The Bible tells us to be holy, and that without holiness we won’t see God. But what part does holiness play in the face of utter devastation? And how do we write through it? Guest Karen Stiller shares wisdom and encouragement from her difficult journey through grief and pain.

About Karen Stiller

Karen Stiller is an award-winning writer, a senior editor, and host of the Faith Today podcast. She’s written about being a pastor’s wife, and her newest book, Holiness Here, offers practical and inspiring ways to transform your life by helping you see the holiness within your ordinary, everyday life. You can find out more about her at Karenstiller.com. 

Thanks to our sponsors on Patreon, we’re able to offer an edited transcript of the podcast!

Erin: Welcome, listeners. We’re glad that you’re here in the deep with us. Today we’re continuing our conversation with Karen Stiller.

Now, Karen, you did mention grief. Let’s go there, because you had said before, when we were doing some emails, that you had to complete this book during a season of grief. First, how in the world did you do that? How did that affect you and the book? 

Karen Stiller: Yeah, I’ve been thinking so much about that because sometimes I think, over the last year and a bit, I think, I don’t know how I did it either, sometimes. And yet I do.

My husband had a kidney transplant, which should, for most people, be routine. You know, it changes your life, but it’s not a thing that will kill you. But that did happen with my husband.

My husband experienced a very severe and rare side effect of post-transplant lymphoma. He went into the hospital in the end of November, and he was dead by mid-January. He never came home again.

Karen Ball: Oh my gosh.

Karen Stiller: Yeah, it was very unexpected. The way he experienced lymphoma was on his brain, so it was a rocky path. As anybody who has loved anyone into heaven with brain cancer, it’s…well, I guess it’s probably different for lots of people…but it was hard. Very hard.

Karen Ball: Yeah.

Karen Stiller: I had written up till then. When I signed my book contract, I immediately set up a writing schedule. I signed in July, and I was going to do three chapters by the end of July, two by the end of August. One by the end of September, October, November, and December.

The book was due in January and I had built in time for revision. I felt really confident. I’m a big list person. I make lists and I make schedules, and that’s the way I get things done. I love a deadline.

When Brent went into the hospital, I think I was around chapter eight. I just obviously set the book aside. After he died, you know, actually there was a time where I thought, “I’m never gonna write again.”

I just couldn’t imagine…I couldn’t imagine a way forward in many things. But I also thought, “How will I ever find the desire or ability to write again?”

My agent knocked on my door at some point. The timelines are a bit off for me. It’s all a big blur in some ways, but she basically said, “If you can finish the book by a certain date, we can get back on the same timeline. Editing will be shortened. But there’s no pressure.”

My publisher was amazing and said they’d take the book whenever. They were, of course, wonderful during that season. They had sent a bouquet of flowers once, and I remember that theirs was the only one I carried upstairs to my bedroom. I think now that those flowers were like a symbol of hope for me. There is a little dot of light off in the distance if I can keep that alive.

I was off my day job as an editor and podcast stuff and all that for about three months. I just slowly picked up the book again and thought, “Can I?”

I dipped my toes in, and what I found was that writing a few mornings a week gave me a shape to the sort of endless days and weeks I was in.

It kind of woke me up a little bit, and it gave me a sense of purpose, which I had lost, and it changed the book. I would be interested to hear from listeners who maybe made, or would’ve made a different choice, or have thoughts on this, or have gone through this. But my husband was very much part of my writing, obviously in The Minister’s Wife, but again, in Holiness Here.

My husband was very much part of my formation as a follower of Christ. I’d quote him throughout the book, or I’d tell a little story about something that happened in our church that involved him.  All of a sudden he died, and I didn’t know how to handle that as a writer in terms of the actual material.

I talked to a few people and I had in my head—I don’t know if people have heard this writing advice—write from your scars, not your wounds.

Karen Ball: Right.

Karen Stiller: I thought, “Well, I’m bleeding. I am deeply wounded, but yet I can’t not write about this huge thing.”

I felt like it would not have been honest to finish those last chapters without telling some, without sketching out a little bit of what had happened. This has been a big knock for me. I’d love to say that I’ve just been a conqueror in Christ through this, but no. I am pulling apart what it means to trust God and realizing that maybe I did think some things that weren’t true.

I never would’ve thought that, because my husband was a very, “Why me, why not me?” kind of man. He had a very robust, sound theology of suffering, which I thought I believed, too.

Then when he died a very hard death, I just…I just couldn’t believe it.

Karen Ball: Right.

Karen Stiller: I felt like I couldn’t finish this book about holiness honestly without tackling that. I wrote a chapter called “Sorrow,” and I wrote it very carefully because I knew I was writing from my wound.

As a beginning writer who would get an assignment from an editor, I would often write the angle on a post-it note and stick it on my computer wall so that I would stick to my assignment. Now I had a post-it note in my mind where I was like, “Your assignment is holiness. Your assignment is not writing a book about grief. Your assignment is holiness. So where is the holy in this horrible mess?”

I kept my lens tightly in on that, and it was good for me. It was good for me to write that. I offered to show it to all my children. Only my eldest son accepted the invitation. I just wanted their blessing. He thought it was honoring to his dad and to what we had gone through, so that made me feel comfortable, and I trust the editors.

Karen Ball: Mm-Hmm.

Karen Stiller: Where would we be without people telling us hard and wonderful things, right?

Karen Ball: Right.

Karen Stiller: I submitted my work to the process. I also knew that it is a privilege to have a book contract. My husband would’ve kicked my butt if he knew I had let it float away and that I couldn’t finish it.

I knew last year when I was doing this work that this year I would be glad I had done it. There was a discipline there, actually, which we have to have as writers, right? We know that a working writer knows how to work, and that woke me up. That woke me up.

I also thought that if I was a chef, I would be cooking. If I was a painter, I’d be painting. If I was a baker, I’d be baking. I’m a writer, and I’m writing. 

Erin: Wow. Well that was a lot to have to deal with.

Karen Stiller: It was a long answer.

Erin: No, I mean it was a great answer but a lot for you to wade through in trying to deal with that. I think your process was amazing. Just the notion of using holiness as a lens, because writers go through all kinds of things in their lives as they’re trying to write something.

It isn’t always as awful and traumatic as losing a spouse, but if we were able to realize that there is something to be said for just the discipline and the lens and trying to turn this book in even though this, this, and this is happening, because our lives may always be this, this, and this.

It doesn’t mean that we’re not supposed to write, it just means we’re supposed to be learning how to work through that.

Karen Stiller: I think that’s so important.

Erin: I was curious if, after you had been through this experience, when you went back in revisions and in other places in the book, how did your experience through this grief and this theology of suffering, like how did that maybe change other things in the book?

Karen Stiller: Wow, that is a very perceptive question. I did a lot of work. I went back and in every sentence I asked myself, “Do I still believe this, and if I don’t, is this because I’m just in this terrible situation and I will come back to this and I will recover from this?”

I made a lot of phone calls. My husband being a pastor, we had a lot of pastor friends. I probably need to apologize to a bunch of people for all my questions like, “Hi, do you have twenty minutes to talk to me? Okay, tell me why my husband died. Tell me what heaven is like. Tell me what he’s doing right now. Like, what do you think? What do you think? What do you think?”

I did a lot of those kinds of conversations with people to try to sort through my stuff and my pain, and partly so that I could try to understand what was happening, and then have that help me look at the work and say, “Yeah, I can still say this. I can still stand here.”

I think we all have fences in our writing lives, probably, of things that we won’t do, or won’t write about. For me, again, married to a priest, that was very much part of my calling, too. I always had a very simple way kind of guardrail for my life as a pastor’s wife.

It was: Do no harm. Do no harm. I’ll not harm my husband’s work. I will not always say what I want to say. I will do no harm. That probably has seeped into my writing life, too. I would think like if I had just gone full-wound bleeding on the page, it wouldn’t have helped anyone. It certainly wouldn’t have helped the book.

I knew that I was on a journey of hopefully recovery and healing. You know, you always live with grief. I’ve been told that, and I see that that is true. So I just wanted to be really careful, and so I did interrogate the whole book again.

I did make some changes. There are some statements I changed into questions, but that’s the kind of writer I am anyway. I am not an answer giver. I’m a question asker and so I’m pretty comfortable with that. 

Erin: Yeah. What I love is—I know this seems awful—but this was also a gift in terms of how you had to go back and ask yourself those questions.

Karen Stiller: Yeah.

Erin: Not every believer faces that kind of a situation where they’re forced to go back and say, “Do I still believe this? In light of what’s happening in my life, do I still believe this? Do I still believe this?”

I think that is one good thing that came out of that and can come out for other people who are going through these kinds of issues.

Karen Stiller: Yeah. One really big thing I learned…I’d spoken with a spiritual director for writers a couple years ago, and she kind of set me up to think in this way because there was a time, like when I was writing the Minister’s Wife, if I had a little fight with my son in the morning, I’d think, “Oh, there goes my writing day.” Like,”I’m in a bad mood now. I can’t write.”

My spiritual director for writers, she had helped me dig into that a little bit and think about how that kind of compartmentalization cannot help us be writers. Everything does not have to be perfect for me to write. That set me up well for believing, and for the questions we were talking about in the last episode, “Anxiety, what do you have for me? Fear? What are you bringing to the table?”

I had to believe that my grief was then and is now, in there doing something that I will write out of, even if I don’t write about it. I think that’s important for writers.

Karen Ball: It’s a thread. Everything that we’re faced with, everything that we experience, is a thread in the tapestry that God is weaving of our lives. Every single thread adds an element that we may not understand, or see, or appreciate until we see the completed tapestry.

Then we can look at that and say, “Ah. Okay. That’s why that was there, because it needed to be there to compliment this, and to bring this out, and to enhance this, and to clarify things.”

I think when we face these difficult questions, ”Do I still believe this? Is God who he says he is? Is God’s goodness real?” And I’ve heard believers say, “I’m starting to doubt the goodness of God…” I listen to those things, and I think because I don’t have a theological mind, I have a simple mind, a simple faith of trust because I saw such a powerful example of that in both my parents. I was raised with the sure knowledge that God is who he says he is.

But when my husband and I were separated, and I had been emotionally abused and all of those kinds of things, I had to acknowledge that…I’d always thought that when I finally came face to face with God, I would run and leap up into his lap, like a child, just grab him and hug him. One very dark night, I was talking with him and I said, “I don’t think I know you well enough to jump into your lap, and I’m not sure that I trust you well enough to do that, because this was not the cruise I signed on for.”

I’m not at the end of it. Don and I still work through things. We’ve been married for either 45 or 46 years—I’m not a math head. But as I I look at it, I think to myself that I wouldn’t have known God to the depth and the certainty that I know him now, at sixty-six years old, had I not gone through all of that.

All of it, every single thread needed to be there for me to be able to say with absolute certainty that God is who he says he is, and God is good, and all things do work together for our good as followers, because it’s all about him.

It’s not about me. It’s all about him and how I can reflect him. When you’re talking about working toward holiness, that self-examination, that coming to understand ourselves in light of who he is, it’s vital.

Karen Stiller: Yeah. 

Erin: We’re coming to the end of our time here. Do you have any final words of wisdom you want to leave with our listeners?

Karen Stiller: I’m struck, from what you just shared, Karen, about the work of finding meaning and that we can find meaning without getting into causation. For example, I can believe that I will find meaning that will show up in my writing out of what we’ve gone through as a family, and that doesn’t mean that’s why it happened. You know what I mean?

Erin: Right. 

Karen Stiller: The two things do not have to equal, but we will not waste it.

When my husband was dying, and after he died, throughout that time I kept speaking with my children, who are young adults, because Brent could not communicate what he would’ve wanted to communicate. I knew him so well, I knew what he would’ve wanted said, and I said those things.

One of them was that we have to honor what has happened here, this terrible tragedy and pain, by not letting it go to waste. We have to make this mean something, and that hopefully makes us more beautiful people, and more empathetic, and all of those things, and aware of the suffering of the world, and aware that God is with us in that. He is with us.

That is a big faith thing to say.

Karen Ball: Yes.

Karen Stiller: Even that little thing, it sounds so little, but it’s really big. So I guess I would encourage writers, whatever you are going through…you know, we can be like hungry hounds for material, right? Well, you are your greatest material.

It doesn’t mean you have to write about yourself. Of course, we’re not all going to do that. But you can honor what is happening in your life by allowing it to become part of the garden of your writing. I think that’s a beautiful thing that artists do, whatever kind of artists we are.

Writers are artists and makers, which reflects something of God’s creative nature. Don’t build those walls inside yourself. Tear those walls down and see what grows there. I think that can be a beautiful thing. 

Karen Ball: I love the imagery that you mention of it becoming a part of the garden of our lives.

I live in the northern part of Washington state, and right now we’re seeing some blossoms in the garden, but it’s still pretty barren. During the winter with the cold and the snow, it’s easy to believe, to look at it and to think, and I confess, I thought it a few times, “It’ll never be beautiful again.”

A garden has to die in order to come to life. It’s the cycle that God has created. In our own lives, some things have to die before he can bring it to the full, bright, fragrant bloom that he intends for us to be in him. And that he intends us to see him in all that beauty and in all the growth that comes from the death.

Thank you so much for being with us, Karen. You have been a phenomenal blessing, and I pray that God will continue to guide and to touch and be present for you.  

Karen Stiller: Thank you Karen and Erin, and thank you on behalf of writers everywhere who listen to this show and the wonderful guests you bring on and the way you minister. And again, that idea what you said at the beginning that you’re chaplains to writers? Writers need chaplains, so I’m really thankful.

Karen Ball: Thank you.

Guest @karenstiller1 shares wisdom and encouragement from her difficult journey toward holiness through grief and pain. #amwriting #christianwriter
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Holiness Here: Searching for God in the Ordinary Events of Everyday Life by Karen Stiller

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The post 213 – Holiness and Grief with Guest Karen Stiller appeared first on Write from the Deep.

Holiness. It’s one of those BIG words for Christians. So how do we, as Christian writers, develop holiness and bring it into play in our writing? Guest Karen Stiller shares her journey toward holiness and how God has blessed and challenged her.

About Karen Stiller

Karen Stiller is an award-winning writer, a senior editor, and host of the Faith Today podcast. She’s written about being a pastor’s wife, and her newest book, Holiness Here, offers practical and inspiring ways to transform your life by helping you see the holiness within your ordinary, everyday life. You can find out more about her at Karenstiller.com. 

Thanks to our sponsors on Patreon, we’re able to offer an edited transcript of the podcast!

Erin Young:  Welcome, listeners! We’re delighted that you are here with us today. We have a guest. Yay!

Karen Ball: Yes, we do! Karen Stiller is the author of The Minister’s Wife, A memoir of Faith, doubt, friendships, loneliness, forgiveness, and More. And the co-author of Craft Cost and Call, how to Build a Life as a Christian Writer. She’s an award-winning writer whose work has appeared in Reader’s Digest, the Walrus, Extasis. Christianity Today and many other publications.

She’s a senior editor of the Canadian Magazine, Faith Today, and hosts the Faith Today Podcast, where she has interviewed wonderful thinkers, leaders, and writers like Phillip Yancy and Ann Voskamp.

Karen’s work has taken her to the South Sudan, Uganda, Senegal, Cambodia, and across North America. She’s also moderated the Religion and Society series at the University of Toronto, a debate between leading atheists and theologians. Karen loves to teach writing and coach writers on their journey.

Welcome, Karen Stiller!

Karen Stiller: Thank you so much, and I just love the way you two talk and introduce the show. That lilt in your voices, it just lifts a person’s spirit. So I always enjoy that. 

Karen Ball: Oh, thank you. Our hope is always to encourage and to, in a way, be chaplains to writers. To let writers know that they’re not alone and that God’s got them. 

Karen Stiller: That’s beautiful. Chaplains to writers. Love it. 

Erin Young: So, Karen, what does the deep mean to you? 

Karen Stiller: That is such a deep and challenging question. My answer today is probably different from the answer I gave a couple of years ago when I was on your podcast for the first time.

When I think about the deep right now, I think about the place from which we experience our deepest longing and yearning, pain and hope, and the place of our deepest honesty and transparency. And hopefully, because of all that, the place  we write from. 

Erin Young: Amen. How can we write without transparency? One of the cool things that’s happened recently for Karen Stiller is she has a new book out called Holiness Here: Searching for God in the Ordinary Events of Everyday Life.

This is a quote from the book, “Holiness is a search that marks the life of a Christian.” So, Karen, how might that look specifically our search for holiness as writers?

Karen Stiller: I know and I understand theologically that we are holy because God has made us holy and that our our holiness as believers comes from the fact that God is holy and has said that we are too through our relationship with Jesus Christ.

And we may wonder, what does it mean that I’m holy? I’ve seen this through my years as a minister’s wife. It seems to be common that we actually don’t think we’re holy and we reject that title or that word because it feels awkward. I mean, no one wants to be quote unquote holier than thou.

And also it feels so other from how we know ourselves to be on the inside. So I’ll just preface my answer in that way. As a writer who is perhaps trying to write spiritual things––and not every Christian writer has to be writing Christian fiction or spiritual formation books––we want to make sure that we are writing in honesty, that transparency.

We want to honor God, and be true to ourselves and what we know of God in our lives. For me, it really is about the honesty piece. I feel that my vocation is to write as honestly as possible in the Christian space.

That is very much a part of how we are holy as writers. Of course, there are some individual elements to how we live and what we are called to write about. But yeah. Let’s start there. 

Karen Ball: It’s also important for us to recognize that holiness is not something, in essence, we can attain. Holiness comes to us by Christ’s blood covering us. It’s His holiness that the Father sees, not our holiness as individuals.

We can seek to live “holy lives” as we emulate and follow what Christ has told us to do. And again, it’s His holiness. But trying to attain true holiness on our own can become a distraction that the enemy has put in our hearts and minds because we do feel so inadequate. And so we need to rest in the truth that our holiness is really Christ’s holiness.

We need to embrace that and then follow Him and submit to Him in our writing and in our lives and say, “lead me. Help to hear Your voice and see Your guidance because we too often get confused and distracted by what’s working in the market and how do I do deep point of view, and all of these aspects of being a writer that can d interfere with our primary focus, which should be on Christ.

