. I had never just quit a job without having another job before I quit — the other job. I’ve always had a job and then quit. But this time I wasn’t going to. I wasn’t planning on quitting for another job. I wanted to quit, but I wanted to do it the right way. So I looked up on the internet, how to quit a job in this book came up, it was called quitter, and it’s a book by John, and I read that book in like, I don’t that very same day.
It’s like I read that book, downloaded it, read it, and it changed my life because it, he mentioned that, you know, just you have to be where you are and do the best you can in a way that honors God where you are and then take steps to get out of that situation. You don’t have to stay there. Now if you’re in an abusive career like I was, or an abusive relationship with anything or anybody, um, you don’t have to stay. You don’t have to stay. You can make plans to get out right away. You don’t have to stay. There are plenty of places you could go to get help. I could have gone to HR to get help. I didn’t have to, and I didn’t have to stay. I didn’t have to be isolated. It was a choice. I should’ve gone to HR, and I should have talked to them, but I didn’t.
And Yeah, I kind of wish I did, but I, I think that my path and my journey as it is right now, very happy with how it’s turned out so far, even though it’s been tough. And some of the decisions that I’ve made haven’t been good decisions, but you know, it’s all about the journey in life and lessons and learning and growing and being sanctified and just part of life. So anyway, I planned my exit after reading that book and started working on the next steps. So immediately I got my resume up to speed. I started putting feelers out for new jobs, and this time, I was going to find a job so much closer to me, my house. And actually, I ended up finding a job that was 15 minutes from my house to my seat. It was amazing and got to spend a lot more time seeing my kids grow up, which was so important to me and a better educational experience.
But going to that job also, I was in an abusive situation with another boss there. He ended up getting fired because he was abusive to multiple people. But, um, again, if you’re in a situation where someone is rude to you, you need to stand up. And in that situation I was, I think that I had learned so much about my previous job and being abused by that boss, that I wasn’t going to allow it to happen again. And so when I went into the new work situation and had a boss that was verbally abusing me and yelling at me loud so that, I mean, like just yelling at me till I’d cried, um, I wasn’t going to take it anymore. So in that situation, he was on the phone with me, and he was yelling at me for some reason, and everybody turned around because we were in a cubicle environment where everyone could hear him, yell at me through the phone. And I ended up telling him to calm down and that he can, if he wasn’t going to talk to me in a respectful manner, he could just, he could not be talking to me, and I’m going to hang up the phone.
After that call, I did see my department head and was there with my resignation and telling him I wasn’t going to take this anymore. This isn’t what I signed up for. And I’d rather not have a job than listen to someone and be abused by someone here at this work environment. It turns out I wasn’t the only one that he had done this too in the past. And eventually he was let go, and I was under a new manager who I adored, um, went on to work on it for another amazing woman in that job as well. So there are brighter tunnels, and you don’t have to ever, ever be abused by anybody. So don’t necessarily run away, but face it and use the help that is around you and that you can receive to lift you. I, there were so many times that I could have reached out for help in one of my circumstances, and I didn’t in the next time it happened.
I did. And it was a fantastic turnout, and I got to experience amazing things in that career and loved it. And had I let him bully me, then maybe I wouldn’t have experienced all those great things. Maybe I would’ve run away from that job and never have met the beautiful woman that I got to meet and have those relationships that I still have today with some of those amazing women. So just kind of food for thought and thoughts about not, not running away and standing, standing your ground, planning for a better exit, planning for something better in your future. So when I talk about vacations, as we’ve been talking about the last few episodes about taking breaks and enjoying holidays and even today where I was talking about the cruise line, add vacations, they aren’t about running away from anything. They’re not about running away from your family or work or responsibilities or your, for your life.
They really should be planned to minimize the impact on people around you, and that is impacted by when you leave, right So maybe you have a work environment that requires you to work in teams. A, your vacation should be planned so that you don’t just throw your work onto other people, that it’s planned in that if there is work that they have to pick up, that they are able to pick it up or that your work can continue as you leave. So, I mean, it’s not like you get up and leave you, you plan for that time and maybe during that time you take on less of a workload, maybe perhaps up to your vacation, maybe you work a little bit longer, but so that you can take some time off. There have been times that I’ve had to do that and don’t necessarily think that that’s the best way to do things.
But even in the ministry, if I want to take a vacation, I still have work to do. So I plan all that and work a little extra so that I can take that time off. So think about it, minimize the impact of the work environment. And you also know when you have vacations planned, where you’re going and when you’re going to be back. And if you’re like me, you may even want to play in your mini vacations. If you’re like me and your head’s down on work and love what you do, um, or even if you hate what you do and you are really that committed to your career and your work. It’s important to take these mini vacations. They are often known as breaks throughout your day. So I would encourage you to do that and to think about that as not as an escape or running away from your work or running away from something but rather a break to have something better to run towards.
Maybe a healthier you like during your break. If you are taking a break for your health, perhaps that is a, a thought of maybe running towards better health for yourself. So this week take some time to write or journal about the thing that you’re trying to escape from. And instead of thinking about it as an escape, can you think of it as running towards something better and make a plan to get there And if you’re here today and you’re running away from something in your life, I encourage you to run towards God. Ask him to remove that fear in your life and then listen as the Holy Spirit guides you. If you’re a child of God, but you feel like you want to escape the life that you’re in. Column, the Holy Spirit, to help you fight this battle, to give you direction and discernment to make that next step, to take that next small step to get you towards something better instead of running away from something that you’re escaping from. You’re not promised tomorrow, so don’t put this off from. And Romans 6:23 says, the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Jesus our Lord. So turn to him, confess your sins, and follow his wall and your life, and you will feel the love of Christ that surpasses all understanding. I want to thank you so much for tuning in today, and I’ll see you in the next Episode of the Promises of God Podcast. Goodbye. Thanks for listening to the promises of God podcast. This podcast is sponsored by Bible Journaling Ministries where thousands of women grow in the word creatively. It’s your free 10-day course for other ministries and other episodes resources at ThePromisesofGodPodcast.Com.
Episode 038: Experiencing Adventure in Everyday Moments
Welcome back to the Promises of God Podcast, Episode number 39 my name is Tracie Rollins, and I want to thank you so much for spending some time with me as we learn and take action on God’s promises in life. This months series is about living life, and we’re working out of the momentum devotional offered by Bible Journaling Ministries titled Live Life. You can learn more about Bible journaling with their free 10-day Bible journaling course at BibleJournalingMinistries.com. The thing that we might be running away from our verse is Isaiah 32:8 and I’ll read this out of the world English Bible it says, but the Nobel devices noble things and he will continue in nipple things. I’m going to read the entire section out of Isaiah 32, and the NIV version says, see, a King will reign in his righteousness and rulers were a world with justice.
Each one will be like a shelter from the wind and a refuge from the storm like streams of water in the desert, and the shadow of a great walk in a thirsty land than the eyes of those who will see will no longer be closed. And the ears of those who hear will listen. The fearful heart will know and understand, and the stammering tongue will be fluent in clear. No longer will the fill be called noble, nor the Scoundrel. Be highly respected for fulls speak folly, their hearts, our beds on evil. They practice in godliness and spread error concerning the Lord the Hungary. They leave Auntie in front of the Thursday. They withhold water scoundrels, and she’s wicked methods. They make up evil schemes to destroy the poor would lies even when the plea of the needy is, but the Nobel makes Nobel plans, and by noble deeds, they stand.
I love this whole section because it starts to get me excited about our kingdom in heaven and helps me look forward to something that is just super and amazing and towards something beautiful instead of escaping things in my current life. I was watching a commercial the other day about escaping life and having fun, fun on this cruise line. These passengers were gambling. They were dancing, and they were swimming and jumping off the diving board and just having so much fun being entertained. There were games and shows. It just looked like so much fun. But then I got to thinking because the whole was about escaping your life and going on this cruise. And I start to think about the characters in the commercial, like what were they escaping from Are they running from a job they hate. Perhaps they’re trying to forget about debt that’s been piling up for years, and maybe they want to escape their responsibilities in life after much thought, it occurred to me that escape isn’t what I, what I desire.
I’d rather run towards something than away from it. Don’t get me wrong. I’ve had days where I’ve wanted to quit my job. I remember just sobbing in the bathroom after I was humiliated by my boss is completely humiliated. After she was done humiliating me, I got up and walked out of her office, and the tears just started coming down my face and I just, I literally ran to the bathroom and closed myself in the stall and just let them fall. I was so miserable being in that particular career and work smart work situation. Not only was it an hour drive to work and an hour drive home, but it was like I could never do enough. Everything that I gave was just never enough, and I was taught performing. It wasn’t like I was, I, I was, you know, progressing in my career, but it just was never enough for anybody and it just, it was so hard.
