One of my favorite things to do is laugh. It always has been. I love the kind of laugh where you can’t catch your breath, your stomach hurts, and whatever was so funny probably wasn’t even that funny to begin with. LOL!

But I got to thinking about something: we really don’t talk about laughter very much when we talk about going deeper with God.

We talk about prayer. Surrender. Obedience. Studying Scripture. Fasting. Worship. Serving. Forgiving. Persevering. And yes, every one of those things is an incredibly important and beautiful part of growing deep roots in our walk with God.

But somewhere along the way, I think we can start believing spiritual maturity is supposed to look very serious all the time.

And yet… God created laughter.

He created that ridiculous belly laugh that makes your eyes water. He created the ability for joy to bubble up right in the middle of an ordinary Tuesday. He created those moments when you look across the table at someone you love and one little glance sends both of you over the edge.

There’s something wonderfully human about laughter.

And I think there’s something holy about it too.

One of my favorite pictures of Jesus is an image of Him laughing. Of course, we don’t have a photograph telling us exactly what Jesus looked like or a verse that says, “And Jesus laughed until He cried,” but I love the reminder that Jesus was fully human. He sat around tables. He went to weddings. He loved people. Children wanted to be around Him. I have a hard time imagining all of that without warmth, delight—and yes, laughter.

And then there’s Sarah.

Oh, Sarah makes me smile because her story actually has two kinds of laughter in it.

The first one came when God’s promise sounded completely impossible. She overheard that she would have a son in her old age and laughed to herself. I mean… can we really blame her? She knew how old she was. She knew how old Abraham was. She knew what her body was capable of—or at least what she thought it was capable of.

But then Isaac was born.

And Sarah said, “God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me.” — Genesis 21:6

I LOVE that.

God took the place where she had once laughed in disbelief and filled it with a completely different kind of laughter.

Look what God did.

The impossible became the baby in her arms.

And suddenly laughter wasn’t doubt anymore.

It was testimony.

I can relate to Sarah.

Well, not fully. Let’s get real—I’m not in my 90s about to have a child. LOL!

But I can relate to that moment when God speaks something that feels so completely impossible that your human mind almost doesn’t know what else to do but laugh.

I’ve done it more than once.

There have been times when I knew the Lord had spoken something into my spirit about what He was going to do, and my immediate response was basically, “Uh…there is absolutely no way that can happen.”

And then I laugh.

It’s the kind of laugh that says, Okay, Lord. So I realize I’m about to watch You do something I would never have believed was possible.

I know that laugh.

Last August, God gave me one of those moments.

If you’ve been around here for a while, you know this past season has included a very real financial drought for us. But what you may not know is that God prepared me for it before I ever knew what was coming.

I was at a two-day retreat at a dear friend’s house with a group of women who had gathered for one reason: to pursue God.

No big production. No complicated agenda. Just women hungry for His presence.

And somewhere in those two days, the Lord began speaking very clearly to me that He was taking my husband and me into a season of utter trust in Him for our provision.

Not trust in my day job.

Not trust in another opportunity showing up.

Not trust in what we could figure out, create, hustle for or control.

Trust in Him.

And guess what I did when that revelation hit my spirit?

I laughed.

Because if there is one area of my life where I really have no desire whatsoever to walk out on a wire over Niagara Falls and practice blind faith, it is finances. LOL!

Seriously, Lord?

Can we practice radical trust somewhere else?

But even in that moment, there was something incredibly beautiful about realizing God was giving me a heads-up.

How kind is that?

He knew what was coming, and before we ever stepped into it, He was already whispering, You are going to have to trust Me here.

And every time I have one of those moments with the Lord and laughter rises up in me, I’ve learned what it usually means:

Now here we are nearly a year later.

There still isn’t some perfectly predictable stream of income where I can sit down every month, open a spreadsheet and say, “Wonderful. Everything is accounted for.”

Would I prefer that?

Absolutely. LOL!

And yes, if you go back a few articles, you’ll also discover that somewhere along the way I pulled a little Sarah move of my own and decided I should probably help God out.

Because apparently the Creator of the universe needed me to assist Him with His provision plan. LOL! Aren’t we so like that???

So what did I do? I added more work to my plate and it about took me over the edge.

It only took me six months to finally step away from it too. LOL! I know. You would think somewhere around month three I would have caught on.

But I’m human.

Sometimes faith looks incredibly spiritual from the outside, but when you’re the one actually living it, it feels more like, Okay Lord, You said You’ve got us, so I’m going to keep walking even though I cannot see where the next step lands.

Sarah understood a little something about trying to help God fulfill His own promise too.

But eventually, she held Isaac in her arms. The promise she once laughed at because it sounded impossible was suddenly breathing right in front of her.

And Sarah said:

“God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me.” — Genesis 21:6

I love that verse so much, that’s why I had to repeat it again.

Because her laughter had changed. The first laugh came when she couldn’t imagine how God could possibly do what He said. The second laugh came because He did it.

And I think that’s the laughter I’m walking in right now.

We may still be standing in the middle of the story. I may not know exactly how every month is going to unfold. There are still moments when my very human brain wants numbers, plans, guarantees and preferably a detailed financial forecast from heaven.

But underneath all of that, I know this:

So what else can I do but laugh?

Because one day, when people hear the whole testimony of how God carried us through this season—how He provided month after month while teaching us what it really means to trust Him—I already know what I’m going to say:

Look at what God did.

And maybe that is one of the most beautiful kinds of laughter there is.

The laughter that comes when you realize you are in completely over your head, you have absolutely no idea how God is going to do what He said He would do…and somehow your spirit already knows:

He’s got this.

There is a kind of laughter that rises in the freefall of trusting God beyond what we can see, calculate or comprehend.

And perhaps that laughter is faith finding its voice.

Additional Scripture to Sit With This Week

Proverbs 17:22 NIV
“A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.”

Ecclesiastes 3:4 NIV
“A time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance.”

Psalm 126:2–3 NIV
“Our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy… The Lord has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy.”

Holy Habit Reflection Questions

• When was the last time you really laughed?

• Have you been making room for delight, or has life gotten a little too serious lately?

• Is there something God has spoken that feels impossible right now? What would it look like to trust Him instead of trying to figure out how He’s going to do it?

• What is one “Look what God did” moment you can laugh and celebrate over today?

Holy Habit Practice

This week, make room to laugh on purpose.

Call the friend who always gets you going. Watch something that makes you laugh. Tell the ridiculous family story again. Laugh at yourself when you do something completely human.

And when God whispers something that feels far bigger than what you can see or understand, remember Sarah and simply say:

“Okay, Lord… I have no idea how You’re going to do this, but I can’t wait to see it.”

Then laugh.

Sometimes laughter is simply faith making room for the impossible.

Keep on laughing,

~Tracee

“Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.” Luke 9:23 NIV

As I sit with these words from Jesus, I feel their weight: “Deny yourself. Take up your cross daily. Follow Me.”

As I journey through this beautiful life that God has given me, I have made a greater realization in my life of what a Called for More life is supposed to look like, which, in all honesty, is not at all what many of us have believed it to be.

It is the weighty, yet, powerful revelation that the called for more life is not measured by what we can gain, but actually by what we are willing to lose.

The world has taught us that we are the center of the story.

If there were an Oscar handed out for the story of our lives, we would naturally assume it belongs to us as the leading character.

But when I begin flipping through the life-changing pages of God’s Word, I see a completely different story.

If we want to ‘get real’ here and pull back the curtain, here’s the truth:

The words of Jesus in Luke 9:23, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me,” are not easy words to read, and they are certainly not easy words to live by. But, they are the words we desperately need to listen to.

It is not hard to admit that denying ourselves may be one of the most difficult parts of following Christ. And the reason why is because we are selfish. (I know, that hurts me too! Ouch!)

We want things done our way, in our timing, based on what we feel we need, desire, or deserve. And yet Jesus tells us that following Him requires us to deny ourselves and take up our cross every single day.

That means the very things we are gripping may be the very things we are being asked to lay down.

My Story

It takes me back to when I was a teenager.

Everyone knew me as a singer and songwriter. I played the piano for no less than four hours a day and was constantly writing new songs. Honestly, you could not have pried my fingers away from that piano.