Karen Stiller: Paying attention and being very mindful of what is happening inside of us as we think about these things is important. So I may say out loud, and mean it at the time, that I’m not gonna chase the market or that I’m really truly cheering on another writer, that I’m not jealous or envious of their success, I know that’s right. 

But then on the inside, my gut may be feeling something a little different. My heart may be feeling something a little different, and as we pay attention to what’s happening on the inside, that does help our sinking into and living out of the holiness God has given us. Because then we can repent. Say we’re sorry.

A big part of my book is that we grow and change. We grow closer to God through the arc of our life of attempts at faithfulness. And through our spiritual disciplines, our attempts to live out of our holiness, which God has told us to do, and asked us to do, and shown us how to do.

I have a chapter on hospitality and I playfully say that Jesus actually gives instructions for a dinner party. You know, who’s to sit where, and who should you invite. So something is required of us. Yes, it is one  hundred percent grace, but in our response we find our sanctification. And that is really important. We are participants of God in our faith journey. 

So in the life of a writer, it has all kinds of implications for our posture toward our writing. I have been thinking lately about how our posture impacts our practice. You can’t talk about holiness without humility. And so humility helps our writing because it means that we are open to showing it to other writers.

We’re open to the editing process. We embrace revision because we know it’s not right the first time. We know other people have good things to say to us about our work and that makes our work better.

You know, there are all kinds of implications for that collaboration with other writers. For example, the ways we pour into the writing community. All of the good ways of doing that could be viewed as acts of holiness and it helps in everything. 

Erin Young: I love that. I to go back to what you said about running across a lot of people who doubt their holiness. For writers, that could make them doubt their qualifications to be a Christian writer. So both of you are correct: it’s Christ’s holiness, and yet we also have a responsibility to take part in the process.

Our works of faith prove that we are followers of Christ, though we’ll never do them perfectly. But if there are writers out there may be doubting themselves or God’s call, realize that that is one of the lies that we writers are so susceptible to. 

Karen Stiller: That reminds me of the scene I have in the book where I had this lovely moment with a younger writer who was going through that phase. At some point, we all go, “Am I a writer? Can I call myself a writer? “

This conversation between us happened in the sanctuary of our church. And I said, “Hannah, I pronounce you writer. You are a writer.” And I could tell because I had been in a bit of a mentor role with her and I was an older sister in Christ, it felt special. And she still refers to that moment as being so important. That she just needed someone bossy to tell her that. To validate. 

And in the book I draw a parallel with our sense of our own holiness, our acceptance of our holiness. Because once you start to say, “I’m a writer,” people actually start to expect some writing from you, right? And if you believe what God says about us––how beloved we are and that He has made us holy––then all three of us in this conversation are holy.

It may feel ridiculous to say, even off-putting and “aaahhh!” But when we view ourselves that way, then we can start to act a little different in light of that holiness. And that can be an adventure!

I’m really trying to shift the thought of holiness away from a big, heavy thing and help people just like consider it a warm invitation from God to a life of adventure and and beauty and love. 

Erin Young: I love that when you said those words to that person, you were speaking truth. As writers, we should be so aware of the power of words.

Words have truth and we pray our words make things happen via God. You know, He’s the One doing these things, but He gives us words to use to take part. So for you guys out there who are wondering if you’re writers? Yes!

Karen Stiller: Yeah, we pronounce you writers.

Erin Young: That’s right. So you can walk and act accordingly. Now, we may have touched on this a little bit, but what do you think then holiness has to do with money and work as it comes to writing? 

Karen Stiller: In the book, when I talk about money, partly I share my own journey with worrying about money and wanting more of it. So in my writing life, I was looking for a job that I could do around the raising of my children. And I was very fortunate, because being a mom helped me become a writer.

My husband was a priest, an Anglo priest, and we were not a high income family. We had just always lived at a certain level from student life into having children. So not being used to two incomes ever, we didn’t have the hard work of shedding things to be able to afford my being at home. And that enabled me to build up my writing life over the years as my kids’ schedules allowed. 

But I was trying to make a living, to bring more money into our household to pay for ballet and hockey. And I was ambitious, right? I had what I used to call a ball of fire in my belly. So I really wanted to have a writing life that paid money. Sometimes that probably was not fueled by the right things, but sometimes it was from a desire to care for my family and contribute.

So honest self-examination is important on the path of holiness. Taking time to think, “What’s going on here? What am I actually thinking and feeling and doing? Where is God in this? And where can God be more in it?”

For me, as for many others, money often is where the rubber hits the road. 

And I remember the publisher saying, “Money?” Because that was one of my proposed chapters. “What does money have to do with Holiness?” And I was like, “Oh, well for me it had a lot to do with holiness. Because I had to wrestle that monster to the ground. 

Erin Young: Yeah. 

Karen Stiller: And I have good friends who don’t have any issues around money at all. So I know it’s not universal, but it’s very common that we need to deal with our thinking about money. 

Karen Ball: Karen, you mentioned self-examination earlier, which helps with this. We need to look into why we worry about money and why we want to make more.

Of course, there are good, solid, and even holy reasons for doing that, but making that too important often stems out of fear. We fear won’t be enough, or that God really doesn’t supply our needs.

So if we don’t do something to build up our bank account and savings––and as I say savings, I’m laughing to myself. Writers with a savings account?––but if we don’t do everything that we can to build that up, then what will happen to us? 

Erin Young: Mm-Hmm. 

Karen Ball: We did a podcast on George Mueller and the power of his praying life. Whenever there was a need, he would go to God and pray for that specific need, and then walk away, trusting that God would provide. And He always did. Sometimes in phenomenal ways, sometimes little things trickling in, but always enough to meet the needs .

Erin Young: One of the interesting things about money for me has come from Jeremiah 2:13, which says, “My people have committed two sins. They have forsaken me the spring of living water and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.”

So I try to think, well, am I digging my own cistern here? Which parts of this desire for money are just letting God flow, and which part is me just wanting that cistern, that security. It’s always something to wrestle with.

Karen Stiller: It helps to have a good friend to talk with, to share our struggle. It’s hard to be honest about our feelings around money. It can be scary to be the person to confess that you want more of it, or live without enough of it, or whatever the issue is. I agree with everything you’re saying, and yet I work really hard. 

Erin Young: But that’s okay, too. 

Karen Ball: Right. Trusting and resting in God doesn’t mean you don’t work hard. It means you don’t make that your primary goal and you don’t worry about it. Anxiety can be a killer for creativity and for trust in God. When we let anxiety creep into our hearts and our spirit, it’ll do harm. 

Karen Stiller: But here’s what I do…and this has a little bit to do with that deep place answer…and I am definitely in the middle of trying to figure this stuff out….but if I am experiencing anxiety or sorrow or fear, my temptation before would’ve been to feel badly that I feel badly. So now I try to almost welcome it in and say, “What do you have for me? What is the message you have for me, fear? Anxiety, what are you trying to tell me?” 

These feelings add to the experience we’re having in the world. You know, I keep thinking of the word curiosity. Why not be curious about what is happening in our spirit and in our hearts? Not, “I’m disappointed in my disappointment,” or being grieved over our grief. Instead, know it’s all part of being a human and ask what is this teaching me? And how can I write about it? 

Karen Ball: Right. They say nothing is ever wasted in a writer’s economy! And there’s a big difference between having the feelings and dwelling in the feelings. 

What a great conversation, what a great exploration of holiness. In our next podcast will be going on with Karen Stiller, and there we’ll be talking about holiness in the face of utter devastation. So don’t miss it!

How do we develop holiness and bring it into play in our writing? Guest @KarenStiller1 shares her experiences and wisdom. #ChristianWriter #amwriting
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Holiness Here: Searching for God in the Ordinary Events of Everyday Life by Karen Stiller

WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU!

Do you struggle with the idea of holiness in your life and writing? What steps can you take today to embrace holiness?

THANK YOU!

Thank you to all our patrons on Patreon! You help make this podcast possible! If you want to add your support, visit patreon.com/writefromthedeep.  We’d sure appreciate it! 

Special thanks to our April sponsor of the month Christy Bass Adams. She’s the author of a devotional titled Learning As I Go: Big Lessons from Little People, and a middle grades novel, The Adventures of Cricket and Kyle: Imagination Checkers. She’s also a speaker and leads women’s conferences and Bible studies, and she’s a monthly contributor to Inspire-a-fire and a newspaper columnist for Greene Publishing. Find out more about Christy at her website christybassadams.com

Many thanks also to the folks at PodcastPS for their fabulous sound editing!

STAY CONNECTED

Want the latest news from Karen and Erin? Click here to join our newsletter and get an exclusive audio download.

The post 212 – The Writer’s Path to Holiness with Guest Karen Stiller appeared first on Write from the Deep.

One of the most profound, and necessary, gifts we can give ourselves is rest. Not only is it a good idea, but God designed us to rest. Yet too often we just keep going. We don’t want to be lazy, after all. Guest Kathleen Denly shares what happens when our misguided ideas about rest become unhealthy, and how we can ensure this gift is the blessing it’s meant it to be.

About Kathleen Denly

Kathleen Denly writes historical romance to entertain, encourage, and inspire readers toward a better understanding of our amazing God and how he sees us. Award winning author of the Chaparral Hearts series, she also shares history tidbits, thoughts on writing, books reviews and more at KathleenDenly.com.

Thanks to our sponsors on Patreon, we’re able to offer an edited transcript of the podcast!

Erin: Welcome, listeners, to the deep. We’re glad that you’re joining us today. We’ve been talking with our guest, Kathleen Denly. If you didn’t catch the first half of this interview, go back and listen, because it’s great. Now we’re going to dive right into part two with Kathleen Denly. 

Kathleen: I am just as valuable in that position and just as loved in that position as I am today. As I was in my mother’s womb. 

Erin: Yeah. 

Kathleen: And that was the biggest thing that pulled me out. 

Erin: Wow. 

Kathleen: That firm belief that God loved me no matter what. 

Erin: I love that. I’m guessing, though, that was a slow journey for you.

Kathleen: Yes.

Erin: With lots of little milestones along the way, things you learned along the way.

What are you doing now? This all happened by you driving yourself, right? You were so driven to do all these things. So how do you let yourself rest now? 

Kathleen: I had to change the way that I view rest. 

Erin: Mmm. 

Kathleen: That came from a couple of things. It came from the physical. The way we were designed, our bodies need rest, and that means more than just sleep. Our brains need rest.

I had been raised with this idea that I need to constantly prove that I wasn’t lazy. And people who rested were lazy. How stupid is that?

But that’s what I believed. Underneath everything, that’s what my actions were saying, that rest was wrong, rest was sinful. But when I actually went back and looked at the scriptures, I realized that even Jesus directed his disciples to rest.

Karen: Right.

Kathleen: God rested on the seventh day. Am I any better than God that I don’t need rest? I mean, come on. It’s just silly.

What I realized is that resting isn’t a symptom of laziness. Instead, it’s just something like eating. You can eat to an extreme. Whether that’s not eating enough or eating too much, you can use that and turn it into sin.

Same thing with rest. If you take it to an extreme, and you’re using it as an excuse to avoid doing things that you’re supposed to be doing, then yeah, it’s probably sinful. But God designed us to need rest.

The truth is that we are the most creative, and we are the most competent, and the most effective when we have taken the time to rest. That’s something that can be really hard to rewire in our brains because our culture rewards busyness.

Erin: Yeah!

Kathleen: I can’t tell you how many times I would have friends be like, “Wow, how do you get all that done? I’m so impressed.”

That’s such a nice thing for them to say, except that in hindsight, they were reinforcing these bad beliefs that I had about myself.

Karen: Yes.

Kathleen: I don’t think I’m the only one who gets that message. 

Karen: No, no. Not by a long shot. 

Erin: Busyness, yeah. Busyness equates to being “productive,” and we then equate productivity with meaning. And it’s not. If we’re busy doing the wrong things, we’re not creating meaning. 

Kathleen: Exactly. 

Karen: That’s why I love the story about Jesus and Mary and Martha so much. Martha’s bustling around and doing everything, and Mary’s just sitting at his feet and soaking in his presence and being with him.

Martha’s like, “Tell Mary to come help me. She’s not working.”

Erin: That would be me saying that, too. I’m sorry!

Karen: And I’d be sitting at his feet!

I love it when Jesus says that Mary has chosen the better way. Like he’s saying, “I will not be here forever. And she has chosen the better way, sitting and resting.”

I think,, too, that a part of the key for dealing with all this is that God created our bodies to give us warnings. The pain and the things that you experienced that you just brushed off and didn’t pay any attention to… We like to think that we are super people.

Erin: Yes.

Karen: That we can keep going and keep doing. But when all that is stripped away, as it was for you, and as it was at a point for me, you sit back and you say, “Sometimes the very best things that I can do are just to go outside and watch the birds.”

There is blessing that comes in that, and there is blessing that comes from that. I can then take what I gained from rest and share it with others, and it gives me the energy to do what God wants me to. 

Erin: I think this just goes back to our problem way back in the Garden of Eden, wanting to be like God. We don’t like to acknowledge our limitations. We don’t like to have them. We want to be superhuman, as you said Karen, and not acknowledge those limitations. I think that’s another reason why God made us rest.

Karen: Yeah.

Erin: He made us need it so that we would have to acknowledge our limitations. When we don’t, bad things happen. Then we have to look at it. Either way, we’d have to look at it. 

Kathleen: The really sneaky thing about the devil is that he will take God’s scripture and try to give it to us with his own spin.

Karen: Twist it.

Kathleen: Yeah. Like, “Oh, I can do anything in God’s strength.”

Weeeeell, but are you supposed to right now? Are you supposed to be doing something in God’s strength? Maybe the thing you’re supposed to be doing in God’s strength is resting. Resting and trusting that he will take care of the things that you’re not working on right now.

Karen: Right! 

Erin: Which makes a very good argument for why we not only need to know our Bible, because Satan does too, but we need to understand it. We need to be meditating on it and thinking about its meaning.

It’s not enough to just know what it says. We have to understand what it means, to the best of our ability. 

Kathleen: Yeah, and some of us are really good about taking spiritual things and using it to justify what we’re doing.

Like, “Oh, well, yeah, it’s the Sabbath, and I know I’m supposed to rest. But I’m gonna do this ministry, and I’m gonna help this person, and these are all spiritual things, so it’s okay to do that on Sunday, right? I don’t actually have to rest because I’m doing all these spiritual things.”

Karen: Yeah. “I’m going to write on Sunday because it’s really my only free day, and God understands that. So it’s okay for me to do that.” 

Kathleen: And, “As a Christian author, my writing is a ministry. So that’s allowed on Sunday.”

There’s a lot of ways that we can trick ourselves into thinking we don’t actually need to rest.

Erin: Yeah. What are some of the ways you’ve incorporated rest, or that you’re working to incorporate rest into your life? 

Kathleen: One of the things that I did was I had to make myself a hard and fast stop to the end of the day. Six o’clock, no matter what.

If I haven’t met my word goal. If the kids were crazy and they interrupted my work time and I didn’t do the things that I wanted to get done today, it doesn’t matter. I stop at six o’clock. Period. End of story.

There’s no negotiation, because if I don’t stop, then what happens is I’m working till eight o’clock, nine o’clock, ten o’clock. I’m supposed to be going to sleep at ten o’clock, so then I’m borrowing energy from the next day, because I’m not getting the sleep that I need.

I’ve found that I have to stop at six in order to give my brain time to shut down and to stop being in work mode. I need the shut down time in order to be able to go to sleep at ten o’clock. If I don’t stop working until eight, that means I’m not really getting to sleep till midnight. 

Erin: Yeah. 

Kathleen: So a hard, hard stop on work is one of the things I’ve needed to incorporate.

Also a hard bedtime, which has been a struggle for me my entire life. My mom said I was nocturnal in the womb. For my entire life, I was the kind of person who wanted to be up till two AM and sleep till noon. My whole life.

I’ve learned that that just is not going to work. I’ve got kids. I’ve got responsibilities. I need to have a more practical sleep schedule, and so I work really hard at making sure that I have all of my screens turned off by nine o’clock, and I am going to sleep by ten. 

Erin: Wow. Good for you!

Kathleen: So those are two things. The other thing is I work really, really, really hard NOT to work on the weekends.

Erin: Mm-Hmm. 

Kathleen: If I have to trade a day, say maybe I spent all day Tuesday running the kids to medical appointments, then I have to talk to my husband and get permission from him.

I ask him, “Can I work on Saturday to make up for that?”

He will help me decide if I’m making a healthy decision, or if I’m letting pressures that are not necessarily healthy push me into making a decision that’s not good. 

Karen: So you’re not making these decisions in a vacuum. You’re getting trusted allies to help you with it.

Kathleen: Exactly.

Karen: That’s very smart. 

Kathleen: Yeah, because as much as I’ve learned all of these truths, I’ve lived forty-plus years with all those lies, and they want to come back. They want to come back all the time.

I’ll be honest, there have still been some days when I’ve been like, “I’ve gotta do this, and I’ve gotta do that, and I can’t do this, and I’m never gonna get all this done!”

My husband’s like, “Breathe. Just breathe. Have you done a grounding exercise? I think you need to do a grounding exercise.”

For those of you who don’t know what this is, one of my favorite grounding exercises is called 5-4-3-2-1. I look around for five things in the room that I can see, four things that I can touch, three things that I can hear, two things I can smell, and one thing I can taste.

What that does is take me out of my brain that is panicking and thinking only about my to-do list. Or when I’m having a flashback that’s trying to take me backwards in time and tell me I’m not actually where I am, this exercise forces me to pay attention to the details of where I am and what’s around me.

There’s something about that that just makes you go, “Yeah. Okay. I can deal with this.”

Erin: Yeah.

Kathleen: Once I’ve done that, then I go, “Okay, time to pray.”

Erin: I actually like that you have a tool before you pray. You have that grounding tool first, and then it helps you focus so your prayer can be more focused. You’re able to hear God, seek God.

