Sweet Grace For Your Journey

Episode 130-Heal Me, Jesus

The one thing that was at the top of my prayer list every year until I was 18 was healing for my mother’s emotional illness. I kept praying for her, but it seemed her behaviors got worse instead of better. 

Still Dad said to pray because only God could heal her. It just seemed like maybe her issue was so hard even God couldn’t heal her. I thought the same thing about myself when I weighed 430 pounds. I had gotten myself in such a mess even God couldn’t help me.

The truth is nothing is too hard for God, but sometimes we just need a little push from Him in the right direction. What we want to be a miraculous instantaneous deliverance may be God getting us to the point that we are finally read to walk out our journeys holding tight to Jesus.

Overcomers Academy Link: https://teresashieldsparker.com/overcomers/

Episode 129--God Will Help Me

There’s one thing I truly hated growing up and it stayed with me for a long time into my adult years. I hated exercise. I was clumsy. I always seemed to somehow get hurt exercising. Plus I just didn’t like to run and sweat.I’d rather be inside reading a book or doing homework or even helping with household chores. Anything except exercise. And the few types of exercise that one time were fun always seemed to end in disaster. I truly hated exercise.

Then when I went on my weight loss journey and forever lifestyle change journey God brought up that dreaded word of exercise again. Somehow now it is one of my favorite things to do. I didn’t understand I had a stronghold where exercise was concerned. But I did. I was adamantly against it and felt I didn’t need it to lose weight. God had different plans. 

Overcomers Link: https://TeresaShieldsParker.com/overcomers/

Episode 128-God Values Me

One issue plagued me for a lot of my life. What is my purpose? Why did God make me? What contribution am I supposed to make in my lifetime. I saw this as what am I supposed to do or achieve. Achievement became my goal in life. When my big dream of publishing a regional Christian newspaper was realized I thought I was finally on the right track.

When the internet came into existence and we had to fold the newspaper due to lack of revenue, I hit rock bottom and felt like my purpose for living was gone. I wallowed in despair. However the despair led me to finally throw myself into the weight loss journey I knew God had for me. That led me to writing my first book which catapulted me into coaching, speaking and writing more books.

However, God still had more work for me to do. I still had the stronghold of believing my value was in what I could do instead of who I am. That stronghold had to be broken.

This stronghold carried over into me continuing to try to solve my issues by overeating. If you need help understanding that you are valuable to God, join us in Overcomers Academy. Go here: https://teresashieldsparker.com/overcomers/.

Episode 127-I Matter to God

Have you ever thought you didn’t matter to the people who mattered the most to you? I felt that way about my mother for a long time. When I felt I didn’t matter to her it affected how I felt about accepting the comfort of the Holy Spirit. 

This happens to us when we don’t feel the love of a mother or we feel distant from our mothers because one of their jobs is to comfort us. Since that is also the job of the Holy Spirit we don’t how how to accept comfort from Him either.

The truth is found throughout scripture though. I matter to God. You matter to God. Every single person in this world, no matter who they are, matters to God. We all do.

Overcomers Academy link: https://Teresashieldsparker.com/overcomers

Episode 126-My Protector

Fear is a stronghold the devil loves to set up in us. All he has to do is move all the players in place to set up circumstances that cause us to feel we are all alone. This leads us to believe no one, not even God is there to protect us.

When this happens, we either go crazy or we try to protect ourselves. I couldn’t go crazy because I had already determined I never wanted to have an emotional illness like my mother. This left me believing I had to protect myself.

I share information about when I was sexually molested as a child. It is PG rated, but if you have children listening it might foster discussion on this topic. I hope it does. It’s a discussion you should have with them so they feel free to come to you if they are uncomfortable around any adults or other children who might overpower or outwit them. It’s rampant in this day and age. When I was 11, it wasn’t anything that I had ever been exposed to until one day.

All that I went through led me to a stronghold that said I Must Self-Protect. I believed that until I understood that only God is my protector and yours.

If you need help working through some tough issues like this, I can help you either in my Overcomers Academy or if you prefer a more private conversation, I can help you in VIP Freedom Coaching.