So naturally, I had already decided what my future would look like. I was going to become the next Amy Grant in the contemporary Christian music world. I could see myself traveling across the United States on tour buses, singing my Jesus songs to audiences far and wide.

It was a beautiful dream. It just wasn’t the story God was writing.

The deeper I went in my walk with Him, the doors that began opening were not concert-hall doors. They were church doors.

Doors to lead worship.

And while worship leading came naturally to me, it was not what I wanted to do. I wanted to sing the songs I had written. I wanted to travel. I wanted the life I had pictured so clearly in my mind. I’m seeing a lot of “I’” there, right?

Yet opportunity after opportunity to lead worship kept coming my way.

After about six years of this, I found myself sitting on my bed in Ireland. It was 2001, and I was serving there as a missionary. I was thanking the Lord for everything He was doing in my life, but there was still one frustrated question sitting beneath all that gratitude.

“Lord, why do these worship opportunities keep coming my way when I never wanted to be a worship leader?”

His answer was simple, but it reached straight into the center of me with conviction.

“Tracee, it was never about what you wanted. It was about obeying what I have for your life. That is what I want.”

That was the invitation. Not to force God’s purpose to fit the picture I had created, but to find His footsteps and begin walking in rhythm with what He had wanted for my life all along.

And sometimes, that is what surrender looks like. It is releasing the life you imagined so you can receive the life God has actually authored for you.

It may not look exactly the way you thought it would. Mine certainly did not. But after more than twenty-five years of leading worship, I can honestly say that what God chose for me has been far more beautiful than anything I could have attempted to build on my own.

I wonder how much I would have missed had I continued insisting on my way.

The doors God opened did not lead me toward the dream I had planned as a teenager. They led me into His purpose. And although surrender felt like letting go at the time, I can now see that obedience was never God taking my life away from me.

It was Him leading me into the life He knew I was purposed to live.

Greater Intimacy Lessens the Grip

Perhaps you are reading this and thinking, that sounds beautiful, but letting go of what I want is still really hard.

I understand that. Surrender does not always come easily, especially when we have carried a particular dream, plan, or picture of our future for a long time. But I have come to realize that when our grip remains tight, the answer is not simply trying harder to let go. Often, it is an invitation to draw closer to Jesus.

Psalm 91:1 says:

“Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.”

There is a difference between visiting the presence of God and learning to dwell there.

Now, let me add an important caveat here.

When Jesus called Peter, Andrew, James, and John to leave their nets and follow Him, they did not yet know Him with the depth they eventually would. They did not understand everything about His nature, His mission, or what their obedience would cost. Yet they responded to His invitation and began walking with Him.

Sometimes the first step is simply trusting the voice of Jesus enough to follow, even when we do not yet understand where He is leading.

But intimacy is what strengthens us to keep following.

The disciples’ first yes caused them to leave their nets, but it was walking with Jesus, listening to Him, watching Him, and learning His heart that prepared them for the deeper surrender that would come later.

The first yes may come through simple faith. The daily yes grows stronger through intimacy.

As we dwell in His presence, we begin to see His magnificence, His holiness, His mercy, His faithfulness, and His worth. And the beautiful reality is that the more clearly we see Him, the less tightly we cling to the things we once thought we had to have.

Jesus said:

“I have come so that they may have life and have it in abundance.”
John 10:10 CSB

The life He offers is not less than because it requires surrender. It’s actually greater than anything we could ever imagine because it is aligned with the One who created us.

I read a quote recently from Allen Bond that says this brilliantly:

Do you see the beautiful exchange?

The more rightly we know Him, the more deeply we revere Him. And the more deeply we revere Him, the more willing we become to place our whole lives in His hands and that is the life that leads to His abundant life that He so beautifully gives us.

The Called For More Life

The Called for More life is not about gaining more for ourselves, having a larger platform, receiving a greater assignment, or stepping into something the world would consider ‘bigger’.

Being called for more actually means becoming willing to live with less of ourselves at the center and trusting that what God has authored is greater than the life we would have written on our own.

Additional Scripture to Sit With This Week

Romans 12:1–2
Consider what it means to offer your everyday life to God as an act of worship.

Galatians 2:20
Sit with Paul’s declaration that his former life has been crucified and Christ now lives through him.

