A mission statement for my life and writing came to mind as I wrote in my journal one morning. For a while, I’ve wondered how to word my writerly purpose for my poetry and prose. Hints of a vision appeared whenever I succeeded at exercising the gift of encouragement God gave me. Since the Holy Spirit dwells in each believer, I trust my vision is from Him.
When I tapped into this grace-given gift, others were inspired to tap into a deeper faith in the Lord. This made sense to me since my tagline is: My faith is not shallow because I’ve been rescued from the deep.
But I wanted a specific tagline regarding the purpose of my work as an inspirational writer. An online writing course I took began with a challenge to formulate one. I struggled to create one and only managed to complete a jumble of jottings that didn’t satisfy my longing for a lovelier phrase.
During my quiet time a few days later, I came across the passage of Scripture the course referred to. It happened to be what was next for me to read and ponder. (Don’t you love it when the Holy Spirit does that?)
We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man’s gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully. Romans 12:6-8 (NIV)
Nothing gives me more joy than to encourage others in their faith.
Encouragement is the gift God gave me when I put my trust in Christ. If I neglect to exercise this gift in my writing, it feels like something’s missing. My words remain flat on the page and don’t lift others up.
My old Random House Dictionary (RHD) defines encourage as: “to inspire with courage or confidence.”
It defines courage as: “the ability to face difficulty or danger with firmness and without fear.”
The word overriding came to mind, so I looked it up too. RHD says it’s “taking precedence over all other considerations.”
Here are some ideas that shone forth as I pondered the gift of encouragement in the light of the RHD definitions:
- Encouraging confidence in Christ to live a courageous life of overriding faith.
- Facing our fears with overriding faith.
- Overcoming our fears with overriding faith.
When I considered these ideas with my tagline, I came up with: Inspiring deep faith that overrides our fears.
I don’t know what your gift is. Perhaps you already know and are practicing it through your writing. Maybe a session of looking up meaningful words in your dictionary may inspire a new mission statement for you too. After all, the Holy Spirit loves to inspire us.
I’m nosy-to-know which gift jumped off the page for you when you read Romans 12:6-8 (NIV)?
Let me know in the comments and I’ll compose a short prayer for you in my reply, praying that you tap into God’s grace to the fullest and share your gift as far and wide as God desires you to.
My desire is to encourage you by inspiring a deep faith that overrides our fears.
Faith Blessings ~ Wendy Mac
Wendy L. Macdonald is an inspirational blogger and podcaster who loves to photograph nature on Vancouver Island. Her byline is: “My faith is not shallow because I’ve been rescued from the deep.” Her main website is wendylmacdonald.com where she enjoys interacting with readers.
