Last week I received my CBD Fiction Catalog and immediately sat down and looked through it. I’ve always loved getting this catalog and ordering my favorite books from it. 
Some years back–after I’d been writing a few years–I remember getting the CBD catalog and looking at the fiction titles, wishing that someday mine would be there. But rejection after rejection came. Still, I believed God had promised me that my stories would be published and that my mom would hold my book in her hands.
But had I heard Him wrong? After all my mom was 92. And I’d been writing for 31 years.
Do we sometimes want something so badly that we imagine God has told us we’ll get it?
Could be.
So, how can you tell whether it’s your desire or God whispering in your ear?
I don’t know that I have a definitive answer for that. I do know that for several years before I felt God was telling me that I’d be published, I had prayed that He would remove my desire and fill me with His desires for me. I had also stopped striving to get published.
That doesn’t mean I’d quit writing. No. I quit trying to manufacture ways to get my work in front of editors. I became, dare I say it? Patient. Realizing that whatever happened was in His timing, not mine.
Back to last week. I opened the catalog and turned to page 32. There was my 3rd Logan Point book, Gone Without a Trace. While my mom didn’t hold this book in her hands, she did the first one, Shadows of the Past. This week I’m working on book number seven. What if I’d quit believing God during year 31 and stopped writing?
If I had, then how could God have opened the publishing door?
Have you ever thought God was calling you to something? If so, have you done your part so that when He opens the door, you’re ready to walk through it? Let me know.
Before I go, I want to tell you about a new blog I’m part of. It’s called Clean Romance Reads Cafe. We are eight romance authors writing in various genres who wanted to get together to blog about romance novels and about life in general.
AND we’re giving away a Kindle Voyage! To enter go to the blog and enter! I look forward to seeing you there.
Winner of Patrick E. Craig’s book, The Amish Heiress is Deb Simmering
Comments 5
So excited for everything that is happening for you!
That is so cool, Pat. I, for one, am extremely thankful you didn’t quit.
Me, too, Johnnie!
Thanks, Michelle!
This is a very heartfelt feature and I appreciate you sharing it, Pat. I get what you mean by the difference for you coming at the point of learning patience. For me, it was learning the 100 percent meaning of trust (trusting God), not like the 98 percent I played with through the years. I’m not applying this lesson to everything else in life… not easy, but a MUST. I have no other choice.