What are you passionate about in your life? Is there an experience you have had that you want to share with others? Have you learned something worth sharing with others?
When I was encouraged to use my own experiences in life to inspire others, I not only hesitated but was ready to run away. I was TERRIFIED to put past mistakes and sins in written word and have everyone read about them.
How would my family and friends react? Would I be ostracized? Would I lose the respect of those that meant so much to me?
I believed I didn’t have anything to write about that would be worthwhile to say and did not have the skill to do so.
I went to the one person I knew who would not fail me. I went to the LORD in prayer. I lay out my fears and my insecurities. After much prayer the Lord showed me how shortsighted I was.
I had been praying for the past eight years for direction. “Lord, show me how I can serve you.” are words that I have repeated many times. I had been waiting for a big-time revelation. An AHA moment. Instead, the realization has been a slow awakening.
I believe it was because I had not been ready for what the Lord had planned for me and wanted to use me for.
The first step was for me to obey. God expected me to be obedient. It is through obedience that He reveals His message to His people.
"...To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams." –1 Samuel 15:22 NIV
We are told to obey even when we don’t know where the path will lead us.
I put pen to paper and started to write.
Let me tell you. My obedience didn’t make the doubts and lies disappear. Somehow my doubts and lies were amplified with each word I wrote. The doubts and lies would creep up on me, reminding me that I had been horrible in school, had questionable grammar practices, and was not a storyteller. But the loudest lie was that my story was not worth sharing.
The devil is quick to grab any opportunity to whisper that we have not changed, that we are still that sinner with so many unforgivable sins, and that our flaws and imperfections should be hidden from those around us.
I know that the devil is wrong! We need to put on the whole armor of God and find the strength given to us by God and fight the devil’s lies.
God says that WE ARE ENOUGH.
"But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light." –1 Peter 2:9 NIV
Almost two years later and 100 Days of Prayer has been published. This book is part memoir, part prayer guide, and part prayer journal.
When I think about why could God possibly want me to share His message as a Christian writer, I am overwhelmed by His mercy and goodness. Throughout the Bible, we see how God used the outcasts, the misunderstood, and the imperfect to tell His story.
My prayer is for God to use my story to help someone who feels they are not worthy to understand their worth. That there is redemption for us sinners. 100 Days of Prayer is the story of my journey into deeper intimacy with GOD through prayer.