#WriterRevelations: Rely On the Source (Manna From Heaven)

Boy, it always amazes me how much God uses my life to preach and teach to my readers. After two months of very few updates, I am back with three new posts over the next month!

It's been almost a year since I got fired from Wal-mart. And ten months since I quit working seasonally for UPS. Yet, I've managed to work as a freelance writer for the span of two years. And no matter the client, I've always done my best work because that's how I am when it comes to writing, it's my best work, or I step back and wait for it.

The same goes with these blog posts. I pray, pray, and pray for a word for you guys and then magically the happenings in my life seem to mirror the overall theme I receive during my Bible study and then I sit down to write. You can bet I pray about plots and subplots for my novel as well. If I am going to write it, I always bring it to the throne room for the final anointing so God can use it to minister and encourage his children.

I used to blog about my daily occurrences but this year, God asked me to start a new series called Writer Revelations: A writer chick using the Bible to explain and challenge people to live their best life. So anything I want to be silly about or less than serious gets posted elsewhere (mostly Twitter), and here is where I present what God wants you to know.

You don't have to be a Christian to receive these messages. Whatever faith or denomination you subscribe to, as long as you believe in a higher power, these words of encouragement will work to make a difference in your life.

And if you don't believe me, that's fine. I will just preach this to myself. LOL.

Since the beginning of the year, I've been planning a short trip to Disney in order to give myself some hands-on experience in the parks so that my novel reads authentically. Plus, I figured it was a grad trip I could give myself for getting past 20,000 words in my WIP.

Come the end of August, things were looking like I may or may not go. Then, my mom happened to write to her cousin via social media and ask if she could get us $79 tickets for our trip. Yet, she asked when we were planning to come out, and it turned out she was off that day, and because she is a Disney World Castmember, she could get us in absolutely free.

God-wink #1.

Then, came the news of Hurricane Irma, and people everywhere started to panic. Prior to this news, Panera Bread notified me that I was chosen to receive a free Daily Bagel From Panera.  

 I bet you are thinking, "Ok, what does that have to do with anything?" As you may remember, I was kicked off food stamps back in May, and have struggled with that for the past four months, so God provided manna for the month of September so I would remember who the source of all things really is.

Yet, since the Hurricane was heading for my home state, Panera was closed for a week, and my trip truly looked like it wasn't going to happen. There was nothing that I could do except one: it doesn't get enough credit but it's probably the most vital thing we can do at anytime in this life.

Yet, Irma came and left without my house suffering severe damage other than our front fence falling down. We never lost power, got flooded or even evacuated because we have faith in the Source.

My faith was high and I was floating like a leaf in the blistery, hurricane force winds. Yet, the day following the aftermath, my boss of two years wrote me saying he did not know when he was going to be able to pay me. I got a little concerned. Here I was heading to Orlando, about to spend every dime I had managed to save starting with my tax refund at the beginning of the year, and my boss was making me rethink this whole trip.

To make a long story short, I ended up choosing to trust in God despite the fear of lack and poverty that besought me, and God rewarded me for it.

I went on my trip and had a killer time. For a full 25 minute video of the whole experience, please check out my #WaltLife VLOG.

This trip proved so many things to me but basically #1 is that

If God cares about the number of hairs on your head, what makes you think whether you go on vacation or not does not matter to him? So, whatever you perceive as fun, God cares about that.

God showed me that with my trip because every little detail of it was taken care of and I was able to just enjoy being in the moment for the first time in a while. Plus, he cares about the fate of my novel which boggles my mind because it's just this glorified Ryan Sheckler Disney fanfiction that I started when I was 14 but he has turned it into best-selling material that will speak to people from all walks of life which I can further praise him for.

I came back from my trip to find out that not only did I still have a job but my boss is going to pay me the full amount he owes me for 3 weeks of work, plus he even agreed to let me work two weeks in October after originally thinking he would need me to take a month off.