John 12:24–26
Notice how Jesus connects surrender with the bearing of lasting fruit.

Philippians 2:5–8
Look closely at the humility of Jesus and His willingness to walk in obedience to the Father.

Psalm 91:1–2
Ask yourself whether you have been visiting God’s presence or learning to dwell there.

Holy Habit Reflection Questions

The Altar of Surrender

“Offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.”
Romans 12:1 NIV

What am I still gripping?

Name the desire, plan, identity, relationship, outcome, timeline, or version of your life that you have struggled to place fully in God’s hands.

What has been sitting at the center?

Complete this sentence honestly:

I have been building too much of my life around ________________________________.

What would surrender look like here?

Not what it sounds like.

Not what you wish it looked like.

What would it actually require?

Holy Habit Practice

A Living-Sacrifice Prayer

Set aside a few quiet minutes this week and slowly pray:

Lord, I do not want to keep asking You
to bless the life I am determined to control.
I want to belong fully to You.

Show me where I have made myself the center,
where I have resisted Your authority,
and where I have held too tightly
to the story I wanted.

Teach me to revere You more deeply
than I cling to my own desires.

I place my plans, my future,
my relationships, my calling,
and my whole life before You.

Let surrender become worship.
Let Your will become greater than mine.

And let more of Jesus be seen
where less of me once stood.

Amen.

Remain still for a few moments after you pray. Do not rush to pick back up what you just placed before Him. Let surrender become more than a prayer you offer. Let it become the posture in which you live.

From the Unveiled Living Devotional Collection

This week’s Holy Habits was adapted from “The Death of Me,” featured in Called for More, Edition Three of The Purpose Collection.

Called for More is a beautifully designed, 140-page devotional filled with Scripture, personal stories from our amazing writing team, thoughtful reflections, prayers, and opportunities to respond to what God is speaking. Throughout its pages, you will be reminded that the life God is calling you into is not built by placing yourself at the center. It is discovered as you trust His preparation, respond with courageous faith, and continually place your life back into His hands.

The digital devotional is available to read for free, with printed copies also available as part of the Unveiled Living Devotional Collection.

This week’s scripture reflection:

1 John 2:6

“Those who say they live in God should live their lives as Jesus did.”

Luke 11:28 NLT

“Jesus replied, ‘But even more blessed are all who hear the word of God and put it into practice.”

Luke 11:28 AMPC

“But He said, Blessed (happy and to be envied) rather are those who hear the Word of God and obey and practice it!”

Luke 11:33-36

33 No one after lighting a lamp puts it in a cellar or crypt or under a bushel measure, but on a lampstand, that those who are coming in may see the light.

34 Your eye is the lamp of your body; when your eye (your conscience) is sound and fulfilling its office, your whole body is full of light; but when it is not sound and is not fulfilling its office, your body is full of darkness.

35 Be careful, therefore, that the light that is in you is not darkness.

36 If then your entire body is illuminated, having no part dark, it will be wholly bright [with light], as when a lamp with its bright rays gives you light.

Holy Habit: Less of Me

A clear reality has been forming in me as I have been reading these passages and studying them more deeply:

If we are content with the way we are living—if we have all the “things” we hoped for and worked hard for, if we are surrounded by the pleasures of the work of our hands, and if we have settled into a place of contentment within ourselves—we will not hunger and thirst for more of God and His righteousness.

I recently started reading the book Holiness, Truth, and the Presence of God by Francis Frangipane, one of my favorite authors. He has a way of writing that will truly mess you up in the best way.

I did not even make it to the first chapter before I became stuck on this statement from the introduction:

“If your goals are less than Christlikeness, the benefits of reading this book will be proportionally diminished. Indeed, no one who is content with himself will pass far into these pages. But for you who apply yourselves to these principles, I entrust you to the grace of God, who alone will empower you toward your goal of true holiness.”

“No one who is content with himself.”

That is the phrase that struck me.

Our world speaks with a unified voice, telling us that we need to find contentment within ourselves.

And how are we told to do that?

By going after all our wants and desires. By pursuing what pleases us, what makes us happy, and what does not cost us anything.

That is the message we continually hear.

