Promises of God Podcast Archives - Page 2 of 3

March 17, 2019 by Tracie Rollins

Episode 015: Finding Hope in the Pause

This is the Promises of God Podcast and I’m your host, Tracie Rollins. This podcast is about you, your ability to hear and believe and take action on God’s promises in your life because all of God’s promises are yes and amen. Resources mentioned in today’s episode can be found on PromisesofGodPodcast.com. Now, let’s get started.

Welcome back to the Promises of God Podcast, episode Number 15. My name is Tracie Rollins. Thank you so much for spending some time with me as we learn and take action on God’s promises in life. This month series is about choosing hope in both the good times and the bad, and we’re working out of the momentum devotional offered by Bible journaling ministries.com where you can learn more about Bible journaling with our free 10-day Bible journaling course. Today we’re talking about finding hope in the pause. Our verse for today is Romans 15:4, which I will read from the English Standard version. It says, for whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction that through endurance and the encouragement of scriptures, we might have hope. The laws of life are so difficult. I remember in March of 2018 I was walking the dogs with my husband and I usually walk the dogs in the morning, and I had walked the dogs earlier in that morning, but my husband came home and we thought, why not give them an extra walk So we both, the started walking, and we’re going around our usual route, and all of a sudden I tripped and I fell crashing down to the sidewalk and my knee got jammed along the way and I had twisted my leg in a way that was probably not the right way to twist it.

The next day I woke up and I really couldn’t move that leg. I don’t know how it was that I got home from that walk because it was definitely two to three blocks of walking after that that I had felt no pain at all. Like it was. I mean I had pain but it wasn’t like I couldn’t walk on it. It was more like pain from like a bruise that, that I must have. Um, when I hit the sidewalk, I must have got some injury. So I had felt that pain, but I was able to walk home and walk up the stairs. At this time I had a two story house in my room, was upstairs and walked upstairs and we got ready for the night and went back to, went to sleep. And when I woke up in the morning, I couldn’t move that light, that leg was so like it hurt to stand on it and I grabbed my cane because I had a rod from a previous surgery and just kind of use that to kind of get around for the next day and went, made an appointment to see my doctor. Actually it’s more of an orthopedic surgeon is I call him my doctor, but he’s actually a surgeon. It’s. He had been treating me for about 12 years and we came into the office and he takes x rays and he looked at it and he said, it’s broken. Here’s this for those of fracture or there’s little fracture line you showed me on the x-ray, and there’s a little fracture there. And it wasn’t like he could do anything. It’s, you know, you basically, it was, I guess it wasn’t big enough to put into any kind of cast or wasn’t, you know, it was just a little hairline fracture, but it was still painful to walk on it. And so I couldn’t walk on it and he gave me some crutches. And for I think six weeks I hobbled around on these crutches. Well, I was thinking after those six weeks that would be able to get back into walking again.

And so they came back to the office, and we did the x rays, and the um, the fracture was gone, so it had healed, but I still couldn’t walk very well. And in looking at the x rays, he looked at me, and he said, honey, it’s time, it’s time to do that knee replacement that we’ve been talking about that we’ve been putting off for so many years. And we had put off the surgery. We had a, had a different surgery in 2006 because the, uh, my knee had been giving out at that time. And so he did a separate surgery in hopes of postponing a total knee replacement surgery. And it worked for 12 years. But he said it was time to do it. I wasn’t quite ready for that. So I spent quite a few weeks after that working with physical therapists and trying to get my native somehow work without that.

I did some injections and went through quite a bit of work before finally realizing that he knew more than I do about my knee. And um, yeah, that I would have to get that surgery after all. So I’m still, I’m my point even telling you this is that I had part of walking was a journey like it was, is what I did every day is my fitness goal. It was one of the many things that I did. I would walk in the morning, I would ride bikes, I would go and do the elliptical at the gym. I actually had a membership at the time and I hadn’t met that membership for I want to say three to four years and I would use it. I was definitely consistent and using it was part of my fitness routine and there was a lot of different classes you could take that I will try to take. I even tried to take a spinning class, but that didn’t work out for me because obviously, I had problems with my knees. Um, but my plan was, was part of this fitness, right It was part of, you know, having fitness in my life and, and this was my plan was to be healthy and fit and not have problems with my body and unfortunately this plan that I have is, is still on pause as I recover from my total knee replacement surgery. So I guess what I’m saying is, is that it’s hard in the positive life. So in the cause of my dream to be fit and go back to the gym and be healthy, I have to just know that I’m in this, this waiting period and it’s through endurance and encouragement of scripture that I have hope. I know that I will be healed.

It is a promise that I believe in. I know that God’s going to provide that. It is in his timing and his will and in his way, and I’m doing the very best job that I can right now to be in his will, and I’m doing as much as I can to heal my knee. The following everybody is advice, listening and praying and doing all that. And it is just a pause. It is just a little weight, and I know that a year sounds like a long time to be waiting and yeah, to me it is a long time to be waiting. I’m quite impatient sometimes, especially when it comes to seeing everybody else walked frequently and wanting to do that myself so I can be quite impatient, but I know that you know, this is God’s plan and where I am, where he wants me to be in, and I wonder for you are, you know, do you, what do you do in the cause of your life. I mean, do you wait patiently? Are you sometimes frustrated and impatient like, as I can be? I think that I’m, I’m doing great now. I’m definitely in scripture and, and having hope in the Lord, but some days are hard, especially when there’s a lot of pain. Um, so for you, I mean, think about what you do in the pause of your life or the waiting periods. Take some time this week to write out a few verses that can encourage you during this time of waiting. I know in January I made a lot of verses in preparation for my surgery and so I need to go through each of those verses often to remind myself and to encourage myself and so that I can have hope in the Lord.

If you don’t yet feel the hope of God in your life, if you don’t have any hope in your life for that matter, I encourage you to invite God in your life today. If you know God and you just have strayed a little bit, and you feel that he won’t forgive you, don’t, don’t do that. He’ll forgive you. He loves you. Come back, you’re not promised tomorrow. Romans 6:23 says, the wages of sin is death, but the free- 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 God that surpasses all understanding. Waiting in a positive life is hard. It is so, so difficult, but as Romans 15:4 reminds us, it is through endurance and through the encouragement of scriptures that we truly might have hope. Thank you so much for tuning in today, and I’ll see you in the next episode of the Promises of God. Bye now.

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 the PromisesofGodPodcast.com.

March 10, 2019 by Tracie Rollins

Episode 014: Hope in God Leads to Endurance

Welcome back to the Promises of God Podcast, episode number 14. My name is Tracie Rollins. Thank you so much for spending some time with me as we learn and take action on God’s promises in life. This month series is about choosing hope and both the good times and the bad, and we’re working out of the momentum devotional offered by Bible journaling ministries.com where you can learn more about Bible journaling, would their free 10-day Bible journaling course. Today we’re talking about the strength and endurance that hope in God brings our verse for today is Isaiah 40:31, which I will read from the world English Bible it reads, but those who wait for y’all way or hope in the Lord, if you’re reading the NIV version, will reveal, we will renew their strength. They will mount up with wings like eagles. They will run and not be weary.