Thank God for his infinite love!

Sometimes I feel that ever since I started working when I was in college, it is easy to start to look at your self and your efforts and think of your job as your only source of income, provision, or prosperity but God has proven this year alone, that he still is REIGNING as the Source of all every time he rains his love, favor, and blessings on me.

My next post will go into this further but there has never been a month since being fired and prior to working at Wal-mart where I lacked for food, shelter, or a bed to sleep on. And even more amazing is when during those really hard months God will give me extra manna to buy that whatever I have my heart set on: whether it be a gift for my family member or dogs (I love to spoil my dogs in case that wasn't clear) or my favorite artists new album, or even a new athletic outfit to workout in.

MY God is so AMAZING to me because he CARES about it all.

The Lord is inviting you and I to trust Him and live in both the adventure and security of a life of faith.

Until next time remember,

In Christ Like Love and Confidence,

Chelsea

xoxo

#WriterRevelations: The Keys To Success (Christian Living)

Dear Lord, I'm so sorry. Some how I had all these intentions to post a blog last month but the month flew by and before you know it was Hazel's birthday.

If you're interested, here's some videos:

Hazel's 5th Birthday!

Hazel's Fifth Birthday Extras

Have you ever felt discouraged about trying to live the Christian Life? If your efforts to make a difference in the world seem fruitless, following the Lord's example could change your outlook.

How was he so effective? Scripture tells us that Jesus did not speak or act on His own initiative but instead depended on His Father abiding in him to do the work (John 14:10). And we are to do likewise.

Even though we may pour great effort and long hours into ministry, these alone won't produce fruitfulness. It's far more important to minister as the Lord intended.

What comfort this should give us!

Until next time, remember:

In Christ-Like Love and Confidence,

Chelsea

xoxo

#WriterRevelations: Our Awesome God

When I was a kid, my parents always had Christian music on so I naturally grew up worshipping God whenever music was playing. I can't say we never listened to secular music but I loved Christian music and didn't realize till I was in middle school how often I listened to it, until kids pointed it out to me.

One song I used to love to sing was on the WOW CD and it was called Awesome God by Rich Mullins.

Our God is an awesome God. He reigns from heaven above with wisdom, power, and love. Our God is an Awesome God.

Recently, I've been listening to a lot of worship music and studying why we worship and the atmosphere it creates, and during Bible study recently, I felt the urge to sing that out loud.

So I did.

It gave me great peace and a smile that could rival the sun it shown so bright.

Nowadays, people call God's name with little reverence. Some use it as a curse.

We who believe in and love him, use his name so casually we don't really ponder all the He is.

Any prayer you pray in that name is being prayed to the Almighty God who created and rules over all things.

Three areas of our life are impacted by how we see God.

First, it affects our prayers. As we come to know God better and better, we start to yield more to his thoughts and plans for us, and our petitions align more closely with his purposes. I like to call it seeing God as a wide open door (more specifically, wide open arms) instead of a small, little doggy door we have to squeeze through.

Second, our understanding of His righteousness and goodness influences our behavior. When you know God desires to be good to you always and his mercy is relentless and endures long (Newsflash: God doesn't have a short fuse. He doesn't understand why humans are quick to snap over material things and while driving). If we mess up, we will again pursue our Christ-provided righteousness and repent of any and all sin( Big or small). One way I deal with this is if I start to feel an ache within about something I said, did, or even how I reacted, I walk away from the situation, and get still and say, "God, I repent of that. That was ugly, and you make all things beautiful, and I receive your forgiveness now. In Jesus' Name."

Third, our faith is impacted. Grasping that Jesus is holy, good, and powerful grows our trust in Him.
They say when you KNOW, YOU KNOW.

Do you know the Almighty God as your personal heavenly Father? He invites whosoever will believe into an intimate relationship with Him. But as with any good friendship, time and intentionality are
necessary to understand him and learn His ways.

Until next time, remember: