169. Why Am I Discouraged?

Episode 280-God Wants to Rebuild Us   280-God Wants To Rebuild Us God knows our hearts. He knows what we need. He speaks right to us whether it comes through me, you, or someone else. We need to always have an attentive ear to listen to Him. We need to learn to listen to Him. This podcast contains words that God asked me to share with you. These are words directly from Him. The show notes will include only a small amount. Please listen to the podcast for more. God said, “Whatever happens on the outside of you, and in your body, in your brain, in your physical nature is totally governed by you. I, God, am not in charge of that. I make suggestions. I plan things to help you even if it is something you don’t like in the moment. “When I lead you to change something or give something up you think you can’t live without, because it seems dear to you, it’s because I have better plans for you. I have over-the-top, greater than you can think or imagine dreams for you. It is abundance until it overflows, abundance that just keeps coming. “The only thing that can stop the flow of My abundance to you is what you choose to love more than Me. When you choose things you think you have to have, you are not putting Me first. I must be first without a second in your life for everything to work together.  I don’t demand that you do what I want. As a matter of fact, I always give you a choice. “Remember, it is your choice. Don’t blame it on what you crave. Don‘t blame it on your body that you think is giving up on you. No, it’s not that your body is giving up on you. Your body only responds to what you tell it to do. Trace the causes, the roots. Go to the deep places you’ve been unwilling to visit for so many years. “All you have to do is listen to Me, follow, and obey. I will uplift you. You will not die when you give up those things you think you can’t live without. You may scream. You may cry. But think about this, how long has it been since you have allowed yourself to do wail and mourn over your sins?  “Tears wash the soul. Cry and get it out. Leave your cravings behind you so I can move you forward. They only drag you down. Don’t pick them up again. “Come to Me. Let Me fill you with everything positive you need, so you will never want for anything else. Never again. Really desire to surrender everything. Surrender it to me. Completely, totally, and finally surrender it all to Me. One-on-One Coaching Sign up here: https://www.teresashieldsparker.com/one-on-one-coaching/  

Episode 279-Fighting For or Against You? There’s a recurring question that has been playing throughout my mind. Are we fighting for God or are we maybe unknowingly, or knowingly, fighting against Him? As Christians we better know that we are in a war. The problem is we likely really aren’t cognitively aware of the war until our attention is called to it.  The evil one’s main weapon is that little three letter word s-i-n. If he can get us to sell out to sin, he can destroy any influence or effectiveness we have in the world.  God has weapons too. His most effective weapon is that five-letter, living word of Grace. We have to want to implement the strength of His grace to defeat sin. In other words, we have to push the grace button if we want help.  We have grace if we have accepted Christ, but we in order to win the war, in order to apply the strength of God’s grace in our lives, we must admit we are weak and need God’s help in order to live in God’s freedom rather than the bondage of sin. Psalm 139:23-24 NLT is what I want to leave you with. “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends You, and lead me along the path of everlasting life.” Make that your prayer.  If you are interested in joining us for my coaching group, please go to https://Teresashieldsparker.com/overcomers/  Until Next week, Sweet Grace for Your Journey.  

Episode 278-Becoming a Living Sacrifice Why does God want us to be living sacrifices? Is it the same thing as surrendering to God? What does it mean to be a living sacrifice? Why would God even want us to do that?   Being a living sacrifice means that as God’s children, we do what He says and go where He leads. This is paramount as a child of God, but its also really difficult.   Paul tells us this in Romans 12:1 AMP: “Therefore I urge you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies, dedicating all of yourselves, set apart, as a living sacrifice, holy and well-pleasing to God, which is your rational, logical, intelligent act of worship.”    Who He is and who we are makes surrendering every single part of our lives to Him a rational, and at the same time a very emotional, course of action. Doing this now and every single day is more than a starting place. It will define how we live in tandem with Him for the rest of our lives. 

Episode 277-Can God Do That? If I came up to you and said, “Do you believe God can do anything? Do you believe He is all-powerful?” you’d probably say, “Yes!” You’d say you serve a mountain-making, mountain-moving, earth-shaking, sky-shattering, miracle-working, dead-raising, sick-healing God who can do anything! But let me ask you this: Do you believe He will do those things for YOU? Do you believe He will move mountains in your life? Or does part of you feel like those miracles were for long ago or for other people—but not for you? I wrestled with this question for a long time. I knew God was powerful, but when it came to my own struggles—especially with my weight—I acted as if He couldn’t (or wouldn’t) help me. I prayed, but deep down, I didn’t believe my situation could change. That mindset kept me stuck. I kept trying to fix things on my own, relying on diets and willpower, and ignoring the one thing God had already shown me—His plan for me. The truth is, nothing is impossible for God. But we have to believe Him enough to follow His lead instead of taking matters into our own hands. That’s what I want to talk about today. Overcomers Academy Link: https://teresashieldsparker.com/overcomers/  Rebuilding Jayne Link: https://www.amazon.com/Rebuilding-Jayne-Her-Fathers-Protection-ebook/dp/B0DGXTXR53  