I just wanted to get out of it. And I remember after that day I wanted to quit. Like right away. I just wanted to go to HR. I put my notice in and just quit. But I didn’t. I waited through the day, and once a day was over, I got my car. I drove back home and came home and talked to my husband. Of course, my husband’s so supportive. I mean, we couldn’t afford for me to quit, but he was like, quit your job right now. You don’t have to go back. We’ll make it work. And we always make it work. You know we don’t, we can downsize life. It’s not like we need to have; each kid doesn’t need to have their bedroom. I mean, we can downsize life if we need to and we can get rid of a car and go to one car.
We’ve been, we’ve had one car in our family before. We don’t need two vehicles and just amazing that he is so supportive and he was ready for when equipped quit. But I said, no, I’m not going to quit. I’m going to look on the internet to find out how to quit my job the right way because I didn’t want to throw in the towel. I had never just quit a job without having another job before I quit — the other job. I’ve always had a job and then quit. But this time I wasn’t going to. I wasn’t planning on quitting for another job. I wanted to quit, but I wanted to do it the right way. So I looked up on the internet, how to quit a job in this book came up, it was called quitter, and it’s a book by John, and I read that book in like, I don’t that very same day.
It’s like I read that book, downloaded it, read it, and it changed my life because it, he mentioned that, you know, just you have to be where you are and do the best you can in a way that honors God where you are and then take steps to get out of that situation. You don’t have to stay there. Now if you’re in an abusive career like I was, or an abusive relationship with anything or anybody, um, you don’t have to stay. You don’t have to stay. You can make plans to get out right away. You don’t have to stay. There are plenty of places you could go to get help. I could have gone to HR to get help. I didn’t have to, and I didn’t have to stay. I didn’t have to be isolated. It was a choice. I should’ve gone to HR, and I should have talked to them, but I didn’t.
And Yeah, I kind of wish I did, but I, I think that my path and my journey as it is right now, very happy with how it’s turned out so far, even though it’s been tough. And some of the decisions that I’ve made haven’t been good decisions, but you know, it’s all about the journey in life and lessons and learning and growing and being sanctified and just part of life. So anyway, I planned my exit after reading that book and started working on the next steps. So immediately I got my resume up to speed. I started putting feelers out for new jobs, and this time, I was going to find a job so much closer to me, my house. And actually, I ended up finding a job that was 15 minutes from my house to my seat. It was amazing and got to spend a lot more time seeing my kids grow up, which was so important to me and a better educational experience.
But going to that job also, I was in an abusive situation with another boss there. He ended up getting fired because he was abusive to multiple people. But, um, again, if you’re in a situation where someone is rude to you, you need to stand up. And in that situation I was, I think that I had learned so much about my previous job and being abused by that boss, that I wasn’t going to allow it to happen again. And so when I went into the new work situation and had a boss that was verbally abusing me and yelling at me loud so that, I mean, like just yelling at me till I’d cried, um, I wasn’t going to take it anymore. So in that situation, he was on the phone with me, and he was yelling at me for some reason, and everybody turned around because we were in a cubicle environment where everyone could hear him, yell at me through the phone. And I ended up telling him to calm down and that he can, if he wasn’t going to talk to me in a respectful manner, he could just, he could not be talking to me, and I’m going to hang up the phone.
After that call, I did see my department head and was there with my resignation and telling him I wasn’t going to take this anymore. This isn’t what I signed up for. And I’d rather not have a job than listen to someone and be abused by someone here at this work environment. It turns out I wasn’t the only one that he had done this too in the past. And eventually he was let go, and I was under a new manager who I adored, um, went on to work on it for another amazing woman in that job as well. So there are brighter tunnels, and you don’t have to ever, ever be abused by anybody. So don’t necessarily run away, but face it and use the help that is around you and that you can receive to lift you. I, there were so many times that I could have reached out for help in one of my circumstances, and I didn’t in the next time it happened.
I did. And it was a fantastic turnout, and I got to experience amazing things in that career and loved it. And had I let him bully me, then maybe I wouldn’t have experienced all those great things. Maybe I would’ve run away from that job and never have met the beautiful woman that I got to meet and have those relationships that I still have today with some of those amazing women. So just kind of food for thought and thoughts about not, not running away and standing, standing your ground, planning for a better exit, planning for something better in your future. So when I talk about vacations, as we’ve been talking about the last few episodes about taking breaks and enjoying holidays and even today where I was talking about the cruise line, add vacations, they aren’t about running away from anything. They’re not about running away from your family or work or responsibilities or your, for your life.
They really should be planned to minimize the impact on people around you, and that is impacted by when you leave, right So maybe you have a work environment that requires you to work in teams. A, your vacation should be planned so that you don’t just throw your work onto other people, that it’s planned in that if there is work that they have to pick up, that they are able to pick it up or that your work can continue as you leave. So, I mean, it’s not like you get up and leave you, you plan for that time and maybe during that time you take on less of a workload, maybe perhaps up to your vacation, maybe you work a little bit longer, but so that you can take some time off. There have been times that I’ve had to do that and don’t necessarily think that that’s the best way to do things.
But even in the ministry, if I want to take a vacation, I still have work to do. So I plan all that and work a little extra so that I can take that time off. So think about it, minimize the impact of the work environment. And you also know when you have vacations planned, where you’re going and when you’re going to be back. And if you’re like me, you may even want to play in your mini vacations. If you’re like me and your head’s down on work and love what you do, um, or even if you hate what you do and you are really that committed to your career and your work. It’s important to take these mini vacations. They are often known as breaks throughout your day. So I would encourage you to do that and to think about that as not as an escape or running away from your work or running away from something but rather a break to have something better to run towards.
Maybe a healthier you like during your break. If you are taking a break for your health, perhaps that is a, a thought of maybe running towards better health for yourself. So this week take some time to write or journal about the thing that you’re trying to escape from. And instead of thinking about it as an escape, can you think of it as running towards something better and make a plan to get there And if you’re here today and you’re running away from something in your life, I encourage you to run towards God. Ask him to remove that fear in your life and then listen as the Holy Spirit guides you. If you’re a child of God, but you feel like you want to escape the life that you’re in. Column, the Holy Spirit, to help you fight this battle, to give you direction and discernment to make that next step, to take that next small step to get you towards something better instead of running away from something that you’re escaping from. You’re not promised tomorrow, so don’t put this off from. And Romans 6:23 says, the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Jesus our Lord. So turn to him, confess your sins, and follow his wall and your life, and you will feel the love of Christ that surpasses all understanding. I want to thank you so much for tuning in today, and I’ll see you in the next Episode of the Promises of God Podcast. Goodbye. Thanks for listening to the promises of God podcast. This podcast is sponsored by Bible Journaling Ministries where thousands of women grow in the word creatively. It’s your free 10-day course for other ministries and other episodes resources at ThePromisesofGodPodcast.Com.
Episode 037: Is Your Career Killing You?
Welcome back to the Promises of God Podcast, Episode number 37 my name is Tracie Rollins, and I want to thank you so much for spending some time with me as we learn and take action on God’s promises in life. This months series is about living life, and we’re working out of the momentum devotional offered by Bible Journaling Ministries titled Live Life. You can learn more about Bible journaling with our free 10-day Bible journaling course at BibleJournalingMinistries.com. Today we’re focused on our relationship with work, is your career killing you? Our verse for today Is 1 Corinthians 2:11 and it says, for who among men knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him even so, no one knows the things of God except God’s spirit. There were many times in my career where I would leave for work in the darkness very, very early, early in the morning, so dark, and then I would return late at night, and it was also dark.
I would spend 80 hours at work a week. It just really wore on me. I would wake up in the morning and head into work, and it would be dark, and I’d come home, and it’d be dark. I would miss the sun entirely. What’s sad about that is that I live in Arizona, so the sun is shining more often. Really. Then it’s not shining, and it’s really kind of sad. I would forget to take vacations. I was allotted a certain amount of hours for vacation every year, and I wouldn’t take him. I wouldn’t take breaks. I would work through the day, and I just was so heavily focused on my career and moving to the next level. It really got me into really a bad health situation currently that I still struggle with today, and that is obesity and exhaustion and even isolation.
Like I didn’t go out with my friends whenever they were going out to lunch. I would just be like; I got to get this project done. Like that’s how I was and when I was lead projects. I would lead as a leader that was so focused on getting the results, and you could tell that if you were on one of my teams, you would know that you had a deliverable and that deliverable was to do exactly when it was due, and if you miss that, we would have a discussion. It wasn’t like it wasn’t fun. It was just really a very focused, focused person that I was and that’s great. I’m not saying it’s not okay to be focused. I know that my focus was not healthy, and I was so into my job and not into anything much else than that. I was focused on moving up in my career, and one time I heard the Holy Spirit like I was in my cubicle at the time.
