What Should You Know About Being a Christian Writer?

I am a writer. 

When was the first time you realized this about yourself? When was the first time you believed it, said it to yourself or another person? Some of us knew from a young age that we were called to write and create. For others, the calling to write, especially to write from a Christian perspective, came later in life and perhaps as a surprise. 

Then, our expectations, ideas and imaginations about what that means and how we live this out enter the game and start making us doubt and question our calling and identity.

What should you know about being a Christian writer? Let me share with you two powerful insights about being a writer. Let these truths help you fight discouragement and doubts. 

1) Writing is a spiritual discipline. 

Being a Christian writer is not just a vocation, job or ministry. It is, first and foremost, a spiritual discipline. Viewing our writing as a spiritual activity helps us navigate writing and co-creating with God. 

This means that we learn to depend on God in our writing and do it by His grace and power. We trust Him to birth ideas and insights, and we trust Him for the very act of writing: to choose the right words, tone and form. We also rely on God for strength: the spiritual, mental and physical strength to perform the act of writing. 

The truth is that, connected with God, we will never run out of ideas, messages and inspiration. The Spirit of the Lord is the living water bubbling fresh in us every day and empowering us to be writers. 

2) Being a Christian writer means you will be tested. 

As a spiritual discipline, writing is also a path to know God deeper and better and to grow in maturity, obedience, perseverance and self-control. However, testing often precedes growth.

I know this is something you may not have considered and signed up for when you accepted God’s invitation to serve Him as a writer, but it is part of the package. 

As writers, God entrusts us with His precious words and messages, and this is an awesome privilege but also a huge responsibility. God will surely prepare and purify us for this role and will do this regularly. 

We are not only called to write His words; we need to live it out. Being God’s vessels and leaders means testing and learning to deal with failure, loneliness, rejection and disappointment.

It means we will suffer and may be the object of spiritual attacks. We need to shed the romantic imagination that being a Christian writer is an easy path, marked by success after success, book after book, popularity and even financial rewards. 

Being a Christian writer has a price, and this price is to endure testing and suffering.

The good news is that God has already prepared everything for us to succeed in our callings as writers and to endure the refining process with Him. His goal is not just to become better writers but to reflect His image better. 

If you are being tested now and feel discouraged because of this — doubting and questioning your calling and abilities as a writer — don’t. 

You can acknowledge the truth instead that the Lord is at work in you to refine you, grow you, and entrust you as a writer with even greater revelations and messages, a bigger responsibility, and broader reach. 

Trust God’s process: Writing is writing you. 

Blessings,

Hadassah Treu

Which of these two truths did you need to hear today? Share in the comments.