Episode 276-Conflicting Desires Years ago I did an activity from a workbook where I wrote down every desire I had good or bad, healthy or unhealthy. I thought about what I  really wanted in life and what my desires or passions were.  I wrote down everything that came to mind without evaluating it. I was honest with myself and didn’t judge my desires, wants, lusts, addictions, etc. I “threw up” on paper for lack of a better term. With each desire I asked is this a true, God-given desire? Is it noble? Is it right? Is it pure. Hey right there my list got a lot shorter! Just being honest. Is it lovely, and not like new car lovely, but lovely in God’s eyes. Is it admirable? Is it excellent? Is it praiseworthy? Many were good desires, but they were in conflict with another good desire. So I had to make some well-defined choice.  I learned that to get anywhere on my journey conflicting desires will keep me stuck. We can’t do everything, but we must do what God wants us to do. Overcomers Academy Link: https://teresashieldsparker.com/overcomers/ Rebuilding Jayne Link: https://www.amazon.com/Rebuilding-Jayne-Her-Fathers-Protection-ebook/dp/B0DGXTXR53

Episode 275-Renew Your Mind Are you stuck? Do you want to do something to change how you feel and how you can get out of the funk you find yourself in daily? Do you want to renew your life? You can but it will take intentional effort. Basically, you cannot renew your life unless you change your habits. Habit-change requires renewing your mind in order to renew your life. Overcomers Academy Link: https://TeresaShieldsParker.com/overcomers Rebuilding Jayne Link:  https://www.amazon.com/Rebuilding-Jayne-Her-Fathers-Protection-ebook/dp/B0DGXTXR53  

Episode 274-Tell a Better Story Stories are the fabric of our lives. God loves stories. The Bible is made up of true stories of success and failure in life. God uses the stories of failures of people to show the fall of man, but also the redemption of man. He shows how those destined to create better stories follow Him to their destinies or their demise. He also shows us how when He appears in our lives, things change. Here are some changes that happened to people in the Bible. See if you can recognize who these men are. A former killer turned shepherd turns into one of the greatest leaders and freedom fighters for an entire nation of enslaved people.  A lowly shepherd boy is anointed king but becomes one of the greatest leaders after deep heart-felt repentance for the sin of adultery and murder.  A former head-hunter of Christians turns into the author of the majority of the New Testament.  To find the names of those individuals, listen to podcast 274. Overcomers Academy Link: https://TeresaShieldsParker.com/overcomers   Rebuilding Jayne Link:  https://www.amazon.com/Rebuilding-Jayne-Her-Fathers-Protection-ebook/dp/B0DGXTXR53  

Episode 273-Food and Curses Every mother knows somewhere in the back of her mind that there are two types of food. There is nutritious food every child needs in order to grow strong and healthy. And then there’s the stuff that masquerades as food that really just medicates kids. It makes them happy. It comforts them when they are sad or crying, but there is nothing nutritious in ice cream, cake, candy, and soda pop. What does every mom say when toddlers are crying they don’t want to leave a fun place? Something similar to, “Stop crying and you can have an ice cream after you eat lunch.” Like magic, the wailing stops. What has Mom just taught that child? Food comforts. What does she also know? Ice cream has no real nutritional value, but includes 25 grams of sugar and 32 carbs.  As we will discover in this podcast, the way we eat can cause a curse that we can pass down through the generations. It definitely happened to me, but we can break these. If you have this issue or other similar issues, I invite you right now to join us in Overcomers Academy. For more information, go to https://teresashieldsparker.com/overcomers.

Episode 272-Intentional Choices We all know that if we want anything in our lives to change we have to intentionally make different choices. We have to change the way we’ve done things for years. If we continue eating the same way we always have, we will either stay the same or continue to gain weight.  If we don’t add some intentional times of exercise, we will likely not lose weight even if we are eating healthy. If we don’t forgive issues in our past that have us stuck in the cycle of eating to overcome emotional issues we won’t change our situation. If we don’t change our minds we won’t change our behaviors. So the big question is how do we make intentional choices that lead to a permanent change in our behaviors?  God wants to help us create the intention to make the right choices so that our desires are aligned with His desires.  Overcomers Academy: https://TeresaShieldsParker.com/overcomers/ Rebuilding Jayne: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DGXTXR53/

Episode 271-Thoughts Have Power What kind of mind games do you allow to take residence inside you? One of the biggest mind games I allowed was that I have to act on every directive that enters my mind. This is a lie that the evil one loves to perpetuate.   The devil and demons do have power to speak to humans, but not to read our minds. The devil and demons can speak to us. The devil can anticipate what we will do in a given because of his knowledge of humankind and of each of us. Yes, the devil knows us better than we know ourselves, luckily so does God! Rebuilding Jayne on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Rebuilding-Jayne-Her-Fathers-Protection/dp/B0DJTBJWWK/ Overcomers Academy: https://teresashieldsparker.com/overcomers/