I worked in a manufacturing facility, and I had a cubicle with that was surrounded by hundreds of other cubicles. The Holy Spirit spoke to me. He said, look up, and it wasn’t audible, but it was something within my, my soul that I heard. And I looked up, and I stood up, and I glanced across the hundreds of cubicles that were around me, and I was alone. There was nobody there. It was completely silent. So I got up, I walked out of my cubicle and walk to the window to look at it, the parking lot, and there were just a few cars left in the parking lot, and it was completely dark. I had worked the entire day at my desk and never noticed that the whole company pretty much had gone home for the day. I was alone in an office that was completely silent. So I walked back to my computer, and I shut it off, turn off the light, and I headed home.
And at that moment I was utterly deflated like it was, I didn’t know what had happened. What, where did everyone go nobody stopped to say goodbye. Nobody stopped to check in to see if I was ready to go home and walk out the door with them. Well, that’s kind of what happens when you isolate yourself, and you focus. At least for me, it was just focused on my career. When people ask you to go out to lunch or when they asked me to go out to lunch, eventually they stopped asking because I never went when they asked if I was ready to leave for the day so they could walk out with me. I always said no, I still had work than I wanted to get done. And so they stopped asking and when they walk to the gym too, and we had a gym on site, so let me literally, you didn’t have to leave. We had food on site, hit the gym onsite, hit everything on site, so he didn’t have to leave. And this was before I had children too. So when they were going to work out at the gym, they had maybe once asked me or twice asked me, and I always said no. So they stopped asking. It was a very lonely, lonely time for me. Even my manager at the time, he was really into the gym so that he would stop by often. Like he would stop by, he had like his cube was two doors down from mine and he would stop by and say, Hey Rollins, I’m going to the gym. They want to go. And I’d be like, no, I have to prepare for this meeting, or I have to prepare for the speech I’m giving. And it wasn’t like I was, I wasn’t high up on the career ladder.
I was an engineer, and I was in responsible for toolsets. And I took that very seriously in these toolsets were multimillion dollars. They weren’t just like, you know, a wrench or a hammer. They were multimillion-dollar machines. So I took my career very, very seriously to the extent that it ruined my health, my friendships, my relationships, and was killing me. So after I heard the Holy Spirit tell me to wake up, I turn everything off, started walking to my car and realized, and at the time there were no, we had desk phones, there were no cell phones. I didn’t have a cellular phone. I had a pager, and my husband hadn’t paged me. Cause know he knew where I was. I was at work. That’s where I was always at work. So I walked down. You had got past the security guards because, of course, this place was guarded and, went to get in my car.
And as I drove home, just this feeling washed over me about just how much my job was killing me. And I was allowing that I was lying my job to kill me. And I was the instigator of it killing me because I was so focused on it. And I started thinking about what would life be different Like how would life be different if I wasn’t always so focused on my job And so I went home, and I talked to my husband, and I apologize, obviously again for being late to come home. And I would, um, sit down with him and ask him, what can we do Can, can we, can we go on vacation And before that, my vacations were on the weekend so that I would end work after like an 80-hour long week. I know it’s intense. It was so fierce. And then I would get my car with my husband, and we go travel for two hours to see my parents and his parents.
And we do like this thing where we would visit everyone’s house. We’ve used it at my parents’ house, and we visit his parent’s house, and we’d stay a day at each, and then we get in the car and come home. And then we would do that multiple weekends. And then we would go to my sisters who lived four hours away the next weekend. And we go there, and we’d stay there for the weekend, and we’d come home. And my life was so exhausting. It was completely exhausting. So when I asked my husband if we could take a week off where we just went on vacation, just he and I in at the time we had uh, an Rv, a recreational vehicle that was in storage that I had purchased from my parents and we never used it. It was, we paid, I think it was $50 a month to store it and we never used it.
And so I asked him if we could plan a vacation. And so we did, we planned a vacation to Colorado in this RV. We had dogs, so we took the dogs too. It was so fun. And during that time I never got one page from anybody and it a pager for those of you who are familiar with it. Was this a little black device that I would wear on my pant pocket. And if they needed me in the factory, they were supposed to text, not text where they were supposed to call that number. And then they would leave. They would leave their number so that I could call that number back. So that was the pager back then. And nobody paged me. Nobody contacted me at all for any reason. And it was the first time that I realized that I could take a break and that the factory wasn’t going to shut down because I wasn’t there and that my projects weren’t going to go, you know, go to the the garbage because I wasn’t like driving them so hard, and it was amazing.
I came back after that vacation more refreshed and rejuvenated and ready to go. I had better ideas, and I was more productive. I realized how much taking that break meant in terms of even my goal at that time, which was hugely focused on my career. So taking that break helps me with my career. And I started then incorporating that break more and more. And then I incorporated more breaks. So I would then go to my boss and asked him if he wanted to go work out together. And it was always funny that when sometimes I’d ask him to go work out, he’d be like, no, I’m prepping for a meeting. And so it was almost the opposite way. But eventually, we got to work out together sometimes, but not often. I would decide that I would take that break and I would start to go to the gym, and every day, five days a week, I would do my best to get to the gym.
I still have always had problems with taking a lunch break in terms of like getting away from the computer and meeting with people, but I do try to do that. I do meet with people in my life here a couple of times a month where we take a break and can have fellowship together with coffee or lunch or something like that. But taking a break from my career, that first time was so transformative to me and ever since then by implementing breaks, vacations, taking time off it, it has strengthened my marriage. It’s strengthened my family, my family has. We have such good communication. We’ve experienced so many different things together that have been amazing and sometimes scary in terms of some of the things that we’ve done. And I’m just so glad that I finally heard the Holy Spirit when he prompted me to look up and take a break.
Don’t always have your head down because your career is killing you and you need to take a break and get up and see the world and see all the wonderful things that God has created. So that is my story in terms of remembering to look up and, and, and take a break. And sometimes we can think about vacations, and we say, oh, I can’t take time off. I’m too important at my job. Or I’m the CEO of my company, and I can’t take a break off it because if I do, then no one’s going to run my business. Um, or if I own an Etsy shop, I can’t take a break because if I leave, I can’t have anyone to ship out my materials. Or some people won’t order from me if I’m gone for two weeks. Or if your work is being a mother to young children, I can’t take a break because there’s no one to watch my kids or I can’t afford a babysitter.
We have so many things that we kind of build up in terms of the walls that we don’t want to break. Right. We brought, we built up these walls and the excuses that that’s really what they are. I know, I understand that. You know, sometimes you could say that, oh, I don’t have any money so I can’t go. Right. And that’s a real thing. That’s not, and I’m not saying that’s an excuse. That’s not valid. I mean, have been through a lot of times in my life where I had zero money and even after I took, this was even after I realized that I needed to take breaks. There have been times in my life where we’ve had $0 million, and for our vacation, we put the small kids in our car or little kids at the time. They were a super tiny little three-year-old and five-year-olds, little guys and loaded them up in the car.
We went to the park, the local park and we, there’s a little fishing pond there, and we fished, and that was our vacation. It was free for them cause they didn’t have to pay for it. We didn’t have to pay for their license in Arizona, your children that are under a certain age; they don’t have to have a license. So they would fish, and dad would have a license. So he would fish and I wouldn’t fish cause I didn’t have a license and I didn’t have the $12 to pay for it. But I still had a vacation with my kids, and I still had fun with them. And even as a mother, a young mother comes in, and there were times where I just needed a break, and my husband would come home, and I would hand him the baby, and I would walk around the block and for the 30 minutes I had a break.
I had a vacation, and I didn’t want to just run away from it all. I got a chance to have that little vacation. So vacation is I have to belong. It doesn’t have to be, you know, could be anywhere, 10-15 minutes, just a break, a little mini vacations. You could have those, it doesn’t have to be anything big, but I would encourage you to play in them, especially if you are like me, very focused, on your work, trying to do your best for the Lord, trying to do your best for your family. Just trying to make life work. So this week, take some time to write or journal about your relationship with your work. Is it healthy or is what you’re doing killing you if it’s not healthy, what is one thing that you can do to change that Don’t think about what it is that your boss can do or your kids can do, or your friends can do.
Think about one thing that you can do. You’re in control of you. So maybe it is to take that little mini-vacation, that little 10-15 minute break or maybe a 30-minute workout at your job. Or perhaps you can swap some time with somebody and you each take half an hour break for yourself. There are so many different creative ways you can come up with to think about how you can take that break and how you can have that vacation, especially if the Holy Spirit is calling you to look up and experience life and see the wonderful things that God has for you. And if you’re here today and you’re frustrated with your career, and you’re wondering what living life truly means, I encourage you to check up the Bible and learn about this amazing man named Jesus who in John 10:10 says, the thief only comes to steal, kill and destroy.