Overcomers Academy: https://www.teresashieldsparker.com/overcomers/

VIP Freedom Coaching: https://www.teresashieldsparker.com/vip-freedom-coaching/

Episode 125-Follow Jesus

As a kid I got the idea that I had to follow a bunch of rules in order to be a good Christian. Things like no makeup, no short hair, no shorts, no slacks, no jewelry, no dancing, no movie theaters, no mixed swimming with boys and so forth. 

These weren’t necessarily rules direct from the Bible, they were church interpretations of rules and since my dad was a pastor I had to follow them to be a good Christian girl.

As an adult, I knew I was not saved by following rules or doing good works, but the concept of grace seemed so unnatural. Grace, of course, is not natural. It’s supernatural. God’s grace is undefinable. Jesus isn’t concerned about us following the rules. 

We have to recognize the lies we believe about grace and embrace the truth Jesus really does love us and wants us to love Him in return. We show our love when we follow Jesus. So simple, but so hard at the same time.

Overcomers Academy: https://TeresaShieldsParker.com/overcomers/

Sweet Surrender: https://www.amazon.com/Sweet-Surrender-Teresa-Shields-Parker/dp/0986159247/

Episode 124-I am Not a Failure

Several incidents have made me feel like a failure. These triggered thoughts like, “I am fat. I am nothing.” I’ve had several of these and focusing on them kept me living in shame and condemnation for years.

The first thing many of us do when we feel we have failed is to invite condemnation and shame to flood us. When the poor, poor pitiful me syndrome happens, instead of using it to propel us to do something about our plight, we bury our sorrows in ice cream, cake or whatever addiction pops into our minds. The enemy perpetuates this.

God, though, will never stop trying to get our attention. He knows for change to happen we must invite Him to do the work within us. It’s the only way to be transformed and transformation is definitely what we want. 

This is a pivotal truth we must understand to walk in God’s abundance. 

Overcomers Academy: https://TeresaShieldsParker.com/overcomers/

Sweet Surrender: https://www.amazon.com/Sweet-Surrender-Teresa-Shields-Parker/dp/0986159247/

Episode 123-God of the Impossible

What do you do when God asks you to do the impossible? Especially if it’s something you’ve tried and tried to do but just couldn’t no matter how hard you tried? Do you throw in the towel and run screaming the other way? God showed me that He really is the God of the impossible. Let me tell you how it happened. 

And what does God do? Does He just give up on trying to get you to do what He knows you must do to live in His abundance? This was the issue I faced with losing weight. First, I had to get through the lie that I believed which was I can’t lose weight.

God showed me that He really is the God of the impossible. Let me tell you how it happened. 

Overcomers Academy: https://TeresaShieldsParker.com/overcomers/

Sweet Surrender: https://www.amazon.com/Sweet-Surrender-Teresa-Shields-Parker/dp/0986159247/

Episode 122-God's Got This

Have you ever done anything that you felt like you had thought through completely and made the only decision available, but you still weren’t sure? Still you went ahead and did it anyway? Well that happened to me and maybe it’s happened to you too.

I don’t talk much about this leg of my journey because every time I do, people think they should make the same terribly bad decision I made. This is one of those times I feel I should put a warning on this podcast: DO NOT DO WHAT I DID. But it is important on my journey because of what it revealed to me.

It’s also great because it’s the time I surrendered completely to God which is what really began my journey to losing 250 pounds.

Overcomers Academy: https://TeresaShieldsParker.com/overcomers/

Sweet Surrender: https://www.amazon.com/Sweet-Surrender-Teresa-Shields-Parker/dp/0986159247/

Episode 121 Real Strength

When God reveals something He wants you to do that you know you don’t have the strength to do, what do you do? At first I rejected what He told me. I told Him it was a great plan but I couldn’t do it. 

I didn’t ask Him to show me how to do it or to help me, I just said, “Nope God. I can’t do that.”

Then one day I was reading the Bible and a verse I had never paid attention to jumped out at me. That verse changed me. It made all the sense in the world to me. See, I had allowed the evil one to construct a prison inside me which I continued to build every time I said I couldn’t follow God’s plan.

I explain more about how God gave me the strength to follow His plan on this episode of Sweet Grace for Your Journey. I even might sing you a song!

Overcomers Academy: https://TeresaShieldsParker.com/overcomers/

Sweet Surrender: https://www.amazon.com/Sweet-Surrender-Teresa-Shields-Parker/dp/0986159247/