Sweet Grace For Your Journey

Episode 200-This Thing Called Surrender

God’s desire is for each of us is to totally surrender to Him so He can lead us to be victorious in Christ! Our surrender delights God, but most of us don’t really know what surrendering to God means, how to do it, or why we should do it. 

We think surrender means the same as being a prisoner. It's what happens when one side defeats the other. They get taken captive. Surrendering to God is not like that at all. We don’t surrender to God because He has defeated us. We surrender to Him because He knows the way our lives should go better than anyone else. 

He loves us and has a beautiful plan for our lives. First, though, we must allow Him to lead us. We must give up all the baggage we don’t need and follow the only One who knows the way.  

We’ll answer some questions like: What is surrender? Why should we surrender? How can we surrender?

Sweet Victory: Winning the Battle link: https://www.amazon.com/Sweet-Victory-Winning-Battle/dp/0986159263/

Overcomers Christian Weight Loss Academy link: https://teresashieldsparker.com/overcomers/

Episode 199-Resisting Temptation

What should I do if I’m tempted? Well, first it’s great that you know when you are tempted. Many don’t recognize that they are being tempted.  

However there is not an “if” about it. If you are a Christian trying to follow Jesus, you will be tempted. And the tempter will offer you exactly what you want because he’s been watching and knows your habits, behaviors, and weaknesses. He will tempt you with them. It’s a given. He knows your weaknesses better than you do. So how do you resist? 

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

Sweet Victory: Winning the Battle link: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0986159263

Episode 198-What is Self-Control?

We all know that self-control is part of the fruit of the Spirit. You know the list from Galatians 5:22-23: love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control.

I could always see that I had some portion of the other eight qualities, but that last one always tripped me up. I wanted to be in control of my wants, desires and cravings but I wasn’t. This was frustrating because being in control was something I valued. However, I realized I valued that if I wanted something and I was in control or in charge I could make it happen. 

When I discovered that self-control had nothing to do with my self-effort and everything to do with me surrendering to God, it jump-started my transformation journey. What is self-control? It’s the part of the fruit of the Spirit that makes it all work together.

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

Sweet Victory: Winning the Battle link: https://www.amazon.com/Sweet-Victory-Winning-Battle-Book-ebook/dp/B0CBW8F57V/

Episode 197-Seven Lessons in 70 Years

I turned 70 last week. I’m not any wiser, but God challenged me to come up with the seven most important lessons I’ve learned. These principles really do guide my life today but in order to learn them I went through a lot of trials and turmoil. 

I go into depth with each of these on the podcast along with scripture references. 

1. Listen to God.

2. Don’t bite off more than you can or should chew.

3. Surrender everything to God.

4. The devil is real.

5. Sin leads us away from God.

6. Grace is strength.

7. God loves you and has a great plan for your life.

Sweet Victory: Winning the Battle link: https://www.amazon.com/Sweet-Victory-Winning-Battle-Book-ebook/dp/B0CBW8F57V

Episode 196-Victory is Here!

Victory can be defined as overcoming or winning in a competition or struggle over an opponent, or difficult problems. The Bible tells us we already have the victory if we have Jesus. “For everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.” (1 John 5:4, NIV).

The problem is when difficulties, troubles and hard seasons come, we tend to forget God’s glorious promise. His promise is if we stay true to Him we win in the end, even though our current circumstances may not look like it right now.

My 10th book in 10 years, Sweet Victory: Winning the Battle, was released August 1 in kindle and paperback on Amazon. It takes a while with Audible, but it will be coming soon.

Get it by going to Amazon and searching for Sweet Victory: Winning the Battle by Teresa Shields Parker. Read it and write a review on Amazon, then share it on Facebook, Instagram, Good Reads or any place else.  It really helps people find the book.

https://www.amazon.com/Sweet-Victory-Winning-Battle/dp/0986159263/

Episode 195- How Can I Hear God?