And I came that they may have life and they may have it abundantly. If you’re happy in your career, that is awesome that maybe you feel like your relationship with work is a bit off. I encourage you to seek God and ask the Holy Spirit to illuminate an area or an area in your life that you need to pay close attention to them. Maybe you’re overweight, and you could use a break in the middle of the day to take care of your body. Maybe your marriage is struggling, and you diff and you focus on work as a kind of a way to escape it all and get away, but perhaps this day, take 10 minutes to text your spouse and let him know how much you love him and how important he is to you. You’re not promised tomorrow, so don’t put this off. Romans 6:23 says, the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Jesus, our Lord. So turn to him, confess your sins, and follow his will in your life, and you will feel the love of Christ that surpasses all understanding. I want to thank you for tuning in today. I’m so excited to talk to you about, about living life this month, really experiencing the things that God has for you and I can’t wait to talk to you in the next episode of the Promises of God. Goodbye. Thanks for listening to the promises of God podcast. This podcast is sponsored by Bible Journaling Ministries where thousands of women grow in the word creatively. It’s your free 10-day course for other ministries and other episodes resources at ThePromisesofGodPodcast.Com.
Episode 036: Freedom to Choose Your Path
Welcome back to the Promises of God Podcast, episode number 36 my name is Tracie Rollins, and I want to thank you so much for spending some time with me as we learn and take action on God’s promises in life. This months series is about Freedom in Christ, and we’re working out of the momentum devotional offered by Bible Journaling Ministries titled Freedom. You can learn more about Bible journaling with our free 10-day course at BibleJournalingMinistries.com today we’re talking about Freedom to choose your path. In our verse is Philippians 3:20-21 and I’ll read that out of the world English Bible. It says for our citizenship is in heaven from where we also wait for a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, he will change the body of our humiliation to be conformed to the body of his glory according to the working by which he is able even to subject all things to himself.
I have a robot vacuum in my house when it works, is programmed to sweep the floors on Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday evenings. It goes around my house in, sucks up all the dog hair and the dust into a little tiny pan and then I can empty it out. I don’t even have to sweep the floors. It just does it for me. It’s amazing when it works, and it does have really great job except for when he gets stuck in. When it gets stuck, it’s usually tingled in accord. It might be, you know, stuck under a rug or it’s sucked up a rug or something, or it’s sucked up my curtains. It cannot fix itself. When it gets stuck, it beeps, and it notifies me, and I have to go figure out what happened and then untangle it and fix it and get it back on its journey.
The robot it just has one job. It doesn’t have a choice. It can’t tell itself what room to clean. I have to physically program it to start and to stop and to go. You know, it will start in a room, and that’s where it will go. It can’t go downstairs into another room. It can’t choose to vacuum certain areas. It just is programmed to do what I tell it to do, so it has to do what I tell it to do. It doesn’t have a choice, and it got me thinking about how thankful I am that God didn’t create humans as robots. God gives us this thing called free will, and we have the Freedom to accept salvation from Jesus or reject the truth and choose death instead. We also have the Freedom to choose whether or not to obey God. If you choose the path of righteousness, your reward is eternal life in which your body will be conformed to the body of his glory.
One day you will trade this fallen world for the perfect presence of our Lord. There will be no pain, no trials, no sadness or hurt. You will be free from the presence of sin and surrounded by perfection. This is called glorification. Glorification is to be free from the presence of sin. It’s when you get to trade your earthly bodies for your heavenly body. It’s when your faith becomes site, and you finally get to see all things Christ our Lord. Your glorification is coming in May. Freedom in this truth spur you to lean in and lead a life that makes him proud. This week, take some time to write about the differences between justification, sanctification, and glorification. If you have trouble remembering the differences or need a little more assistance. The last two episodes specifically talked about justification and sanctification. In this one, we’re talking about glorification.
Understanding these three things is truly important to living a Christ-centered life. If you’re here today and you’re ready to choose Jesus as your path, tell God that you’re prepared except Jesus Christ and receive the power of the Holy Spirit. If you know what it’s like to be free from fear free from the penalty of sin and free from the power of sin, but maybe you’ve strayed away from God, call on the Holy Spirit to help you fight this battle. You’re not promised tomorrow. Don’t put this off. Romans6:23 says, the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Jesus our Lord. So turn to him, confess your sins, and follow his will in your life, and you will feel the love of Christ that surpasses all understanding. I want to thank you for tuning in to this whole series on Freedom. I know it wasn’t the easiest series and it wasn’t like the most cheerful and fun. It was one of reflection of deep thought. It was one of maybe facing things in your life that maybe you have tucked away or ignored. I pray that this episode and the ones that will come in the future encourage you to continue to work through the sanctification process and one day I’m excited. If we don’t meet here, we’ll meet in heaven. I’ll see you in the next episode of the promises of God. Goodbye.
Thanks for listening to the promises of God podcast. This podcast is sponsored by Bible Journaling Ministries where thousands of women grow in the word creatively. It’s your free 10-day course for other ministries and other episodes resources at ThePromisesofGodPodcast.Com.
Episode 035: Freedom from the Power of Sin
Welcome back to the Promises of God Podcast, episode number 35 my name is Tracie Rollins, and I want to thank you for spending some time with me as we learn and take action on God’s promises in life. This months series is about Freedom in Christ, and we’re working at the momentum devotional offered by Bible Journaling Ministries titled Freedom. You can learn more about Bible journaling with their free 10-day course at BibleJournalingMinistries.com today we’re talking about Freedom from the power of sin. In our verse is Romans 6:22-23, and if you’ve been listening to our podcast, this is going to be familiar to you. It says, but now being made free from sin and having become servants of God, you have your fruit of sanctification and the result of eternal life for the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Jesus our Lord.
I’m a sinner. I’m just going to admit that to you. I wasn’t taught to be sinful. I was born with it. I came out of the womb selfish, demanding, just everything was about me. I wanted to be cared for. I wanted to be spoiled whenever possible. While sin comes naturally for me, I don’t purposely make it a lifestyle choice. I wrestled with it daily and sometimes hourly, depending on what it is. I don’t always realize when I’m sinning, sometimes the Holy Spirit has to be blatantly obvious with me, but lately, it’s my relationship with food and the choices that I make that are on the frontline of my battle would sin. Food itself is not sin. How I use it is I don’t use food to fuel my body. I use it as a way to escape, to distress, to celebrate, and to numb my feelings. I thank God for the illumination and the process of spiritual maturity, which is sanctification.
Sanctification begins the second we are justified. It’s a process of God working in us each and every day to conform us to the image of his son. God didn’t create me to be a sinner. I was designed in his image as we can read from Genesis 1:27, where it says, God created man in his image, in God’s image, he created them, male and female. He created them. When I accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior, I received the spirit of power, love, and self-control. And we talked about that in a previous episode when we talked about 2 Timothy 1:7, but I’ll just reread it here, and it reads, for God didn’t give us the spirit of fear, but of power, love and self-control. Well, I choose to listen and heed the calling of the Holy Spirit, or will I choose to follow my fleshly desires.
I have everything that I need to be free from sin, and so do you, it’s so easy to say that we live in a fallen world, so sinned happens. It’s also easy to say that since Jesus died for our sins, our sins are forgiven. Christ is your advocate, and your sins are forgiven. We get a confirmation in multiple spaces in the multiple scriptures in the Bible, but specifically, I’ll read from Romans 3:21-26. Which says, but now apart from the law of righteousness, of God has been revealed, being testified by the law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ, to all in all, all those who believe, for there is no distinction for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ, whom God sent to be an atoning sacrifice through faith in his blood for a demonstration of his righteousness through the passing over of prior sends in God’s forbearance to demonstrate his righteousness at this present time that he might himself be just and the justifier of him who has faith in Jesus. Because Christ is your advocate and your sins are forgiven. That doesn’t mean it’s okay to make sin a lifestyle choice. Sanctification is slow progress towards holiness that spans your entire lifetime. The Holy Spirit is powerful, and he will help you as long as you’re willing to receive the help this week. Take some time to write or journal about an area of your life that the Holy Spirit is calling you to inspect. If you’re here today and you feel like you’re not free from the power of sin, it’s just got a really good grasp on you, turned to God and ask him to come into your life except Jesus as your Lord and Savior and receive the Holy Spirit. If you’ve experienced Freedom in Christ, but you feel like your sins continue to have power over you, call on the Holy Spirit to help you fight this battle. Ask God to bring to you, those people, their resources.
