“We interrupt our regularly scheduled program for this important announcement . . .”
That’s right. Instead of a normal devotional on a normal schedule, I just can’t wait to share with you what God has done!
It’s pretty incredible. David wrote, “my cup overflows,” and now I’m standing in a puddle of the overflow of God’s blessing in that same way.
About 15 months ago, shortly after starting this blog (which at the time felt insane enough), I sat across from my husband on our big, lumpy blue sofa and told him I felt compelled to do something even crazier than write devotionals online.
God had been working in my heart and mind, shaking up my life, changing me from the inside out. Suddenly everything He had been teaching me crowded into words in my mind, words I had to write down on a page or I felt I’d go mad.
God had been probing my heart with some questions—questions that He had asked others in Scripture. He began by asking me, “What do you want me to do for you?” (just like blind Bartimaeus and the disciples James and John).
It was a question that revealed my motives. What did I want out of God? Material blessing? Success? Personal gain? Comfort? Attention?
Or did I want His glory, no matter what? Did I want to see Him and know Him more intimately?
As I prayed and allowed God to search my heart deeply, I discovered that our God is a question-asking God. It’s His consistent method of drawing His people closer to Him.
After Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit and hid in the garden, God didn’t hop a soapbox to deliver a parental diatribe against disobedience. Instead, He just asked a question: “Where are you?”
When Elijah sat dejected, depressed and suicidal on a mountaintop, God asked him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”
Moses thought God was unreasonable and ridiculous asking him, a man who had been a fugitive for murder for 40 years, to lead the nation of Israel out of Egypt. But God asked, “What is that in your hand?” and showed Moses that God can take the ordinary and make it extraordinary when we give it to Him.
I believed God wanted me to write a book on what happens when women let God ask the questions.
And my husband said the same thing he said to me about writing the blog—“If God wants you to do it, you need to be obedient and do it.”
Simple as that.
So in the spring of 2011, I asked just four women in addition to my husband to pray for me. They were the only ones on earth who knew I was writing a book in my “free time.” And I am so thankful for their prayers and words of encouragement. I know for certain I would have quit long ago had it not been for those on their knees for me.
Some writers hop a jet to exotic locations or move into beach houses or cabins in the woods to write. I sat at my kitchen table during my daughter’s nap times. I jumped up every few minutes to get a drink, change a diaper, read a book, fix a problem, and break up a fight and then sat back down to the computer to write some more.
I knew how impossible publication seemed, but I just reminded myself that I was being obedient to the call God had given me. What happened from there was up to Him.
Almost one year after I set down to write the first word of the book, I received an incredible email from Discovery House Publishers—the same firm that publishes the Oswald Chambers library and other wonderful Bible study authors. It said they had found a copy of my initial book proposal, the one I’d written 10 months ago, and was I still searching for a publisher?
This was impossible. I had posted that book proposal after writing the first chapter of the book nearly a year before. It should only have been available for publishers to view for six months. There is no reasonable explanation for how that book proposal made it to her desk four months after its expiration.
I had to go through a series of committees—the editorial committee, the marketing committee, the publishing board. It took several months of waiting. I asked a few more women to join me in prayer during these months.
And then, as I was sitting at my computer yesterday working on VBS emails, a message popped up on my screen from Discovery House Publishers that read,
“Let me be for the first to congratulate you on becoming a published author.”
Look what God did!!! A year-and-a-half ago, I would have told you I couldn’t write a book. I didn’t have the time, the resources, the attention span, the know-how, the seminary degree, or anything to talk about.
But God had other plans. He so graciously worked in all my insufficiency; all I had to do was be obedient.
This isn’t at all about me or what I accomplished in my own ability. This is absolutely a testimony of the miracles God can do when we yield to Him, even when it seems insane and impossible.
God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us (Ephesians 3:20-21 MSG).
So, in the next few weeks I’ll be working with a team on cover design and marketing strategies and choosing a release date and I’ll be sharing it all with you.
Please encourage your friends to join in this blog community. Spread the word! More importantly, please keep me in prayer: for wisdom on this journey, for a smooth publishing process, and most importantly for the impact of God’s Word. Then let’s watch and see what God can do!
Heather King is a wife, mom, Bible Study teacher, writer for www.myfrienddebbie.com and worship leader. Most importantly, she is a Christ follower with a desire to help others apply the Bible to everyday life with all its mess, noise, and busyness. To read more devotionals by Heather King, click here.
