Divine Happenings In A Small Christian Bookstore

On Saturday Dan, myself, and the girls drove to St. Petersburg, FL. I had a book signing and Dan took the girls to the beach. The book store was cute, and the owner was very nice but my first reaction wasn’t one of excitement. I began to get a tad worried. After Dan took the girls, I realized there weren’t a whole lot of people coming in and out of this store. As I mentioned last week going into a Books-A-Million store, those are fun because you get a lot of traffic at your table and it’s a real chance to be in the marketplace ministering, but in this situation that wasn’t the case.

So I walked around the store praying, I sat praying, and I kept thinking “Did I miss it God?” I was there for an hour and I don’t think I shared with anyone about my book, and I began to tell myself this wasn’t wasted time but a lesson well learned. That maybe I should have prayed more before putting my book tour together. I reasoned within myself that at least my family was having a fun afternoon and so it wasn’t a loss.

About an hour into this book signing a group of ladies came into the store and I started talking with one of them. I could feel right away there was a real God connection with her.

“So do y’all live around here?” I asked.

“We live in Miami.” She responded. Immediately my ears perked up. I had been asked by my publisher to go to a bookstore in Miami, and scheduled it in May. Really I scheduled it in faith because Miami is a bit of a drive from me and I wanted to turn it into a weekend where I could preach somewhere down there. As of that moment I hadn’t found anyone who would listen to me.

“Do you know of anywhere that would let me come and minister?” I asked her.

She smiled, “Well, I’m going to buy your book and I’ll talk to some people.” That was the end of the conversation about all that. She bought my book. I thanked her. It was only when I signed it did I realize she was a Pastor. She left the store.

About a half an hour went by, and in the window I could see her and a man with her coming back through the parking lot.

“Anna,” she started as they paused by my table. “I want to introduce you to my pastor.” It was then that the whole story came out. Her pastor from Miami was in town ministering at a revival. When she spoke to me earlier she didn’t know where he was at the moment, but as she and her friends went to lunch He had met them and joined them. She insisted that he come back to the book store and meet me. After talking for a bit, He invited me to come down to Miami and preach at their church while I’m there. We exchanged information. After I get back in contact I’ll announce the wheres and when’s for this meeting, but without a doubt this was a God connection.

Psalm 37:23 “The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD, And He delights in his way.”

It wasn’t until I got home, and found myself exhausted did I remember that I kept waking up the night before with a prompting to pray and did at various times. It’s awesome how I saw God orchestrate all of this, and while I certainly questioned if I’d missed God’s plan for this event, it seems to me now that the whole thing had been divinely orchestrated.

Sometimes people have this idea that every time one steps in the plan of God you’ll get this loud booming voice from on high telling you that you need to go a certain direction. In this case that wasn’t at all true. I prayed and was led. I may have questioned it, but my steps were ordered by the Lord. Just as I just seemed to have fallen into God’s plan on this one, He does that for all His children. Just stay sensitive to His leading and keep trusting in Him. Remember He has awesome plans for your life. Get excited!