Ask him to enlighten you, to see areas that you can be working on, things that you need to push aside that you need to battle through. Ask him to provide the resources so that you can do that. Of course you have the word, of course, you have the Bible. Those are great things. Those are amazing things in the first place. We should look as we work on our sins is the Bible, is God through prayer and worship. Is Jesus is the Holy Spirit No. These are the first things that you should turn to, but it’s very helpful to have additional sources of help. Things like maybe an accountability partner, things like maybe a group or something where people can lift you up. Maybe there’s a special tool you can use that will help you to remember not to send. There are so many resources, so ask God to bring those into your life with respect to the sin that you are currently battling.
You’re not promised tomorrow. Don’t put this off. Romans 6:23 says, the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Jesus, our Lord. So turn to him, confess your sins, and follow his will in your life, and you will feel the love of Christ that surpasses all understanding. I want to thank you so much for tuning in today. Again, I know this is a very hard topic to think about, to discuss, to ponder on, but it’s so important and I feel like when you address your sin, and you realize how much freedom you have over the power of sin, you can live the life that God truly wants you to live. I’ll see you in the next episode of the Promises of God. Goodbye.
Thanks for listening to the promises of God podcast. This podcast is sponsored by Bible Journaling Ministries where thousands of women grow in the word creatively. It’s your free 10-day course for other ministries and other episodes resources at ThePromisesofGodPodcast.Com.
Episode 034: Freedom from the Penalty of Sin
Welcome back to the Promises of God Podcast, episode number 34 my name is Tracie Rollins, and I want to thank you so much for spending some time with me as we learn and take action on God’s promises in life. Before we get started, I wanted to ask you a favor. If you haven’t left a review of this podcast on whichever app you are listening to, please do that. If you can today, I would really appreciate it. It does help this podcast get discovered, and I want to thank you in advance. This months series is about Freedom in Christ, and we’re working out of the Momentum devotional offered by Bible Journaling Ministries titled Freedom. You can learn more about Bible journaling with our free 10-day course at BibleJournalingMiinistries.com. Today, we’re talking about the Freedom from the penalty of sin, and our verse is Romans 8:1-2 and I will read that out of the world, English Bible, it reads, there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus who don’t walk according to the flesh. But according to the spirit for the law of the spirit of life in Christ, Jesus made me free from the law of sin and of death. My kids ask a lot of questions about the Bible. Sometimes I can answer them with confidence. Other times we have to look up the answers together, and sometimes I don’t know, and I have to seek others to help lead me to the right scripture. The hard questions come when a friend when they lose a friend or a parent of one of their friends first when they have when we start this discussion, we talk about sin. We talk about the penalty of sin. They asked me, why can a murderer be saved but a mommy not be? Then we talk about Jesus as the lamb who fulfills the law and who covers our sins. We discussed Romans 6:22-23, and I’ll read that out of the world English Bible. It says, but now being made free from sin and having become servants of God, you have your fruit of sanctification, and the result of eternal life for the wages of sin is death, but the free-gift of God is eternal life in Jesus our Lord.
I asked them to tell me what they think about it. The answer is so easy for the ones who departed that we know we’re believers. We say for sure they are in heaven and rejoicing. They are glorified and pure and free from sin, but for those who are unsure if we hope and we pray that they found Jesus before their last breath, we will never know what happened during their last breath. I’m confident that when I die, I will see my maker. My kids don’t like it when I talk about death, but it’s important. I don’t plan on leaving any time soon, but I do want them to know how confident I am that when I die, I will truly see my maker knowing that Jesus paid the price for my sins is my confidence. I was justified before God. The second I put my faith in Jesus because the penalty of my sin was paid, I can’t be unjustified.
It’s done. I am free from the penalty of sin. Are you This week Take some time to write or journal about what justification means to you. Why is it important to have faith in Jesus, and do you believe you’re free from the penalty of sin? Why or why not? And if you’re here today and you feel like you’re not free from the penalty of sin, turn to God and ask him to come and share life except Jesus as your Lord and Savior and received the Holy Spirit. If you have experienced Freedom and craft that you feel like your sins continue to hold you back, call him the Holy Spirit to help you fight this battle you’re not promised tomorrow, and I wouldn’t put this off from. And Romans 6:23 says, the wages of sin is death, but the free-gift of God is eternal life in Jesus our Lord. So turn to him, confess your sins and follow his will in your life, and you will feel the love of Christ that surpasses all understanding. Thank you so much for tuning in today, and I’m excited to continue this conversation on Freedom and the next episode of the promises of God. Goodbye.
Thanks for listening to the Promises of God Podcast. This podcast is sponsored by Bible Journaling Ministries, where thousands of women Grow in the word creatively. Get your free 10-day course from Bible Journaling Ministries and other episode resources at the PromisesofGodPodcast.com.
Episode 033: Freedom from Fear
Welcome back to the promises of God podcast, episode number 33 my name is Tracie Rollins, and I want to thank you so much for spending some time with me as we learn and take action on God’s promises in life. This months series is about Freedom in Christ, and we’re working into the momentum devotional offered by Bible journaling ministries titled Freedom. You can learn more about Bible journaling with our free 10-day course at BibleJournalingMinistries.com today we’re talking about Freedom from fear, and our verse is 2 Timothy 1:7 and I’ll read that out of the world English Bible, it says “for God didn’t give us a spirit of fear but of power, love, and self-control”. I mean a lot of people at conferences and events naturally being the curious type conversations often lead to hopes and dreams for the future. Most of the women I meet share the most amazing ideas for their businesses and ministries that one day, they hope to start.
What’s odd is that our conversations quickly go to the word, but it’s, I hear things like, but I don’t have the money, but I don’t have the resources, but I don’t have the time, but I don’t have the knowledge, but I’m not good enough. Behind each of these buds is a fear. For example, if we take them one by one when someone says, but I don’t have the money. There’s a financial fear behind that word, but if they say, I don’t have the resources, there could be a financial fear there, but it’s also maybe a fear of failure there. They may say, but I don’t have the time, and that could be a fear of overwhelm or a fear of committing and then not following up on those commitments. When they say, I don’t have the knowledge, but I don’t have the knowledge. Maybe they fear what others will think of their efforts in the same thing for, but I’m not good enough. Right Maybe they fear what others might think about what they’re trying to do. There’s also the fear of success in what that means going forward. So sometimes we might not start something, or we’ll use a, but because we fear we actually might be successful. And I know that sounds really weird, but there is a fear of success for many, many people. My fear, I’ve got quite a few fears that I worked through, but one of my fears is the fear of rejection. So what that means is that I in, it’s so odd to have this fear. It’s not odd, but it, it sounds odd. So, um, people who are entrepreneurial, all, I mean, many of them have very similar fears. Like I have a, so when you have a fear of rejection, you tend to isolate yourself. You tend to do less collaboration.
You tend to be very, very independent. You work very, very hard to achieve. You know, whatever it is you’re trying to do, oftentimes you’ll work, you know, very, very hard. So sometimes that, at least for me, I know that sometimes I’ll work late at night, sometimes I’ll work too many hours and then like the rest of your life starts to be impacted by that because of the lack of asking for help or the last lack of asking for support. I mean if, if you’re a type of person like I am, that is, I’m scared of rejection. You often don’t go out and ask for people’s help when you know you need it. And then because you don’t ask, you end up doing all the work yourself and or you might not ask for help because you don’t trust them, that the person’s going to deliver on time or would the quality that you want it to be.
So when you have that type of fear of rejection like I have, um, you have to work through that fear. It’s one of the biggest things truly. It’s one of my biggest things that I’m working on this year. I’m working on quite a few things, but one of the biggest things that I’m working on is my fear of rejection. So what does that mean That means that you know, I put myself in a mastermind group where I’m, I have a, a Christian business coach, a leader who helps me overcome my fear of rejection and who coaches me to help me, like to collaborate with other people. So you’ll see me start to work, you know, collaborations with people. You’ll see me start to maybe teach some classes with people and collaboration. You’ll see me start to not just, it won’t just be Tracie all the time.
