I am a Writer.

I would like to give some thoughts to you today, inspired by trusting God.
Romans 4:16 -Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham's offspring—not only to those who are of the law but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all. 17As it is written: "I have made you a father of many nations."[a] He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed—the God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were.

My friend calls this last part a "be not, as though they were." God called Abraham to be the father of many nations. Abraham had to wait, be patient and most importantly have the faith that God would follow through on his promise. At one point he got impatient. Maybe he even felt like he was disappointing God because of his inability to conceive with Sarah. He took Sarah's handmaiden Hagar and tried it out on his own. There was success. He fathered the leader of Muslims today - Ishmael. I don't believe that was what God intended. God wanted it to be miraculous. He wanted it to be spectacular. He wanted it to be all Him. Years later, God did follow through with his promise and made Abraham the father of many nations. The promise that came by faith.

I would also like to share the same verses, however I would like to share them from the message.

16This is why the fulfillment of God's promise depends entirely on trusting God and his way, and then simply embracing him and what he does. God's promise arrives as pure gift. That's the only way everyone can be sure to get in on it, those who keep the religious traditions and those who have never heard of them. For Abraham is father of us all. He is not our racial father—that's reading the story backward. He is our faith father.
17-18We call Abraham "father" not because he got God's attention by living like a saint, but because God made something out of Abraham when he was a nobody. Isn't that what we've always read in Scripture, God saying to Abraham, "I set you up as father of many peoples"? Abraham was first named "father" and then became a father because he dared to trust God to do what only God could do: raise the dead to life, with a word make something out of nothing. When everything was hopeless, Abraham believed anyway, deciding to live not on the basis of what he saw he couldn't do but on what God said he would do. And so he was made father of a multitude of peoples. God himself said to him, "You're going to have a big family, Abraham!"

I say all this because as some of you know, I have been struggling with a leading that I was not sure about. I have loved writing ever since I was in elementary school. I wrote silly stories all the time. I loved using my imagination. As I got into high school I got more mature and my writings were much deeper. After I graduated, I found other things to fill my time with and lost my imagination as the real world became really real.

In the last couple of years, God has been pulling me to start writing again. I, however in my own infinite wisdom, have been finding other things to fill my time with, hoping that I was wrong, or that God wasn't talking to the right person, surely he meant someone else. It is too hard to "open your vein on the page" and pour your heart out. Over the last several months, He has been putting signs everywhere. In books and in tv shows and words on the radio. They have all pointed in one direction. I have been reading several books on dreams, as I am sure you read in earlier posts, and I picked up one called, "Dream Giver" by Bruce Wilkinson. (Same guy who wrote, "Prayer of Jabez".) I thought for sure that it was about dreams and inturperting them. I sat down and low and behold, it was not about dreams at all. It was about following the little dream way deep down inside of you that was planted, by God, when you were born. God placed it in you so that you could use it for His purpose. It was an awesome read and I literally read it in one sitting. (Ask my husband, I don't think I talked all night...) That is when I decided, that I better listen to God. That book spoke directly to me, or God did through that book. It was about me all the way through it!

My friend Heidi called me a few day later and told me she heard a commercial on KLTY, (our local Christian radio station) about the North Texas Christian Writers Conference. I checked it out online and found that for 2 days of classes it was $229. How the heck am I going to pay for that? Our funds were already allocated elsewhere, how on earth can I ask to take that much out of the pot? This was 2 weeks ago on a Wednesday. I decided to pray on it for 24 hours and see how I felt. The next morning, I emailed my husband and told him why I knew it was ridiculous, but I really felt like I was supposed to go. We decided to pray about it some more and trust that if God wanted me to go, He would get us the money. On Friday afternoon, I got a call from the county tax office who stated that we would be receiving a $232 refund from our 2007 taxes because of the homestead exemption. I emailed James who said, "I guess God answered our prayers." Indeed, He did. I went, it was awesome and the story will go on.

Even Abraham had doubt because it was taking so long, but he followed, knowing that God would follow through and he believed that God would indeed make him the "father of many nations." I am blessed to be part of his many nations. Abrahams faith inspires me to also faithfully follow God's calling on my life to be a stay at home mother and a writer. I decided that listening to God is better than pretending He is not talking to me.

So with that all being said in my overly wordy way, I am a writer. I will call it as though it is. I am a writer. I am not perfect and I have a LONG way to go, but I am a writer. I will use my talents He has gifted me with to make Him proud. I will work hard and I will learn the craft and I will write, for God, with love, from me.

Until we read again...