Again, it’s this marriage between wisdom from the field of psychology and counseling, which is okay! It’s knowledge that God has given us. But it’s this marriage between that. It’s this marriage between your physical body and what you’re doing, and it’s this spiritual side. It’s all together. I like how it incorporates everything. That makes a lot of sense. 

Kathleen: Yeah. Because without that, my prayers sound a lot like, “God, what am I gonna do? What do I do? God help me. Help me. Help me. Help me. Help me!”

God doesn’t ever get a word in edgewise. Being able to use the grounding techniques helps me to listen better.

Karen: How does it feel now? Now that you have changed the way that you see what you need to do, the way that you see the world, and the way that you see yourself? What’s the difference in how you feel as a person, as a believer, as a writer? 

Kathleen: A big difference. The first thing that came to mind when you said that is I feel more relaxed.

Erin: Mmm. 

Kathleen: I feel more at peace. 

Karen: Yeah. 

Kathleen: I feel more trusting. I thought I was trusting God. I really did. But now I FEEL that.

I feel less worried. I feel less anxious. I feel more comfortable in who I am because I see who I am more clearly through him.

That’s the ironic thing. The theme for all of my novels is helping my characters see themselves as God sees them and not how the world sees them. And I’m sitting over here doing what I was doing!

Now I see myself more clearly. 

Erin: What’s interesting, though, is that this peace…you’re a non-anxious presence now. It helps you be a non-anxious presence in the world. That is beyond valuable. It’s one of the greatest lights that we can have as a Christian in this world because there’s anxiety everywhere—in people. All over the place.

Just the fact that our body, mind, and soul is more relaxed, it’s one of the best ways that we can witness for Christ.

I look at your whole journey. It’s hard that these trials make us look at these things. They force us.

Kathleen: Right.

Erin: We don’t want to go there, and they force us, very much like we force our characters in our stories. But look at what’s happened now. Look at where you are now. It’s just astounding 

Kathleen: It is. And I want to be careful not to give the impression that, “Oh, I’m over it now and I’m fine.”

It’s a daily thing that I use those tools. Like I said, I still have flashbacks. I’m still going to therapy for my PTSD, and it’s something I will struggle with.

But God has been good in showing me a lot and helping me change a lot.

Erin: Yeah. Our time is about up here. Do you have any final words of wisdom or encouragement that you would want to leave with our listeners? 

Kathleen: Yeah, I do want to share something that I think a lot of us are nervous about. If we see somebody who is struggling with mental health issues, there are three things that I have found very helpful, because it can be hard to know how to respond, how to help.

The first thing that I would say is validate their feelings.

A lot of people go, “Oh, I don’t wanna agree with them.”

Because if you hear somebody say, “I’m a terrible person,” and you care about them, the first thing you want to do is say, “No, you’re not a terrible person.” But what you’re actually doing by saying that is arguing with them.

We don’t want to agree because we don’t think they’re a terrible person, but we also don’t want to argue with them. Because even if that lie they’re believing isn’t true, the feelings that they’re getting from it are true. They’re real. They feel them.

A better thing to say in response is, “Wow, it must be really painful to feel like you’re a terrible person.”

It’s a very subtle difference, but it’s something that allows them to hear you. 

Erin: Yeah. 

Kathleen: The second thing that I have found helpful is to gently share the truth with them when they’re ready to hear it. You can’t shove truth in their face. You can’t approach it like an argument, but you can gently say something like, “I want you to know that I don’t think you are a terrible person.”

Erin: Yeah. 

Kathleen: You can even add on to that and say, “I think you are a responsible, caring, loving person, and I’m blessed to have you as my friend.” 

You can say things like that because it’s your opinion. You’re not arguing with them. You’re not telling them their feelings aren’t real, because again, even if the lie is false, the feelings are there.

Erin: Yeah. 

Kathleen: The last thing I would say is don’t underestimate the value of just being present. If you don’t know what to say, just stay. Just sit there and listen. Because one of the tricks the devil likes to play is to convince the suffering person to be silent and alone.

Erin: Yeah.

Kathleen: The devil will tell them, “Nobody cares about your suffering. If they knew what you were thinking, they would think you were a terrible person.”

If all you do is sit there and listen in compassion, then you’ve already broken that lie. 

Erin: I love that.   

Karen: Well, I’ve got tell you, this has been an amazing show, and your story is terrifying and inspiring all at the same time. That we can do these things to ourselves and so damage ourselves without even realizing we’re doing it, with thinking that we’re doing the right thing.

Kathleen: Mm-Hmm.

Karen: God help us. Seriously, God help us all. Give us eyes to see when we are mistreating the child that he created, the child that is us.

I’m so glad that he put the right people in place for you to help you. That he put the right voices to offset and replace the voices of the enemy. I firmly believe that he will do that for anyone who reaches out and asks for help, whether they’re asking for help from him or from anybody else.

Mental illness is not something you deal with by yourself. Follow Kathleen’s wisdom. Have people that you can rely on, have people who will speak truth to you.

Remember, just because the clouds are there, just because you can’t see or hear him, doesn’t mean God’s not there. He is. He has you, and he loves you no matter what. Just because he created you, he loves you. And for that, we could all be grateful.

Kathleen: Absolutely.

Do you think resting is just being lazy? You couldn’t be more wrong! Guest Kathleen Denly shares how this God-given gift has been instrumental in bringing her back to mental health! #christianwriter #amwriting
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WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU!

Do you find it easy or difficult to truly rest? Why?

THANK YOU!

Thanks to all our patrons on Patreon! You help make this podcast possible!

Special thanks to our April sponsor of the month Christy Bass Adams. She’s the author of a devotional titled Learning As I Go: Big Lessons from Little People, and a middle grades novel, The Adventures of Cricket and Kyle: Imagination Checkers. She’s also a speaker and leads women’s conferences and Bible studies, and she’s a monthly contributor to Inspire-a-fire and a newspaper columnist for Greene Publishing.

Many thanks also to the folks at PodcastPS for their fabulous sound editing!

STAY CONNECTED

Want the latest news from Karen and Erin? Click here to join our newsletter and get an exclusive audio download.

The post 211 – The Gift of Rest with Guest Kathleen Denly appeared first on Write from the Deep.

We don’t like to talk about it. We’re afraid to admit to it. But the fact is that being a firm believer doesn’t keep mental illness from striking. How do we, as believers and writers, deal with the reality of mental illness? Guest Kathleen Denly joins us to share how God met her in her own struggle and continues to guide her to soundness of body and mind.

About Kathleen Denly

Kathleen Denly writes historical romance to entertain, encourage, and inspire readers toward a better understanding of our amazing God and how He sees us. Award winning author of the Chaparral Hearts series, she also shares history tidbits, thoughts on writing, books reviews and more at KathleenDenly.com.

Thanks to our sponsors on Patreon, we’re able to offer an edited transcript of the podcast!

Karen: Hi guys, and welcome to the deep. We are delighted you are here because we have an outstanding guest to share her experiences, knowledge, and wisdom with you. 

Erin: We do. Her name is Kathleen Denley, and I get to introduce her. Karen and I both got to know Kathleen through her writing. We both edited her work and it’s been great. 

Welcome, Kathleen Denly

Kathleen is the award-winning author of the Chaparral Hearts series. She writes historical romance to entertain, encourage, and inspire readers toward a better understanding of our amazing God and how He sees us. Kathleen enjoys finding the lesser known pockets of history and bringing them to life through the joys and struggles of her characters.

California, a favorite setting to her stories, is also her home, and she lives there with her loving husband, four young children, two dogs, and yes everybody, 10 cats. As the member of the adoption and foster community, children in need are a cause dear to her heart, and she finds they make frequent appearances in her stories.

So Kathleen, welcome. We’re glad to have you here. 

Kathleen: Thank you so much. I’m glad to be here. 

Take Courage in God’s Strength

Erin: Let’s just jump right in. Kathleen, we love to ask people, what does the deep mean to you? 

Kathleen: I’ve been listening to your podcast for so long. I thought about this for quite a while, and I feel like it changes depending on the season of life I’m in. Writing from the deep is about taking courage in God’s strength and wisdom, being able to go into those raw, dark, honest places that make you nervous. But again, leaning on God’s courage and strength to share the lessons he’s taught you from those dark and hard places with others.

Erin: I love that because we do, we have to go to the places where we’re nervous. That’s where it gets real. 

A Scary Truth

Today we wanted to talk about something more real than Christians sometimes want to admit, but we need to admit it. We need to talk about it, and it’s mental illness. We asked Kathleen to share her story with us. But first, Kathleen, why do you think that Christians sometimes struggle to admit the reality of mental illness? 

Kathleen: Well, first, I think it’s scary. We don’t want to think about the fact that this could happen to us. We wanna think, “Well, no. I’m a good Christian. I do all the right things, therefore I am impervious to this.” But that’s not actually what Scripture plays out. 

Karen: Right.

Kathleen: Several people in the Bible struggled with mental illness. If you look for the signs, you can see them easily. And there are even people who showed signs, and expressed the words, of suicidal thoughts, where they were despairing of life and they thought God had abandoned them. They had real struggles just like we do today.

Mental Illness Taboo in the church?

Kathleen: But our culture has made it somewhat taboo. There is a history in the church of misunderstanding back in the 1700s, 1800s, and even farther back, of what mental illness actually was. They thought it was strictly a spiritual thing, or it was a sign of moral depravity or immaturity. And so a lot of taboo and stigma developed. It’s not as scary if we can say, “Oh, well, not me. I don’t struggle with that.” I don’t think people intentionally think, “Oh, I’m better than them, because they have that.” I think it’s more of a fear-based reaction. 

Erin: And some Christians seem to think, “Hey, we have God so nothing can be wrong with our minds. We’ll just pray it away.” You know, as if you could pray away a broken leg. 

Karen: It’s like they’re trying to cover God’s backside. “Oh, he would never let you go into that. That can’t affect you because you have Jesus.”

It’s A Brain Problem

Erin: But there are very real struggles with the way our brains function. A friend of mine knows that I battle chronic fatigue and she just sent me an article about a recent study where they took MRIs and there’s a real dysfunction that they can see in the brain. It’s not like, “Oh, you’re lazy. Oh, you’re tired for no reason.” It’s a brain problem. 

Karen: And people don’t  recognize that about mental illness. There is often a physiological component to it.

Kathleen: I heard a quote on another show that I was watching and they said science is finally catching up with the Bible. The Bible has shown us that these things are real and they have not just a spiritual component, but also a physical component. I’m so grateful that we are at the point now where science is starting to help us understand that physical part of it.

Erin: Yeah, exactly. 

Situational Components

Karen: There’s also a situational component that comes into play. My father-in-law’s alcoholism, and the abuse that stemmed from that, resulted, for Don and his siblings, in some issues. The defenses they developed as children against what was happening to them tend to carry over into adulthood.

At one point Don and I were in a counseling session, because our marriage almost didn’t survive what had happened to him, and the counselor said to Don, “The defense mechanisms that kept you alive as a kid are destroying you as an adult.” So often we need to learn how to live without defenses we no longer need and, as believers, to know that we’re safe because God’s got us. 

Erin: So, Kathleen, you’ve had your own journey with this situation. How did you first know something wasn’t right?

Not Myself

Kathleen: Basically I started acting very not myself. I had experienced postpartum depression after delivering one of my children several years ago. I mean, he’s 13 now. But when I started struggling this time my thoughts were going to places that were darker than normal for me.

I even had, in the beginning, fleeting thoughts of, “I don’t wanna be alive anymore.” As soon as I had that thought go through my head, I went, “Wait, what? No, that’s not me. That’s not okay. That’s not normal.” I learned later that what I was going through was a side-effect of some pain medication that the doctor put me on.

I had incurred––and it sounds so silly to say it this way––a repetitive strain injury. That just sounds so simple, so much less than what it actually was for me. There came a point at which I was in so much pain that I started screaming and I couldn’t stop. 

Karen: Wow. 

Losing My Grip on Reality

Kathleen: It became so bad that, as my husband was trying to get me to medical care, I was beginning to lose my grip on reality. I was so consumed with pain that all of my other senses just shut off. I wasn’t seeing anything. I  wasn’t hearing anything. It was almost like I was out of my body  and the only thing that existed was pain.

I would float in and out of being able to see what was going on around me, just completely consumed by pain. The whole time I was screaming and screaming and screaming. I was convinced I was going to die. I thought, “There’s no way I can live through this. This is beyond anything. If I don’t die, I’m gonna lose my mind. I’m gonna go insane from just the sheer level of pain.” 

Erin: Wow. 

Kathleen: Finally I got medical help and they were able to help me grab onto reality long enough to tell them what was going on, as much as I could understand, because we were still waiting for all these tests and to see specialists.

“I did it to myself”

Kathleen: Finally the doctors gave me pain medication that brought me back into reality permanently. But that particular day, when it was so bad, is something I still have flashbacks to. And now I have been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. And the really, really frustrating thing is that I did it to myself.

I didn’t know I was doing it to myself, but I did. I worked myself into that injury. I had pain off and on every time I wrote a first draft because I would do marathon writing sessions. The first time I did this, I started getting pain in my shoulder and my arm and my elbow and my wrist. But I just took an ibuprofen and keep working.

Then, when the ibuprofen wasn’t enough, I would take a day off. And by “a day off” I mean I would type with my left hand instead of my right hand. 

Erin: Wow. 

Kathleen: And then, when taking a day off wasn’t enough, I would take a week off. By my third book, it got to the point where nothing helped. The pain just kept getting worse and I wasn’t able to type at all. The pain interferied with my ability to even think about my stories, let alone type them out.

So I finally went and saw a doctor. Because it was interfering with my work. It had nothing to do with the pain other than I needed it to go away so I could get my work done. 

Listen to the Warning Bells!

Erin: Well, that’s a warning bell right there. 

Kathleen: Yeah, but I didn’t think about it that way at the time. I thought, “This is what good responsible people do. They get stuff done and they don’t let pain get in the way.” This is how I was raised.

In hindsight, I learned that what I had going on underneath was fear of what other people would think about me if I didn’t get stuff done––if I missed a deadline, if I wasn’t as successful as I could be on social media, if I didn’t have enough subscribers to my newsletter, if I didn’t have my platform strong enough, if I didn’t write enough guest posts…

I was even planning my to start my own podcast at the time. But I thought I was just doing all the things that you were supposed to do. 

Karen: You could have started the Scream podcast: “Okay. Scream with me folks.” I bet there are a lot of people who would join you.

Kathleen: Actually, I bet there are days when people would log on.

You Can’t Do It All!

Kathleen: Basically, I took all the advice from writer’s conferences, but I didn’t take it as suggestions or guidelines or things to think about. I made it all my life. Because I assumed––and again, this was not a conscious thought, this is something I figured out in retrospect––I assumed, “Well, my husband knows who I am. My kids know who I am. My mom, my friends, they all know who I am. They don’t need me to prove to them that I’m a good person.”

But all these other people––my new publisher, the other writers that I don’t know, the readers––they’re just getting to know me and need to have a good impression of me. And if I’m gonna give them a good impression, I need to do all these things and do them right now. And I need to do them perfectly. 

Karen: Man!

Kathleen: ‘Cause I can’t give a bad impression and I can’t offend anybody and I can’t disappoint anybody. 

Do You Hear Yourself?

Erin: Wait, just stop there for one second. Listeners, did you hear that? Do you hear yourself in there? Just a little bit? I think almost every beginning writer or intermediate writer, even experienced writer, sometimes hears that.

So then what? What happened from there, Kathleen? 

Kathleen: The sad result is that my family took second place to my work. Everything took second place to my work. Even my Bible study started taking second place. And I started thinking, “Oh, I’ve spent an hour and a half on Bible study this morning. I should have been writing. I should cut that down to 20 minutes. And how backwards is that? That’s totally backwards. 

Writers Need Bible Study Time!

Karen: That’s insane, is what that is.

Kathleen: Right? I’ve since learned that I need my Bible study to do good work. I need my Bible study to guide me in making the right decisions.

Instead, I got focused on being perfect. I got focused on getting everything done and I became a workaholic. And worked myself into injury. 

Erin: Which, for a lot of people, is not an unusual story. And there might be people out there who are heading that direction right now. If so, this is a cautionary tale for you. 

Kathleen: I hope so. 

Erin: What happened then? 

The Body Always Knows

Kathleen: Well, one thing I want to share is that before all this, I had done everything to make sure my setup was ergonomic. I had a chair that was completely customized. I had my screen elevated, my keyboard at the right level…everything was exactly how it should be. So I actually thought I’d protected myself from this kind of an injury.

Except nobody told me that you can’t just keep working. You have to take breaks. Your muscles wear out even if you’re doing everything the right way. After the injury, my physical therapist taught me to set an alarm every hour. To get up, move around, do stretches, move my body so that it’s doing something different than sitting and writing.

And I learned how vital it is to eat healthy and drink well to stay hydrated. To take care of your body because if you don’t, it doesn’t matter what your mind’s doing…

Karen: Yeah. 

Kathleen: …the body will eventually overrule you. 

Erin: The body always knows. I had a conversation with a counseling psychologist and she said the body always tells the story. So this injury forced you to stop trying to do it all, perfect or otherwise.But then you were on painkillers and they were messing with your mind.

The Process of Healing

Kathleen: Yes. I focused on healing physically, but eventually my brain started going, “Okay, now that we’re not in physical survival mode, here’s all this stuff I’ve been holding back on you.”

That’s when the PTSD symptoms started kicking in––the panic attacks and the anxiety and the flashbacks. I didn’t have a flashback until almost a year after the injury. When I say flashback, for me it’s audible, visual, physical––the whole thing.

It’s like somebody places a film over my eyes and I’m seeing where I was then laid over the faded image of where I actually am. And I feel the pain that I felt that day, and hear the sounds that I heard that day. It can be triggered by a noise, a smell, a specific environment. Anything.

I had to change my bedroom around because I spent six weeks stuck in bed, unable to do anything. I needed help to shower, to eat––with everything. So once I was better, we had to rearrange my bedroom so it wouldn’t remind me of when I was stuck there.

Erin: Wow. Okay. That’s hard. 