Of course, in the podcast, it’s still me. But if you follow me at all or follow the ministry at all, you’ll start to see us collaborate more with people. And I think, and you’ll also see me start to give more work to some of the people that helped me. So I have some freelance writers, some freelance graphic designers, and illustrators that help me create the things that we do in Bible Journaling Ministries. But I also have an assistant who does a lot of the podcasts production, editing and a lot of the video editing. She comes alongside and does a lot of those things. So you’ll see things that go out. That might not be exactly how Tracie used to do them because I’m other people, and I’m learning to collaborate more, and I’m learning to work through a fear of rejection that I have. And so that’s just some of the things that, I think it’s important to share because, you know, it’s just, it’s just a girl behind this microphone talking to you right now. It’s a girl that has just as many issues as many people have in this world. And I work so hard to overcome them. And I hope that by being truthful and honest with you, that you can take a look at your life and see what areas are in your life that you might be holding yourself back because you have this fear. And I promise you that when you start to break through these fears because I’ve had multiple fears of my past that I’ve worked through, I’ve multiple sins. On my past that I’ve worked through and I still have sins that I’m doing now and sends in the future, and all these things and I’m just working through. I hope that by seeing me go through some of these things, or hearing me through podcasts or videos and all that, that you can be encouraged to heed the Holy Spirit’s call on your life, to ask the Holy Spirit to illuminate areas that might be holding you back so that you can live the life that you truly deserve to live.
Fear is not from God. Fear is what Satan uses to stop progress before it even starts. It’s often the way, the easiest way out. I mean, certainly, it’s a lot easier for me not to collaborate. It’s a lot easier for me to isolate myself and, and not worry about being rejected because I don’t allow myself to get rejected. Right The majority of this world experience, fear, especially when they’re stepping out into the unknown, they let Satan hold him back from serving God and living a purposeful filled life. So what’s holding you back? You can ignore fear and keep yourself occupied. But if you truly want to be free, you’re going to need to face your fear. God didn’t give you the spirit of fear. That’s exactly our verse for today. He gave you the spirit that’s characterized as power, that works, love that cares and self-discipline that controls use what he gave you and punch fear in the face when God calls you to action.
Don’t stand in fear. Instead, seek wisdom and discernment and then take action. I promise he will be with you every step of the way this week. Take some time to write or journal about what you’re afraid of and how your life would be different if you face that fear. And if you’re here today and you’ve experienced fear in your life, and you’re looking to break free of that fear, I encourage you to start a conversation with God. Ask him to remove that fear in your life and then listen as the Holy Spirit speaks to you, call on God except Jesus Christ, and become a child of God. If you’ve experienced Freedom in Christ, but that fear continues to hold you back. So you know you’re a follower of Jesus, but you have fear in your life, and it continues to hold you back from living the life that you deserve to live.
Call on the Holy Spirit to help you fight this battle. God gave you the spirit that is characterized by power, love that cares, and self-discipline, that control. So you have what you need to overcome. This fear and the Holy Spirit will help you fight this battle because you’re not promised tomorrow. Romans 6:23 says, the wages of sin is death, but the free-gift of God is eternal life in Jesus, our Lord. So turn to him, confess your sins, and follow his will in your life, and you will feel the love of Christ that surpasses all understanding. Thank you so much for tuning in today. I’m so excited to talk to you more about Freedom this month in our next episode of the Promises of God Podcast. Goodbye.
Thanks for listening to the promises of God podcast. This podcast is sponsored by Bible Journaling Ministries where thousands of women grow in the word creatively. It’s your free 10-day course for other ministries and other episodes resources at ThePromisesofGodPodcast.Com.
Episode 032: What is Freedom in Christ?
Welcome to The Promises of God Podcast, Episode number 32 my name is Tracie Rollins, and I want to thank you so much for spending some time with me as we learn and take action on God’s promises in life. This one series is about Freedom in Christ, and we’re working out of the momentum devotional offered by Bible Journaling Ministries titled Freedom. You can learn more about Bible journaling with their free 10-day course at BibleJournalingMinistries.com. Today we’re answering the question, what is Freedom In our verse is John 8:36 and it says, if therefore the son makes you free, you will be free. Indeed, according to the dictionary, Freedom, his independence, it’s the liberation from slavery, restraint in the power of another. It’s the ability to choose what you want to be, do or achieve without constraint or corrosion, but Freedom is not anarchy.
While you may be capable of doing whatever you please, your actions lead to consequences. Even in the land of the free. We have laws that govern our Freedom. The Israelites weren’t free either. The Egyptians oppress them for 400 years. In Genesis 15:13 the Lord makes a covenant with Abraham, and he says to Abraham, no for sure that your offspring will live as foreigners in a land that is not theirs and we’ll serve them. They will afflict them. 400 years. The Israelites suffered under bondage and were forced to serve in a land that wasn’t theirs. You can read more about their deliverance in the book of Exodus but pay close attention. Freedom didn’t mean that they were free from God’s authority. I’m not free from God’s power either and thank goodness for that. I praise God for his never-ending forgiveness for all of the sins I’ve committed in my life and the ones that I will battle in the future.
Being free doesn’t mean I get a free pass to disobey God and do whatever the heck I want to do and continue sinning and you know, be in sin all the time, right That’s not a free pass. You can’t just continue to, you know, once you find Jesus Christ and accept him into your life, then you’re changed. Christian, you’re a changed person. You no longer are slaver or by or in bondage to the sin that you have in your life that is changed a new person. You’re no longer slave or in bondage to that sin. Now that doesn’t mean that you won’t experience than you absolutely will, but the Holy Spirit helps you battle against that sin. The Holy Spirit comes and enlightened you and shows you areas of your life that you should be paying attention to, areas in your life that you might be sending, even areas that you may not realize that you’re in sin, but the Holy Spirit is calling you to take a look at that.
And that’s why it’s so important for us to listen to the Holy Spirit. When he calls the Apostle Paul writes in Romans 6:1-2 and he says, what shall we say then Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound may it never be we who died to sin. How could we live in any longer? So what Paul is saying is, you know, we’re saved by grace, but that doesn’t mean we get to keep on sinning. And just because we’re saved, meaning that we can continue to send, he’s just, he’s saying like you, you know, we who died to sin, you know, how can we live in it any longer How could we, you know, continue to wallow in our muddy mess of sin knowing that we are free in Christ. True fee freedom is the ability not only to think about but to see and take action to do what is right.
Pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and praiseworthy. In Paul’s letter to the Philippians in his final exhortations, he says, finally, brothers, what, or whatever things are true, whatever things are honorable, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report. If there is any virtue and if there is any praise, think about these things. Jesus didn’t free you from God’s authority. He liberated you to walk in relationship with God and be the kind of person he created you to be. Now that is Freedom worth singing for this week. Take some time to write or journal about what Freedom means to you. If you’re here today and you’ve never experienced the Freedom that comes from knowing Christ, I encourage you to start a conversation with him. It’s easy. You don’t need special prayer. Just ask him to show you what it means, but then listen and look and be prepared for him to answer you.
If you’ve experienced Freedom in Christ, but feel lately like things have taken you off course, maybe you’ve sinned, and you feel, um, you feel the bondage of that sin. Maybe you feel like you can never come out of that sin or you can’t overcome that. I encourage you to seek God and ask for forgiveness. Go to him. Tell him that you’re sorry. Tell him that you need his help to shoot from whatever bondage of sin that you are currently shackled to. I encourage you to seek God and ask for his forgiveness and then continue to work through the process of sanctification is not an easy process, and everybody sends everybody wallows in our muddy mess. It’s just part of life, and we live in a fallen world. It is only part of this journey.
But I encourage you to work through and continue to work through using the counsel of the Holy Spirit that is within you. The Holy Spirit will enlighten you, ask God to eliminate it for you. If you don’t know that you’re sending ascot to eliminate what sin that is in your life that you need to be released from right, and then take steps to release yourself from the sense I have a lot of sins in my life. I promise you one of the biggest sins that I have is my desire just constantly to overheat. It is something that I have used food as an emotional crutch for so much of my life, and so I am continually working on is battling that sin and we’ll talk more about that as we continue to go throughout this devotional. But I’m maintaining Lee working on that, and that’s not the only one I have.
If you, if you are in our momentum program at Bible Journaling Ministries, you get to see in some of the devotions that we do where I’m truthful and honest and I, and I don’t hold anything back, and even in this, even today I’m not holding anything back. I’m just not going to spend hours and hours and hours talking about all the sins that I have in my life. I’m not perfect. I’m here, and I’m working through the sanctification process. In one of these days, I will be glorified and free of sin, and that is a day worth looking forward to. So I would encourage you to, again, just if your insulin and having you know, only a hard time with it, seek God, ask him to forgive you, ask him to show you the next steps. Ask to show you any resources that he would have for you.
Ask them to provide people into your life that would support you as you go through the sanctification process. As you learn how to battle the sins in your life, you’re not promised tomorrow, and I would not put this off. Romans 6:23 says, the wages of sin is death, but the free-gift of God is eternal life in Jesus, our Lord. So turn to him, confess your sins, and follow his will in your life, and you will feel the love of Christ that surpasses all understanding. I know this topic is hard, but it is so important to address. I hope that you’ll stick around as we talk about Freedom from fear, Freedom from the penalty of sin, Freedom from the power of sin, and Freedom to choose your path. I am so excited to go on this journey alongside you. This is a tough topic, but it is going to be so freeing, and I think that as you work through each of these topics, you will see how amazing is to be free in Christ. Thank you so much for tuning in today, and I’m looking forward to talking to you in the next episode of The Promises of God. Goodbye.
