Devotion

 

It's fall so I'm sharing a back-to-school devotion. A longer version of this devotion is included in one of my devotional books, "Glimpses of Prayer". Shirley and I decided to list this book as a perma-free on kindle (meaning it is always free.) It's something authors do for promotional purposes if they have several books. It seems to be working for us as this book has been sitting at #1 in two categories for several days now. 

                                                       A Simple Prayer

                                                     Read: Ezra 8: 21-23

     “… to seek from Him a safe journey for us, our little ones, and our possessions.” Ezra 8: 21b

            A new school year was about to begin. In fact, it was to start the next day. I had been asked to lead in prayer on behalf of the parents of this Christian school at its “before the school year prayer meeting”. As I began to pray, Ezra’s prayer came into my mind.

            Ezra’s prayer is a very simple one, but it is perhaps my favorite in the entire Bible. Ezra confessed that he was afraid to ask the king for soldiers to protect his group on their journey because he had told the king that God’s hand was favorably disposed towards those who fear Him. So, instead, Ezra called upon the people to fast and pray. They prayed for God’s protection over them, their little ones, and their possessions. This prayer is so precious to me. It shows me that we can talk to God about everything in our lives – even our most basic needs.

            As I led in prayer that day, I recited this scripture. I reminded God that we, the parents who had gathered to pray were people who feared Him. And like Ezra, we were asking for safe journey through the upcoming school year for our “little ones” – however big they may have become!

Prayer: Heavenly Father, how thankful we are that your hand is favorably disposed towards those who fear you! Lord, thank you also for the privilege of bringing any and all of our concerns to you in prayer!

Thought for the Day: We can talk to God about anything!

 

 

 

 

Book News

I started this blog long before I had a book contract. Once I got a contract, my publisher asked me to start another blog with my name in the title, so I did. You can read that blog at www.harrietemichael.blogspot.com I try to keep that blog mostly about the writing life--book news, articles I have written, etc. This blog is intended to be more about life. However, today I have some book news that I shared on my other blog, which I want to share here too. It's just too good to not share both places.

I have another book coming out in just a matter of days. This will be my 5th published book so far. (I have 4 more under contract that I and my co-writer, Shirley Crowder are writing--a year around devotional series. These will take a couple of years to complete and are scheduled to be released in 2019, 2020, and 2021.)

This book is heart-warming and I am so excited about it! My publisher is running a one-day special on it's release day, Nov. 6. The new book will be on sale for only .99 and the recently released devotional about prayer will be free that day only. Don't miss it!

New Release!

I have another book releasing! It's actually releasing on Dec 5th (and I am posting this on the 4th) but it's the news of the week and month!

The book is a themed devotional on the topic of prayer co-written by my childhood MK friend, Shirley Crowder and me. It makes the third in our prayer series with the others being Prayer: It's Not About You written by me, Study Guide on Prayer: A Companion to Prayer: It's Not About You written by Shirley. We are currently working on the fourth and final book in this series. It will be an anthology that we hope to have released by PixNPens in summer '18.

But the interesting thing about this new release is that it straddles two different book series. Shirley and I currently have a seasonal devotional that we hope to rework and also add two more to cover the  year. Those three, "Glimpses of God in the Winter/ Spring", "Glimpses of God in the Summer/Fall", "Glimpses of the Savior" which takes the reader through the end year holidays of Thanksgiving and Christmas and the New Year, and the book releasing tomorrow, Glimpses of Prayer will also make a four-book devotional series.

And as a special bonus, all of the Glimpses books will be illustrated by my talented daughter, Kristin Michael.

I will not always partner with Shirley nor she with me. I have other ideas in the works, some I hope to write alone, and one I am collaborating with someone other than Shirley. She has another devotional she just released that she co-wrote with someone other than me. So, we are not always writing partners butt we do work well together and have future plans for quite a few more collaborations. Meanwhile, we celebrate the latest one!

Here's a pictur of us a kids ... long ago in a faraway land. (Shirley is kneeling in the plaid dress, I am standing behind her, next to the really tall boy.)