Coming Back from the Dark

Kathleen: I needed therapy and a researching of the scriptures to get myself back from the dark place I had fallen into. One day I looked at my author bio, because I was trying to get work done, and every single thing in that bio––the one that you read at the beginning of this podcast––I wasn’t any of that anymore.

I couldn’t hike. I couldn’t craft, I couldn’t write, I couldn’t mother, I couldn’t wife, I couldn’t do anything. I still lived in California and I was still married. Those were about the only things that still applied 

It felt like my entire identity had been stripped away from me, and my world had been turned upside down and I didn’t understand anything. So I clung to who God was. I knew His character and I clung to that like I was holding on with my fingernails to a rock ledge over a thousand-foot drop. 

Why Me, God?

Kathleen: I didn’t know why He was letting me go through this. I didn’t know where this was gonna take me. All I knew was God. God is good. God is unchanging. God loves me. God has a good purpose for my suffering. That was what I clung to. I had nothing else in the darkest of times. 

But the thing is, God knew there were so many lies being poured into my head at that time. Things like, I was worthless. I was helpless. I was a burden. I wasn’t helping anybody and they were all having to help me.

I didn’t realize I had this underlying belief that I was only as valuable as my accomplishments. I was only as valuable as much as I could help somebody else. And I didn’t know that until that was taken away from me.

Karen: Mm. 

A Deep, Dark Place

Kathleen: When I found myself in that dark, dark place, I had legitimate thoughts of ending my life. But God knew I would get to this dark place, and He prepared in advance the things that I would need. He gave me a husband who would not give up on me, who would not leave me alone, who would get me to the help that I needed.

And God also prepared the therapist and the psychiatrist that I would need to diagnose me, to treat me, and to provide me with the medication that I needed, all of which helped my brain work in a way that allowed me to battle the lies Satan was pouring into my head.

A Three-Tiered Approach

Erin: Wow. So you had a three-tiered approach there. 

Kathleen: Yeah. I really needed mental help, physical help, and spiritual help. God is so good and in His infinite wisdom, He gave me the shovels I needed to dig my way out from under that mountain of lies.

And He never left me. That was the one thing I knew, even when I was thinking about ending my life. It wasn’t because I thought God had abandoned me. It was because, in that moment, in that few minutes where I went that dark and that deep, I lost sight of the light.

He was there. I just wasn’t looking at Him. But He was there. 

The Light is Still There

Karen: The enemy makes a concerted effort to pull the curtains so that you can’t look at God. To make it feel as though you can’t see Him. I think anybody who’s been in that place, whether it’s mental illness or whether it’s just a place of despair, and is considering suicide––which, I’ve been there––we need help to find the light again.

I went to the Psalms and found them comforting because David was so immersed in, “How long, O Lord, will you forget me?” And yet in the next Psalm it’s, “Praise the Lord! He is faithful and glorious! And He is the only one worthy to be praised.” That  reminded me that yes, we go into those dark places, but the Light is still there. 

Look Past the Fog

When I was a kid, we used to go up into the mountains to get Christmas trees and the first time we were going up, there was fog that coated the valley. We eventually climbed higher than the fog, and there was sunshine there and blue skies! It had never registered with my brain that just because there’s fog or clouds doesn’t mean the sun is gone and that the skies aren’t blue.

They’re just being veiled. 

And that’s often what depression and mental illness can do to us, even when we’re not aware of it. 

God Loves You No Matter What!

Kathleen: The Scripture that had the biggest impact on me was about God knitting us together in our mother’s womb and loving us before we were born. It struck me so much harder than it ever had in my life. He loved me before I was born.

What does that mean? That means I hadn’t done a stinking thing to deserve to be loved, to be cared for, to have any kind of value of my own.

I just was existing, and even that only because of Him. So why did He love me? Because He created me! Period. End of story. I did nothing. I can do nothing to earn or deserve His love. So if tomorrow I have a terrible accident and the only thing I can do was lay in bed while somebody else feeds me and clothes me, I am just as valuable and just as loved as I am today. As I was in my mother’s womb.

And that was the biggest thing that pulled me out. That firm belief God loved me no matter what. 

Karen: Amen.

Erin: Amen.

Do Christians Suffer from Mental Illness with guest Kathleen Denly #amwriting #Christianwriter
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WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU!

Have you or someone you’ve known suffered from mental illness? How did God help you through it?

THANK YOU!

Thanks to all our patrons on Patreon! You help make this podcast possible!

Thanks so much to our March sponsor of the month, Tammy Partlow! She’s a speaker at women’s retreats, and her debut novel Blood Beneath the Pines, a suspense set in the deep South, is now available. She’s hard at work on the next book in the series!

Many thanks also to the folks at PodcastPS for their fabulous sound editing!

STAY CONNECTED

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The post 210 – Do Christians Suffer from Mental Illness? with Guest Kathleen Denly appeared first on Write from the Deep.

Anyone who has ever attended church has heard about God’s glory. We’ve sung about it, we’ve read about it in the Bible. But do we really understand it? And do we realize that we, both as believers and writers, are tasked with displaying God’s glory to the world? But how can we, in all our humanity and weaknesses, do something so grand and important? It’s easier than you think!

But first, thank you to all our patrons on Patreon! You help make this podcast possible!

In our last podcast, we discussed George Muller and his amazing life of prayer. I want to take a minute to treat Muller like a character in a novel with goals, motivations, and conflict.

So, George Muller had goals, he had ministries he wanted to start, like an orphan house. And he certainly had conflict—he had no money, no building, and no people to work with orphans. But what I love most is his motivation: He wanted people to see the mighty works that God did—how God provided, how trustworthy God is, and how deserving of praise God is.

In other words, he wanted to glorify God. That’s a great motivation! And it’s right in line with God’s goal in creating us.

Why Did God Create Us?

God created us, and everything else, to glorify him. Here’s what Isaiah 43:7 says, “Bring all who claim me as their God, for I have made them for my glory. It was I who created them.”

And Isaiah 43:21 says, “The people who I formed for myself will declare my praise.”

Psalm 19:1 tells us, “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.”

An article on DesiringGod.org puts it this way: “The supreme goal of God in history from beginning to end is the manifestation of his great glory. Accordingly our duty is to bring our thoughts, affections, and actions into line with this goal.”

What is God’s Glory?

But what is God’s glory? What do you think of when you hear that word?

We might think about what glory looks like—maybe what Isaiah saw in Isaiah 6:1, when he saw the Lord high and exalted on a throne, with the train of his robe filling the temple.

Or we might think of what Ezekiel saw. He describes a whirlwind, and living creatures, and wheels, and then he says,

“…what looked like a throne of lapis lazuli, and high above on the throne was a figure like that of a man. I saw that from what appeared to be his waist up he looked like glowing metal, as if full of fire, and that from there down he looked like fire; and brilliant light surrounded him. Like the appearance of a rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day, so was the radiance around him. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. When I saw it, I fell facedown…”  Ezekiel 1:26-28 NIV

Or we might just think of light or fire so pure, bright, and holy that we can’t even look at it—we’d be consumed. Like in Hebrews 12:29 where it says, “For our God is a consuming fire.”

Or, We might think about a dictionary definition like honor, renown, magnificence, splendor, majesty, power.

An article on DesiringGod.org defines it like this: “The glory of God is the infinite beauty and greatness of his manifold perfections.”

An article on Christianity.com says, “God’s glory is an indicator of his value”

So, God’s glory is God’s splendor, his worth, his value, his acts, his greatness, his brilliance, his power, his overwhelming nature, his majesty, his utterly beyond-ness.

HOW do we glorify God?

Yet here we are, little puny humans, who exist to help display all that. How do we do that?

First, let’s realize that God has done the heavy lifting. We don’t have to do it all. He causes his own glory to be shown through his righteous acts and through his creation. Look at the proof in the following verses:

“I have swept away your offenses like a cloud, your sins like the morning mist. Return to me, for I have redeemed you. Sing for joy, you heavens, for the Lord has done this; shout aloud, you earth beneath. Burst into song, you mountains, you forests and all your trees, for the Lord has redeemed Jacob, he displays his glory in Israel.” Isaiah 44:22-23 NIV

“And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.  This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.’ Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.’” Luke 2:8-14 NIV

“I [Jesus] have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do.” John 17:4 NIV

“The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom. To him be glory for ever and ever. Amen.” 2 Timothy 4:18 NIV

But, we still have a part to play. As the DesiringGod article said, it’s “our duty…to bring our thoughts, affections, and actions into line with” God’s goal of displaying his glory. We can do that by ascribing glory to God, revering his glory, and declaring his glory.

Ascribe Glory to God

When we ascribe glory to God, we’re recognizing it, we’re realizing it, we’re naming it. We’re attributing this characteristic to God, just like it says in these verses:

“You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.” Revelation 4:11 NIV

“…Great and marvelous are your deeds, Lord God Almighty. Just and true are your ways, King of the nations. Who will not fear you, Lord, and bring glory to your name? For you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship before you, for your righteous acts have been revealed.”Revelation 15:3-4 NIV

“Ascribe to the Lord, you heavenly beings, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name; worship the Lord in the splendor of his holiness.” Psalm 29:1-2 NIV

We also ascribe glory to him when we acknowledge that his actions are ultimately for his glory, as it says in Psalm 79:9: “Help us, God our Savior, for the glory of your name; deliver us and forgive our sins for your name’s sake.” Psalm 79:9 NIV

Revere God’s glory

When we revere God’s glory, we’re acknowledging the seriousness of it, the awe it should inspire. God’s glory is never to be taken lightly. Isaiah 59:19 says, “From the west, people will fear the name of the Lord, and from the rising of the sun, they will revere his glory. For he will come like a pent-up flood that the breath of the Lord drives along.”

Revering God’s glory means we’re careful not take God’s glory. Here’s what Psalm 115:1 says, “Not to us, Lord, not to us but to your name be the glory, because of your love and faithfulness.”

Revering God’s glory also means we never, ever deny the truth of it, because we will face God’s wrath if we do. Romans 1:18-25 (NIV) has this to say:

“The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles. Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.”

Paul goes on in that passage to talk about all the ways we will continue to devolve into evil if we refuse to recognize and value the truth about God and his glory. It’s not pretty.

Declare God’s glory

In addition to ascribing God glory and revering God’s glory, we also are to declare it. We’re to tell it, to make it known as it says in these verse:

“Sing to the Lord, all the earth; proclaim his salvation day after day. Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous deeds among all peoples. For great is the Lord and most worthy of praise; he is to be feared above all gods.” 1 Chronicles 16:23-25 NIV

“All your works praise you, Lord; your faithful people extol you. They tell of the glory of your kingdom and speak of your might, so that all people may know of your mighty acts and the glorious splendor of your kingdom.” Psalm 145:10-12 NIV

“They raise their voices, they shout for joy; from the west they acclaim the Lord’s majesty. Therefore in the east give glory to the Lord; exalt the name of the Lord, the God of Israel, in the islands of the sea. From the ends of the earth we hear singing: ‘Glory to the Righteous One.’” Isaiah 24:14-16 NIV

“Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you.” Psalm 63:3 NIV

As writers, another way we declare God’s glory is through our words on the page. Those words tell of God’s truth and his worth, his actions and his attributes, his creation, his sovereignty, and his love. While it’s great if people read your words, don’t forget that just writing words is an act of declaration, and that is reason enough to write them.

Bearing Witness to God’s Glory through trust

Our trust in God is another way we bear witness to his glory. We can show our trust by believing his promises, like Abraham. Here’s what Romans 4:18-21 (NIV) has to say:

“Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, ‘So shall your offspring be.’ Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised.”

2 Corinthians 1:20 (NIV) tells us, “For no matter how many promises God has made, they are ‘Yes’ in Christ. And so through him the “Amen” is spoken by us to the glory of God.” Our amen is our agreement, it’s our acknowledgement that we agree God will fulfill all his promises, and that glorifies God.

Ephesians 1:13-14 says, “And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.”

Again, our belief is a mark of our agreement, our trust that God has and will save us.

Bearing witness to God’s glory though our actions

Another way we bring glory to God is through our actions. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10:13, “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.”

We need to think about this and take it seriously. Everything we do should demonstrate that God is our supreme value. That God is who and what we hold most dear. This should be reflected in how we spend our time, how we spend our money, how we talk, how we write, how we treat others, how we handle disagreement, how we behave on social media, or at church, or at the grocery store, or during an interview, or driving down the highway during rush hour.

You might be thinking—as I am—well that’s a tall order. But God doesn’t leave us to do this on our own. He helps us. He gives us his strength, his Holy Spirit, his promises, his living word in the Bible. And he gives us the right to come before his throne and—to the best of our fallen ability in this fallen world—behold God’s glory. These glimpses change us. The more we ascribe, revere, declare, and behold God’s glory, the more we are changed.

Here’s what 2 Corinthians 3:18 (RSV) tells us: “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being changed into his likeness from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.”

As we’re changed, we’re better and better able to be a reflection of God’s glory, which brings God glory. But there’s more. As we shine, we also display God’s Kingdom to those around us. We shine in a dark, broken world that so desperately needs light.

I was discussing this in my mastermind group and here’s how one woman put it: “We’re walking trophy cases to display God’s glory.” God does that. He makes us his delight, his display, his joy.

God also makes us his fruit-bearers. Here’s what it says in John 15:7-8: “If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.”

God’s glory. It’s more grand, more amazing, more indescribable than we can imagine. Yet he gives us glimpses of it every day in so many ways. How can we not share it with others? Especially when he helps us do so? As we end today, let’s join together in glorifying God, in sharing his Glory with those around us. Let’s let Psalm 57:9-11 be our guide:

“I will praise you, Lord, among the nations; I will sing of you among the peoples. For great is your love, reaching to the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the skies. Be exalted, O God, above the heavens; let your glory be over all the earth.”

Why does God’s glory matter to you as a writer? #amwriting #Christianwriter
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WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU!

What do you think of when you think of God’s glory?

THANK YOU!

Thanks to all our patrons on Patreon! You help make this podcast possible!

Thanks so much to our March sponsor of the month, Tammy Partlow! She’s a speaker at women’s retreats, and her debut novel Blood Beneath the Pines, a suspense set in the deep South, is now available. She’s hard at work on the next book in the series!

Many thanks also to the folks at PodcastPS for their fabulous sound editing!

STAY CONNECTED

Want the latest news from Karen and Erin? Click here to join our newsletter and get an exclusive audio download.

The post 209 – God’s Glory and Why It Matters to Writers appeared first on Write from the Deep.

There is nothing more intimate, nor powerful, than our conversations with the Creator of the universe, with the God who sees us and loves us and provides for us. And yet so often we treat prayer as though it’s a fall-back position, not a position of God’s power. Come learn from one man the keys to powerful prayers.

But first, thank you to all our patrons on Patreon! You help make this podcast possible

Welcome

Over the last ten years or so, I’ve grown aware of something that has troubled my heart and spirit. But when I decided to make this situation a topic of a podcast, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. Every word seemed a struggle. I wrote and rewrote. Researched. Deleted and started over. Not because I didn’t know what I wanted to say, but because I feel so ill-equipped to say it.

Then, in my research, I discovered a voice and life I’d never really heard about before, and it is this voice and life that I want to share today. Because this man didn’t just address the issue so many struggle with, he lived a life steeped in, as he called it,  “the reality of the things of God.”

A Man of Prayer

This man is George Muller. Now, some of you may be well acquainted with him, but I was not. Nor was I familiar with his extraordinary life of prayer. And that, friends, is the topic of this podcast. Though we often gear our podcasts to the task of writing or our journeys as writers, for this episode we’re talking about prayer in every aspect of our lives.

Before we jump in, I want to let you know that the primary source of my information on George Muller is the remarkable book, George Muller: Delighted in God by Roger Steer. And I want to encourage you to pick up a copy and read for yourself the many wonders and details we don’t have the time to share here.

I also encourage you to pick up Release the Power of Prayer by George Muller. Or any of Muller’s other books. And I encourage you to find pictures of him online. What you’ll see is the face of a man filled with peace and the sure confidence in an Almighty, prayer-answering God. Seldom have I been so impacted by a man’s faith and life. May we all learn to live our lives as he did, steeped in prayer.

The Least I can Do…

As believers in Christ, we take on the mantle of the blood of Christ, sacrificed for us, which covers our sins and weaknesses and grants us entrance into the very throne room of Almighty God. In fact, it doesn’t just grant us entrance, it welcomes us. Into God‘s presence. To talk with him. Whenever we want.

There is nothing more intimate, nor powerful, than our conversations with the Creator of the universe, with the God who sees us and loves us and provides for us.

And yet I’ve heard believers say things like, “Well, at least I can pray.” Or, “I can’t do anything but pray.” Of course, there are times when “I can’t do anything but pray” is an acknowledgement of our limitations and God’s power, but what I’m talking about is the creeping attitude among believers that prayer is somehow our “fall back.”  The attitude is, “Well, if there’s nothing practical I can do, I can pray.”

Or, when people ask for prayer, believers say they will pray, but do so almost in an attitude of patting a child’s head and muttering, “There, there. It will be okay.” Then on they go with their day. They may shoot a quick prayer heavenward, almost as an afterthought. But we should never treat prayer, or prayer requests, in this way.

The MOST We Can Do!

Friends, prayer is never the least we can do. It is the MOST we can do. No matter what else we are able to do in our lives, or to help others, we can pray. We. Can. PRAY!

Stop and think about that. Do we understand what an awesome privilege that is? And what a powerful responsibility it is? To go to God with not just our concerns, but with the concerns and fears of others. To seek His will and intervention, believing He will answer.

Consider what Scripture says about prayer.

Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. (Matthew 7:7)

Have faith in God…. whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. (Mark 11:22, 24)

Get up and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. (Luke 22:46)

If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer. (Matthew 21:22)

Jesus told his disciples the parable of the persistent woman and the judge to show them that “…they should always pray and not give up.” (Luke 18:1)

There is no equivocation in Scripture. Always pray. Ask and it will be given. Not it may be given. Pray and don’t give up. When you pray, believe that you have received it and it will be yours.

What About…?