Welcome back to the Promises of God Podcast, Episode number 31 my name is Tracie Rollins. I want to thank you so much for spending some time with me as we learn and take action on God’s promises in life. This months series is about understanding and receiving God’s love, and we’re working out of the momentum devotional offered by Bible journaling ministries titled a Father’s Love. You can learn more about Bible journaling would their free 10-day Bible journaling course at BibleJournalingMinistries.com today we’re talking about clinging to God and choosing life. Our verse is Deuteronomy 30:19-20, and I’ll read out of the World English Bible. It says I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Therefore, choose life that you may live you and your descendants to love your way.
You’re a god to obey his voice and to cling to him for he is your life. And the length of your days that you may dwell in the land. Would she always swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob to give them When I was a little girl, my grandmother bought me the biggest doll I had ever laid my eyes on? She had this rubbery plastic face. She had these freckles on her cheeks, and she had this brown yarn hair that I used to tie up and try to comb, which by the way, you should never try to comb yarn hair. She had these plastic hands and as a cloth-like body, and she only had one dress. So I would try to dress her up in my clothes, which Kinda didn’t work cause I was bigger than the doll. Anyways, she just had the prettiest dress, and I loved it.
I loved that doll so much that I took her to church with me. I took her out. When we would go out to eat, I would be all like, Hey, can we have another place setting for a fake doll And I take her out on walks. Anytime we would go anywhere; she was by my side. She was like my best friend, and I’d sit there, and I’d read books to her. I would teach her math and English and correct her spelling even though she was a doll and actually couldn’t do any of the work. I think my mom, my parents must have loved us because as I was teaching her, I pretended she do the schoolwork, but then I would do the schoolwork. So I just even learned even more at night when I went to sleep, I put my arm around her, and she was like sleeping right there next to me all the time.
I just absolutely loved this. Donna, I don’t know what happened to this doll because I think eventually, I grew out of her, but I just loved her so much. I just had her around me all day long. She was my best doll friend. And I’d like to kind of think about in general, at least for you, what is it that you have that you love Like what do you do to something that you’ve loved so much Some people say when you love someone, you should let them go, but that’s not necessarily good advice. If you look at our verse today, it says, the Bible says that you should cling to God for he is your life in a length of your days. Choose life; having a father’s love like the One God provides is truly like no other love. God is love. He knows things about you that you don’t even know he provides for you, and he carries you next to his heart.
Oh, what an amazing father you have. So as you’re thinking about, as we wrap up, and as you’re thinking about this last section in our devotional, we’re talking about clinging to him. Practically speaking, write in your journal. What does it mean for you to cling to God? For me, clinging to God means being with him all day long? Just like my Dolly and my Dolly and the car and Medallia at dinner and Medallia at Lynch I had my dolly everywhere. So I try to remember God throughout my day. I try to pray a lot. Even just quick, simple prayers like you know, I might be getting ready for work and I might just say, you know, quick little prayer that I think some people call them popcorn prayers and, and I know that you know, some people like very, very long prayers and those are definitely warranted and definitely you should do long prayers and have your time with God in your meditations with them and be in the word and, and all of that.
But you can do quick popcorn prayers too. He wants to see you; he wants to talk to you; he wants to be in conversation with you all the time. So it’s okay to do quick, easy popcorn prayers and allow yourself to do that. Because I think when you do stuff like that where it’s super easy, and you’re just with God and just saying, you know, Hey God, I’m about to head out the door and I pray for safety as I go to my journey, or I pray that the meeting I’m headed to, we’ll go, well, you just, you’re in that conversation with him in and it makes it easy to have a conversation with him throughout the day. You don’t have to sit down and get your Bible out, and you know, make sure you have the right dress on to pray to God.
He wants to hear from you. Now he wants to hear from you; even if it’s just a second, also if it’s just a minute, whatever you have, he wants to hear from you. And I think when you get into that habit, you bring him along throughout your day. And I, I love that. So that’s what it means to me to clean to God, to be with him throughout the day, praying to him also when I have time to get into the word, you know, I try to read the Bible in the morning when I wake up. It’s one of the first things do I like to; I also exercise as one of the first things I do too. So I try to get the stuff out of the way that I, that is most important to me. And um, that just kind of shows my priorities.
So health is important to me. Spiritual health is important to me. So I read my Bible, and I do my exercises first things in the morning. Um, and also then throughout the day if something happens and it’s not like I’m going to forget it because I’ve already done it. So, and that’s how I kind of keep in to ensure that I get in my Bible reading time in my devotional time to worship and pray to God, you know, worship him, sing songs to him. You could be in your car listening to a Christian radio station and singing to him. You can sing to God. Even not Christian songs. I mean you can sing love songs to him all day long if you want to. It doesn’t have to be a specific Christian song, barely just taking time with the Lord and not just waiting for Sundays is really what it means to clean to God, clinging to God just by going to church on Sunday.
Never talking to him again is not clinging is it is just, it’s almost like, and I know you’re visiting him once a week and God wants to have a relationship with you. He wants to be in your life. He wants to be in your life today. He wants to be in your life the second he wants to be in your life now. He doesn’t want to wait until Sunday. So begin to cling to him, and I think when you clean to him, you will find life that you haven’t experienced before because I will tell you, being with God all day long helps. Number one. I mean, it helps keep me in line. I do send, I’m not going to lie, I don’t, it’s not like I don’t send, but I do sin, but I don’t spend nearly as much as I used to, so it keeps me in line, helps me fix my eyes on my priorities, helps me align myself with what I say is important to me in my life, and I feel good about it and I know at the end of the day I feel really good about the things that I’ve accomplishment it accomplished and even some days where it’s just been really hard, or I feel like it made me, God’s not around, I just keep praying.
I feel like he’s not talking to me. And if I didn’t, if I just stopped praying and stopped trying to have a relationship with God, I would go off in, there’s a whole other tangent that would not be good for me in any part of my walk or any part of my journey. So I would encourage you that even if you’re going through one of those difficult times like I have, cause I’m, I only have been recently got out of one of those dark valleys and now I’m back into the flow. I’m back. You know I feel God’s presence now. I feel him with me each and every day. I promise you; there are times where you feel like God’s not going to be around and you need to clean to him. You need to grab him and say, I love you.
I’m here for you. I want you to hear God, and I want to be the person that you want me to be. Show me your will. Show me your way. Help me be the daughter that you want me to be and cling to him because I promise you he will come back. You know he’s always here. He’s never going to leave you. But that presence, that feeling that he’s coming back, they will be there because God never leaves. He never leaves. Just because he doesn’t answer you in the way that you want him to answer you, it doesn’t mean that he’s not there. He is always here, and you have to believe that. And I think that if you are going through a difficult time again, cling to him because I promise you, you will come out of it and you will be better for it.
I promise you, when you cleaned the god, you choose life, and if you’re here today and you’re ready to choose life, it’s easy to get started to start this podcast right now and pray to him. Just invite him into your heart. Ask him to show you him. Ask Him to talk to you and open up your Bible. Like I randomly will open up my Bible. I’ll say, Lord, speak to me today. I want to hear your voice. I want to know what you have to say to me, and I’ll randomly open up the Bible and start reading. And often it’s so applicable. It’s like he reads, he shows up in his word pretty much every time I do it. Sometimes I open it up, and it’s not exactly what I thought like it’s kind of weird, but I know that it’s a word.
I know it’s his word. And I know that I need to understand that so I feel like he speaks to me every time I opened up his Bible. So I hope that you’ll try that as well. But if you’re here today and you totally know what it means to clean to God, but you straight a bit, that’s okay. It’s okay. You’re allowed to strip it. You’re allowed history a bit. Just come back, come back to God. Just tell him that you’re sorry. Tell him that you miss him. Tell him what you want to hear him speak to you today and open your Bible and listen to what he has to say. Romans 6:23 says, the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Lord. So turn to him, confess your sins and follow his will in your life and he will feel the love of Christ that surpasses all understanding.
I want to thank you. I thank you so much for tuning in today. I am so excited about our next month, next month series. I think that this series was I think, appropriate for the month and I hope that you truly do feel a father’s love. I look forward to talking to you in the next series next month. I hope you have a beautiful day and if you haven’t left a review on iTunes, please do so. I would appreciate that. It does help us out and if you don’t subscribe via iTunes and you subscribe maybe through another channel, please go ahead and leave us a review. That helps others find us. So I hope that you have a beautiful day and I will talk to you soon. Goodbye.