They will walk and not faint. Have you ever tried to get more strength and endurance? There are so many beverages and supplements that promise this. There are Carol cans of this and cans of that and the hell. All kinds of exciting chemicals that I can’t pronounce and I have a few relatives that love to drink those, those cans of whatever they are. There’s, they’re just these big cans, and there’s a lot of caffeine in them, but over time those cans, they may work or those products they may work for, you know, an hour or two, but they don’t last. They don’t provide a lasting source of strength despite what the world says is the source of power. The truths or the source of power is spiritual. People always asked me, how do I do it all. Honestly, I don’t know how I do it all. I can point back to this verse, this verse of Isaiah.

I’ve honestly have experienced the power of God in my life. I’ve found that during the hardest times in my life, he has been the one to provide strength and endurance so many times. Uh, there have been times where I’ve been in the hospital and almost dying, with this thing that’s called Hellp Syndrome. It actually, a lot of people don’t have it, but basically, if you have it and the only cure for that particular syndrome is to deliver the baby that you have and that you’re carrying inside of you. And often cases very, prematurely. So there were so many times in my, during that time where my body would give out. And that happened more than once in my other pregnancy with my oldest son. My Body also gave out. So as you can see, as much as I wanted multiple babies, I got two.

I’m very thankful for them. And uh, just wasn’t a good deliverer, let’s call it what it is. That’s the truth. But during both of those times and giving birth to my kids, uh, I, I was dying. I was dying, and God brought me here. He brought me back. He gave me the strength and endurance to fight. I’ve also had multiple surgeries now, not the ugliest person in the world, but I have had enough surgeries in my life to, to say I’ve had too many probably. I think one is probably too many, but I have had multiple surgeries in my life, and it’s so hard when you’re finished with an operation like the one that I’m getting through now with my total knee replacement. It is a lot of work. It’s a lot of work, and it’s just sometimes I wonder, you know, am I going to be able to take enough steps today. Am I going to be able to climb the staircase today? Can I get through my physical therapy Appointments? Is just so much sometimes and I think that, um, I have to remind myself that God is here and he is going to give me the strength that I need to do the things that he’s asked me to do. And if that means that I get to run today, then I’m running. If that means that today, it’s just one small step or one rotation around the black, then that’s what it is. And I trust in him and believe that he is going to provide the strength and endurance I need exactly when I need it. Those who hope in the Lord will discover strength and endurance. That’s in the comprehensive role, especially to those who don’t know God. God will provide exactly what you need when you need it.

This week. Take some time to journal time in your life where God has provided unexpected strength and endurance. What were you doing and how do you know it was from God I know with me every day, it’s from God. How do I know Because I pray for it and when I pray for it, God answers it and sometimes it’s rest because God often will provide me more than I need. He oftentimes, and that’s why people ask me, how do I get it all done. Well, that is, that is truly the strength and endurance I get from the Lord. I mean, there are multiple recordings. The videos, there are multiple printables to put together. There are devotionals to put together and my business; there’s no marketing that has to be done. There are business operations, there are answering emails, and there’s praying for people. We do that. There are facebook groups.

There are so many things that you know I have to do just in this business alone, let alone I’m a mother, I’m a wife. I’m a friend, I’m a sister, I’m all of these things, and God always provides the strength and endurance I need, and he still provides so much that often I have to remind myself to. Don’t forget to take a break and especially when he doesn’t provide the strength and endurance for whatever it is I think he needs. I mean I think he wants me to do. Sometimes he doesn’t provide it, and it is in those times that I say, okay, it’s time for me to rest because whatever I’m finding forward today is not necessarily what God wants me to be doing. So I’m going to take a break. I’m going to rest. I’m going to get back in the game in. I have found 100 percent of the time when I’m doing his will when I’m doing the things that he’s called me to do in my heart at the time that he wants me to do it. That strength and endurance come to the Prophet Isaiah. It encouraged the Israelites to put their hope in God, and he said he would deliver them. When they trust in him, God will provide you to, and if you don’t have hope in your life, I encourage you to invite God into your life today and if you know the love of God, but you’ve strayed from the path a bit, come back. You’re not promised tomorrow. Don’t put this off. Romans 6:23 says, the wages of sin is death, but the 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.

March 3, 2019 by Tracie Rollins

Episode 013: Hope in God Brings Security and Confidence

Welcome back to the Promises of God Podcast, episode number 13. My name is Tracie Rollins. Thank you so much for spending some time with me as we learn and take action on God’s promises in life. This month series is about choosing hope in both the good and the bad times, and we’re working out of the momentum devotional offered by BibleJournalingMinistries.com, where you can learn more about Bible journaling with their free 10-day Bible journaling course. Today we’re talking about security and confidence that hope in God brings our verse for today is Job 11:18, which I will read out of the NIV version. It reads you will be secure because there is hope. You will look around you and take your rest in safety even though so far who was speaking to Job, but this time is known for being one of the most uncompassionate men in the Bible.

He called Job stupid and says, Job is getting what he deserves. We can still see in this first some encouragement to Job. It’s so funny how some people in our lives mean well, but the delivery just isn’t there. Do you have people in your life like that because I surely do? Regardless of what the distribution is, it is so important to have hope in God and to have that security and confidence that hope and God brings. When I was a child, I’d climb up on the couch, and I would look outside the window with this expectant hope, just watching cars pull up and dad’s getting out. They’d all had inside for dinner, and then later they would come out and play tag or watch the kids ride their bikes or throw a football with them, and I would always wonder if today was the day that my dad would read return from. You know, he was in the military and so we often had overseas assignments and that day I probably didn’t think he would return, but I still hope that he would and days with eventually turn into months and months into years and finally my hope faded and then one day he’d arrived home in his uniform, and I’d run into his arms with joy. Seeing my dad after months or years apart brought me peace home, seemed a lot safer with him around and I slept much better over the years. I got used to saying goodbye after all when you’re in the military, and the military called the soldier must do what A soldier Stu. I stopped wishing for deployment notices to disappear and I stopped hoping for him to come home before his tour was over and I replaced those wishes with confidence that he would return. That didn’t mean that I wanted him to leave; just says that I knew that I would see him again one day.

My hope wasn’t just a desire to have him home, but instead a confident expectation that he would come back. When scripture says to hope in God, it doesn’t mean wish. It means to expect and have confidence that God will deliver. You can be secure and confident in him. This week, write down some of the promises that you’re hoping for. Are you confident that he will deliver them I sure hope that you are? If you don’t yet have hope in your life, I encourage you to invite God into your life today. If you know the love of God, but maybe have strayed from the path, come back. You’re not promised tomorrow. Don’t put this off. There’s not enough time. 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 God Podcast. Goodbye.

March 1, 2019 by Tracie Rollins

Episode 012: What is the Hope of Believers

Welcome back to the Promises of God Podcast, episode number 12. My name is Tracie Rollins. Thank you so much for spending some time with me as we learn and take action on God’s promises in life. This month series is about choosing hope in both the good times and the bad, and we’re working out of the momentum devotional offered by BibleJournalingMinistries.com. You can learn more about Bible journaling and take the free 10-day Bible journaling course there. Today, we’re focused on securing hope every single day, and our verse is Matthew 12:21. It reads, “In his name, the nations will put their hope.” Matthew is sharing a fulfillment of prophecy from Isaiah 42, that Jesus is the chosen one who will proclaim justice not just to the Israelites, but to all the nations. It is in him that we have hope. What does it mean to have hope Hope is an expectation or desire for some event or thing to happen. It’s not a wish. It’s not wondering as it relates to God. It’s an expectation that God will deliver on his promises which extend beyond death into eternal life in the presence of our Lord.