“Hang on,” you say. “Not every prayer is answered. I’ve prayed for xyz for years, and it still hasn’t been answered.”

Maybe this is where today’s believers started to lose their belief in the absolute power of prayer. Maybe, because we haven’t yet seen answer to our prayers, especially those that we’ve taken to God over and over, our certainty that God will answer has slid a bit. Because, well, He hasn’t answered.

Or so we think.

A Life of Answered Prayers

George Mueller lived a life steeped in prayer. As a result, he, by God’s answers and provision, accomplished amazing things in his 93 years of life. Born in 1805, a troublemaker when young, imprisoned for a brief time for theft when he was 16, he encountered Christ at the ripe old age of 20.

For the next 10 years he studied to become a missionary (and was disowned by his father for it), through God’s leading became a pastor instead, founded the Scripture Knowledge Institute, got married.

In 1834 he felt led to form an institution established for spreading the Gospel at home and abroad. And so he prayed that God would show him if this was His will. By June of 1835, Muller had opened five day schools that taught over 400 children and distributed nearly 800 bibles and 750 New Testaments. In addition, they’d sent missionaries around the world financial and prayer support. All from donations that came to them by God’s hand.

Why An Orphan House?

Then, in December of 1835, God moved George to pray about establishing a house for orphans. At that time in the UK, there were accommodations for no more than 3600 orphans. So most orphans were sent to homes for foundlings or the work houses. Think Oliver Twist.

But Muller’s reasons for opening an Orphan house weren’t what we might expect. His most important reason was to glorify God. You see, when people saw God’s provision in answer to prayer, it would prove the reality of total trust in God, thus strengthening believers in their faith. Second, he wanted to take care of  the spiritual welfare of the orphans. Third, he wanted to see to the orphans’ physical needs.

The Big Ask

As he was praying whether he should do this, if it was God’s will for him, something happened. George recorded it in his journal:

“On December 5th, however, the subject of my prayer all at once became different. I was reading Psalm 81 and was particularly struck, more than at any time before, with verse 10: ‘Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it.’

“I thought a few moments about these words, and then was led to apply them to the case of the Orphan-House. It struck me that I had never asked the Lord for anything concerning it, except to know His will respecting its being established or not; and I then fell on my knees and opened my mouth wide, asking Him for much.

“I asked in submission to His will, and without fixing a time when He should answer my petition. I prayed that He would give me a house­­­­––either as a loan, or that someone might be led to pay the rent for one, or that one might be given permanently for this object. Further, I asked Him for £1000 [approx. $150k pounds today]; and likewise for suitable individuals to take care of the children.

“Besides this, I have been since led to ask the Lord, to put into the hearts of His people to send me articles of furniture for the house, and some clothes for the children.

“When I was asking the petition, I was fully aware what I was doing, i. e., that I was asking for something which I had no natural prospect of obtaining from the brethren whom I know, but which was not too much for the Lord to grant.”

The Big Answer

He was right. Five days later he received a letter from a brother and sister who said they wanted to come work in his orphan house for no salaries because “God will supply all our needs.” This brother and sister also gave all their furniture for use in the house.

Three days after that, a man said he’d been convicted by God to give weekly support to the house. And two more believers offered to work for no salaries, and give all their furniture to the house. And so it went.

George had all of 2 shillings, roughly $16 dollars, when he started praying. But again, he opened his mouth, presenting his needs to God and believing God would provide in His own way and in His timing. And God did. Sometimes with just enough to meet the need, sometimes with large amounts.

In fact, it’s said that Muller received so much in donations that over his life he was able to give away $80,000 pounds (nearly 3 million pounds, or 4.5 million US, in today’s money). Even more amazing is that Muller didn’t use any of the donations for the Orphan house for his or his family’s care. Instead, he trusted God for their daily bread, submitting his request and then waiting, waiting for God to act.

His Life Wasn’t Easy

Now, in case you’re thinking it was in any way easy for Muller to live this way or that his life was easy, here are some facts:

His father disowned him when he decided to become a missionary

His mother died while he was studying to be a missionary

He and his wife lost two children, one in stillbirth, one when a year old to an illness

Numerous serious health challenges plagued Muller throughout his life

And what about the prayers that God didn’t answer right away? Muller said this:

“We ought to love God, even though we have not answers to our prayers; but all this will greatly increase our love; and it is not only once, but if we mark the hand of God, we shall soon find that we have scores and hundreds of answers to prayer. And thus we shall be led to love Him more and more for all he has done.”

But I’m Not George Muller

And just in case you’re thinking, “Yeah, well, that’s George Muller. I could never have a prayer life like that. No one could but him. God chose him special for this prayer life,” George addressed that in his writings. He made it clear that his faith wasn’t the “gift” of faith mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12:9. Rather, he said he was able to trust God because of the “grace” of faith.

Muller himself dispelled this when he wrote, “Think not, dear reader, that I have the gift of faith, that is, that gift of which we read in 1 Corinthians 12:9, and which is mentioned along with `the gifts of healing,` `the working of miracles,` `prophecy,”` and that on that account I am able to trust in the Lord.

“It is true that the faith, which I am enabled to exercise, is altogether God’s own gift; it is true that He alone supports it, and that He alone can increase it; it is true that, moment by moment, I depend upon Him for it, and that, if I were only one moment left to myself, my faith would utterly fail; but it is not true that my faith is that gift of faith which is spoken of in 1 Corinthians.”

George Muller’s Goal

Why did Muller talk about this prayer life with God? To encourage believers in their faith. That’s why he made such a point of the fact that his faith––as is true of all believers’ faith––was given to him and sustained by God, but it wasn’t some special ability. It was, quite simply, the result of his determination to take God at His word. Something we all are expected to do.

In his journal, Muller went on to write, “All believers are called upon, in the simple confidence of faith, to cast all their burdens upon him, to trust in him for everything, and not only to make everything a subject of prayer, but to expect answers to their petitions which they have asked according to his will, and in the name of the Lord Jesus.”

In all, George Muller cared for over 10,000 orphans during his lifetime, giving them educational opportunities. He established 117 schools which offered Christian education to more than 120,000 people. According to an article in The Times, Muller received approximately 1.5 million pounds (equaling 2.6 million dollars) through faithful prayer and established orphanages in five locations.

He spoke in countless countries, preaching and teaching about faith and trust in God, reaching hundreds of thousands with the Gospel. He is known to have had 50,000 prayers answered during his life. His was a life well lived, not because he was someone special, but because He believed in and trusted God to be all He said He was.

Keys to Praying Like George Muller

So if George Muller was no one special, meaning each of us can attain a faith like his, how do we go about it? First we must ask ourselves one question:

Do I Believe?

Go ahead. Ask yourself. Do you believe God is all He says He is? Do you believe He will do what He says He will do? That He will answer your prayers. Because you must if you expect an answer from Him. The Bible is clear on that in James 1:6-7:

“But [you] must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. For that person ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.”

Soul-Deep Belief

There could be no doubt that George Muller believed with every ounce of his being. Just one example happened in 1877, when, while crossing the Atlantic, a dense fog descended. The captain of the ship slowed their progress to be safe. George went to the captain and said he had to be in Quebec by the following afternoon. The captain said there was no way they’d make it in time.

What did George do? He asked the captain to pray with him. They went to a room below decks, with the captain muttering what a waste of time it all was, and Muller prayed. The captain started to follow suit, but George stopped him. In part, he said, because the captain didn’t believe. But mostly because the prayer had already been answered.

Had Muller seen the fog lift? No, but he believed! He told the captain “I have known my Lord for more than fifty years and there is not one instance that I have failed to have an audience with the King. Get up, Captain, for you will find that the fog has gone.” They went back up on the bridge, and the fog was, indeed, gone.

Are You Certain?

How do we pray like George Muller? First, we believe like him. We pray with the utter certainty that God will answer, in His way, in His time. Do we believe God is able to do infinitely and exceedingly beyond anything we can ask for?  Do we believe that God has the power to provide and that he is not only willing to do so but delights in doing so?

If you’re not sure you believe like that, then follow Muller’s lead and go to Scripture. Ask God to show you why you can believe this way. Here are a few verses to get you started:

Don’t be afraid! For the Lord your God is living among you. He is a mighty savior. He will take delight in you with gladness. With his love, he will calm all your fears. He will rejoice over you with joyful songs. (Zephaniah 3:17 NLT)

Be still in the presence of the LORD, and wait patiently for him to act…Day by day the Lord takes care of the innocent, and they will receive an inheritance that lasts forever. They will not be disgraced in hard times; even in famine they will have more than enough….The Lord rescues the godly; he is their fortress in times of trouble. The Lord helps them, rescuing them from the wicked. He saves them, and they find shelter in him. (Psalms 37:7, 18-19, 39-40  NLT)

Therefore, I say unto you, whatsoever things you desire, when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you shall have them. (Mark 11:24, )

Now Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. And there was a woman who for eighteen years had had a sickness caused by a spirit; and she was bent over double, and could not straighten up at all. When Jesus saw her, He called her over and said to her, “Woman, you are freed from your sickness.” And He laid His hands on her; and immediately she stood up straight again, and began glorifying God. (Luke 13:10-13 NASB)

How Long, O Lord?

Eighteen years! Have you prayed for 18 years with no apparent answer? For longer? Are you will to wait for God to act, even if you don’t see it happen in your lifetime? Will you still believe that He will do as He promised? Remember, just because God hasn’t answered a prayer yet doesn’t mean He’ll never answer it. It can’t mean that. If it does, then God isn’t who He says He is.

There were six people whom Muller asked God to bring to faith. Every day he prayed for those people. One came to faith not long after Muller began praying. One several years. Two more over a larger number of years. Only one was still unsaved when Muller died.

So does that mean God didn’t answer that prayer? Not at all. The man came to faith a year after Muller’s death. There is no such thing as “taking too long” for God. He will answer when He knows the time is right. We don’t need to see the answers. We simply need to trust the Provider.

Are You Ready?

When you can say you believe with certainty that God is who He says He is, that He will do what He promised, then follow George Muller’s lead into Scripture. Yes, back into the Word of God. Why? Because Muller had been praying every day for years, but then God revolutionized his prayer life with a revelation. As he wrote in his journal:

“It pleased the Lord to teach me a truth…I saw more clearly than ever, that the first great and primary business to which I ought to attend every day was, to have my soul happy in the Lord.”

Soul Happiness

How about you? Is your soul happy in the Lord? Are you content in Him? Resting in Him? Why did Muller think this was so important? Because if our souls aren’t happy in the Lord, then everything we do for him runs the risk of being done in the wrong spirit. So how do we achieve this soul happiness? Muller tells us:

“The most important thing I had to do was to give myself to the reading of the Word of God, and to meditate on it, that thus my heart might be comforted, encouraged, warned, reproved, instructed; and that thus, by means of the Word of God, whilst meditating on it, my heart might be brought into … communion with the Lord.”

So early every morning after that, he went to God’s Word. He asked the Lord’s blessing on His Word, then meditated on the Scripture, “searching as it were into every verse to get blessing out of it; not for the sake of the public ministry of the Word, not for the sake of preaching on what I had meditated upon, but for the sake of obtaining food for my own soul.”

When Your Soul Is Happy in the Lord

The result? Muller found his soul led to confession or thanksgiving or intercession or supplication… in other words, to prayer! And he would continue his reading and meditating, which turned the Scripture into prayer for himself and others.

And, as he said, “My inner man almost invariably is … nourished and strengthened, and by breakfast time, with rare exceptions, I am in a peaceful if not happy state of heart.”

So if we want to learn how to live a prayer-steeped life as George Muller did, start in God’s Word. Maybe even start by studying and meditating on the verse that so impacted Muller: “I, the LORD, am your God, Who brought you up from the land of Egypt; Open your mouth wide and I will fill it.” (Psalm 81:10 NASB)

Muller’s Conditions for Successful Prayer

Starting in God’s Word, letting it become prayer, will accomplish something else. Muller taught that there were conditions required for successful prayer, the first of which was that our requests must be according to God’s will. If we’re stepped in God’s holy Word, if we’re meditating and praying it, then we can be sure God will set our hearts and spirits right with Him. And He will show us what is in accordance to His will.

George Muller’s second condition for successful prayer was that we “mustn’t ask on account of our own goodness or merit, but ‘in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ’ (John 14-13-14.)” He supported this condition with Psalm 66:18, which says “if I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.” In other words, Muller said, “if I live in sin and go on in a course hateful to God, I may not expect my prayers to be answered.”

The third condition we’ve talked about already, and that is to exercise faith in the power and willingness of God to answer our prayers. And the fourth condition is to “continue patiently waiting on God till the blessing we seek is granted.”

As Muller stressed, there’s nothing in Scripture about when God will answer, only that He will. “Therefore,” Muller wrote, “beloved brethren and sisters, go on waiting upon God, go on praying; only be sure you ask for things that are according to the mind of God.”

What Happens When You Take These Steps?

Friends, if we take these steps, being mindful of these conditions, how can our prayers not be changed? How can we not be changed? Even as George Muller was changed. And how can we not be used? Even as Muller was used, or more?

Charles Spurgeon says this about prayer: “Prayer is the natural outgushing of a soul in communion with Jesus. Just as the leaf and the fruit will come out of the vine-branch without any conscious effort on the part of the branch, but simply because of its living union with the stem, so prayer buds, and blossoms, and fruits out of souls abiding in Jesus. As stars shine, so do abiders pray. It is their … second nature.”

Abide in God. Trust in His promises. Believe He is Who He says He is and will do as He promised.

Don’t Let Yourself Be Derailed

One final thought:

Don’t let your feelings derail you. Because they can. If we’ve prayed and prayed and no answer seems forthcoming, we can become discouraged. Or we can feel that doing the things we’ve discussed just aren’t accomplishing anything. Muller warns us about this:

“It is a common temptation of Satan to make us give up the reading of the Word and prayer when our enjoyment is gone; as if it were of no use to read the Scriptures when we do not enjoy them, and as if it were no use to pray when we have no spirit of prayer.

“The truth is that, in order to enjoy the Word we ought to continue to read it and the way obtain a spirit of prayer is to continue praying. The less we read the Word of God, the less we desire to read it, and the less we pray, the less we desire to pray.”

Don’t let yourself be derailed.

Practice, Practice, Practice!

William Arthur Arthur Rubinstein, the great pianist, once said, “If I neglect practicing one day, I notice; two days, my friends notice; three days, the public notices.”

That applies to us as well, friends. Keep on keeping on. Because though it may take time, it’s the same as with any other thing we do. The more we do it, the more familiar it becomes. The more we learn and grow, and the more we are moved to do it. And ever and always, wait on God to act.

As George Muller said, “I have found invariably…that if I only believed I was sure to get, in God’s time, the thing I asked for…To see that He is able, you have only to look at the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, for to raise him from the dead, He must have almighty power…assuredly if we believe, we shall receive––we shall obtain.”

Hello, Powerful Prayer

The least we can do? Hardly. Prayer is, in fact, a believer’s most powerful weapon. With prayer we can call on God to unleash the armies of heaven that He may be glorified on the earth. We can lift those we care about to the most powerful King in creation and seek mercy or healing or whatever is needed. Prayer is not our fall back. It’s our first and best act in any situation.

As C.S. Lewis once said, “I pray because I can’t help myself. I pray because I’m helpless. I pray because the need flows out of me all the time, waking and sleeping. It doesn’t change God. It changes me.”

And as Max Lucado wrote, ”Our prayers may be awkward. Our attempts may be feeble. But since the power of prayer is in the one who hears it and not in the one who says it, our prayers do make a difference.”

Amen

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The post 208 – The Keys to Successful Prayer appeared first on Write from the Deep.

How would it change the way you pray if you realized God is greater––make that far greater––than anything we can imagine, think, or dream of? That His work within us and for us is beyond our greatest imaginings? That our human minds can’t even begin to understand or imagine all He is able to do? Come explore what this means to you and your prayers!

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I’m (Karen) part of a brainstorming group of roughly 10 women that has been meeting for 20 years or more. As you can imagine, we are all good friends. As believers, we spend a lot of time talking about the Lord and praying together.

In this spirit, we pray and ask God to give us a word to focus on for each year. He’s been so faithful to do this for each of us, and to confirm our individual words with Scripture and quotes and other things.

One of the women in my brainstorming group, Gayle deSalles, shared what God had shown her for her word. I was so moved and impressed that I asked her if I could use it as a basis for this podcast. She graciously agreed.

Pay Attention!

A part of what impacted me so much was that God had been stirring similar thoughts and questions in me over the past few weeks. I always love it when God whispers the same truths to different believers! And when that happens I often feel a holy “Pay attention!”, that there’s something important there not just for the person sharing, or for me, but for others.

Gayle’s word for 2024 comes from one of the most familiar passages in the entire Bible. She said she wasn’t even thinking about this Scripture or word when it came to her. She’d been uncertain what her word was, so she decided to do something that we all need to do when we’re seeking God’s guidance:

Meditate on His word, listen only to Him, and explore Scriptures as He directs.

Decisions to Make?

Do you have a decision you need to make? An issue where you’re seeking God’s guidance? Has some opportunity come to you but you’re not sure if it’s right?

Are you considering writing something different, something you’ve never written before, but can’t shake a niggling concern about doing it?

Or are you feeling that maybe you didn’t hear God right, and you’re somehow off-track with what He wants from you as a writer?

The first, wisest step to take when you’re in a situation such as this is to do as Gayle did: Meditate on God’s word, listen only to Him, and explore Scriptures as He directs.

A Guided Tour of God’s Word

You may be amazed how immersed you become in the Word as God leads you through it. Verses you’ve known all your life are suddenly alive with a new meaning or importance. Chapters you’ve read again and again suddenly seem to have sections you’ve never seen.

It’s not that you haven’t read them before. It’s just that God is highlighting them in your mind and spirit, telling you to pay attention, go deeper, take time to understand.

Remember what Hebrews 4:12 says,  “the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.

Embrace Freedom!

Gayle described this process well when she told the group, “I’ve been enjoying myself so much that I keep getting the kind of dopamine rush I used to get when I took off on my bicycle for a long ride on a sunny spring day. A day not too hot or cold. When I headed down a path or wove through neighborhoods I’d never explored before.”