Copyright © 2012 Heather King
Heather C. King - Room to Breathe 
Praise God for His miracles , He is carrying on today, isn’t He!! Thank God for your book being published. I have been wanting to write one as well for some time but I never take the time to sit down and decide which kind, either re what I have seen in education or religious. I really want to write both! I have never told anyone seriously either. I just say sometimes when things happen, “I could write a book!” i will continue to pray and wait on the Lord. Congratualtions! I thank God and I am so proud of what He has wrought in you! Blessings, my friend, my precious child!
Thanks, Ms. Louise!! Here’s a cool thing—this is the same publisher of the books that you studied at CBS this past year. When I found that out, it was just one other way that God encouraged me!
All my life I have seen God work out or take care of what seem like impossible things to us, He is indeed an awsome God all we need to do is look around us and be open to His bidding. looking forwaard to reading yours and Gods book!
Thanks so much, Betty. We do indeed serve an awesome God!!
WOW WOW WOW!!!!! Congrats, I can’t wait to read it! I’m so excited for you!!!!!
Wow! That sums up my feelings entirely 🙂
Heather, just look at you now!! You have been a good and faithful servant, and our Heavenly Father has honored you by opening new doors through which blessings will flow for you and for your readers. Congratulations. I will be praying for you as you go through the exciting process of working with your publisher. I can’t wait to get my autographed copy of your first book!
Thank you so much for your encouragement, Carol, and especially for your prayers!! I guess I better practice my signature 🙂
Yay!! You are a very good writer and I can’t wait to read it!! God is good (but we all already know this)!!
Thanks so much, Theresa. You’ve been such an encouragement to me and you’re right to celebrate God’s goodness!!
Absolutely inspirational and wonderful all wrapped up in one. I can’t wait to buy your book and get it autographed! CONGRATULATIONS!
Thanks, Rita! It’s wonderful to celebrate with all those who have encouraged me and prayed for me!
How wonderful, Heather! I’m looking forward to seeing it come to fruition….
Thank you! I’m looking forward to completing the process and seeing it come to fruition, too. It’s been such a time of learning for me already and I know there’s more to come.
I remember asking you awhile ago at choir one night if you had ever thought of writting a book. Your answer was a cause for prayer! I thanked God at that time for the book being published, and now we see it will be! I want an autographed copy! I had no doubt that it would happen-I will be waiting for it in breathless expectation! hugs and love, Lin
Thank you, Lin, for keeping me in prayer all this time!!!
Oh, Heather!! I am so excited for you. Your way with words combined with your zeal for the heart of God will certainly make it a best seller!! I can’t wait!!! Your blog is a daily part of my walk with God. Eager to dive into your book. And you know how I feel about reading. 😉 So proud of you!!!
Oh sweet friend, I do remember how you feel about reading, so I feel super honored!!! In fact, a girl in our Bible Study this year brought in Redeeming Love a few months ago and was so excited about it—-and I instantly was zapped back to our little group all those years ago when you read that book and thought of you 🙂
That is so awesome Heather!!
It doesn’t surprise me any! 🙂
God is/has used you in soooo many ways!!!!
Congratulations!!! You are a very gifted person!
Darlene, God always has a way of surprising me with just how good He really is. Thank you for encouraging me so often and in so many ways over the years. You are a blessing to me!
Dear Heather
Wow ! Congrats ! Can’t wait to read it !
I love to listen to your to your God experiences, to hear the Holy Spirit excitment in your voice. Next step — book on CD ? Only God knows !
Love
Jerry
Thanks, Jerry! I read something a famous author just said recently—he was living on herbal throat-soothing tea after recording his audio book 🙂 This makes me think of that!
So amazing! I can’t wait to buy it read it & share it! Your devotionals are amazing & have blessed me so much! Congrats!!!!!!!!
Kerry, you’re such a source of encouragement for me! Thanks so much!
Wonderful Heather – may the Lord use it in a mighty way in His Kingdom.
Thanks for the prayer of blessing, Bill!
Thank you so very much for sharing……… this is a huge encouragement for me to get my obedience shoes on and start my last page of my book and work my way back into the depths of my life. My children have been asking questions for a long time now……….. you have helped me to get those scrap pieces of paper out and get some order to them. thank you again….. pam
What joy, Pam! I’m so glad that you are picking up your pen, so to speak, and walking in obedience. I pray great blessings await you in the new year!