Most of us experienced moments of disarray in our lives. Sometimes we lose hope that things will ever change. Sure. When life is going smoothly, it’s easy to feel hopeful, but what do you do when trouble enters your life, and you feel like God isn’t hearing your prayers Here are 14 different ways that I’ve used in my life to find hope in God in any situation. The first one is to pray for hope. Life is so full of hardships, but that doesn’t mean you should give in to fear. Find Hope in God through prayer. Philippians chapter four verses six through seven say, and nothing, be anxious, but in everything, by prayer and petition with Thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your heart and your thoughts in Christ Jesus. The second thing I do is I read the Bible.

Everything you need is in the Bible. Read the Bible daily. I do. It’s the first thing I do when I wake up in the morning before I even jump out of bed, I grabbed my phone. I get open the you version, Bible APP, which is the one I use almost every day, and I read the Bible there, read the Bible daily, especially when you feel like you’re giving into feelings of hopelessness. Romans 15:4 reads, for whatever things were written before were written for our learning that through patience and encouragement of scriptures, we might have hope. Reading the Bible will help you thrive and it’s perfect, but to read in times of need.

The third thing I do is listen and sing. Worship songs listened attentively to work at worship songs and let the sad feelings melt away. They will be replaced by heartfelt praise and gratitude for God. Singing along with music creates a closer connection to the Lord as well. It creates a profound sense of wellbeing. I love to listen to worship songs. It this one. Number three is what got me through all of the weeks that my son was in the neonatal intensive care unit at the hospital. It was the. One of the only things that just helped me through that time was I would get in the car or turn on, I think it was Kayla is the one I was listening to, and I would listen to that on the way to the hospital. A lot of times I’d be crying.

Then on the way home, it would lift myself spirits as well, so I encourage you to do that, especially when you’re feeling hopeless. Nis, as I did during that very dark season in my life, and that’s for a whole other podcast episode. The fourth thing that I turned to his Bible journaling. I just grab your Bible and read a verse and doodle about that verse in Your Bible. You will be amazed at how much it. It only helps you understand the word and really as you pause and reflect on scripture, how much it helps you to feel the love of God that has that. The love of God that he has for you and how encouraged you’ll be. Most people that I talked to that Bible Journal find just joy and peace in it. That is like the biggest thing that they say whenever their Bible journaling.

They have this sense of peace, and I think that if you’ve ever had you ever get a chance to watch one of my videos were on Bible journaling with, with, with you. You’ll notice that I start the videos, very excited, but by the time we get to the end of the videos, I’m pretty mellow and that’s just what it does. Bible journaling helps me find peace and relax for the beautiful way to grow in the word creatively. And the fifth thing that you can consider doing is joining a Bible study, and I think by joining a Bible study often, not only do you get the growth in the word, but you are usually surrounded by very beautiful people that care you and your growth so in your life. Absolutely. A lot of when I was in Bible studies as a young mother, I know that my mom’s group would always make sure that if, if one of us, one of us moms were going to have surgery or having a difficult time or there was something going on in our lives, we would be praying for them, we’d be bringing them meals.

We just rallied around each other. And so finding that kind of support is fantastic. Another thing you can do, and this is number six, is to journal your requests. So journal The Times when you’ve turned to the Lord for help in the note when he answers your request, actually write down your requests, um, as they relate to things that he’s promised and then go back later when he’s answered them, and some things will be answered right away, and some things will be, you know, years and years in the making and then you just come back and re-write that down when it’s, when it’s been answered. I think that when you look back on your list, when you, especially when you lost confidence that he will come through on his promises. I think it will quickly change your attitude. It’s a great indication of his love for you and that you can see in your life where things, maybe you’ve been struggling, or they were difficult times in your life or even the great times in your life to review those as well.

All of that. Taking the time to just see the requests, see the prayer, see the promise that you’re waiting on being fulfilled, and then it actually being fulfilled. I think if you look back in your life, especially if you have this done or if you haven’t done this and you might even just create a list right now of all the times that he has been there for you and has provided for you. The second thing is to read encouraging stories and turn the news off. I think sometimes the news can really damper are our hope. I think that sometimes it can be extremely negative. I had a friend who was really spiraling into negativity because she was just surrounding herself all the time with news and, um, I just kind of sent her a message and was like, Hey, you know, I haven’t seen you do much of your art lately, would you, you know, here’s something that I found that might be interesting to you.

And she texts me back not only 10 minutes after I sent that message, that what a great idea to get away from the news and to be in her art, praising God for the wonderful skill that he gave her. And she snapped out of it pretty quickly, but she had been depressed and in a state of hopelessness for a few weeks. By that time I had a Holy Spirit call upon my heart to reach out to her. So definitely, um, uh, turn the news off, read encouraging stories. I think that you know, if you can grab a book of devotionals or even a Bible that has devotionals in it, I’m also encouraging stories in the Bible are amazing to read. Those things will help you have hope. The eighth one is to minister to someone in need. If you’ve lost confidence ministering to others in their time of need doesn’t only help them, a lot of times you’ll find it helps you.

You can volunteer at your woman’s shelter. Uh, you can provide random active acts of kindness, like maybe you buy the cup of coffee for the person behind you. And I even heard of this thing the other day that someone did where they, um, bought a gift card for their birthday, scanned it on their phone, and then posted it on social media so that people could get a coffee at Starbucks and tool. I think it was $50 and then it was gone. But what an amazing thing to do for peoples to give them something, you know, minister to them in their needs. And yeah, I mean, something like the Starbucks thing. Maybe you don’t think that that is ministering to anyone in their need. But she said when she posted, that she received a note from a woman, who actually had just the worst day and had absolutely no money and pray to God that she could just, you know, if it would just be nice, just if she could just have a cup of coffee, is what she prayed for and literally got delivered it to her.

It was just amazing. I love these kinds of stories. I get a gig out of him. So minister knew someone in need doesn’t necessarily mean you know who you’re ministering to. The person behind you in the drive through that you bought their meal. It could be that they’re down on their luck too. It could be, or it’s a friend that’s going through cancer that you stopped by to say hi because you miss her, any lover and she just. You tell her how much you care about her. You don’t even have to bring her a meal although I would highly recommend it, because she probably is exhausted from the treatments numbered nine. Read a devotional. I think I’m one of the easiest ways to find hope and God is to read a devotional. I mentioned that earlier, so I’ll keep going.

Number 10, talk to someone you love. I think when you’re feeling down or lost or hopeless, it’s always good to reach out to those that you love and that surrounds you and your community. It can be a friend, a family member, your pastor, just talking to people sometimes helps you see things from a different perspective. Don’t just call someone to vent on them and not be willing to listen to their counsel. Sometimes it’s easy for us to pick up the phone and you know, dump all of our worries onto somebody and all of our hopelessness onto somebody and then when they try to help us, we give them but this and nope, we can’t do that, or it’s not going to work. All the negative things that they’re just trying to help you and give us, you know, give a little encouragement, a little advice.

So stop and listen to it and consider it at a minimum. Just listen and consider it. And I’m the 11th one is to get involved in your church or your local community. I think getting involved in your church is so important and, um, they really hope you have a sense of belonging to your community. Number 12, consider all of the good things in your life. Take a minute to write on, in your gratitude journal. Get your gratitude journal out right now. Press pause on this and start writing all the great things in your life because now you’ll have a, a second, um, anytime that you think that your life is not that awesome, you’ll be able to look back and see all the things that you genuinely have that are amazing. Number 13, spend some time in God’s creation. I’m in nature specifically.