Do you remember doing that? That sense of freedom and exploration, of excitement and anticipation?

When we come to the Word of God seeking only to hear Him, to be guided by Him, it’s the same exhilarating sensation.

Time to dig deeper

At this point in her email, Gayle shared her word: IMAGINE.

One of the confirming Scriptures God gave her was Ephesians 3:20. Some versions of the Bible render “imagine” as “think.” But the concept is one we all can embrace.

The New International Version has the verse as, “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.” (That’s actually Ephesians 3:20 and 21.)

In the New American Standard Bible it’s: “Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us.”

The AMPC, or Amplified Bible, Classic Edition, actually expands on what certain words in the verse mean: “Now to Him Who, by [in consequence of] the [action of His] power that is at work within us, is able to [carry out His purpose and] do superabundantly, far over and above all that we [dare] ask or think [infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, hopes, or dreams].

And in The Living Bible, we find: “Now glory be to God, who, by his mighty power at work within us, is able to do far more than we would ever dare to ask or even dream of—infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, or hopes.”

GOD IS GREATER!

How exciting is that verse? In each and every translation of it, we find an amazing truth: God is greater––make that far greater––than anything we can imagine, think, or dream of. His work within us and for us is beyond our greatest imaginings. We can’t begin to ask all that our God is able to do!

Crosswalk.com shares this insight:

“Paul had just previously written of God’s marvelous plan for the Gentiles: ‘God’s love for us goes farther than even time itself…His love for us is a love that doesn’t hold back. His love gives everything, to the point of sacrificing his very own Son …This is unquantifiable, immeasurable love.’

The article goes on to say:

“God, who He is and what He does, will do, and has done is immeasurable. We only see and know a slice of the whole pie in the sky. And we can know a lot about God! He is not afraid of our questions, frustrations, and promises. When we seek Him with all of our hearts, we will find Him.“

You never need to feel alone, or that you can’t figure something out. Almighty God is always at work, in His immeasurable love, on the answer. HIS answer. For you.

DON’T GET LOST

Oftentimes, though, even if we have this knowledge in our heads, our feelings overwhelm us and we end up a bit lost. In Ecclesiastes 1, we see that Solomon, a man who once enjoyed deep fellowship with God, was led astray by his feelings. And yet, even in his emotional state, he is, in the pages of this book of the Bible, finding his way back, understanding that without God as the focus, life is meaningless.

Consider what we find in Ecc. 1:1-11:

“`Everything is meaningless,’ says the Teacher, ‘completely meaningless!’

“What do people get for all their hard work under the sun? Generations come and generations go, but the earth never changes. The sun rises and the sun sets, then hurries around to rise again…. Everything is wearisome beyond description….

“History merely repeats itself. It has all been done before. Nothing under the sun is truly new. Sometimes people say, ‘Here is something new!’ But actually it is old; nothing is ever truly new. We don’t remember what happened in the past, and in future generations, no one will remember what we are doing now.’”

THE STRUGGLE IS REAL

Now that’s a discouraged man. Have you struggled with discouragement like this? Feeling that no matter what you do, nothing ever happens? That you have nothing new to say or write, or that the same disappointments keep happening over and over?

But how does this Solomon jive with the Solomon we see in 1 Kings 3: 3-14:

“Solomon loved the Lord and followed all the decrees of his father, David, except that Solomon, too, offered sacrifices and burned incense at the local places of worship.  The most important of these places of worship was at Gibeon, so the king went there and sacrificed 1,000 burnt offerings.  That night the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream, and God said, `What do you want? Ask, and I will give it to you!’”

WHAT DO YOU WANT?

Friends, what do you want of God? What is your fondest desire and goal? What would you say if Father God came to you and asked you this question?

Solomon replied this way: “’You showed great and faithful love to your servant my father, David, because he was honest and true and faithful to you. And you have continued to show this great and faithful love to him today by giving him a son to sit on his throne.

“’Now, O Lord my God, you have made me king instead of my father, David, but I am like a little child who doesn’t know his way around. And here I am in the midst of your own chosen people, a nation so great and numerous they cannot be counted! Give me an understanding heart so that I can govern your people well and know the difference between right and wrong. For who by himself is able to govern this great people of yours?”

Solomon, the great king, knew he was “like a little child, who doesn’t know his way around.” No matter how long we’ve been following Jesus, how long we’ve been writing what God asks us to write, we, like Solomon, are, in many ways, “like a little child, who doesn’t know his way around.” We love God, we seek to serve Him as best we know how. But as we saw in the verses in Ephesians, what we truly know of God is miniscule compared to who He is and what He is doing for His children. For you.

An Understanding Heart?

This great king—Solomon—wanted an understanding heart, but what, exactly, does that mean?

MinistryInsights.com has a fascinating article that explores An Understanding Heart. First it clarifies “heart,” saying, “In Scripture, the term ‘heart’ is used to denote a person’s inner self. The heart is the center of spiritual activity, moral understanding, and human will.”

We all know how powerful the heart is. Scripture underscores this truth over and over, making it clear that our heart is affected by what we treasure (Matt 6:21); that the heart is the source of our trust in God (Prov 3:5); that we must guard our hearts because every we do flows from it (Prov 4:23); that a pure heart goes hand in hand with a steadfast spirit (Psa 51:10); that God’s peace guards our hearts (Phil. 4:7).

The article on MinistryInsights goes on to say that an understanding heart, is humble and purposeful. Humble, in that it recognizes any strength we have, even in our writing, isn’t from us, it’s from God. A humble heart “invites God to work to cultivate deeper insight about those strengths.” Purposeful, in that it is “neither careless nor impulsive.” When we cultivate an understanding heart, we do so understanding our limits and God’s limitlessness, and we do so with purpose.

How to Go to God?

So when you go to God for guidance, start with meditating on His word, listening only to Him. Then, acknowledging how limited your understanding is, ask Him to give you an understanding heart. Of yourself, of others, of HIM.

How did God respond in 1 Kings when Solomon asked for an understanding heart? He replied:

“’Because you have asked for wisdom in governing my people with justice and have not asked for a long life or wealth or the death of your enemies—I will give you what you asked for! I will give you a wise and understanding heart such as no one else has had or ever will have!  And I will also give you what you did not ask for—riches and fame! No other king in all the world will be compared to you for the rest of your life!  And if you follow me and obey my decrees and my commands as your father, David, did, I will give you a long life.’”

THE BIG QUESTION

So ask your self: “How close do I want to go with God?”

Gayle explained, “In short, God was saying to me, ‘Gayle, to the degree you are walking closely with me, abiding with me, fixing your eyes on me, one of two things will happen. You will either, in some degree or fashion, walk in Ecclesiastes 1 and get depressed by all you see, waking up each morning and saying––if not in your words, then in your heart––’same ole, same ole.

“’Or you will embrace Ephesians 3:20 and seek me, asking me to reveal My heart. Start with boldness to ask me what is already on your heart and mind, and we’ll talk about the fact that I can do immeasurably more than that. Or than you can ever imagine.’”

LIVING IN ECCLESIASTES 1

This question––“How close do I want to go with God?”, grabbed my heart and spirit. Just the night before Gayle’s email, I’d made the mistake of watching the news. As a result, I found myself unable to sleep. Wondering how God’s creation has come so far away from Him. How such unbelievable lies and deceptions have taken root in people’s hearts and minds. That night, I was living in Ecclesiastes 1, moaning about how there’s nothing new under the sun. How evil is rampant and people are rotten and Lord, why don’t you come down and annihilate us all???

Yeah, not a great place to live. If you’ve been there, or are even there now, it’s time to step out of Ecclesiastes. To go to Scripture and seek first the Father’s forgiveness for not trusting Him, and then ask His help.

Ask Him to draw you closer to His heart. To share His understanding of the world, of evil, of all that so drags us down. Ask Him to open our eyes, to let us see the people and world around us with HIS eyes. To show us His truth and His work in our world. And to draw us  deeper into an understanding heart.

ARE YOU READY TO STOP?

So how about you? How close do you want to go with God? Are you ready to stop accepting “the same ol’, same ol’”? Are you ready to refuse to accept that’s just the way the world is, or that’s just the way publishing is, or that’s just the way the church is? Are you ready to shift your focus and understanding when trials come, because we all know they will come. Boy howdy, will they ever come.

Our books won’t sell the way we want or hope.

Pirates may steal our fair earnings.

Contracts we’re expecting may not materialize.

Projects we’ve been counting on may disappear with no explanation.

Books we turn in may be rejected.

We may fall sick and can’t meet a deadline.

Family crises may leave us too battered to write.

And that barely scratches the surface of all that can go wrong in our writing journeys. And if we walk in Ecclesiastes 1, we’ll just moan and groan and complain and ask why. But friends, don’t do that! Instead, prepare for the inevitable trials of life and publishing, with an understanding heart.

GET READY FOR AMAZING!

When we do that, something amazing happens. Those hard Scriptures, the ones we read and wonder how on earth we’re supposed to follow them, take on a new meaning and impact.

Consider James 1:2-4:

“Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”

Pure joy? You bet. Because an understanding heart will let you see what’s happening to you with God’s eyes. You’ll understand every trial will only draw you closer to Him. And it will help prepare you for eternity with the Father!

ALL THINGS?

When we ask God to grow in us an understanding heart, Romans 8:28 resonates as never before:

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”

How often have we asked, “All things? Really?” I know I’ve asked that. Physical limitations. Diseases and Illnesses. Relationship struggles. Financial hardships? All those things are for my good?

Yes, in any and every thing, God is working for our good. And he’s not just wringing his hands going, “Oh dear, how am I going to fix this?” No, he’s had a plan all along to shape and refine us. To give us compassion and understanding. To make us a reflection of Him to a world that so desperately needs to know Him.

OUR UNWITTING WITNESS

Don and I live in a remote area of Washington. There’s one highway that comes to our town, and the traffic on that highway is atrocious. I joined a Facebook group for my small town, and noticed how people would ask about the traffic situation on a regular basis. So when Don and I were stuck in a loooooong line of traffic, I hopped onto Facebook and posted about it to let folks know.

Many of the responses to my post were nice, even grateful. But some of them. Holy cow! I had no idea I’d get blasted with sarcastic, angry, and insulting posts. That I’d be told to “go back to whatever city you came from if you don’t like the traffic!” I considered unleashing some verbal abuse of my own in response, but God got hold of me.

Instead, I responded to a few people telling them it seemed they were having a tough day so I’d pray for them. And then I thanked the people who were kind and grateful in their responses. Well, it’s a good thing I didn’t follow that first instinct because the woman who lives behind us sent me a private message telling me where to post about traffic without getting blasted.

Then she said, “Some people just have to be mean. But your responses to them were wonderful!” Thank God He moved me to turn my hurt and frustration into kindness. I shudder to think the kind of witness I’d have been to her if I’d responded in kind.

THE BEAUTY OF AN UNDERSTANDING HEART

That’s the beauty of cultivating an understanding heart. It turns us around. And it turns 1 Peter 4: 12-19, from one of those hard Scriptures to a wonderful strategy filled with promise and purpose:

“Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice inasmuch as you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.

“If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you…if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name. For it is time for judgment to begin with God’s household; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God? …

“So then, those who suffer according to God’s will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good.”

Trails coming? Be overjoyed when God’s glory is revealed!

Suffering attacking you? You are blessed and the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you!

Miseries reaching for you? Don’t be ashamed! Praise God that you bear His name!

Carrying burdens? Commit yourself to your faithful Creator and continue to do good, because he will make you able.

IMAGINE…WITH GOD

Imagine. Imagine living that way.

Imagine seeking God in His word, listening only for His loving, powerful voice.

Imagine surrendering to Him and His work in everything you are and do.

Imagine what it means to ask Him for, and open yourself to, Him creating in you an understanding heart.

Imagine coming to Him and asking for whatever abundant, unfathomable, inconceivable blessing He wants to share with us!

Start today, friends. Don’t spend any more time in an Ecclesiastes 1 life. Instead, step into a life steeped in Ephesians 3:20, and let your imagination soar.

Meditate on God’s word, listen only to Him, and explore Scriptures as He directs. #amwriting #Christianwriter
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THANK YOU!

Thanks to all our patrons on Patreon! You help make this podcast possible!

A big thank you to our February sponsor of the month, Wendy L. Macdonald. She’s a writer, poet, podcaster, photographer, and nature lover, and I know you’d enjoy getting to know her! She has a free, special gift for you: 10 Good Habits to Help You Become a Great Listener!

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Many things in today’s world make us feel we need to hurry up and get them done. But there are some things that we should NOT hurry to do. Here are 10 specific things you need to do for your career—and life—but never in a hurry.

But first, thank you to all our patrons on Patreon! You help make this podcast possible!

The new year started a few weeks ago, and by now we’re probably deep into the commitments, resolutions, and activities of life. If you’re like most people, all that has probably come with a sense of rushing about.

Now, rushing isn’t always bad. If, say, your carbon monoxide alarm is going off, rushing out of the house is prudent. But if rushing becomes the normal course of our lives, it leads to stress, anxiety, and exhaustion. That isn’t the way God designed us to live and function.

This year we want to encourage you to slow down. To NOT live your life in a constant state of “hurry.” To help you do that in concrete ways, we’ve made a list of 10 things to NOT hurry. We’ll start off with something writing related.

1. Don’t hurry to publish your first book

Some of you may have started the year with a goal of finishing your book and publishing it this year. That is not necessarily wise. Especially if it’s your first book, and most especially if it’s the first draft. Trust us when we say that learning the craft takes time, and you can’t put a deadline on that. 

Most writers don’t know what they don’t know until AFTER they write their first book AND get professional feedback. The last thing you want to do for your writing career is be in a hurry to publish something that isn’t ready. Unless you’ve been studying craft for a few years and revised that first book multiple times, it’s very likely not ready.

Trust us. We have seen lots and LOTS of manuscripts over the years that were pitched to agents or publishers, or self-published, long before they were ready. So take your time. Don’t hurry.

Proverbs 19:2 (NLT) says, “Enthusiasm without knowledge is no good; haste makes mistakes.” We want your first book to have every chance of success, not mistakes.

2. Don’t Hurry Learning

With so much information and advice available these days, it’s easy to take in huge quantities of ideas, techniques, facts, and so on, without ever stopping to absorb any of it. Instead of putting new ideas into practice, we just skip off to the next interesting idea. This year, we encourage you to slow down. To let a new idea or technique soak in. To reap the benefits before you move on.

Think about how many writing craft books are out there. And blogs, and articles, and workshops, and courses. You could spend a lifetime hurrying from thing to thing. Don’t do that. Spend some time applying what you’ve learned about dialogue, for example, before you go off to read that book on subplots.

We’re not saying you have to be an expert in one thing before you can move on, because improving craft does seem to go in waves. What we are saying is that you don’t want to let distraction pull you away before you’ve gained real and lasting benefit from what you’re learning. 

This same principle applies to life lessons. Take the time to reflect on new insights and experiences. Often your newfound knowledge will apply to other areas of life. You just need to stop and connect them. This is a great practice to not only gain wisdom, but to improve creativity, because creativity is about making connections.

3. Don’t hurry conversation

The next thing to NOT hurry is conversation. James 1:19 (NLT) tells us “Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters: You must all be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry.”

Think about the good old days when people sat on the front porch and chewed the fat. My dad is in his eighties now. When he was a kid, his family lived in a small town. No one locked their doors when they left the house—that was considered rude because a neighbor might need to borrow something while you were gone. Since the doors weren’t locked, it wasn’t uncommon for his family to come home from somewhere and find folks sitting in the living room waiting for their return, just to visit, to talk in an unhurried fashion.

One of the ways we see hurried conversation these days is a “like” on Facebook, or a thumbs up on a text. Or a quick direct message or email. This seems to be today’s preferred method of communication. Or if there is an actual conversion, it seems that people just want to get their point across and move on.

This year we encourage you to change that. To stop and have deliberate conversations, not quick information exchanges. Put your phone down, turn off the TV, close your laptop, look someone in the eyes, and listen.

That doesn’t necessarily mean you need to devote hours and hours to every conversation. Five relaxed minutes of undivided attention is worth far more than an hour of distracted “uh-huhs.”

4. Don’t hurry relationships

Going along with not hurrying conversation, the next thing to NOT hurry is relationships. The writing business, and life, is all about relationships, and good relationships take time.

Get to know people through unhurried conversation. Spend time with them. Get to know them over time. Go to writing conferences not once, but year after year to meet industry professionals and other writers. Ask them questions about what they do, who they are, and what they like. 

You don’t want to end up with an agent whose style is completely wrong for you. Or a publisher who likes to work with the type of author that you definitely ARE NOT. You don’t want to end up with a critique partner who isn’t as experienced as you need. You don’t want to line up a newsletter swap with a writer who turns out to be unreliable, or hire a PR person who doesn’t understand your brand.

Your goal is to learn about other writers and industry professionals as human beings—not instruments to help further your career. 

But don’t forget about the non-writing relationships in your life. They need time too. Life is busy, and the dual careers writers often have makes things even more challenging. But if we don’t slow down for relationships, we’ll be missing out on the very thing God created us for. We have been made by a relational God for fellowship. This year we encourage you to NOT hurry through the very thing you were made for. 

5. Don’t hurry through prayer time

In our hurry-up life, we can sometimes fall into the trap of thinking we have no time for prayer. Or our prayer time becomes a quick recitation of our list of “needs.” This is not what God intended when he told us to pray—and we are indeed instructed to pray.

Prayer isn’t just for the super spiritual or the super devoted. It’s for everyone, all the time. When we hurry through prayer time, we’re hurrying our relationship and our conversation—two things we’ve already said we shouldn’t do.

In our last episode on Silence, we talked about how incorporating silence into our times of prayer can help us focus on God and hear him better so our prayers become a relationship-building conversation. This year, we encourage you to pay special attention to your time with God. Make it unhurried. Make it deliberate.

We’re not saying you can’t have short times with God, or that a short sentence of prayer before you head into an important meeting, or phone call, or whatever, is inappropriate. But we are encouraging you to stop, to focus, and to be mindful of who it is you’re speaking to.

