​        Under “The Joy of Writing” portion of my blog, I would like to list some of the writing tips I’ve gathered along the way. They are not listed in order of importance. Here we go!

1. You can edit a bad page. You can’t edit a blank page. Keep writing.
2. When you edit your story, take out all the things that aren’t your story.
3. Carry a notebook everywhere. Our short-term memory keeps information for three minutes. If you don’t write it down, an idea can be lost.
4. Every sentence we write must either reveal character or advance the story.
5. Don’t dream about writing. Open your word processor and write.
6. As an author, we need to know what our characters want.
7. If your story doesn’t move you, how do you expect it to move anyone else?
8. We should know everything about our characters’ backstories, but only write about ten percent of it.
9. Be careful of rabbit trails – tangents that don’t lead anywhere or make the story better.
10. Know your audience. Who is most likely to buy your book?
11. Allow your scenes to play themselves out. Don’t try to wrap up a scene too quickly.
12. No matter how wonderful your main characters are, make awful things happen to them. The reader wants to know what they’re made of.
13. Every new page you write is a small triumph.
14. Don’t make yourself the main character of your book.
15. Use description in combination with action. That way, you cut it down to digestible pieces.
16. Dig deeper into the layers of emotion surrounding a plot event. Does something in the character’s past colour the incident? What unbidden thoughts come to their mind?
17. Readers read for emotion. They want to FEEL something. Give it to them.

         That’s it for now. When I collect more, I’ll pass them along.

            I’d like to begin today by looking at Genesis 17:1-5, NKJV.

       “When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am Almighty God; walk before Me and be blameless. And I will make My covenant between Me and you, and will multiply you exceedingly.”  Then Abram fell on his face, and God talked with him, saying: “As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, and you shall be a father of many nations.  No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you a father of many nations.”
         
             Note first of all that God appeared to Abraham as El-Shaddai, God Almighty. Shaddai means the breasty one, the nurse, the full supply. In other words, the God of more than enough.
           
           Secondly, the man and woman God made the covenant with couldn’t fulfill their part of the promise. Abraham was one hundred years old. Sarah ninety and had been barren all her life. That’s the contradiction to the promise God  made to them. They couldn’t do it but God could.
           
           Thirdly, God said He had made, not would make, Abraham the father of many nations. It was a fait accompli.
           
           Next, I would like to look at what Paul wrote in Romans 4:16-20 NKJV.

         “When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, “I am El-Shaddai— ‘God Almighty.’ Serve me faithfully and live a blameless life.  I will make a covenant with you, by which I will guarantee to give you countless descendants.”
 
         “At this, Abram fell face down on the ground. Then God said to him, “This is my covenant with you: I will make you the father of a multitude of nations!  What’s more, I am changing your name. It will no longer be Abram. Instead, you will be called Abraham, for you will be the father of many nations.

         “Therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace, so that the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all  (as it is written, “I have made you a father of many nations”) in the presence of Him whom he believed—God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did;  who, contrary to hope, in hope believed, so that he became the father of many nations, according to what was spoken, “So shall your descendants be.”  And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body, already dead (since he was about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah’s womb.  He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God…”

         The key is found in verse seventeen – the” God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did…” Abraham didn’t look at the contradiction. He didn’t consider his own body or Sarah’s dead womb or age. He looked at the covenant and did not waver at the promise.

         I think as believers we often waver at the promise and concentrate on the contradiction. For example, if I am facing a financial need, do I look at my negative bank account or at God’s promise to provide for all my need according to His riches, which are limitless? (Philippian 4:19). If I am sick, do I look at my symptoms (the contradiction) or at the Word of God in Isaiah 53:5 NKJV, (the covenant): “But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed.” In the New Testament, Peter writes in 1 Peter 2:24 TPT, “He himself carried our sins in his body on the cross so that we would be dead to sin and live for righteousness. Our instant healing flowed from his wounding.”

​           As born-again Christians, we must not yield to the contradiction but stand firmly on the promise. We must be determined to stay on the God side of everything.

            Where do you live – in the land of barely enough, just enough, or more than enough?
           
           For 430 years, the Israelites lived in the land of barely enough. “Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph.  And he said to his people, “Look, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we; come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and it happen, in the event of war, that they also join our enemies and fight against us, and so go up out of the land.”  Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh supply cities, Pithom and Raamses.  But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew. And they were in dread of the children of Israel. So the Egyptians made the children of Israel serve with rigor.  And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage—in mortar, in brick, and in all manner of service in the field…” (Exodus 1:8-14 NKJV).
           
           You know the story. When Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh to tell him that the God of the Israelites had told them to hold a feast to Him in the wilderness, Pharaoh asked who this God was that he should obey Him. Then he decreed that the Israelites would have to gather their own straw to make bricks and still fulfill their daily quota. In the land of Egypt, the children of Israel barely had enough to get by. When Moses told them God would deliver them, “…they did not listen to Moses on account of their anguish of spirit and for cruel bondage.” (Exodus 6:9, MEV).
           
            After plagues and the death of the firstborn, Pharaoh let the Israelites go and God led them out with a strong hand. However, when it came time to go in and possess the Promised Land, they feared the giants living there, disobeyed God, and failed to go in.  For forty years, they wandered in the desert, until the unbelieving generation passed away. But God was gracious to them. “For all these 40 years your clothes haven't grown old, and your feet haven't blistered or swollen." (Deuteronomy 8:4 TLB). The Israelites were no longer in bondage in the land of barely enough. They had entered the land of just enough.
           
           But all along, God’s plan had been for them to live in the land of more than enough. “The Lord your God will soon bring you into the land he swore to give you when he made a vow to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It is a land with large, prosperous cities that you did not build. The houses will be richly stocked with goods you did not produce. You will draw water from cisterns you did not dig, and you will eat from vineyards and olive trees you did not plant. (Deuteronomy 6:10-11 NLT). God had promised them a land flowing with milk and honey – the land of more than enough.
           
            So where do you live today? Are you still living in the land of barely enough or just enough? If so, God wants to lead you into the land of more than enough. The God we serve owns every animal of the forest and the cattle on a thousand hills (Psalm 50:10), the treasures hidden in darkness (Isaiah 45:3), and has promised to supply all our need, not according to the world’s faltering economy, but according to His limitless riches.
   
           Everything in God’s kingdom is based on the law of sowing and reaping. “Now He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your store of seed and will increase the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way to be generous on every occasion…” (2 Corinthians 9:10, Berean Study Bible). So sow your seed today and trust God to bring in the harvest. Stand on His promises. “Cast your bread upon the waters, For you will find it after many days.”  (Ecclesiastes 11:1 NKJV).

            And remember, it is through faith and patience we inherit the promises. “And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end, that you do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.” (Hebrews 6:11-12 NKJV). Go ahead – possess God’s Promised Land of more than enough. He wants you to have it.