How do we hear from God? We listen for His voice. We have a conversation with Him. He most often speaks to us and we hear Him as the still, small voice. He speaks to us from the depths of our souls, which we hear in our minds. Then we make a decision as to whether we will do what He says or not.

Many times we tell God what we want Him to do and then it doesn’t happen so we wonder is He really listening or not? We go to Him with our to-do list and then say, “Ok, talk to You when You’ve done all that.” We had a monologue. Not a dialogue. God is the boss of the universe. We don’t tell Him what to do. 

God is waiting for us to stop giving Him our wish list so He can get a word in edgewise. It is important to converse with Him as we go through our days, but that does not mean we chastise Him for not doing what we want Him to do.

This episode includes 10 things we should know about God’s voice. 

Sweet Victory link: https://www.amazon.com/Sweet-Victory-Teresa-Shields-Parker-ebook/dp/B0CBW8F57V/

Episode 194-Do I Trust Jesus?

Do I trust Jesus? How do we know if we really trust Jesus completely or not? He’s the member of the Trinity who is most like us because He knows what it’s like to live as a human. If we have a trust issue with Jesus it will affect our relationship with those we think we love.

One day God dropped these words into my heart. “Any disconnect with the one we are closest to here on earth will affect our intimacy with Jesus.” 

When I asked Jesus if I trusted Him there was silence. I knew there was a trust issue and I knew I wouldn’t be able to do anything He asked me to do if I didn’t resolve it.

There is a way through this issue and others like it. Why do we argue with Jesus when He asks us to do something? Why do we run in the other direction when He tries to guide us? Want to know more. This episode will help. For help check out Teresa’s one-on-one coaching.

One-on-one coaching link:  https://Teresashieldsparker.com/one-on-one-coaching/.

Episode 193-Work With God

For most of my life, I’ve been working for God in some shape or form. It’s good to do things for God, but it’s better to do things with Him. After all, He is our commander-in-chief. He’s in charge. 

The other day I was busy trying to get everything done, which seemed impossible. During my time with God He told me, “Never focus on the work you do for Me. Focus on being in My presence. Never mistake work for Me. Always make Me first place. Then, the work will get done. Let Me lead you. I want to be involved in every piece of what you are doing.”

We are so easily sidetracked. It might be that we are focused on working for God, but we have forgotten to consult Him on the very thing we are trying to do for Him. Instead of working for God, we need to work with Him. Things will go so much better when we do that.

 Sweet Victory Book Launch With Teresa Shields Parker link: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1478262903001114

Episode 192- Fears, Tears and Freedom

Fear is a huge obstacle to overcome. Fear comes in many different shapes and forms. It can be the fear of I’m not enough. I’m a failure. There’s nothing good in me. I never do anything right. I don’t want to be alone. I don’t want to be abused. I’m not good enough and so much more.

When we finally get to the point where we can identify our fears and their roots, it can be a difficult process. The fears we have many times cause us to self-protect with food. Then food becomes what we run to instead of God.

When we finally see that God is the only one who can protect us and take away our fears, we will cry. The tears, though, will wash away our fears and the wrong things we did to try to get fear to go away. It will take some tears to wash our souls from the overwhelming fears  we have finally decided to hand to God. But, oh the freedom that comes when we do that! 

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

Sweet Victory Book Launch with Teresa Shields Parker: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1478262903001114/

Episode 191-Pay Attention

What are you paying attention to? Is it how great, mighty and strong God is? Or is it how stressed you are trying to get everything done that you think you, and you alone, have to do? You are stressed. You want the stressors, whatever they are, to go away.  However, the things that stress us are not going away unless we make God more important than what we are stressing about. 

We need to pay attention to God. We need to give Him the power instead of stress, which is always instigated by the evil one. We have to “be strong in the Lord, draw your strength from Him and be empowered through your union with Him and in the power of His boundless might” (Ephesians 6:10 AMP).

We must learn how to take back power from the enemy and live our lives in Christ’s freedom. 

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