6. Don’t hurry through accomplishments

The writing journey is a long-haul effort. It’s built upon a series of accomplishments. Everything from your first attempt at writing an article, to your first draft of a novel or memoir, to your first critique, your first published work, to your first book sale or contract, your first critical review, and so on to the next and the next and the next.

Too often our focus is on getting to “somewhere down the road,” and we forget that being right here, right now, is important. It’s a place of learning and growing. And—now hear this everybody—it’s a place that is actually JUST FINE.

This year, wouldn’t it be nice to simply be okay with where you are and not feel like you’re always in a hurry to finish whatever you’re working on so you could get to the next thing? Because there is ALWAYS a next thing. Consequently we’re always trying to move on and never satisfied with where we are or what we’ve done. That is not a happy way to live.

Don’t hear us saying that you shouldn’t set deadlines and you shouldn’t try to grow. We’re simply saying that if, for example, you’re at the “freshman level” of writing, enjoy your “freshman year.”

That doesn’t mean there is no movement forward. Of course there will be. But move at a reasonable pace. Don’t spend all your time rushing or wishing you were at the next grade. Take time to celebrate each small milestone and to acknowledge and enjoy the fruit of your efforts.

7. Don’t hurry through trials

The next thing to NOT hurry through is trials. Yes, we know that might sound dumb, but hear us out. What we mean is that when you’re going through trials, and the writing life—even the Christian life—can sometimes feel like one big trial, don’t put all your focus on trying to claw your way past the trial.

There are things we can learn in trials—things we can’t learn any other way. There are ways we meet God in trials, and these are ways to meet him that won’t happen outside of trials. If your sole focus is on escaping the trial, you’ll miss God. 

You need your energy and your focus on God, not on the emotional turmoil you’ll feel as all your attempts to escape trials fail. There is a reason God left believers on this earth and didn’t whisk us all to heaven the moment we gave our lives to Christ. Part of that reason is for us to experience him—and his grace—here and now in this futile, imperfect place.

Don’t miss out on the way God can reveal himself as a stronghold and refuge in this place.

8. Don’t hurry into decisions

The next thing to NOT hurry is decisions. What we’re talking about here are big, life-changing kinds of decisions. Not decisions about whether to have tuna or chicken for lunch. The writing life is filled with decisions so here are some dos and don’ts that can help you not hurry into a decision:

Don’ts:

• Don’t hurry through the first open door. This might mean you don’t take the first offer of agent representation, or the first publication contract, or the easiest method of self-publishing. Just because a door opens doesn’t mean it’s the only door or the RIGHT door.
• Don’t hurry your decision because of someone else’s timeline. For example, this might come in the form of a sale that’s about to end, and you’re tempted to hop on board in order to not miss out rather than because you feel confident it’s the right thing. Or maybe someone gives you a deadline which forces you to say yes or no even though you’re not sure.
• Don’t hurry to get answers you don’t need yet. This might mean, for example, that you stop asking God whether you should indy publish or whether you should look for a traditional publisher, because right now God just wants you to focus on finishing the first draft so you can learn the craft and develop relationships in the industry. You don’t need any other answers yet.

Dos:

• Do pray and wait on God, and remember that his timeline is almost never the same as ours. 
• Do seek godly wisdom in Scripture and through other trusted believers.
• Do seek professional counsel such as industry experts, watchdog groups, and so on.
• Do listen to your gut. We’re not saying that every decision needs to be a long, drawn-out affair. Sometimes you really do just know, and second-guessing can be paralyzing. When you’re in tune with yourself and with God, it’s not uncommon to sense his leading one way or another, or to sense a check in your spirit if God means for you to wait or run away. There’s a big difference between acting rashly and acting on good instincts.

9. Don’t hurry through your day

Schedule white space into your day. White space is a buffer where nothing is scheduled so you can slow down. Breathe. Reflect.

Think about your daily choices and activities so you’re not stuck in poor habits that you do without even thinking about. Experience your life. Don’t hurry through it.

10. Don’t Hurry…

Our next thing to not hurry is personal. It’s individual: Don’t hurry whatever it is that God may be telling you that you’re hurrying this year.

Take time to think and pray about this. Where are you dissatisfied? That might be a clue. Where are you in a hurry where you shouldn’t be? Maybe it’s something we already said. Maybe it’s something we didn’t say. Maybe there isn’t anything, and if so, good for you! But do go to God and ask.

It could be something that you’re hurrying for yourself, but it could also be something you’re hurrying someone else into. God knows, so seek him and patiently wait to hear from him. 

Ecclesiastes 3:1 (NLT) tells us, “For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven.”

The chapter goes on to list all kinds of different activities and seasons, like a time to laugh and time to cry, to build up and tear down, and so on. But one thing it doesn’t say is “a time to hurry.” 

God doesn’t mean for us to live a hurried life. He means for us to live a purposeful life in relationship with him and others. Part of why we hurry is because we don’t always trust God with where we are. We don’t trust him with the times and seasons of our life. But that’s the very thing we need to do, because only God is sovereign and only he can see the whole picture.

Let’s leave the times and seasons to God and rest in an unhurried life, confident that he has our best in mind and will bring it about.

How often have we told ourselves to hurry up? Here are 10 specific things you need to do for your career—and life—but never in a hurry. #amwriting #christianwriter
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What’s one thing you want to NOT hurry this year?

THANK YOU!

Thanks to all our patrons on Patreon! You help make this podcast possible!

Thanks so much to our January sponsor of the month Kimberley Woodhouse! She’s an award-winning and bestselling author of more than forty books.  Her books have been awarded the Carol Award, Holt Medallion, Reader’s Choice Award, Selah Award, Spur Award, Christian Market Book Award, Golden Scroll Award among others. A popular speaker/teacher, she’s shared with over 1,000,000 people at more than twenty-five hundred venues across the country. Check out her latest book: The Secrets Beneath. Connect with Kim at www.kimberleywoodhouse.com.

Many thanks also to the folks at PodcastPS for their fabulous sound editing!

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Everywhere we go in today’s world, there’s an abundance of noise. Silence has become a thing of the past, yet we’ve never needed it more. Learn how to tap into the beauty and benefits of one of today’s most precious commodities: silence.

But first, thank you to all our patrons on Patreon! You help make this podcast possible!

It’s a new year, and it’s a time where many people take stock and evaluate the past year, or the coming year. What do you hope for this year?

At Write from the Deep our hope and prayer for us and for you is that we’d all grow and deepen in our relationship with God. In our intimacy. Toward that end, we started a series last year on activities, or practices, to deepen our relationship with God. 

As we said before, some people call these practices spiritual disciplines, but we don’t necessarily want to think of them that way. They’re not disciplines for discipline’s sake. We’re not doing hard things just to make ourselves spiritual.

These are activities that are all about spiritual growth. They’re about tightening our connection to God and flourishing in our relationship with him. We want to grow in our conformity to Christ and in our role as his witnesses.

Today we want to talk about silence. Maybe you’ve had a very busy holiday season, and silence is something you welcome right now.  Or maybe the never-ending cycle of busyness has restarted after a holiday break, and silence feels like an impossibility. Or maybe you miss the sounds and festivities of friends and family celebrations, and you wish it weren’t so silent right now.

Whatever your situation, we want to give some thoughts and ideas of the good that can come from silence. We’ll talk about how and why you’d want to nurture and establish silence in your daily life.

WHAT IS SILENCE? 

First let’s talk about what silence is. Good ol’ Merriam Webster has several definitions, but the first one we want to talk about is the “absence of sound or noise: stillness.”

Absence of sound or noise; stillness

When you think about it, true silence—the absence of ALL noise—is hard to come by in our world today. There’s an abundance of mechanical sounds like cars, washing machines, office printers, and lawn mowers. There’s also a plethora of technology noise: beeps, whooshes, dings, rings. There’s entertainment noise—TV shows, music, social media videos, news broadcasts, the neighbor’s barbecue party. There’s even natural noise: birds, rain, wind, cicadas, waves.

Some people may never have experienced total silence, so just wrapping our minds around it might be difficult for some of us. It’s no wonder that silence can make us uncomfortable.

Dallas Willard, in his book The Spirit of the Disciplines, has this to say: “…noise comforts us in some curious way. In fact, we find complete silence shocking because it leaves the impression that nothing is happening. In a go-go world such as ours, what could be worse than that!” 

He goes on to say, “Think what it says about the inner emptiness of our lives if we must always turn on the … radio to make sure something is happening around us.”

But creating silence—an absence of sound—involves more than just turning off devices that make noises or isolating ourselves from other natural noises. Silence forces us to cease activity, to cease making sounds. Remember this first definition of silence is stillness. We spend way more time than we realize on the go, either in body or mind. Spending time in silence means we stop moving, and we stop our thoughts from endless whirling. 

This stillness can make silence even more disconcerting. Dallas Willard says, “Silence is frightening because it strips us as nothing else does, throwing us upon the stark realities of our life.”

So why on earth would we want to create silence? What are the benefits of this disconcerting, possibly even frightening activity?

The Benefits of Stillness

1. Stillness promotes awareness.

Stillness gives us a time and place to evaluate what’s happening within us and around us. 

• Are we stressed? Sometimes we don’t even know it.
• Are we exhausted? Sometimes we won’t stop to acknowledge that and do something about it.
• Are we creatively sapped? Has our creativity just been dwindling, forcing us to work harder with worse results? It can be difficult to notice this type of slow drain.
• What troubles are we carrying that we should give over to God? Again, we don’t often realize that we’re piling on burdens, when really Jesus tells us his yoke is easy and his burden is light (Matthew 11:28-30). That should be our norm.
• How much activity is really going on in our lives? We don’t often stop to take note of how we’ve overbooked ourselves or how we haven’t stopped moving in longer than we can remember.
• Is there somebody around us who’s hurting, whom we haven’t noticed because of all the other noise in our life?

Silence gives us an opportunity to stop and evaluate and make changes.

2. Stillness strips away the world and leaves us only with God.

Another benefit of silence, of stillness, is that it gives us time to relish and acknowledge a simple, quiet connection with God. God is the only one who can fill our deepest longing and desire.

Acts 17:25 (NIV) tells us “…he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else.” We need time to soak in this truth, to let it sink deep into our hearts. It’s an acknowledgement of our full dependence on God. That gives us proper humility, gratitude, and a willingness to serve.

3. Silence helps us sort out and identify meaning.

Another benefit of silence is that it gives us time and space to ponder meaning. “Silence attracts meaning. If you stay silent for a whole hour, it will be hard not to write a poem.” (Richard Rohr, “Silent Compassion”)

We don’t want to go through life not recognizing our purpose, our meaning, and the meaning of what God is doing in us, through us, around us, and in the world. We’re here for God’s glory, to recognize his value, to worship and adore him. Meaning and purpose come from him and if we don’t take time to stop and recognize that, we’re missing out on his design for us.

Forbearance from speech or noise; muteness

We’ve talked about silence as stillness, so now let’s turn to another definition of silence. Merriam Webster says silence is “forbearance from speech or noise: muteness.”

The first thing we want to focus on with this definition is ceasing to talk. This can be very difficult for some of us. Why?

• Sometimes the reason we talk so much is because we don’t like silence. We find it awkward. So we talk in an effort to fill the empty space.
• Sometimes the reason we talk so much is because we’re too self-focused to stop talking. It’s sad to say that, but it’s more and more true. Our culture is “me focused.” The pursuit of self-satisfaction is not just normal, it’s expected and celebrated as a “right.” We don’t need to listen because our own thoughts and opinions matter most to us. Here’s what the Bible says about that in Proverbs 18:2: “Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions.”
• Sometimes we talk too much because we simply don’t like to listen. Also, as we become more and more a product of our culture, sometimes we don’t listen because we simply don’t know how. We’re either out of practice, or we’ve forgotten, or we’ve never even learned. That seems harsh, but take an objective look at what’s happening in our world today and see if you don’t see some of these signs. 

Ceasing to talk is “forbearance from speech,” but what about the other aspect of this definition: “forbearance from noise”?

We already talked about personal stillness and not doing things that make mechanical noise, but what we mean in this definition of forbearance from “noise” is avoiding things like clamor, babble, grumbling, and piling on of pointless arguments.

• These things show up in arenas like social media and email. Do we need to add to the endless chatter? The overwhelm we already all feel? We don’t.

Many writers have newsletters. Are we saying you shouldn’t send them out because they’re noise? Not exactly. What we’re saying is that you need to take a good look at the content you put out. Be objective and critical, because yes, it might be noise. If it is noise, either change it so it’s communication that truly matters, or don’t send it out. There’s nothing wrong with telling your readers that you’re only going to send letters when there is news.

• Gossip, useless arguing, and unwholesome talk are also a form of noise. We need to practice muteness in those cases.

Ephesians 4:29 says, “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.”

James 1:26 is a pretty scathing pronouncement about our ability, or lack thereof, to control our tongue: “Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless.” NIV

Titus 3:9 tells us, “But avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and arguments and quarrels about the law, because these are unprofitable and useless.”

In those days they quarreled about the law, but we can strongly consider applying this same notion to arguments about things like politics today.

The Benefits of Muteness

What are the benefits of NOT talking or making noise?

1. We learn how to listen. 

When we are forced to cease talking, there is room for someone else to speak. That’s a crucial first step to listening. We need to be silent. If we’re not talking, that also helps us interrupt our own self-focus, which will increase our capacity to actually listen to whoever is talking.

The next step is to ask the Holy Spirit for help in truly paying attention to what we’re hearing. To focus on listening, on considering what someone else is saying, on empathizing and learning, rather than sitting there looking like we’re listening when really we’re formulating our own response.

2. We gain insight.

Listening then turns into another amazing benefit of silence: we gain understanding and insight.

Remember that the Bible calls those who don’t want to understand, who just want to air their own opinions, fools. As followers of Christ, we’re called to compassion, concern, and love for others, which starts with understanding.

3. We learn prudence.

Another benefit of not talking is that we learn prudence. Practicing silence helps our first response to become listening rather than leaping in with an opinion, an argument, or an unnecessary comment. Our words will then become prudent, compassionate, timely, respectful, and wise. 

4. Muteness allows for life-transforming concentration on God.

Dallas Willard, again in his book The Spirit of the Disciplines, lists another important benefit of not talking: “Only silence will allow us life-transforming concentration upon God. It allows us to hear the gentle God whose only Son ‘shall not strive, nor cry; neither shall any man hear his voice above the street noise.’” (Matthew 12:19 KJV)

5. We gain a richer and more satisfying prayer life.

The benefit that flows out of our concentration on God is a richer and more satisfying prayer life. In our prayer life, how often do we go on and on with our talking, and we completely forget to be silent and listen for God? 

How often do we complain that we don’t hear from him, and yet we’re always the one doing the talking and never the one doing the listening?

When we stop talking, that opens the door for listening, for hearing God speak, and for time to let understanding come. If we don’t take time for silence in our prayer life, how can God direct us in how HE wants us to pray? We’re in danger of just babbling, or at the very least, neglecting prayer for things God would like us to pray for.

It’s very clear in Scripture that God ordained prayer. God wants us to be prayerfully involved in what happens in our daily lives, praying for our daily bread even, as Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 6:11). And we’re to be prayerfully involved on a spiritual “world war” scale as Paul says to the Ephesians in chapter 6:10-20.

When we’re praying as God directs, we can’t help but feel a more dynamic relationship with God and his involvement in all aspects of our lives, from the mundane to the very real struggle between good and evil.

Absence of Mention; Secrecy

One last definition of silence we want to cover is what Merriam Webster says is “absence of mention: secrecy.”

• One meaning of this is to honor the trust of someone who’s shared something with us in confidence.

We don’t go blabbing a secret. We don’t “share it as a prayer request,” and we don’t hint about it to others. We practice the absence of mentioning it. Obviously there are some exceptions in the case of harmful activity, but that’s not the typical situation.

 The benefit of secrecy is that you become trustworthy.

People need trustworthy listeners. God made humans to be relational people, and as Christ followers, we should do that in the best way we can.  

• Another meaning of the definition of silence as secrecy is avoiding the type of talk that we do to hide poor self-esteem or our lack of confidence.

This might show up as bragging or the need to point out our own importance. Or It might show up as excuses, or assigning blame, or constant diffidence.

In The Spirit of the Disciplines, Dallas Willard says, “We run off at the mouth because we are inwardly uneasy about what others think of us…we use words to ‘adjust’ our appearance and elicit their approval. Otherwise, we fear our virtues might not receive adequate appreciation and our shortcomings might not be properly ‘understood.’”

The benefit of the absence of mention is reliance on God.

What happens when we refrain from speaking to “manage our image”? Dallas Willard says, “In not speaking, we resign how we appear to God. And that is hard.” But he goes on to point out that God is always for us, and Jesus is always interceding for us. The Bible tells us that in Romans 8:31-34:

“What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.”

Ultimately the practice of secrecy will help us rely on God for our identity and our confidence. It helps us gain an inner confidence that has no need to speak. 

This type of silence, “absence of mention,” or “secrecy,” may bring up a few questions like:

1. What about the need to “defend ourselves” if someone slanders us?

What should we do if someone writes lies about us? Especially if writing is our profession and it could hinder our sales? Are we just supposed to let our publisher take the hit in sales?

• • Our first action should be prayer. What does God want us to do about this? We need to take time to listen and obey. Sometimes we’re to respond, but there may be times we’re not supposed to respond. There may be times when we should do as the Israelites were instructed to do as they faced the Red Sea with Pharaoh and the Egyptians hot on their trail in Exodus 14:14. They were told: “The Lord will fight for you while you keep silent.”
  • We also need to discuss this with our agent, if we have one, and our publisher, if we have one. Depending on the situation, it might be their job to defend us or speak for us.
  • If we’re an indie writer, again, prayer first, then heed what God says.
  • Bear in mind that responding to bad reviews is never a good idea. That’s a case where we need to let God be in charge. That person didn’t like our writing. They may even have a malicious attitude. We need to let that go.