Go outside and lock. That’s one thing that I love to do — every morning. I get the dogs out, I’m hobbling around with them and uh, try to get them moving in. Breathe the fresh air. I love to do it in the morning because the grant is still kind of dewy and I, it just smells differently. It smells new. I don’t know if that’s right, but that’s the right way to say it, but to me it smells like a new day and if you know what I’m talking about when you wake up in the morning, and it smelled like a new day, I would love for you to shoot me a little message on a. even if you go to the promises of God podcast.com, like, shoot me a comment there. I would love to know if I’m not the only one that feels like when you wake up in the morning, it smells like a new day.

It really does. So yeah. Spend some time in God’s creations. You’ll notice things differently. You’ll see things that you didn’t see before and you’ll be pretty thankful. I think by the time you get back, you’ll definitely feel a little less hopeless in a lot more hopeful, and the last one is to be patient. God knows what you need and sometimes the things that you believe he supposed to give you, either he’s not going to give you because it wouldn’t be good for you or for other reasons. It wouldn’t be good for maybe someone else or he’s going to give them to you, but just not today, so be patient and wait on him and his history shows that he always feels as fulfills his promises so you can be confident that he will fulfill his promises to you. This week. Pick one or two of these 14 ways to find hope in God and apply them when you’re searching for hope.

If you have more to share, head over to the promises of God podcast.com and let others know in the comments. It’s in times like these that hope is so important, and if you don’t yet have hope in your life, I encourage you to invite God into your life today. If you know the love of God in your life, but you’ve strayed from the path, come back, you know he will accept you with open, loving arms. You have to come back. You’re not promised tomorrow. Time is short. Don’t put it 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 Podcast. Goodbye.

February 24, 2019 by Tracie Rollins

Episode 011: How to Receive God’s Love

Welcome back to the Promises of God Podcast. My name is Tracie Rollins, and I’m so thrilled that you’re here with me today as we learn and take action on God’s promises in our lives. This month series is about understanding and feeling the love that God has for you, his child, and we’re working out of the momentum devotional offered by BibleJournalingMinistries.com, and I will link that in the show notes today. We are talking about receiving his love. Our verse is going to be Ephesians 3:19, but I’m going to read Ephesians 3:13-19, out of the message today, and it reads, all this is proceeding along the lines planned all along by God and then executed in Christ Jesus. When we trust in him, we’re free to say whatever needs to be said boldly to go wherever we need to go, so don’t let my present trouble on your behalf. Get you down. Be Proud.

My response is to get down on my knees before the father, this magnificent Father who parcels out all heaven and earth. I asked him to strengthen you by his spirit. Not a brute strength, but a glorious inner strength that Christ will live in you as you open the door and invite him in, and I asked him that with both feet planted firmly on love, you’ll be able to take in with all the followers of Jesus, the extravagant dimensions of Christ’s love. Reach out and experience the breath. Test its length plumbed the depths. Rise to the heights. Live in the fullness of God.

When I think about God’s love for humanity, I’m grateful and joyful. Don’t get me wrong, I still cry when I see what Jesus went through, played out in the movies or described in the Bible, but at the same time, I have the deepest admiration for God’s Justice and righteousness. I no longer question why Jesus had to die. Instead, I hold my head high, and I’m thankful for the opportunity to live each day as his child. In Ephesians 3:14-21, Paul prays for the Ephesians. He prays for strength to grasp Christ’s love and be filled to the fullness of God, being full as the opposite of being empty. When you the fullness of God, your full, complete and not longing for more fullness comes when you truly know Christ love. So many people don’t accept God’s love because they feel they haven’t earned it and they don’t deserve it and let me tell you, that’s the point. You can’t earn your way to heaven. You can’t receive God’s love. All you need to do is accepted. Some of the things I think are important to do as we close up this month, a month full of love, full of God’s love, for sure. Sometimes we feel like we’re not loved. Sometimes we want to be left alone. Sometimes we get a little depressed, or sometimes it’s even worse than that.

If you feel a little down during this month, here are a few things that you might consider doing. I know that I have implemented at least one or more of these probably last month, maybe today, who knows, but these are the things that I look to and do whenever I start to feel a little unloved or I started not to like myself, so one of the first things I do is I Bible Journal, God’s desire for me and I hope that you will consider Bible journaling God’s desire for you. It helps to remind me, and it always gives me peace and calm whenever I’m Bible journaling. It helps to settle me. The second thing is to listen to verses about God’s love for you so you can listen to that on an app like the Youtube you Bible App or you version Bible App is a great one to listen to.

Podcasts are great to listen to you, of course, and I’m beautiful music on your favorite stations. Worship music is also a beautiful thing to help lift your spirits. Focus on some worship songs. Turn on the radio, listen to the beautiful words that come from people’s beautiful mouths and the beautiful songs that they sing, another idea to write in a gratitude journal. I think about all of the things that you have in your life. Just list the things you’re thankful for. Think after you do that, you will feel the love that God has for you, and you’ll feel very blessed at what you have. Prayer and meditation are always good. If you can be in prayer. I’m, I’m in prayer always. So many of these things that I’ve already talked about, I know I’ve done just in the last week, only part of my daily practice.

People ask me why I am so joyful and so in love with God and that is because I do these things quite often and that’s why I’m sharing them with you. Another idea is to head doors. I’d take a walk every morning as much as I can, and I guess I can’t say every morning because I missed it today. I was interested in getting this podcast recorded, so I skipped it, but I’m hoping to go later tonight, and I’d love to go in the morning because everything seemed so new and fresh and I just. It makes me smile. Another option is to consider your food if you’re not feeling very loved and a little bit depressed, what kind of food are you fueling your body with Is that high in sugar There are studies that show that sugar does lead to some depression, so that might be something to consider if you’re not fueling your body with healthy, healthy foods, unplugging from social media or the news, the news can be very, very tragic and to have that always in playing in the background and to still feel that that could lead to some sadness as well. And don’t unplug from social media. If you have a group that’s encouraging you, uh, go into the group, especially if you have a group that prayer prays for you. I know the Bible journaling for beginners community on facebook does a prayer threat every week, and as much as I can, I pray over that prayer thread and a maybe that would be something that you might want to be interested, might interest you, but if and nonetheless, if you can find a community that lifts your spirits, that is a healthy community, join it, get creative with some close friends. Why don’t you text her girlfriends and have a girl’s night out If you can maybe find a sitter for the kids if you have the kids and text her girlfriends and go to the movies or go to chick filet and have some chicken? I don’t know. Have Fun.

ever experienced in your life I do, and I know that he does, but if you don’t feel the love of Christ in your life, I encourage you to invite Christ into your life today.

I know I say that in, but in my life that’s where my girlfriends and I meet. We actually do go to the CIC entirely, and we eat chicken, and we talk for hours. I think they usually have to kick us out. Sorry, chick fillet employees. Just remind us. It’s time to go. We get a little bit busy and then we meet with each other probably at least twice a year. It used to be monthly and then time just fly by and so if, if I’m one of us doesn’t text the group, we forget, but yeah, especially if you’re not feeling joyful or happy, or you feel like you might be spiraling into some depression, go meet some friends. Lastly, another idea would be to create some sort of; I call it a feel-good basket. Add some things that you like in there, maybe some of your favorite pictures, perhaps some really cute pens or pencils, or it may be some bath salts or something that makes you smile, maybe a flower or maybe your slippers and pull that basket out anytime you’re a little bit unloved so that you can remind yourself how much you are loved.