But our reality as believers is this:

There is a fine line between being content with ourselves and hungering after the Lord. And if I am speaking honestly, I believe that is one of the reasons the church—especially the American church—is in the condition it is in today.

Matthew 16:24–26 says quite the opposite:

Then Jesus told His disciples, “If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?”

There is nothing in this portion of Scripture that says, “Go after all your wants and desires.”

Instead, Jesus asks what it will profit us if we gain the whole world and yet forfeit our souls.

That means we have to take a hard look at our own lives and all the “things” we have surrounded ourselves with and ask some challenging questions:

Is the life I am living keeping me from the deeper pursuit of living for Christ?

Are the “things” I am going after more important than going after Jesus?

Am I putting the Word of God into practice in my everyday life?

Am I truly hearing the Word of God and obeying its truth?

These are deep questions, but they have me thinking:

Could I sell my house and everything inside of it to go after—or go wherever—Jesus wanted me to go?

If there is even a tinge of “claim” over the things we are holding onto, it leads to the next question:

Is what we are holding onto more important than following Jesus?

What We Treasure, We Pursue

The reality, as I write this, is that by laying all these things aside and letting them go, I am actually gaining something far more treasured and beautiful than anything I could ever find by holding tightly to the comforts I hold dear.

The reason I say that is because when I picture a surrendered life—one where nothing holds greater value than Jesus—I see peace, serenity, fullness of joy, fulfillment, completeness in Christ, or maybe the better word is wholeness.

When we live the other way, I see a life full of cracks.

We keep trying to fill those cracks with all these things, but it continues to seep through because nothing in this world can bring us complete satisfaction.

And when we give Him permission to take over, just as Jesus spoke about the light in Luke 11, He fills every single crevice of our lives.

That is when the most beautiful exchange begins to take place.

So in a world that constantly begs for our attention and tells us to fill our lives with more things, more success, more striving, and more stuff—more, more, more—I see a life of becoming less.

A life of pursuing less of those things and pursuing more of Christ.

More of His presence.

More of His glory.

More of Him.

Less of me equates to more of Him, and I cannot think of a more beautiful place to be.

I highly recommend getting Frances Frangipane’s book - Holiness, Truth, and the Presence of God - click on the title to get your copy today. (This is a personal endorsement - not something I get paid for).

Isaiah 55:11 — “So is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.”

Have you ever stopped and realized how much talking we do about what is happening in our lives and what effect those words have on us?

Some of those phrases might look like this:

• Money is tight.

• Doors aren’t opening.

• I can’t forgive.

• I’ll never be good enough.

• I’ve been marked by my past decisions.

• The answers will never come.

• I will always live in pain.

• This season is wearing me down.

I’ve talked about this before, but if I’m being honest, I don’t think we can ever talk about it too much because this is something we need to be continually reminded of.

Romans 12:2 tells us to be transformed by the renewing of our minds.

But how do we renew our minds?

One thing I know for certain is this: we cannot keep filling our minds with the problem and then wonder why our thoughts are overwhelmed by fear, discouragement, defeat, and hopelessness.

We speak the problem while we’re getting ready in the morning. We speak it on the phone with a friend. We rehearse it in the car, think about it in the shower, and sometimes give ourselves a complete thirty-minute presentation in the wee hours of the night.

And let’s be honest—those late-night presentations we mentally create are rarely encouraging. LOL!

I am not negating the reality of the seasons we are walking through. I’m walking through my own season as we speak, and I have to catch my words and thoughts continually because the human mind wants to focus on the season - the difficulty, the lack - and forget who the God of every season is.

That is why renewing our minds cannot be something we do once and check off the list.

It has to be continual.

We have to keep bringing our thoughts back under the truth and the authority of God’s Word. We have to stop allowing what we see, feel, and fear to speak louder than what God has already said.

Let me give you a few powerful examples of what God says vs. our circumstances:

The water may be rising in your life, but God says:

“When you pass through the waters, I will be with you.” — Isaiah 43:2

Notice that God says when you pass through the waters—not if you ever encounter them. He does not promise that we will never walk through overwhelming seasons. He promises that the waters will not overtake us because He will be with us in the middle of them.

