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| Melinda Viergever Inman |
Don’t Give Up
If the Lord has gifted you and called you to write, persevere. Don’t give up! He has called you to a vocation that involves much time in the wilderness. Writing for the Lord usually involves long periods of invisibility and seasons of hardship.
As a writer, you are a proclaimer of truth, a prophet. “The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy,” Revelation 19:10 informs us. Writers testify, giving testimony to the work of Jesus in our lives, the message of God’s Word, and the calling and impact of the Gospel.
Pause to consider the prophets. Now consider the apostles and the earliest disciples. Reflect upon the lives they lived. Let your mind scroll through your inner files. None lived easy lives. Proclaimers of truth never do.
Elijah faced down the prophets of Baal, and then he ran for his life from Jezebel, overcome with terror. Jeremiah proclaimed a message no one wanted to hear, so they threw him into a cistern where he sank into the mud until he nearly suffocated. When he was rescued, he continued his mission. Stephen proclaimed the gospel to a hardened people. They stoned him. Paul was stoned, beaten, broken, and shipwrecked, and then he gave his life for the sake of the gospel when Nero beheaded him.
Don’t let this scare you. The Lord is with you. Don’t give up.
The Lord has said in Hebrews 13:5b-6 (ESV): “’ I will never leave you nor forsake you.’ So we can confidently say, ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?’”
Writers must ponder life, the condition of mankind, and the whys and implications of actions. We must think. We must research. These very acts must involve periods of isolation, times of being alone to consider and to reflect, to dig and to discover, to realize and then to write.
Hardships come into our lives so we can learn the lessons of reliance upon the Lord and the lessons of growth. Then, we’re able to take that message and hone it into a tool to be used mightily in the hands of the Lord.
Why are we able to write fiction with great emotion, with insight into the inner pain and struggles of our characters? We write because we, too, have suffered. Why are we able to determine plot twists and calamities that must befall our heroes? We know because we have seen the impact of these very events upon our own lives.
Writers must have a variety of experiences. Experience teaches. Lessons learned inform. Life lived and pain suffered produces strong storylines and impacts readers in powerful ways.
This is why we write, why we weave the testimony of Jesus into our stories in unique and individual ways. God made us to write. He called us to the task, and he equips us by shaping our lives with rich experiences.
So, don’t give up! Press on!
No matter the obstacle, stay true to this calling the Lord has built into your life. You won't regret it when you see him face to face. He’ll welcome you with open arms, and the Lord who sees all that you experience in the darkness of night, the dark nights of the soul, and the dark times of suffering will repay you for all you’ve given, a reward heaped high and overflowing, an eternity with him in his very presence.
Don’t give up. Lay aside the things that try to pull you from your calling.
With Paul, let us say: “Forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13b-14 ESV).
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| Melinda V Inman, Author of Refuge; Fallen; and No Longer Alone |
Raised on the Oklahoma plains in a storytelling family, Melinda Viergever Inman now spins tales from her writer’s cave in the Midwest. Her faith-filled fiction illustrates our human story, wrestling with our brokenness and the storms that wreak havoc in our lives. Find her weekly at http://MelindaInman.com/blog/. To find her work and to be notified of future published novels, follow her at http://bit.ly/MelindasBooks/.
Connections:
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