DR: A Writer's Prayer

Special Charis Connection Encore . . .

A Writer’s Prayer

A few years ago, for the first time since I’d begun writing, my job as a novelist was beginning to be more than a part-time pursuit. I had multiple contracts and my calendar was filling up with speaking engagements. We had two of our four kids in college and one still at home, and I was feeling conflicted about being a full-time mom while trying to also be a full-time writer to pay those tuition bills. The writing life wasn’t quite the bowl of cherries it had been at first, and I was letting a lot of things distract me from what I had originally trusted to be a calling.

One morning I was praying, feeling overwhelmed and pouring my heart out to the Lord about a pressing deadline. I asked Him what I should be doing. I rarely write down my prayers, but for some reason, this time I went to my computer and began to type the words I was praying. God answered my prayer that morning, and I’ve gone back to pray these same words many times in the years since. This prayer is personalized—you may not share my tendency to be a little lazy, for instance—still, I hope it might express the fears and desires of other writers who log on to Charis Connection today. As you adapt it for your own situation, I trust God will meet you with the same comfort and peace He gave me that morning. Without him directing our fingers on the keyboard, we are nothing more than noisy gongs and clanging cymbals.

Father God, quiet my heart and clear my mind this morning, and help me focus on this story You’ve given me to write. Keep me from anything that would distract from the work I need to accomplish, but also let Your Spirit within me discern what is truly a needless distraction and what is important enough that it should distract me. In my striving, never let me put project above people or worldly gain above things that are eternal.

As I write, guard me from my tendency to laziness, Lord. Nudge me to dig as deep as necessary in researching my story; remind me to use all the tools at my disposal so that I handle the language in a correct, yet creative way. At the same time, don’t let me focus so harshly on one “tree” that I never make it through the “forest.”

Lord, I know that as I write this book––a book that won’t be published for many months––even now, You are preparing hearts that will one day read my words. So let every word I write accurately reflect Your truth and Your precepts. Supernaturally imbue my writing with that quality that, by Your Spirit, will woo souls to You. In Jesus’ precious name, amen.

Deborah Raney, July 29, 2002
Deborah Raney, author of A Nest of Sparrows and Over the Waters
http://www.deborahraney.com