When you feel surrounded, God says:

“God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.” — Psalm 46:1

You may feel surrounded by trouble, questions, pressure, or uncertainty, but you are also surrounded by the presence and protection of God.

When you don’t know which way to go, God says:

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to Him, and He will make your paths straight.” — Proverbs 3:5–6

You do not have to understand every turn in the road for God to direct your steps. Your responsibility is to trust Him, acknowledge Him, and follow where He leads.

When you feel completely depleted, God says:

“Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.” — Isaiah 40:31

Your strength is not limited to what you woke up with this morning. That reality gets me celebrating. Let me say it again: Your strength is NOT LIMITED to what you woke up with this morning! God knows how to breathe fresh strength into the places that feel completely spent.

Are you getting the picture?

Instead of continually speaking into your life what everything looks like in the physical realm, start speaking God’s Word into your situation and watch what begins to happen inside of you.

Here’s the honest truth that hit me just a few weeks ago. It was one of those powerful ‘ah-a’ revelations and I can’t stop thinking about it but here’s the reality:

Isn’t that the truth!!!

Making the paradigm shift means we start answering our circumstances with what God says about them.

• What does God say about you?

• What does God say about your finances?

• What does God say about your family?

• What does God say about your future?

• What does God say about your season?

• What does God say about the difficulty standing in front of you?

There is nothing too difficult for God.

Testing Seasons are Growing Seasons

We also need to remember this: the testing seasons and battles we walk through are producing something in us.

James 1:2–4 tells us that the testing of our faith produces perseverance and that perseverance is helping us become mature and complete.

We tend to only see the difficulty, but God sees what is being developed through it.

• He sees the deeper roots.

• He sees the stronger faith.

• He sees the maturity.

• He sees what this season is producing in us that comfort never could.

God’s Word is alive and active.

He sends His Word with purpose.

• It goes to work.

• It produces fruit.

• It accomplishes what He desires.

And that is why staying continually in the Word matters so much.

We need His truth in us before the difficult moment arrives.

We need His promises rooted deeply enough that when life speaks loudly, something inside of us rises and says:

“Yes, but God said…”

That is the Holy Habit this week.

Before you repeat the problem one more time, pause.

Ask yourself:

What has God said about this?

Then speak the Word back.

Additional Scriptures to Sit With This Week

Isaiah 43:2 — “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you.”

Psalm 46:1 — “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.”

Proverbs 3:5–6 — “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.”

Isaiah 40:31 — “Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.”

Psalm 119:105 — “Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.”

Romans 10:17 — “Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ.”

James 1:2–4 — “The testing of your faith produces perseverance.”

Holy Habit Reflection Questions

• What situation have I been speaking about more than I have been speaking God’s Word over it?

• What sentence do I keep repeating that is feeding fear, discouragement, or hopelessness in me?

• When I talk about this season, does God’s faithfulness ever enter the conversation—or do I stop at the problem?

• What has God already said in Scripture that directly answers the fear I keep rehearsing?

• Have I been waiting for my feelings to change before I begin speaking with faith?

• Am I allowing what I see in the physical realm to become more authoritative than what God has spoken in His Word?

• What would it look like to let God’s Word become the loudest voice in this situation this week?

  ---

Holy Habit Practice

This week, grab a piece of paper and draw a line down the middle.

On the left side, write:

What I Keep Saying

On the right side, write:

What God Has Said

Now write down one sentence you have been repeatedly speaking about your situation.

Maybe it’s:

“I don’t know how we’re going to make it.”

“I feel completely alone.”

“Nothing is ever going to change.”

“I don’t have what it takes.”

“I’m too tired to keep going.”

“My past will always define me.”

“I will never be free from this.”

Then search the Word for what God says about that exact fear and write the Scripture beside it.

Don’t collect fifteen verses and turn this into a research project that requires snacks, twelve highlighters, and a seminary degree. LOL!

Just find one Scripture you can hold onto.

• One truth.

• One promise.

• One answer from the Word of God.

• Then every time the old sentence tries to come out of your mouth this week, stop and speak the Scripture instead.

And don’t only speak it when you feel full of faith. Speak it when your voice shakes, when your emotions disagree, when it feels odd, and when the situation looks exactly the same. Keep speaking it until the truth of God’s Word becomes louder in you than the fear that has been speaking to you.

