How Becoming A Disciple Redefined My Year

This won't be a long post. This has been a year of changes and testing, some of which I did well in, some required God's loving patience with me. My husband retired, then tried something new which eventually we had to pull the plug on, and I had to look for paid work outside of my crafting and writing. We both threw ourselves into the Word, prayer, learning from Bible teachers, even joining some online masterclasses. Debt increased while jobs eluded me. But God was in everything, no matter what it looked like to me. Thankfully, when doubt got one of us in its clutches some days, it was never both of us at the same time. Each time, God's mercy made sure we were there to encourage and lift each other up, casting down the doubt and speaking in faith.

The Lord used this time to answer a prayer about a related area --(to be honest, at times my prayer sounded more like a complaint), until at last in July I landed a small casual job. Six weeks later I got another job, just 2 days a week over the busy season. Both jobs are very physical and not what I'd originally been looking for. God knows so much better than we do what we really need, and I couldn't ask for better jobs in this season of our life.

But to go back a little: on Tuesday, 4 March, I was reading through Matthew 17, and had been fasting, in prayer, for six days. (I've had to go back to my journal to find the date and details; so much has happened since then.) This was where God caught my attention:

"When they came to Capernaum, the collectors of the two-drachma tax went up to Peter and said, 'Does your teacher not pay the tax?' He said, 'Yes.' And when he came into the house, Jesus spoke to him first, saying, 'What do you think, Simon? From whom do kings of the earth take toll or tax? From their sons or from others?' And when he said, 'From others,' Jesus said to him. 'Then the sons are free. However, not to give offense to them, go to the sea and cast a hook and take the first fish that comes up, and when you open its mouth you will find a shekel. Take that and give it to them for me and for yourself." Matthew 17:24-27

The point the Lord brought out to me was that Jesus sent Peter back to his old way of doing things for one more job. Peter obeyed in the natural and God answered in the supernatural, just as Jesus had said He would. I prayed and asked for the specific interpretation for me: What old way did He want me to go back to, to 'pay the tax', or in our case, our daily needs? When I couldn't hear the answer clearly, I spoke to Jeff - we often find the answer comes when we talk it out together. Sure enough, he understood immediately. I was to finish my book, get it published and 'out there' as quickly and cheaply as possible. I was to get back to focusing on writing -- the first 'art' God had called me to.

I stopped all other activities that filled my days -- slow stitching, creating journals etc -- as well as several regular appointments, and obeyed. By the end of September I had the ebook out, and soon after God reminded me of a site that simplified publishing for independents like me. In October I also published the book as a print-on-demand paperback. I was absolutely thrilled, as I had so often allowed what I learned about the whole publishing process to deflate me; they were either too complicated, too expensive or too much marketing.

But this post isn't about the book really. It's about how God used what seemed like a season of lack and confusion to redirect my focus. He led me to look more, listen more, obey more promptly and worry a whole lot less. In my case, it was a project twenty years in the making that I had dragged the chain on that needed His nudging. And once I'd made those changes to get it done, it was just three months later that I got the first job, and less than two months more before I had the extra one.

So our year didn't look anything like we expected. The answers didn't look the way we might have imagined. Now I'm not only a published author, I'm well into writing the next book, have a series name sorted as well as the names for both the second and third books.

Well, that's a wrap on 2025. Thank you for being with me, for checking in even when I've been AWOL with no explanation!

I ask the Father "that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy; giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins." Colossians 1: 9-14

Though this post isn't really about my book, if you are interested to learn more, here's the link: https://books2read.com/TFGD