Tracy's Blog

I was sitting in the car as my daughter had to run into the house for a minute.  As I sat there, I wondered what can I do in this moment? Come before God. So I did, with prayer and thanksgiving.  The experience stood out to me.  Or maybe I should be more accurate..... the reality that I, sinner that I am, can come before the Almighty God startled me in a delightful way.  What? Wow!  I have that privilege. I can " approach God's throne of grace with confidence " (Hebrews 4:16).  We can.  You can.  All because Jesus has made a way. Hebrews 10:19-22 "Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, His body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscien...

After writing my blog last week, I had many opportunities to put into practice focusing on Jesus' peace and not letting my heart be troubled.  The problem is: I failed.  Really I did.  I had three opportunities over three days each involving one of my three children to withdraw from fear and put my trust in God and..... I didn't.  I knew I had a choice and I didn't make it.  I worried.  I got agitated.  I made excuses.... my most used one is probably, "I need to worry as it shows I care".  The mercy of God is great and in each situation, my fears didn't materialize.  Also, God forgave me for my lack of trust.  How marvelous that is! On day 4, I did have another opportunity... this time I trusted.  Of course I had feelings of fear and anxiety initially when something was going on that I felt uncertain of and was worried about the outcome but I knew the Lord was giving me a fourth go at learning to chose to not "let" my heart be tro...

John 14:27 " Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.   Not as the world gives do I give to you.   Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. " Jesus spoke these words sometime between washing the disciples feet and being arrested in the garden.  It was a very stressful time!  This, along with the fact that I went to a workshop on anxiety this week, may be why the verse stood out for me when I read it.  Or maybe the reason is much more simple:  I feel troubled in my heart regularly and my heart can be afraid without much basis (other than a very lively imagination). Jesus words jumped out at me as I read the Gospel this week because I needed to hear them .  "Let not" - the definition of "let" is "allow to, permit to, give permission to" so the definition of "let not" is the opposite. Here is another way to say it: "Do not allow your hearts to be troubled, neither permit them to be afraid".  To...