Thanks for listening to the promises of God podcast. This podcast is sponsored by Bible Journaling M
Episode 031: Cling to God and Choose Life
Welcome back to the Promises of God Podcast, Episode number 31 my name is Tracie Rollins. I want to thank you so much for spending some time with me as we learn and take action on God’s promises in life. This months series is about understanding and receiving God’s love, and we’re working out of the momentum devotional offered by Bible journaling ministries titled a Father’s Love. You can learn more about Bible journaling would their free 10-day Bible journaling course at BibleJournalingMinistries.com today we’re talking about clinging to God and choosing life. Our verse is Deuteronomy 30:19-20, and I’ll read out of the World English Bible. It says I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Therefore, choose life that you may live you and your descendants to love your way.
You’re a god to obey his voice and to cling to him for he is your life. And the length of your days that you may dwell in the land. Would she always swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob to give them When I was a little girl, my grandmother bought me the biggest doll I had ever laid my eyes on? She had this rubbery plastic face. She had these freckles on her cheeks, and she had this brown yarn hair that I used to tie up and try to comb, which by the way, you should never try to comb yarn hair. She had these plastic hands and as a cloth-like body, and she only had one dress. So I would try to dress her up in my clothes, which Kinda didn’t work cause I was bigger than the doll. Anyways, she just had the prettiest dress, and I loved it.
I loved that doll so much that I took her to church with me. I took her out. When we would go out to eat, I would be all like, Hey, can we have another place setting for a fake doll And I take her out on walks. Anytime we would go anywhere; she was by my side. She was like my best friend, and I’d sit there, and I’d read books to her. I would teach her math and English and correct her spelling even though she was a doll and actually couldn’t do any of the work. I think my mom, my parents must have loved us because as I was teaching her, I pretended she do the schoolwork, but then I would do the schoolwork. So I just even learned even more at night when I went to sleep, I put my arm around her, and she was like sleeping right there next to me all the time.
I just absolutely loved this. Donna, I don’t know what happened to this doll because I think eventually, I grew out of her, but I just loved her so much. I just had her around me all day long. She was my best doll friend. And I’d like to kind of think about in general, at least for you, what is it that you have that you love Like what do you do to something that you’ve loved so much Some people say when you love someone, you should let them go, but that’s not necessarily good advice. If you look at our verse today, it says, the Bible says that you should cling to God for he is your life in a length of your days. Choose life; having a father’s love like the One God provides is truly like no other love. God is love. He knows things about you that you don’t even know he provides for you, and he carries you next to his heart.
Oh, what an amazing father you have. So as you’re thinking about, as we wrap up, and as you’re thinking about this last section in our devotional, we’re talking about clinging to him. Practically speaking, write in your journal. What does it mean for you to cling to God? For me, clinging to God means being with him all day long? Just like my Dolly and my Dolly and the car and Medallia at dinner and Medallia at Lynch I had my dolly everywhere. So I try to remember God throughout my day. I try to pray a lot. Even just quick, simple prayers like you know, I might be getting ready for work and I might just say, you know, quick little prayer that I think some people call them popcorn prayers and, and I know that you know, some people like very, very long prayers and those are definitely warranted and definitely you should do long prayers and have your time with God in your meditations with them and be in the word and, and all of that.
But you can do quick popcorn prayers too. He wants to see you; he wants to talk to you; he wants to be in conversation with you all the time. So it’s okay to do quick, easy popcorn prayers and allow yourself to do that. Because I think when you do stuff like that where it’s super easy, and you’re just with God and just saying, you know, Hey God, I’m about to head out the door and I pray for safety as I go to my journey, or I pray that the meeting I’m headed to, we’ll go, well, you just, you’re in that conversation with him in and it makes it easy to have a conversation with him throughout the day. You don’t have to sit down and get your Bible out, and you know, make sure you have the right dress on to pray to God.
He wants to hear from you. Now he wants to hear from you; even if it’s just a second, also if it’s just a minute, whatever you have, he wants to hear from you. And I think when you get into that habit, you bring him along throughout your day. And I, I love that. So that’s what it means to me to clean to God, to be with him throughout the day, praying to him also when I have time to get into the word, you know, I try to read the Bible in the morning when I wake up. It’s one of the first things do I like to; I also exercise as one of the first things I do too. So I try to get the stuff out of the way that I, that is most important to me. And um, that just kind of shows my priorities.
So health is important to me. Spiritual health is important to me. So I read my Bible, and I do my exercises first things in the morning. Um, and also then throughout the day if something happens and it’s not like I’m going to forget it because I’ve already done it. So, and that’s how I kind of keep in to ensure that I get in my Bible reading time in my devotional time to worship and pray to God, you know, worship him, sing songs to him. You could be in your car listening to a Christian radio station and singing to him. You can sing to God. Even not Christian songs. I mean you can sing love songs to him all day long if you want to. It doesn’t have to be a specific Christian song, barely just taking time with the Lord and not just waiting for Sundays is really what it means to clean to God, clinging to God just by going to church on Sunday.
Never talking to him again is not clinging is it is just, it’s almost like, and I know you’re visiting him once a week and God wants to have a relationship with you. He wants to be in your life. He wants to be in your life today. He wants to be in your life the second he wants to be in your life now. He doesn’t want to wait until Sunday. So begin to cling to him, and I think when you clean to him, you will find life that you haven’t experienced before because I will tell you, being with God all day long helps. Number one. I mean, it helps keep me in line. I do send, I’m not going to lie, I don’t, it’s not like I don’t send, but I do sin, but I don’t spend nearly as much as I used to, so it keeps me in line, helps me fix my eyes on my priorities, helps me align myself with what I say is important to me in my life, and I feel good about it and I know at the end of the day I feel really good about the things that I’ve accomplishment it accomplished and even some days where it’s just been really hard, or I feel like it made me, God’s not around, I just keep praying.
I feel like he’s not talking to me. And if I didn’t, if I just stopped praying and stopped trying to have a relationship with God, I would go off in, there’s a whole other tangent that would not be good for me in any part of my walk or any part of my journey. So I would encourage you that even if you’re going through one of those difficult times like I have, cause I’m, I only have been recently got out of one of those dark valleys and now I’m back into the flow. I’m back. You know I feel God’s presence now. I feel him with me each and every day. I promise you; there are times where you feel like God’s not going to be around and you need to clean to him. You need to grab him and say, I love you.
I’m here for you. I want you to hear God, and I want to be the person that you want me to be. Show me your will. Show me your way. Help me be the daughter that you want me to be and cling to him because I promise you he will come back. You know he’s always here. He’s never going to leave you. But that presence, that feeling that he’s coming back, they will be there because God never leaves. He never leaves. Just because he doesn’t answer you in the way that you want him to answer you, it doesn’t mean that he’s not there. He is always here, and you have to believe that. And I think that if you are going through a difficult time again, cling to him because I promise you, you will come out of it and you will be better for it.
I promise you, when you cleaned the god, you choose life, and if you’re here today and you’re ready to choose life, it’s easy to get started to start this podcast right now and pray to him. Just invite him into your heart. Ask him to show you him. Ask Him to talk to you and open up your Bible. Like I randomly will open up my Bible. I’ll say, Lord, speak to me today. I want to hear your voice. I want to know what you have to say to me, and I’ll randomly open up the Bible and start reading. And often it’s so applicable. It’s like he reads, he shows up in his word pretty much every time I do it. Sometimes I open it up, and it’s not exactly what I thought like it’s kind of weird, but I know that it’s a word.
I know it’s his word. And I know that I need to understand that so I feel like he speaks to me every time I opened up his Bible. So I hope that you’ll try that as well. But if you’re here today and you totally know what it means to clean to God, but you straight a bit, that’s okay. It’s okay. You’re allowed to strip it. You’re allowed history a bit. Just come back, come back to God. Just tell him that you’re sorry. Tell him that you miss him. Tell him what you want to hear him speak to you today and open your Bible and listen to what he has to say. Romans 6:23 says, the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Lord. So turn to him, confess your sins and follow his will in your life and he will feel the love of Christ that surpasses all understanding.
I want to thank you. I thank you so much for tuning in today. I am so excited about our next month, next month series. I think that this series was I think, appropriate for the month and I hope that you truly do feel a father’s love. I look forward to talking to you in the next series next month. I hope you have a beautiful day and if you haven’t left a review on iTunes, please do so. I would appreciate that. It does help us out and if you don’t subscribe via iTunes and you subscribe maybe through another channel, please go ahead and leave us a review. That helps others find us. So I hope that you have a beautiful day and I will talk to you soon. Goodbye.
Thanks for listening to the promises of God podcast. This podcast is sponsored by Bible Journaling M