Heeding His Call in Our Writing

I am participating in the Writing Contest: You Deserve to be Inspired. Hosted by Positive Writer.

 

 

I love writing. But I’m not always writing. Some of you may remember a post I wrote last year, “I’m a Writer, no really!” where I explained some of my journey with writing.

Today it is my goal to do my best to encourage you to keep writing. But not daily. Whaaat? You may be asking. I’m not saying you shouldn’t write every day.  But I’m also not one to say “Push through whatever is stopping you and just write 24/7!”. I know that’s what we, as writers, are told to do. Don’t wait for inspiration. But what if…what if we’re not “feeling” our story at the moment? What if when we have “writer’s block” that means we’re maybe not supposed to push through it at the moment?

If we’re writing for God, we are crowning Him King of our writing. He writes through us – it’s ultimately His story. There’s no other goal as worthy and fulfilling as writing for Him, because that means that even when we’re not published, our stories are being used for His glory because they’re for Him. Even if the whole world never gets a glimpse of our writings, He does and He loves them. I find a deep treasure in that.

So, sometimes God may have us stop in our stories. He may have us take a break. He may be prompting us to wait on Him when we feel no inspiration. And I recommend listening to that prompting. Our writing will be SO much richer when we wait on God. Wait for His “Go”.

I’m not saying to be lazy. If God is calling you to write, even through periods of no inspiration, then go for it. What I AM saying is, please, heed His call no matter what that is, in your writing. If He says stop, take a break, then seek Him why you’re writing isn’t flowing at the moment. If He’s showing you to keep going, run that race with His endurance! Sometimes it will be tough, but if He’s at the helm, He’ll give you the words. He’ll guide you and show you He’s in control.

I’ve gone through periods of times where I’ve sat down at my desk and pulled out one of my story notebooks, sharpened a pencil and just stared at where I left off. Wanting words to start flowing. Waiting for them. But they didn’t come. I wanted to write. I thought, “I can do this. Everyone else does.” And I tried writing by myself. If I was able to write anything, it was rubbish because I had run ahead of God and His leading. I wanted to do it all by myself. And so you know what God did to lovingly teach me? He took away my writing ability. I could form no written words. I couldn’t even write a book review. I was at a total loss for words, and I broke down and cried. I realized, I can’t do this on my own. I can’t push through His telling me to wait. Without Him I simply cannot write. He wanted to show me that yes, He’s blessed me with the talent of writing, but without Him it is nothing. Once I repented, gave my writing back to Him, I was able to write – but not me, Him. And it was fantastic. It felt so freeing, so wonderful, because it was in His timing, all about Him.

Three things I learned through this are:

1.It doesn’t matter what “everyone else is doing”. We are only called to follow God.

2. Apart from God I can do nothing. And that’s glorious when we can let go of our self-vision and lean on His.

3. Sometimes it’s not bad to wait. It can be a major time of refreshment.