The Empty Chair

The one thing in my life I couldn’t live without is my team of prayer warriors. If you don’t have a group of friends, even one or two, who pray for you, then this post is for you.
If you do, then you’ll appreciate them even more after reading this.
*
Many of you know that for quite some time, I have been trying to have a book published. My current workbook, If Clothes Could Talk, was born out of the need for such a resource to be sold at my speaking engagements since I can’t go home with each person and invade their closets nor can I go shopping with each of them! We self-published because of the requests from my audiences and the Christian publishers didn’t quite understand that need.
*
Let me give you some info here. I have several specific groups of women who pray for me and I for them. The first group is my weekly Moms In Touch group at my son’s school. We have been meeting every Wednesday for 2 hours for the past 2 years. They are Patti, Dawn, Dana, Sharon, Tanya, Anne and Susan.
*
And then there is the “around the world team” These girls are: Bev from Iowa, Maria from Hawaii, Kim from Ohio, Lucy from China Grove, Mary from Michigan, Heather from Charlotte, and Gabie and Cindy from Miami.
*
I then have a few other friends who pray for me and I for them that include Nicki, Yvette, Victoria, Darya, Lisa and some P31 prayer sisters.
*
For almost 2 years, most of these women have been praying that my book would get published by a real live publisher. We have been praying that if God trusted me with it, I would do whatever I could to draw women to Him and help them see themselves in a more positive way.
*
About 2 weeks ago, I was sitting with my husband having coffee before running out the door to my weekly prayer group at school. Just before I left Dave reminded me to send an e-mail to someone. I told him I’d do it later (cause I didn’t want to be late) and he reminded me “there’s no time like the present.”
*
I quickly turned my lap top on,(I was very hurried) and a new e-mail came in.
*
It was from Zondervan telling me they were having a meeting that morning at 10am and I should pray and ask the Holy Spirit to be in the room because they were going to decide on my book that day.
I quickly forwarded that e-mail to my “around the world team”, headed out the door, cried on the way there because I was so emotional and went into prayer group and told them.
*
Exactly at 10am, the girls laid hands on me and prayed. They specifically prayed at 10am, the time of the meeting.
*
When I got home, I read the prayers that came in from my “around the world team” and one of them, Bev, prayed that there would be an empty chair in the room and that would be the Jesus sitting in it, leading the conversation of the meeting.
*
At 1:30pm, I received a call from Sandy at Zondervan.
*
They were going to publish my book.
*
You see, every other publisher that my agent had ever presented to has turned it down. And now, the biggest of them all, had said YES.
*
This past weekend as I was speaking in Michigan, Sandy from Zondervan came to meet me and watch the Friday and Saturday events.
Afterwards at dinner she told me that the meeting went so well, it was as if the Holy Spirit was right there in that room. She said they started brainstorming and the ideas just kept flowing. They even came up with a new title for the book. And then I asked what I’d been wanting to ask her:
“By any chance, was there an empty chair at that table?”
She said, “Yes, as a matter of fact there was, we sat around a table with 4 chairs, and there were only 3 of us.”
*
What they didn’t see, was Jesus sitting in the other chair!
*
Oh girls, the power of prayer…believe that God will perform a miracle for you!
*
When I was getting turned down for the last 2 years by all the other publishers, God just had bigger plans for it.
And so,

Good Girls Don’t Have to Dress Bad

will be released Fall 2010 coming to a bookstore near you!
*
Never ever underestimate the power of praying friends. Find some today and commit to praying for each other. Watch your life change and see miracles happen. Do you need a miracle in your marriage, for your child, for a job for your health? I promise, you’ll see one, but you must pray without ceasing.
*
Love you all and thank YOU for praying for me, cause I know many of you do.
*
Shari