It’s so important to take care of yourself, to take care of the body that God gave you. It will help you on your journey as you continue through this life following his will and I’m executing on the things that he puts in front of you. God wants to give you everything. He wants to provide you with all of it, and he loves you so much. I hope that this encourages you to think about your life, to think about the love that he has for you that is unmatched and unlike anything else, and if you don’t quite feel the love of Christ in your life, I encourage you to don’t waste a single moment. I encourage you to invite God into your life. Today. Romans 6:23 says, the wages of sin is death, but the free-gift of God is eternal life in Jesus. Our Lord turned 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 wanted to thank you so much for joining me in our series. I hope that it encouraged you and that you genuinely feel the love of Christ in your life. If this podcast is encouraging to you, please, please, please subscribe and leave us a review on iTunes. It does help spread the word, and I am excited about our next topic for next month. I think that you’re going to really enjoy it and so I can’t wait to talk to you next week. I hope you have a wonderful week and know that you are truly loved. Goodbye.

February 17, 2019 by Tracie Rollins

Episode 010: God Loves You More Than You Can Fathom

Welcome back to the Promises of God Podcast, episode number 10. My name is Tracie Rollins. Thank you so much for spending some time with me today as we learn and take action on God’s promises in life. This month series is about understanding and feeling the love that God has for you, his child, and we’re working out of the moment and devotional offered by BibleJournalingMinistries.com, and I’ll link that in the show notes today. We’re talking about the sacrificial love of God in our verse is Romans 5:8 and I’m going to read that out of the world English Bible. It says, but God commends his love towards us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. The Apostle Paul is talking to believers in Rome, but I believe it still applies today. It’s so hard for me to wrap my head around the sacrificial love of God.

I can’t comprehend or come to grips with his decision to save me a complete center through the blood of Jesus Christ. We are all sinners and fall short of the glory of God. God could have settled accounts by giving us what we deserve. Instead, God sent his son as a sacrifice to save the world, and you can read about that in John Chapter 3:16-17, and I’ll read it for you. It says, for God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through him. Forgiveness of sins through the death of Jesus is the deepest and clearest declaration of respect for God’s glory and Son.

As I look at the verse and I think about God and how he demonstrates his love, God demonstrates his love because he gives us the holy spirit and in our hearts, we can genuinely feel the love of God. If you have the Holy Spirit, you know what I’m talking about. God also demonstrate he demonstrates his love by sending his one and only son as an on our behalf so that we can have a relationship with God and being an heir to the kingdom. We get all the things, and Jesus paid the price. I think God every day for his sacrifice. Have you ever love someone so much You were willing to give up everything for him What did that love feel like in your life I remember when I was pregnant with my second son, we had just got back from a camping trip. It was memorial day weekend or close to it and we got back and I was so sick.

I was not doing good, so I went to see my doctor, and immediately she rushed me to the hospital, which was like right around the block from where her office was, my OBGYN office and I checked in at the hospital. My blood pressure had gone through the roof, and they admitted me. I was at risk of having issues with my pregnancy, and so they admitted me to the hospital. I think I stayed there for a week. It was really interesting. But one of the things that they did while I was in the hospital is people would visit me from, uh, the neonatal intensive care unit that was at a different hospital. See, the hospital that I was at is called Chandler regional hospital. They didn’t have a neonatal intensive care unit there. I don’t know if they have one now, but when my son was born, they didn’t have it.

So the neonatal surgeon or the chief dude, I don’t know what his name, he had a special dido. He was super high up there, came by and was making rounds at Chandler regional, and he stopped by and he said he needed to talk to me and he said to me, trace, you already have a child, and when you get ready to have this baby, because I believe you’re going to have this baby premature, I don’t believe your body’s going to be able to hang onto this, this kid too long. Um, let me tell you about our neonatal intensive care unit. And I just, I listened to him, but I didn’t listen to him. I was just kind of like, yeah, I’m going to carry this baby to the term you don’t know what you’re talking about. So, as he was speaking, he started telling me about my, decision that would have to be made for, for my baby. And he said that if they have to choose between his life in my life, they have to choose my life. That’s just the way it works. I didn’t get to choose. And I looked at him, and tears just started running down my face. And I said, no, I don’t know, you’re not going to choose. You’re going to save my son. You’re not going to. I don’t care about me. I want you to save my son. And he proceeded to explain to me that I already had a child and how important it was for me to be there for my first child and how important was for me to be there as a wife to my husband and, and that there was absolutely nothing I could say or do that would change their mind.

And so when he left, I just, you know, wasn’t very happy with him at that point because I had already made up my mind that I wasn’t, that I wasn’t going to sacrifice my son and I wasn’t going to give him the opportunity and that I would carry this baby to term. That’s what I had planned. God had another plan. I did give birth to that baby almost 11 weeks premature. He’s totally fine now, but I just wanted to share that story with you because I loved that baby. I still love him today. He’s my son, but I loved him so much that I wanted to die for him. I didn’t want to live if he couldn’t live and to have to face that option at, you know, whatever, however many you know, what was it not even, wasn’t maybe the third trimester, perhaps I don’t know. I forget about the weeks and stuff, but to have to face that, so in, in, in pregnancy, to have to come to grips with you might not get to take your baby home, and you might have to deal with the rest of your life that you can carry. Your kid was hard. It was really hard for me and so sacrificial love. The love that I had for him is minor, so minor compared to the love that God has for you. We will never understand the love that God has for us who can possibly take their child and have their child be a replacement for other children. I mean, that’s just in my head. I can’t wrap my head around it. So I’m going to ask you, do you believe that God loves you more than any love you’ve ever experienced in your life I do, and I know that he does, but if you don’t feel the love of Christ in your life, I definitely encourage you to invite Christ into your life today.

All you have to do is call them. Just accept them like speak out and say, Lord, come into my life. I accept you. You’re not promised tomorrow. Don’t put it off. Tomorrow may not come. This life is so short. Romans 6:23 says, the wages of sin is death, but the free-gift of God is eternal life in our Lord. So turn to him. Confess your sins, follow his will in your life. Understand his promises here them believe them. Take action on your part, not that taking action is going to do it like God could do it anyways, but we are responsible. I believe that we have roles to play in our lives. So take action wherever you can, and God will fulfill the promise that he has promised you in your life. I hope that you feel the love of Christ that surpasses all understanding, and I want to thank you for tuning in today, and I hope to see you or at least talk to you in the next episode of the Promises of God Podcast. We’ll see you then.

February 10, 2019 by Tracie Rollins

Episode 009: God’s Love Carries You

Welcome back to the Promises of God Podcast, episode number nine. My name is Tracie Rollins. Thank you so much for spending some time with me today as we learn and take action on God’s promises in life. This month series is about understanding and truly feeling the love that God has for you, his child, and we’re working now to the momentum devotional offered by a BibleJournalingMinistries.com, and I’ll link that in the show notes below and today we’re talking about how God’s love carries you in our verse for today’s Deuteronomy 1:31, but today I’m going to read out of the message translation, and I’m going to read a little more because I think that the context is really helpful. So I’m going to read chapter 1:28-33 out of the message and it reads, you rebelled against God, your god’s plain word. You complained in your tense. God hates us. He hauled us out of Egypt in order to dump us among the Emirates a death sentence for sure. How can we go up We’re trapped in a dead end. Our brothers took all the wind out of our sails telling us that people are bigger and stronger than we are. Their cities are huge. Their defenses massive. We even saw in a kite giants there. I tried to relieve your fears. Don’t be terrified of them. God, your God, is leading the way he’s fighting for you. You saw with your own eyes what he did for you in Egypt. You saw what he did in the wilderness. How God, your God carried you as a father, carries his child, carried you the whole way until you arrived. Here we hear Moses talking to, uh, the Israelites here and the Israelites are just not understanding, just totally failing.

Understand God’s love. They’re rebelling against the Lord. They truly act like my kids sometimes when they say that they hate us. Have you ever heard a kid tell their parent that they hate them and slammed the door? It has very rarely in my house, but it has happened, and that’s kind of what they remind me of here in this first. God’s love carries you. I remember in 2006, my legs begin to fail. I’d have my son, Ashton, he’d be on my hip. He was a little two-year-old at the time, and then all of a sudden my knees would just buckle, and we both would tumble to the floor, and in a series of acrobatic maneuvers, I’d figure out a way to land, so the Ashton landed on top and unscathed, but I suffered quite a few bruises and bumps and scrapes along the way.

I learned to carry him so that he would be safe in the event that my knees collapsed underneath me. In the event, they decided not to cooperate. The same is true for my husband and the way he carried the boys as children. When our boys were baby, he’d carry them on his chest. He cradled him in his arms, he’d swing them as monkeys. When they got older, when he, when they got older, he would hold his arms up and they would turn like monkeys back and forth. He also carried them on his shoulders, on his back, and basically, carry them pretty much however they will dangle from him. I remember sometimes they would dangle upside down by wrapping their arms around his waist in dangling from him. It was kind of cute and funny, but the way he carried them, protected them, it helped them, and it kept them safe. God does the same thing he loves and carries you through the wilderness like a father carries his son. When you were to tile tired, when you’re hurt, when you’re, when you have brokenness, trust that he will carry you and asked him to.

As you go about your week, think about times in the past where God has carried you. I can remember so many times in my life where I struggled when I’m completely exhausted, when I’ve gone through some surgeries or when I’ve gone through just a difficult trials, whether it be having no money, being in mountains of debt, being without a job, without health insurance, all of that, all of those things, even like car accidents, all kinds of things in my life. I can just think back and as I look back at those, I can see God in every one of those moments. Even when I wasn’t as close to him as I am now, I can see constantly carrying me through those and even in day to day situations where work would be a little tough or maybe my boss wouldn’t be happy with me or maybe I had a conflict with a coworker.

God has always been there. He’s always been there carrying me through all of it. Like a father carries his child. So as you think about the times in your past where God carried you, think about what situation you were in. How did he carry you through it Does he carry you today What does that look like I hoped that by looking back, you’ll be reminded of all the times he’s been here for you and how much he loves you just as a father should, and if you don’t yet feel the love of Christ in your life, I encourage you to invite God into your life today. Prom, you’re not promised. Tomorrow may not come, 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, run into his arms.

Let him carry you as a father carries his child, confess your sins and follow his will in your life and you will feel the love of Christ that surpasses all understanding. I hope that this week encourages you to think back and on the way. Maybe God has carried you in your life. I hope that and encourage you, encourage you to look at today and see maybe where he’s carrying you as well. Today. Our God is here. He loves you and he carries you just like a father. So close, so loving, so kind, and I hope that this episode encouraged you and I am excited to talk to you in the next episode of the promises of God podcast. You have a beautiful day, my friend. Goodbye.

February 3, 2019 by Tracie Rollins

Episode 008: God’s Love Endures Forever

Welcome back to the Promises of God Podcast, episode number eight. My name is Tracie Rollins. Thank you so much for spending time with me as we learn and take action on God’s promises in our lives. This month series is about understanding and feeling the love that God has for you, his child, and we’re working out of the momentum devotional offered by Biblejournalingministries.com, and I will link that in the show notes below, but to today, we are talking about God’s steadfast love. In our verse is Psalm 100:36 verse one, and I’ll read out of the English Standard version, and it reads, it’s actually titled, his steadfast love endures forever. The verse reads, give thanks to the Lord, for he is good for his steadfast love endures forever. As we look at this first, it is an amazing verse. By the way, the idea or the even the words verbatim give thanks to the Lord for he is good. His love endures forever is actually in Psalm 107 verse one, Psalm 1:18. His love endures forever. Twenty-six times. It’s an every, every single verse there in Psalm 1:36. It’s amazing. I love that. His love doesn’t stop at the first generation. It continues to go on forever and ever more than 26 times, more than 26 generations, more than 26 verses of the Bible. It remains true and steadfast and forever.

When you think about a love that lasts forever, you probably picture an engagement. You picture young, loved who people falling in love and pledging their love for each other and getting married and that kind of love that lasts, and you probably have things in your head that might be weddings and rings, and you know a diamond, right The advertiser say a diamond lasts forever, but I can tell you for sure that a diamond is not last forever. I know this because I frankly just freaked out frantically searching for the tiny diamond that was in my wedding ring. My husband bought it. He saved so much of his money. He took out credit card debt to purchase my diamond that goes to my wedding ring. I always wanted a heart shape, sharp, a heart-shaped diamond, and he designed my wedding ring and bought the diamond and had it set exactly how he wanted it.

And at this time we were in college, so he didn’t have a lot of money back in the day. I think minimum wage was probably close to four bucks an hour. It wasn’t. It wasn’t a lot in it. Brings were quite expensive back then, but he took out credit card debt. He paid as much as he could on cash, any bought this wedding ring for me and I used to love just looking at this wedding ring because it just, it made me just so happy and not the ring itself, but just knowing that he took the time to design it and all the sacrifice that he had to go through to get the ring for me and it just showed like how much he just truly loved me and so I just love this ring. But one day I looked down, and the and the ring was stolen my finger, but it had hit the side of my leg and snagged and I was devastated because I looked down in.

The diamond was gone and I was at this park in Phoenix area and I live in Arizona, but I was at this park and this park is huge and I had my little kid with me, my, my little baby at the time and he had just finished walking him along the path because I used to go and walk my babies in the morning just to get some fresh air. It was just really nice for them to get out for me to get out of the house and so we will walk the park and it was. I looked down in the diamond had fallen off, so I was searching frankly, just frantically for this diamond and I looked in the car. I walked the entire park twice to see if maybe I could find it. I actually did find a diamond, oddly enough it was a little diamond chip that had fallen into someone else’s ring, but it wasn’t my time and apparently that must be what that, what that park is about because you know, if for me to find a little tiny diamond chip and all of this park was amazing, but it wasn’t my diamond and I just couldn’t stop crying.

I was so upset and just I called my husband. I was crying, and he was. He was just like, look, don’t worry about it. It’s only a diamond, and it was gone. We didn’t have any funds to replace that diamond. When my children were really young. We didn’t have a lot. We had a house. We lived under our means. We try, you know, this was after the fun lessons on credit card debt. We try to live under our means. We decided not to overspend in, and we couldn’t replace that diamond. I wasn’t working, and my husband was the only provider for the household, and it just wasn’t in the budget, so I didn’t, I didn’t get that, that diamond put back in my ring for many years, many years, maybe five before I would even wear that ring again. I just ended up putting on like a little simple gold band.

It was, it was nice and perfect and acceptable, and it just wasn’t the ring that he bought me and, and I knew that when we fixed that ring and the diamond came back on that wedding ring, and I was going to wear the wedding. Are you bringing again, it would never be the same. It wasn’t the same diamond that my husband worked so hard for at a college trying to save and Scrimp and whatever he could to come up with this, this ring. It wasn’t the same one, and you know, it just, it isn’t forever. At least it wasn’t forever for me, so as I think about this, I think about God’s love in our lives and thank goodness that God’s love isn’t like my missing diamond. God is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I’m referring to Revelations 22:13, and I’ll read that for you.

That’s an out of the world English Bible, and it reads, I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end. God will never leave or forsake you. His love endures forever. His love is never changing, never ending in with you for eternity. And as we think about our verse for today, give thanks to the Lord. What is, what does it mean to give thanks to the Lord Well, really that means to praise him and how do you praise God You know, certainly you can pray to him. You could sing to him; you could dance for him. All of those examples in the Bible, you can also Bible Journal and in that is a form of worship. So if you have some time on even journaling is fine for reading the Bible as a form of worship. All of this is a form of worship.

There are so many different ways that you can give. Thanks. You can even say thanks. Thank you, God. You know, praise him. And that’s what the first part of the verse means. Give thanks to the Lord and why Right The next part of the verse says, for He is good. So that’s one reason why we should give things to the things to the Lord because he’s good, he’s amazing. He does so many things for us in our lives that we will never understand. I will never be able to comprehend, you know, the fact that he sent his son to die for us so that we could, you know, be his children, heirs to his kingdom. That is amazing. And you’ll also discover as you continue in your journey, that he does a lot of things in your life that sometimes you don’t see or you don’t think about, um, or you don’t attribute to him. And so as you think about something in your life that you thought you’d have forever, maybe it was your house, maybe you thought you’d keep your house for a while, and then to the recession when that, you know, so many people lost their homes in the United States, at least. Maybe it was, um, a loved one that you lost, that you thought would be around forever, maybe your marriage you thought that would last forever. There are so many things in our world, in our lives that we want to last forever, that we want to hold onto. And like most things, they don’t always last. They don’t endure forever. But God’s love endures forever. That is the one thing you can count on forever and ever and ever God’s love.

So as you go about your week, I hope that you think about God’s love in your life and how much he loves you and what it means to love you forever. And the kind of sacrifices it would take for even just a mortal person, a human to love you forever. Can you imagine will what God must go through all the time when he loves this forever? I mean he is an amazing God, so think about is love in your life this week and consider. Consider his steadfast love endures forever, and if you don’t yet feel the love of Christ in your life, I encourage you to invite God into your life today. You’re not promised tomorrow; tomorrow may not come. Don’t put it off and a 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 sin is follow his will in your life and you will feel the love of Christ that surpasses all understanding, and I hope that this podcast today was encouraging to you. I hope that you feel the love in his life today, now and forever, and I want to thank you for tuning in today and spending some time with me, and I look forward to talking to you in the next episode of the promises of God podcast. Goodbye.

February 1, 2019 by Tracie Rollins

Episode 007: God is Love

Welcome back to the Promises of God Podcast, episode number seven. My name is Tracie Rollins. Thank you so much for spending some time with me as we learn and take action on God’s promises in life. This month series is about understanding and feeling the love that God has for you, his child, and we’re working out of the momentum devotional offered by BibleJournalingMinistries.com, and I’ll link that in the show notes today. We’re talking about God’s covenant love and our verse for today is Deuteronomy 7:9, and I’ll read out of the new international version. It reads now therefore that the Lord your God is God. He is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments. God has this covenant love with his children. You might be asking yourself, what is a covenant

What does covenant love even mean? Well, a covenant is an agreement. It’s a pledge or a promise. It’s an agreement, and God has a covenant love for his children, which is you and me, and it’s this covenant. Love that. It’s such a way that it, that he just never breaks his promise. It doesn’t matter what we do. It doesn’t matter what we do. He won’t break his promise. We can be crazy sinful people and go and turn back to him and say, Lord, I’m so sorry. Please forgive me, and he’s going to welcome us with open arms. He loves us. He keeps his promises. All of his promises are fulfilled. And when I think about my greatest love, it is hard to describe. The feelings associated with it are varied, and they range from friendship to attraction to a connection that is so deep.

There are no words to describe it. It’s not as simple as looking up the word in the dictionary, which if I look up the word love, it says love is a strong attraction for another arising out of, out of kinship or personal ties, attraction, affection, warm attachment, enthusiasm or devotion. That’s okay. That’s okay, but it doesn’t describe my greatest love. My greatest love is indescribable, and that is true. God’s love for you. The Greek that most often describes love as a Ga Bay. It is a love that’s unconditional, never-ending and never changing. It’s most often associated with God’s love. God’s very nature is love, and we can read that in first John. So as I look at first John Chapter four, verse eight, I’ll be reading out of the world English Bible. It says, he who doesn’t love, doesn’t know God, for God is love, and if I go to first John 4:16, it says, ever the same Bible that says we know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and he who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him.

Love is the deepest possible expression of God’s character. The kind of love that God has for you truly goes beyond human understanding. It’s the kind of love that risks and sacrifices everything for a person who doesn’t deserve it. You haven’t now, today and forever because you can’t lose it as you go about your week. I hope that you’ll think about your greatest love is. I think about my greatest love. The first people that come to my mind or my husband and my children, they are my greatest love. Uh, the way we run things in the Rollins household is they are very responsible young men. I’m talking about my children and my husband, he’s, he’s not young, but he’s awesome, and everyone has their thing, their chores. Um, my kids, I don’t do my kid’s laundry. There’s, there are old enough to do their laundry. So they do their laundry, they clean their rooms, they clean your bathrooms.

Often, they’ll make their food. I do like to cook dinner every now and again. So when I do that, they come and sit down and then we have a nice dinner together, but I don’t, I don’t do for them normal mean things that they can do for themselves. I teach them to fend for themselves and do for themselves, and I have since they were young now when they were younger, and they needed me, I know, change their diapers and, and did everything. But as they grew older and were potty trained, you know, they started taking on responsibilities for themselves, and that’s, that is just how it works around here in this household. So they don’t call me very often unless they need me. Like they’ll call me when something is going down when they feel maybe threatened or not safe, or if for some reason they don’t have a ride home from where they’re going and they need me to transport them, they’ll call me when they call me.

It’s when they need me and when that happens I drop everything because they’re so important in my life. The love I have for my children and my family. It’s not perfect by any means. We argue we fight. The other day my son was math and off and he had quite an attitude, and we were supposed to have lunch together. Like I try to have lunch with him as often as I can while he’s still in my house. He was mouthing off, and I looked at him, and I said, you know, not today, I’m not going to listen to this out of your mouth today, and you can speak to me when you have an attitude change, but until then I don’t want to deal with this. And I walked off. I didn’t have lunch with him. I wasn’t going to have lunch with him like I wasn’t going to deal with that kind of nastiness or attitude issue.

So I walked away and close my door and didn’t go on to do some additional work. I didn’t want to deal with a teenager who has an attitude problem and probably about five, 10 minutes later he knocks on the door, and I’m busy because I’m doing work now. I made him sit for a little bit so I could finish up what I was doing. And then he apologized, and I talked to him a little bit about respect and in attitudes and how it’s important to be thankful for the things you have instead of not thankful for the things that you have. And so we had just a nice little conversation, and we ended up going into the kitchen and making lunch and sit down and having a nice lunch together. And I say that because we can also have attitude problems when it comes to God and he’s not going to close the door on you. Like I closed the door on my kid. He’s not going to make you wait for 10 minutes. Like I made my kid wait for 10 minutes until I was done doing whatever it was I needed to get done. All you have to do is go to God and, you know, tell him like, tell him you’re sorry. Tell them that you love him and he will welcome you back in a second. There’s no delay. There’s no waiting. There’s no discussion about attitude adjustments even though we probably should have them.