2. How do we practice an “absence of mention” in light of the need to market our books?

• • Make sure you know what your motives are. Is your marketing about boosting your self-confidence? Is it about “proving something” through sales? Or is it stemming from a task God has given you to spread the message he gave you for his glory? Ask yourself: Who’s glory are you working for?
  • Using endorsements from others is another way to market without directly tooting your own horn, so to speak.
  • The bottom line is that marketing should come from a desire to serve rather than a desire to profit, even though making a profit isn’t wrong! Supporting your family isn’t wrong. People DO want to read. They want entertainment. They want hope. They want answers to problems. It’s okay to help them find that. It’s okay to serve others and be paid for it. What you want to avoid is believing that you’re the one ultimately in charge of making readers buy your books. God does that. 

HOW TO FIND OR FOSTER TIMES OF SILENCE

We’ve talked about what silence is, and what the benefits are of this practice, but how on earth can we make it happen in this noisy world?

1. Be willing to face it.

To benefit from silence, we first need to be willing to face it. Like solitude, which we talked about in a previous episode, the discomfort or the difficulty of silence may make us shy away from it. We may need to force ourselves. Ask God for help!

2. Start with short periods.

Consider starting with short periods of silence, even as little as 30 seconds. You’d be surprised how long that can feel like. Then gradually build up to more time.

3. Incorporate silence into your prayer time.

Every time you pray, start with silence, quieting yourself, even if you’re just meaning to pray a brief prayer before a meal, or for something you just got an email about, or whatever. As you go to God in more extended times of prayer, incorporate longer a period of silence, or several periods.

4. Take time for silence when you practice solitude.

We said in our episode on solitude that solitude doesn’t have to include silence, but it can. Being silent without the presence of others is much easier than achieving silence in the presence of others.

5. Take time for silence before you fall asleep at night.

You could have take time for silence when you first get into bed, or maybe you find a chair in a quiet corner of the house right before you go to bed.

6. Take time for silence when you wake up.

If you have chronic insomnia like Erin does, you have lots of opportunity to practice silence during the night. Or if you sleep well, then try taking time for silence when you first wake up in the morning. Maybe before you get out of bed, or maybe before you shower or start whatever morning routine you have. Or maybe you make a time of silence part of your morning routine.

Consider memorizing Habakkuk 2:20: “But the Lord is in his holy temple. Let all the earth keep silence before him.” You can recite that to yourself first to help you submit yourself to him and put yourself in the right place before him—humbled, submitted, and taking the time to be still and know he is God.

7. Go outside when it’s snowing.

If it’s winter where you are, like it is here in the United States where we are, maybe you’ll have a day or night where you get a peaceful snowfall. Bundle up and go sit out on your back porch or in your garage or backyard. Chances are that the flakes will fall silently, and snow that may already be on the ground will help to mute the surrounding noises to help you find silence.

8. Pray a specific prayer for silence.

We already mentioned asking God for help with practicing silence when it’s uncomfortable, but you can also pray for help with the practice of not talking in the presence of others. Ask God to remind you to keep your mouth shut and wait and listen. 

Psalm 141:3 says, “Set a guard over my mouth, Lord; keep watch over the door of my lips.” We encourage you to memorize this and repeat this prayer often!

9. Don’t give up.

Don’t give up if you can’t find true silence. It’s not always possible. I (Erin) have tinnitus, so there’s no longer any such thing as true silence for me. There’s always a ringing. But I can’t let that stop me from practicing as much silence as I can.

There is a reason for the saying, “Silence is golden.” It really is. In our silence, God can do much in our hearts and spirits and minds. Enter into that silence right now and let him know you are listening and ready for his word!

Silence isn’t just golden, it’s necessary. Come discover why. #amwriting #christianwriter
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How do you feel about silence?

THANK YOU!

Thanks to all our patrons on Patreon! You help make this podcast possible!

Thanks so much to our January sponsor of the month Kimberley Woodhouse! She’s an award-winning and bestselling author of more than forty books.  Her books have been awarded the Carol Award, Holt Medallion, Reader’s Choice Award, Selah Award, Spur Award, Christian Market Book Award, Golden Scroll Award among others. A popular speaker/teacher, she’s shared with over 1,000,000 people at more than twenty-five hundred venues across the country. Check out her latest book: The Secrets Beneath. Connect with Kim at www.kimberleywoodhouse.com.

Many thanks also to the folks at PodcastPS for their fabulous sound editing!

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The post 205 – The Beauty and Blessings of Silence appeared first on Write from the Deep.

The Advent season is about celebration and expectation. Though we’re almost finished with Advent, the four themes of the season can be anchors for you all year long! Come explore these Advent Anchors to keep you safe and steady in troubled waters.

But first, thank you to all our patrons on Patreon! You help make this podcast possible!

I love Advent. I love the sense of anticipation, the way it teaches us to watch and wait, to celebrate and prepare for not just Christ’s birth, but for the day He will return to this broken, weary world. It’s celebration of what has happened and expectation of what will happen. Though the Advent season this year is almost over, the four themes of Advent—hope, peace, joy, and love—can carry us all year long. In fact, we need to carry a spirit of Advent through the whole year. To help us do that, we’re going to discuss four Advent anchors that can hold us firm and fast, no matter what troubled waters come our way.

Advent anchor 1 – Put your hope in God’s word

Let’s start with the Advent theme of hope. Writers are well acquainted with hope. When we embark on the task God gives us to write, we are full of hope and expectation for what God will do in us and through us. As time passes, though, and we experience the good and bad of the writing life, it can become harder to hold on to hope. And when we get bogged down in the state of the world and the church and publishing, it can become almost impossible.

How do we hold on to hope? We take a firm grasp on Advent Anchor 1 from Psalm 119:14: “You are my refuge and my shield; I have put my hope in your word.”

Advent Anchor 1 is to put your hope in God’s Word! What does that mean? It means trust. Trust what his word says rather than what you see around you, i.e., the world and all its problems.

If you trust what the world is saying, there’s no way to avoid becoming discouraged. Hopeless. But when you put your hope in God’s word, you understand this world is the enemy’s playground. He’s doing all he can to derail God’s work and His redemption of the lost. Compelling truth.org says it this way: 

“When humanity chose to listen to Satan rather than God, Satan became ‘ruler of this world’ (John 12:31). This means that Satan has a degree of authority on earth, and Satan’s objective is to cause suffering, death, and separation from God. …Never forget that ‘the devil prowls like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour’ (1 Peter 5:8). Satan is the king of deception and desires us to believe the lie that God does not care about our suffering (John 8:44).”

The key to being hopeful in a seemingly hopeless world is to keep our focus on God and the undeniable truths in his word. 

John 3:16 begins with, “For God so loved the world…” That means he cares about every one of us, believer and nonbeliever alike. He sent his Son to die for us and restore us to Him and His love. 

Psalm 34:18 tells us that God comforts the brokenhearted. If He didn’t care, why would He do that? And Psalm 89:14 says, “Righteousness and justice are the foundation of His throne; love and faithfulness go before Him.”

These are only a few of the many Scriptures that put the lie to all Satan is and does. Hope in God’s word, friends. Trust what God says. Then, no matter how turbulent the waters around us, we can know we’re held fast by Almighty God. We can echo the psalmist in Psalm 42:11, “Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.”

Advent Anchor 2 – Let Christ’s Peace Rule in Your Heart

Many of our books have carried a theme of peace to readers. We’ve crafted stories that take readers on a journey through struggles into the arms of God’s peace. Yet, how often do we ourselves wrestle with anxiety, fear, and a sense of inadequacy? How often do we wonder if God really gave us this task to write his stories and books, especially when we consider things like sales and contracts and the many human measuring sticks of “success”?

Which leads us to Colossians 3:15: “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts…” That leads us right to Advent Anchor 2: Let Christ’s peace rule in your heart.

Colossians 3:15 ends with a fascinating fact: “…since as members of one body you were called to peace.” Called to peace. I looked in Webster’s for a definition of call, and found a boatload, many of which didn’t seem to fit in this context.

Then I looked for the Jewish word used in this verse, and found that it’s kaleó, which means “I summon, invite” and “I name.” That last meaning really hit me. In fact, kaleó is also used in Matthew 1:21: “…and they shall call his name Immanuel.”

God summons and invites us to peace. But more than that, as his followers he names us peace. In other words, that’s who we are in him. His peace is a part of our spiritual DNA. Even as a father imparts traits to a child, so God, when we accept Christ, weaves his peace into the very fabric of who we are. All we need to do is embrace it, as his beloved children. To choose it over those powerful worldly emotions that seek to drown us. 

If you’re struggling with negative emotions, with wondering why God asked you to write when you can’t seem to gain any ground, with family or personal crises…it’s time. Choose God’s peace. Place it, not emotions, on the throne of your heart. Usher God’s peace in with an open heart. Because his peace is more powerful than any turbulence. His peace pours oil over troubled waters. 

Okay, story time. I’ve always wondered where that phrase, pouring oil over troubled waters, came from. Turns out it’s an Irish priest named Utta and the Irish missionary, St. Aidan. Before a sea voyage, brother Utta went to St. Aidan and asked him to pray for them as they traveled on the sea. He did so, but also gave them some holy oil, saying, “you will meet with a storm and contrary wind; but be mindful to cast this oil I give you into the sea, and the wind will cease immediately; you will have pleasant calm weather to attend you and send you home by the way that you desire.” 

Sure enough, Utta and his companions were caught in a terrible storm, and were sure they would die. But Utta remembered St. Aidan’s words, grabbed the vial of oil and threw it on the raging waters. Immediately, the waters calmed and the sun came out, and the rest of their voyage was safe. 

What we see in that story, and in Scripture, is that embracing God’s peace requires action on our part. Yes, it’s a part of us, but we must turn to it and choose it when everything seems to be saying the last thing we should be is peace-filled.

How do we do that? Philippians 4:6-9 gives us the perfect guide: “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” 

Step One: Prayer and petition with thanksgiving in every situation

To be clear, this is telling us to be THANKFUL for the difficulties that have made us anxious. Why would that be? I think it’s to give us opportunity to do exactly what our guest Rachel Hauck was talking about in our last podcast episode: Watch and wait and see what amazing thing the Almighty God is going to do.

Step Two: “Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.” Philippians 4:8

It’s an old principle: Garbage in, garbage out. What you put into your mind will produce a result. Put in what is true, noble, and so on, and you get God’s peace. Put in Satan’s lies or the world’s ideologies, you get anxiety, worry, and worse. 

Step three: “Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice…” Philippians 4:9

There’s so much wisdom in the Bible, and Paul shares a wealth of guidance for godly living. But we need to do more than just read it. We need to put it into practice. Follow the wisdom in the word of God. Do the things we’re instructed to do as his followers.

The result of following these three steps? “…The God of peace will be with you.” Philippians 4:9

Advent Anchor 3 – Tap Into God’s Joy 

I’m sure you’ve all heard people speak many times about the difference between happiness and joy, so we’ll just start here with this: Joy is based on internal factors. Happiness is based on external factors. 

Now, there’s nothing wrong with happiness. It’s fun and positive. But it can be gone as fast as it comes. Poor book sales, canceled contracts, massive rewrites, unfair reviews…so many things in the writing life can kill happiness.

But joy that’s based in God has staying power. It’s an attitude of the heart and spirit. Because it’s from God, it can co-exist with other emotions, even negative ones. We can be joyful in the face of anger, fear, even unhappiness. Joy is grander and deeper than happiness, and God’s joy carries us through whatever storms we encounter. 

Advent Anchor 3, then, is tap into God’s joy. How do we do that? How do we immerse ourselves in that divine, sustaining joy?

David gives us some tips. Consider Psalm 16:11: “…in your presence there is fullness of joy.”

Step One: Spend time with God

Just as you can’t build a healthy relationship with other people without spending time with them, you can’t find joy in your relationship with God unless you spend time in his presence, talking with him, getting to know him and learning what he thinks of you. Trust me, it’s good news!

The great thing is that wherever you are, God is there, too. All you need to do is turn your heart and thoughts to him. Seek his presence. Revel in his accessibility to you. He’s never too busy, never distracted, never dismissive. Think about that. There is no other person in the whole wide world you can say that about. God’s attention is always on you, and he’s waiting for you to seek him out. So do so. 

David’s next tip is from Psalm 33:21: “In him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in his holy name.”

Step Two: Trust God

My hubby and I have been through a lot of difficult things over the nearly forty-four years of our marriage. Some of them were devastating. After a number of years and crazy things happening, we developed a sort of mantra for our lives: “God is in control. I may not understand it, I may not even like it, but I trust him.”

Do you trust God? Really trust him? To the point that you can echo with Job, “Yea, though he slay me, I will trust in him” (Job 13:15)?

If you’re not sure, then let me encourage you to dig in and explore whether or not God is trustworthy. Even if you do trust him, dig in and be reminded of God’s character. If you seek him, he’ll show you who he is. I guarantee it. 

The next step to tapping into God’s supernatural joy comes in the first half of Psalm 9:1: “I will praise you, Lord, with all my heart”   

Step Three: Praise him

When we praise God, we focus on who he is, what he’s done. Praise ushers us into his presence, and centers our hearts and minds on him. Praise reminds us of God’s intervention in our lives and of the blessings he has given us. Praise breaks the chains Satan tries to put on us by enlisting God’s protection and action. Praise restores our souls and infuses us with joy. 

Finally, consider the second half of Psalm 9:2: “I will tell of all the marvelous things you have done.”

Step Four: Testify

If you’re a parent, remember the first time your child took a step? What did you do? Told everyone about this amazing feat! Or the last time you saw a great movie, what did you do? Told your friends and family about it. Or the first time you got a writing contract? You sang it from the rooftops!

When God works in your life, when he blesses you or upholds you, when he brings you relief or an answer to prayer, when he opens your imagination and gives you a story solution you never would have thought of, when he speaks to or through you at a writers’ conference…whatever he’s done through and for you, tell others! Let people know the wonder of following this loving, all-powerful, unbelievably kind God. Don’t keep it to yourself, friends. Sing it out!

Follow these tips from David, and you’ll be able to say with him: “I will be filled with joy because of you…O Most High.” Psalm 9:2

Advent Anchor 4 – Dwell in God’s Love

Love is my favorite Advent theme. My favorite theme for the whole year! Love. Not just any love, but God’s love. There is no comparison to God’s love. No love so amazing, eternal, or far-reaching. His love is what draws us to him. It’s what motivates us to do whatever task he’s given us, even when it’s something as hard at times as writing. 

Advent Anchor 4 is the simplest, and yet the most profound: Dwell in God’s Love.

There are so many verses in the Bible about God’s love. In fact, He tells us about his love 310 times in 280 verses! But here’s the deal: even if you read those verses over and over and over, you’d never fully understand God’s love for you.

In Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 3:18-19 he says, “And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep His love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.” 

Yet there is nothing more deserving of study and exploration. God’s love is the beginning and end of all that exists. It is what brought us all into existence, and it is what will usher us into eternity with him. So what are some resources to help you better understand God’s love? 

• Scripture is your number one resource. Meditate on it, read it, study it. God’s word is a love story.
• Fellowship with other believers is another resource: church, Bible studies, fellowship groups. The more we share our experiences with God’s love the better we all understand it.
• Books about God, both fiction and nonfiction
• Podcasts about God
• Spending time with God, listening to him
• Singing or studying hymns

As someone who grew up in the church, I’ve long cherished hymns. I’ve often told writers that if they want to see powerful, concise writing, read the classic hymns. Their powerful truths reveal the wonder of God’s love.…

O Love that Will Not Let Me Go

“O Love that will not let me go, I rest my weary soul in thee; I give thee back the life I owe that in thine ocean depths its flow may richer, fuller be.”

The Love of God

“The love of God is greater far
  Than tongue or pen can ever tell.
It goes beyond the highest star
  And reaches to the lowest hell.

“The guilty pair, bowed down with care,
  God gave His Son to win;
His erring child He reconciled
  And pardoned from his sin. 

“O love of God, how rich and pure!
  How measureless and strong!
It shall forevermore endure—
    The saints’ and angels’ song.”

And Can it Be?

“And can it be that I should gain an interest in the Savior’s blood? Died he for me, who caused his pain, for me, who Him to death pursued? Amazing love! How can it be that thou, my God, shouldst die for me?”

Can it be? You’d better believe it! Because God’s love for us has no end. When we accept that love and dwell in it, every moment of every day, nothing can shake us. No storm, no trial, no disappointment, no upheaval…nothing can dislodge the anchor we have in his love. Not just for the coming year, but for our whole lives. 

As Romans 8:38-39 tells us:

“Nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Benedictions

As we close this podcast, we want to offer the following benedictions for each of these themes. May they encourage and bless you today and in the coming year. 

A benediction of hope from Romans 15:13:

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.”

A benediction of peace from Philippians 4:7:

“[May] you …experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.”

A benediction of joy from 1 Peter 1:8-9:

“Though you have not seen him, you love him; and … you believe in him… [May you be] filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”

A benediction of love from 1 John 3:1:

“See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!”

The writing life is almost never smooth sailing, but as Christian writers, we have rock solid hope. Here are 4 advent anchors to keep you safe and steady in troubled waters. #christianwriter #amwriting
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WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU!

What is your favorite thing about the Advent season?

THANK YOU!

Thanks to all our patrons on Patreon! You help make this podcast possible!

Thanks so much to our December sponsor of the month, Priscilla Sharrow! She’s working on her memoir called Bonked! Life, Love, and Laughter with Traumatic Brain Injury, which will release with Redemption Press. Learn more about Priscilla at her website priscillasharrow.com and follow her blog for the TBI/PTSD community.

Many thanks also to the folks at PodcastPS for their fabulous sound editing!

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The post 204 – Advent Anchors for Troubled Waters appeared first on Write from the Deep.

So many things can go wrong on our journey as writers, leaving us wondering how we will ever deal with the problems that come at us. Guest Rachel Hauck encourages us not to waste time and energy on anxiety, but to learn how to watch and wait on Almighty God. About Rachel Hauck Rachel Hauck …

The post 203 – Watching, Waiting, and Anxiety with Guest Rachel Hauck appeared first on Write from the Deep.