First, happy August to you. Many are now sending kids back to school and getting back to normal life. While I’m not sending a kid off to school – first time for that in over 20 years, I am getting back into the swing of things.

I’ve been off the grid over the summer and pecking away while working on my next book, my first nonfiction project, Live Loved. I’m still heavy in the writing process, so I can’t give you a time of publication. I would think a 2019 release is to be expected.

I can honestly say, I am more excited about this project than anything I’ve ever written. Nonfiction is different in many ways. The creative process is wildly different. Stories steal my imagination when I’m working on fiction, but this, this has consumed my every waking thought it seems. I find myself emailing myself from bed at 3:00 in the morning with a new idea. I hope the finished product matches up with the hype I have going on in my mind.

Already, I have a couple of speaking engagements where I will get to share my heart on the topic of living loved. I hope to flesh out concepts and watch them settle into the hearts of women. What I am attempting to capture on paper is, in many ways, my own journey of becoming a loved woman. No matter how loved I was in my early walk with Jesus, I simply never received the truth of it into my belief system. Many are still in that same boat.

If you will, pray for this endeavor. Every moment I’m writing I know it’s bigger than me. The scope of the project and all I need to say is beyond me. Simply, I’m not capable of doing this. Thankfully, I got over that fact and have allowed the resurrection power of Jesus to do through me what I can’t do myself. You’re welcome for that. On my on I could easily make a mess of even something as magnificently simple as God’s neverending, soul-quenching love for us all.

I will leave you with this thought: The enemy is still a liar. He hasn’t changed his tactics since his encounter with Eve in the garden. He lies to me daily. Over the past few months, his lies have only grown with ever-increasing intensity. His activity and schemes against me are unparalleled in this season. That confirms I must be on the right track with this new book. So I press on to win the prize of sharing what I’ve witnessed in my own transformation.

Ask yourself this today: What lie is the serpent feeding you?

The greatest weapon in your arsenal against his attack is fighting lies with God’s truth. Open your Bible today and search out what your Father says about you. Lean into Jesus so that His love and truth will demolish any stronghold that keeps you ineffective. That’s the enemy’s plot against the child of God, to render her powerless to do what she was created to do – glorify a holy God.

I am praying for you now and ask the same of you. We are attacked from all sides, but that affects us not when we rest in the shelter of the Most High.

You. Are. Loved.
Lisa

I may be a little late with this, but Happy Spring! 

If you read last month’s blog, then you know I had a dark, gray winter – both spiritually speaking and with work. It was tough, but I endured. Spring came early for me as it usually does since March 1st is spring to me. I’m not sure why. The calendar tells me otherwise. People tell me spring comes later, but for me, there is something magical about the beginning of March that wakes my heart up from a long, gray winter.

This year, my wake up wasn’t just a date, it was a new project. I’ve mentioned the tedious revisions that I’ve been working on. I’m on my last one and nearing the finish line. One day, while working on it, I just buckled. I couldn’t revise one more word. What I did on March 7th broke my cycle of revision and ushered me into the spring of a brand new book, Room to Grow. My character in the novel, Sophie, is still living a hard winter when one simple encounter ushers her into an early spring.

I can’t give a time of its release since this book will take a different publishing path from my others. That’s not really the point of this blog. The point is this: Has spring come for you this year, or are you still dragging through a life of gray winter days – in a spiritual sense?

A phrase from this new book has taken on a life of its own in my heart.

“You are spring to me.”

Even when the worst is happening in my life or when I’m blah and not up to the task at hand, Spring has come in the person of Jesus. He is Spring to me, new life and hope and a future. He reminds me that the past is behind me, the future is out of my control, but today He is Spring to me. Each day can be filled with new hope and purpose if I walk in that day and no other.

A verse that is my focus for this season is this:

“Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” Psalm 119:105

For too many years I spent my life hindered by the past. That’s not so much the case right now. Then for the past few years, I’ve focused on the future. Pointless! Now, I’m walking in today’s light. I like it here.

Spring has come. The Son is shining. God’s Word leads me in today’s light.

Grace and peace be yours today!
Lisa

I find I write often about discouragement, too much really. I can stay in such a cycle of discouragement that I get tired of hearing my own voice talk about it and reading what I write on the topic. Still, it comes. You would think I would be past it by now after the years filled with peaks and valleys in my walk with Jesus.

Today’s blog comes after another bout with discouragement and my calling out to God from the pit. Just this week I  sent an email to a friend about my latest climb out and wanted to share some of what I wrote to her. Even as I typed the email, I realized it would make for a good blog.

