Why I Believe
Instead, you must worship Christ as Lord of your life. And if someone asks about your hope as a believer, always be ready to explain it. 1 Peter 3:15 (New Living Translation)
As often happens when I sit down to write my Sunday inspirational post, I already have a thought in mind of what I want to say. At the top of the file where I write these devotions, I have a few random Bible verses which I have run across somewhere and liked and thought I could share some time. That’s where I got the verse above and it seemed so appropriate right now.
A few months ago, as you certainly already know, I had decided to completely self-publish my latest novel, “The Truth Beyond the River”, via Amazon. Everyone said it would be easy. I’d already published a novella as an e-book back in March and that went smoothly.
Oh, this time around, not so much. I won’t bore you with the details, all the hours I spent trying to get the manuscript formatted so it looked right, all the times in the last week when tears of frustration were puddling in my eyes, when I was ready to throw in the towel.
Yesterday afternoon, I had one more thought to make this work and as I started going through the book again, I sent up a prayer. “God, if this doesn’t work this time, I will take it as a sign that You don’t want this book in print. I’m sorry if I have failed You, but I am willing to accept Your will.”
When I do things like that, in total sincerity, I still feel like God has really got better things to do. But I remember that He is with us no matter how big or small our dilemma.
So I don’t have to tell you that the file worked and the book looks amazing – on-line at least. But here’s the super weird thing, or maybe God-thing.
As I was reading through the book on-line, trying not to cry, because even though I found a few more mistakes which I knew were fixable, I knew that God was taking care of me and my little problems. I was in my living room, with the patio doors only ten feet away, and my husband walked in and said, “look at that rain”. It was pouring rain outside. I never noticed.
The last time I’d looked out it was hot and sunny, not a cloud in the sky and none in the forecast, surely no rain in the forecast. And I was not looking forward to having to go out to water the garden again.
So when you ask me about my hope as a believer, these are the kinds of stories I am going to tell you. Because that is how God shows me beyond a shadow of my doubt, that He’s with me.
Thank You, LORD, thank You for everything. My heart cries out to You in thanks and praise. Amen.
As often happens when I sit down to write my Sunday inspirational post, I already have a thought in mind of what I want to say. At the top of the file where I write these devotions, I have a few random Bible verses which I have run across somewhere and liked and thought I could share some time. That’s where I got the verse above and it seemed so appropriate right now.
A few months ago, as you certainly already know, I had decided to completely self-publish my latest novel, “The Truth Beyond the River”, via Amazon. Everyone said it would be easy. I’d already published a novella as an e-book back in March and that went smoothly.
Oh, this time around, not so much. I won’t bore you with the details, all the hours I spent trying to get the manuscript formatted so it looked right, all the times in the last week when tears of frustration were puddling in my eyes, when I was ready to throw in the towel.
Yesterday afternoon, I had one more thought to make this work and as I started going through the book again, I sent up a prayer. “God, if this doesn’t work this time, I will take it as a sign that You don’t want this book in print. I’m sorry if I have failed You, but I am willing to accept Your will.”
When I do things like that, in total sincerity, I still feel like God has really got better things to do. But I remember that He is with us no matter how big or small our dilemma.
So I don’t have to tell you that the file worked and the book looks amazing – on-line at least. But here’s the super weird thing, or maybe God-thing.
As I was reading through the book on-line, trying not to cry, because even though I found a few more mistakes which I knew were fixable, I knew that God was taking care of me and my little problems. I was in my living room, with the patio doors only ten feet away, and my husband walked in and said, “look at that rain”. It was pouring rain outside. I never noticed.
The last time I’d looked out it was hot and sunny, not a cloud in the sky and none in the forecast, surely no rain in the forecast. And I was not looking forward to having to go out to water the garden again.
So when you ask me about my hope as a believer, these are the kinds of stories I am going to tell you. Because that is how God shows me beyond a shadow of my doubt, that He’s with me.
Thank You, LORD, thank You for everything. My heart cries out to You in thanks and praise. Amen.
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