The problem may still be there. The water may still be rising. The answer may still be on the way. But the problem does not get the final word.

God does.

~Tracee

Ecclesiastes 3:1 — “To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven.”

Okay, can we just sit with this for a second? Because I used to read this verse and think it was just... pretty. Very poetic. The kind of thing you cross-stitch onto a pillow. Except you don’t ever want me to cross-stitch for you — you’ll discover things on it that were never on the original picture on the package. LOL!

But here’s the aha moment that is speaking volumes to me right now: Solomon isn’t describing seasons like they’re something that just happen to you, like weather you have to endure. He’s saying seasons are designed to end.

On purpose. By God.

Which means — hang on, this is the part that matters — holding onto something past its season isn’t devotion. It’s not “being faithful.” Sometimes it’s just fear of letting go, because we all get comfortable with what feels familiar to us, and we know seasons always come with change.

And here’s the thing we don’t always get either: God doesn’t owe you an explanation for why the season’s changing. He just asks you to trust that the Hand holding the calendar is also the Hand holding you.

It takes me back to when the Lord spoke so clearly to us that we were supposed to move here to North Carolina. Did we get the reasons why our years of living in Nashville, TN had to end? Right on the precipice of getting a phone call from my son saying, “Mom, I’m moving back to Nashville in a month...” The very month we were going to be moving to North Carolina.

I won’t lie, that still brings tears to my eyes. That was a very difficult yes to give to the Lord when that news came. But I knew I had to let the Lord be our guide no matter what. And yes — we were even driving away from my other son and his family and our grands. And while they were moving out of state, within a year, they had moved back to TN.

So yes, changing seasons — God surely doesn’t have to explain them. In our human understanding, we’ll never fully know. But the most important thing is giving God your yes, even when it hurts. Let the seasons change when He calls for it, because there’s no greater way to live than being obedient to His ways and His plans for your life.

Additional Scriptures to Sit With This Week

• Psalm 31:15 — “My times are in your hands.” Not my to-do list. Not my five-year plan. Not the thing I built with my bare hands and cried over and prayed over. My times. Plural. All of them — the ones I loved and the ones I’m ready to be done with.

• Isaiah 43:18-19 — “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past... I am doing a new thing!” Don’t let your current season block your view of what God is wanting to do in this new season. Dwelling on last season is like standing in a doorway staring backward while the whole next room is lit up behind you. Let it go and move forward into a new season.

• Lamentations 3:22-23 — “His mercies are new every morning.” If His mercy resets daily, why do we act like our assignments have to stay fixed forever? New mercy, new grace, maybe... new assignment.

• Proverbs 3:5-6 — Trusting Him doesn’t just mean trusting the outcome. It means trusting the timing — even when the timing feels like loss.

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Holy Habit Reflection Questions

1. What am I still carrying simply because I’ve always carried it — not because God ever actually asked me to?

2. Where has peace quietly packed its bags and left something I’m still white-knuckling?

3. If I’m honest, am I afraid that letting go of this thing means I’m giving up on it — or on myself?

4. What would happen if I actually asked God, out loud, “Do You still want this?” — and then sat still long enough to hear the answer instead of rushing to fill the silence?

5. Is there a “good thing” on my plate right now that’s quietly stealing room from the “God thing” He’s trying to hand me next?

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Holy Habit Practice

This week, grab actual pen and actual paper (yes, I’m making you do this the old-fashioned way). Write down everything currently on your plate — every role, every project, every “yes” you’ve said. Next to each one, write a single word: Season or Forever.

Don’t overthink it. Don’t journal a dissertation about it as we aren’t working on our doctorates here. LOL! Just be brutally honest for about ten seconds per item.

Then pick ONE item marked “Season.” Just one. And go sit with God about it — not to quit it dramatically on the spot, not to blow up your life by Thursday — just to ask the same question this week’s Holy Habit has asked: “Is this still the assignment?”

And then here’s the hard part: actually wait. Actually rest in whatever answer — or holy silence — comes back. Because sometimes the answer isn’t a word. Sometimes it’s just peace. And peace, my friend, is an answer.