My words to my friend:
“It doesn’t matter how far I travel with the Lord or how many “gifts” I’ve been given. Discouragement is the devil’s favorite tool to use against me. I’m so like King David. Not the good man of battle and great leader stuff – you know, the ups and downs in the Psalms. I’m quite sure David was the second bi-polar king recorded. (Saul was just nuts.) I’m like that, on the mountain one day and sprawled out in the valley the next, crying, “Lord, come and save me from the pit.”
Good news is: I’m outta the pit. I’m not my normal passionate me right now, but that’s something Jesus and I are working on. At least I’m on stable ground and back on mission. Something happened Monday that set me straight. It was one of the most blatant answers from God through Scripture (supplied by a reader who wrote to me at the exact right time) that I’ve ever encountered. Hebrews 6:10.”

“God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them.” NIV

• As if all that I’ve done has meant nothing
• Aimless and unsure about my new direction
• As if I’ve missed His voice and direction
• Like I’ve wasted the past few years
• Ready to stop chasing this dream and just veg on the couch
• Like it wasn’t fair that I would devote my life to this pursuit of Him, yet I must have missed Him

I poured out my heart in my Quest journal, asking God to be specific in His direction. I whispered in prayer that it hardly seemed fair. I belly-ached all kinds of whys and where are Yous. In that same day’s devotion, I wrote: “I’m tired, Lord. I’m just so tired of chasing after this and seeing so little in return.”

Now you see what I meant by being in the pit. It wasn’t the pit of sin. It was the pit of self-pity. I’m seriously tired, and when I’m tired, negativity and discouragement rage in my mind. When I say tired, I don’t just mean physically. Yes, I had just gotten over the flu, so there was a physical element of depletion. The main issue, though, was that I was drained emotionally. I felt defeated.

I can look at it all now with more objectivity. For one the grey days of winter have taken their toll. What was more likely the culprit regarding my mental and emotional state was the past year I’ve spent revising all my old work. I am currently working on book 5 of 5 in a complete overhaul of every book I’ve published. That was over 600,000 words that I have poured over and reshaped and revised. It’s been taxing to say the least. Add in the fact that I’ve not worked on anything new to spark my creativity, and my low emotional state makes perfect sense.

Back to the point.

While I sat there with my study book in my lap, after all my crying out to God, I noticed I had a message from a reader. She has contacted me before, but this time was something special. Her message told of a friend of hers, an abuse victim who had recently read Unmending the Veil. This reader who contacted me had suggested the book to her friend at least a year before the woman was ever to read it. It touched her in many ways, I’m told. The message I received shared a few details about her ministry to abuse victims and how she always recommends my book to them. It reminded me that flesh and blood women out there, those who have been hurt by the one who should have protected them, read this story and God speaks to them through it.

That would have been enough to shake me out of my discouraged state if that had been all the message said. But she also said,

“I just wanted you to be encouraged and to know that people are really benefiting from your work. Keep on pressing into the Lord and doing as He asks.”
She ended her message with:
“For God is not unjust so as to forget your work and the love which you have shown toward His name, in having ministered and in still ministering to the saints.”
Hebrews 6:10

Whaaat?! Are you kidding me? I had just eye-rolled that verse! It’s one thing when you see a repetition of a verse like, “For I know the plan I have for you, declares the LORD.” That’s a commonly used and shared scripture. But Hebrews 6:10? Nope. It’s way too obscure to be a coincidence. God gave me His reconfirmed Word through this precious reader. He literally spoke His words of encouragement through the study and then through His servant when I ignored His first attempt with a childish eye-roll.

I could spend the next hour dissecting this verse and how powerful it all was in its specific answers to my accusations and questions. I’ll try to simplify with my major takeaways:

• He is just. In my rambling accusations, even if I didn’t mean it, I called Him unjust. He was quick to remind me differently.
• He hasn’t forgotten me or what I’ve done for the ones He loves.
• He hasn’t overlooked how much I love Him and how that’s my motivation for doing what I do.
• “… in still ministering to the saints” reminds me to keep doing what I’m doing. I haven’t missed His leading or missed the way. I asked Him to be specific, and He was.

I want to share more but don’t want to bore you. I’ll leave you with a few thoughts:

• God speaks through His Word. If you aren’t digging into the Word of God on a regular basis, then you are missing God’s voice speaking into your life, answering your questions, and guiding you in this mixed up journey called life.
• He speaks to us through other believers. We matter to each other. Our obedience matters when we feel a tug on our heart to reach out. Fun fact: The reader, Alyce-Kay, let me know that she had wanted to send that message to me later in the day but felt prompted to send it on early. God knew I needed to read that message while my study book still sat on my lap and while my eye-roll at His verse would still be fresh on my mind. His timing is perfect. It will do me some good to remember that when discouragement over timing begins to take its toll next time.
• Ask questions of God. Call out to Jesus. Don’t settle for a faraway relationship with the One who died to draw you into an intimate relationship with HIm.

Grace and peace to you. May you hear the voice of the Lord. May encourages encourage you. May you encourage others when the Spirit moves. You never know whose grey winter you might put an end to or who you might lend a hand out of the pit.

Much love to you,
Lisa