But I say this because God’s love for you is so much more than any love that you have here on earth, and I hope that as you go out about your week and you started thinking about those in your life that you love and you start thinking about God’s love for you, how you will feel the kind of love that God truly has, that covenant. Love, that love, that breaks. No promises, that God that wants to give you everything despite the mistakes that we make in this world and the sense that we do. God is here, and he wants to give you everything. He sent his son here to die for you. There. I would never do that for you, and I would never expect you to do that for me. But God did it for us because he loves us more than anything.

So I hope that you’ll take some time to review some of our verses for this week and feel God’s love in your life today, tomorrow and forever. And if you don’t yet feel the love of Christ in your life, I encourage you to invite God into your life today. You’re not promised tomorrow a. Don’t put this off. You don’t know what tomorrow is going to. Bring 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 joining me today at the Promises of God Podcast. I can’t wait to talk to you next week as we continue our series and understanding God’s love for his children. Talk to you soon. Bye.

January 27, 2019 by Tracie Rollins

Episode 006: Take Action To Live Your Best Life

Welcome back to the promises of God podcast, episode number six. My name is Tracie Rollins, and I’m so excited to spend some time with you as we learn and take action on God’s promises in our lives. This month series is about having your best year ever, and we’re working out of the momentum devotional offered by Biblejournalingministries.com, and I’ll link that in the show notes. Of course, and today we are talking about action. Our verse for today is James 2:17-18, and it says, even so, faith if it has no works, is dead in itself. Yes, and man will say, you have faith, and I have worked. Show me your faith without works, and I buy my works. We’ll show you my faith. Now James isn’t talking about a works based salvation. Salvation we know is through the blood of Christ, and it is a gift. If we look at Galatians three, eight through nine, we can hear what the Apostle Paul says in his letter to the Galatians. He says, the scripture foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith. Note that what he just said, you are justified by faith. He said, preach the good news beforehand to Abraham saying in you all the nations will be blessed, so then those who are of faith are blessed with the faithful Abraham. So as a gentile, you are justified by faith your faith in salvation through Jesus Christ. But when we think about what James is saying in James 2:17- 18, again, he’s not talking about a work based salvation. What he is saying is that having genuine faith means also having God’s spirit residing with us, a spiritual condition that cannot help but per but produce deeds that are pleasing to God. So when you had the holy spirit in you, you can’t help it. You do nice things. You do awesome things.

You do things that glorify God. By now you have an idea of what you want to work on to make this your best year ever. If you’ve listened to this podcast up to now, you’ve identified God’s promises related to the one thing that the holy spirit is calling you to do, so that is your focus area. Of course, you can have multiple items, but we’re just talking about one thing that you can feel on your heart that the Holy Spirit is calling you to do, that you need to pay attention to. That’s what we’re talking about. We’ve listened to people that can provide wise counsel, and that was in our other episodes, and we have formed a smart goal. Now it’s time to take action. The best way I found to take action is to develop healthy habits around a goal. When I have a writing goal, I carve out time on the calendar to write. That may mean that I don’t have much margin in my life during that timeframe, but I recognize the cost, and I know that it’s only for a season and that doesn’t mean that I’m perfect. I have a very, you know, bad habit of eating when I’m head down on a writing assignment, which totally conflicts with my health-related goal and that causes my health goal to take pretty much a backseat, but I’m working on it, and I know that sometimes the writing has to be done and I will just have to do my best job. Well, I can. I do generally have as much as I can focus on trying to have a balanced life. It’s so important to have a bond, a balanced life, and it’s so important to weigh the costs of things, and you know what, I’m heads down on a writing assignment.

I know the season is short, so I’ll finish the race, and in a few weeks or days, depending on what the assignment is, I’ll be back at the gym and back on my walks and back to my new role, healthier habits. Now I do plan that as I’m currently focused on my health goal as my number one priority for this year, then I am going to work on my habit of writing and not being so disrespectful of my body, so I’m going to be. If I have an assignment that’s heads down and I’m going to work, I’m going to pre-plan my meals, I’m going to have him ready, so I can grab and go. That’s just a habit that I’m going to try to develop this year so that it helps me in those situations and I think that it would help me anyways. The planning is always a good thing, so as we continue to talk about just habits, I can tell you that over the years of my life, habits have helped me achieve the goals that I set for my life.
Last year, I set a goal to read the Bible. I love to set that goal, but if I’m going to be perfectly honest with you, I did not fulfill that goal very often. I’m reading the Bible through in a year is difficult for me, and last year I said, you know, I’m really going to do it this year, this year I’m going to make this promise to myself, and it’s going to be the one thing that I just know I’m going to do. And so what I did was I developed a habit of reading the Bible the first thing in the morning. So before I roll out of bed, I have an APP that I open, it’s called the You Bible App, I think, you version Bible App, and there are so many different devotionals on there, but I chose a devotion that allows me to read the Bible for the entire year. So every day, um, I have a devotion, and then there’s like five or six different scriptures that I need to read to get through the Bible in a year every day.

It takes about 15 minutes to get through. But it is rewarding. And I was so excited that by the end of the year I had finished early. And I think that sometimes people can look at the Bible and it’s just so huge that no one can think they can finish reading it, but I know people that have finished reading the Bible and ten months. So for me to take a year is, is incredible, but you know, it could be done sooner or less time. But for me it was a goal that I wanted to do last this year, finish off the year, not this year, but last year I’m going to try to reread it this year in chronological order, which is, got to be a fun goal so that, that’ll be fun. I, I enjoy setting the goal, but reading the Bible in a chronological way this year for me as isn’t my first goal, the one that I’m the Holy Spirit is calling me to the Holy Spirits are truly calling me to focus on my health this year.

So that is the one thing that I’m going to put the most effort on. Um, but I will tell you that reading the Bible chronologically is, is important to me. So I’m going to hopefully keep the habit that I developed this year and be able to read it all the way through again and um, will be awesome. If I do, I think it’ll be great. So now it’s time for you. What is one thing you’ll do today to get you closer to achieving your goal What resources do you need now and what resources do you think you’re going to need in the future And then finally, what habits can you incorporate either daily, weekly, or monthly, to get you closer to your goal.

You have everything that you need to get started on, what God is calling you to do. You don’t need to have everything to finish it, just what you need to get started. I pray that he will bless your journey and I can’t wait to hear how you’re doing and if you don’t yet feel the love of Christ in your life, I would encourage you to invite God into your life today. You’re not promised tomorrow, so please don’t put this off. Romans 6:28 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. Our God is a wonderful and gracious and loving God. Thank you for turning in today, and I’ll see you in the next episode of the promises. Thank you for tuning in today, and I’ll see you in the next episode of the Promises of God of Podcast. Goodbye.

Thanks for listening to the Promises of God Podcast. This podcast is sponsored by Bible Journaling Ministries were thousands of women grow in the word creatively. It’s your free 10-day course from Bible Journaling Ministries and another episode resources at ThePromisesofGodPodcast.com.

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