Thoughts on Praying and Writing - Ruth L. Snyder

“To be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing.” 

-Martin Luther King

The longer I live, the more I realize how important prayer is, for all aspects of life. Before I get out of bed in the morning, I pray, committing the day to God. I pray as I sit down to have my daily devotions, asking God to open my eyes and teach me from His Word. As I interact with my husband and children, I often pray. When I see a beautiful sunset, I thank God.

I find it interesting that although I'm a Christian and I pray about most things, I neglected to pray about my writing for many years. In the past several years God has impressed on my heart how important it is to pray before, during, and after my writing sessions. Shelley Hitz challenges Christian writers to have a prayer team support them in their writing projects.

This year I sensed God leading me to write a 31 day devotional book about spiritual warfare. I knew I needed spiritual protection for me and my family as I wrote, so I sent out a request. I have twelve people who promised to pray for me on a regular basis. Every few weeks I send my prayer team updates and prayer requests. I know they are praying, because they check in with me. They ask me how my writing is going and send encouraging emails. What a gift!

I'm thankful that I have been able to complete the rough draft of my devotional book. I'm also grateful that over twenty beta readers agreed to read my book and give me feedback. In the next couple of weeks I will be making revisions based on the feedback I receive. Then I will send the manuscript to a professional editor. In the meantime, you can read a sample below.

Praying in the Spirit

“…Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the LORD.”

Zecharaiah 4:6

This morning before I started writing, I cleaned stacks of paper and layers of dust off my desk. For months I have ignored the mess and focused on writing. However, sometimes clutter on my desk results in clutter in my brain. It was time to purge and clean. After I finished, I felt lighter and actually sighed in relief. Now my mind is free to focus on writing again.

In our prayer life, sometimes we are so busy praying, that we rush ahead without the help and guidance of the Holy Spirit. The result is powerless prayer. God has provided amazing access to Himself. If we have accepted Jesus Christ as our Saviour, we have the Holy Spirit dwelling in us. “Repent and be baptized, every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” Acts 2:38.

One of the tasks assigned to the Holy Spirit is to help us pray. “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will.” It is not our job to figure out how or what to pray. We simply need to rely on the Holy Spirit and pray.

Jesus urged his disciples to “Keep watch and pray, so that you will not give in to temptation. For the spirit is willing, but the body is weak” Matthew 26:41.

Paul talks about praying in the Spirit in I Corinthians 14:12-16. As believers we are all given spiritual gifts. Paul urged the Corinthians to “try to excel in those (spiritual gifts) that build up the church” (verse 12). He went on to say that we can pray in tongues, but that only involves the spirit and not the mind (verse 14). Instead, he encouraged people to pray and sing in the spirit and with the mind, especially in the context of corporate worship, so that people can agree and support each other in prayer and worship (verses 15, 16). This same idea is shared in Colossians 3:16, “Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.”

In Ephesians 4:30 we are urged, “And do not grieve (according to Strong’s Concordance, also translated, “to make sorrowful, to affect with sadness, to throw into sorrow, to make one uneasy, cause him a scruple”) the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.” When we harbor sin in our lives, refusing to confess the sin the Holy Spirit reveals to us, we grieve Him. I Thessalonians 5:19 exhorts “Do not quench the Spirit.” This is a metaphor of someone extinguishing or throwing something on a fire to make it go out. According to Vine’s Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words, this is the same metaphor used in Ephesians 6:16 “…of ‘quenching’ the fire-tipped darts of the evil one…through ignorance of His ways, or through failure to recognize, or refusal to submit to, them, or through impatience with the ignorance or self-will of others, the Spirit were quenched…” If we are not actively seeking God’s will and living in obedience to Him, we will revert to our sinful self and grieve and quench the Holy Spirit.

Think About It

Do you pray in the Spirit? Are you grieving or quenching the Holy Spirit? Journal or draw a picture in response.

Prayer

Dear Heavenly Father,

Thank you for the gift of the Holy Spirit and for His ministry to me in prayer. Help me today to confess known sin in my life and to live in obedience to you. I choose to pray in the Spirit, allowing you to work in and through me.

In Jesus Name,

AMEN.

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The Pre-writing Battle and Prayer by Connie Inglis

  

I am a foot soldier in the midst of battle—part of a centuria moving forward against our foe. We’ve reached a low ditch and now I freeze, my body flat on the ground, my fingers clinging to the grass and dirt, for I know what lies ahead. The enemy. I peek my head over the ridge and see my target—a large, fortified castle but 100 feet away. I see my General standing on the battlement, looking out upon the field.

The field. One hundred feet of nothing. No protection. I watch other soldiers attempt to cross. Run! A barrage of enemy arrows come zinging from the left, then right. Put up your shields! Some make it. Some freeze. Some turn around and dive back into the ditch. Can I do this?

I look up at my General. I feel like he’s looking right at me—calling my name—telling me I have everything I need to get to the gate—promising me that the victory has already been won. I believe—oh help my unbelief!

I check my armour—my weaponry. All is ready. That helps put my mind at ease. I can taste the fear, bile sticking to the roof of my mouth. I swallow hard and close my eyes, focusing on the words of my General and his promise of victory. I recite his words, giving me strength and hope.

I feel a surge of energy in my legs, my arms. I go! The blood pounds in my head. No more thinking—now just doing! I hear the high-pitch of the approaching arrows and instinctively shift my shield of protection. They hit hard. My soft soles slip in the clay. I stumble. Doing an internal body check, I look up at my General. He is shouting. Calling my name. Urging me forward. I am a soldier. I obey.

Back on my feet, I run hard, keeping my eyes on the gate. It’s shut tight. Will it open for me? Will I get in? Closer. Closer. I’m but a few feet away. I made it! The gate opens—I fall in. The gate closes. I am safe.

My General is there. He picks me up. “Well done,” he says. Those two words flood my mind with peace. I rest in that peace.

“Now,” he says. “Now you are ready for your true calling.”

* * * 

That soldier is me, and you, even before writing one word--before settling into our writing chair--for there is a battle going on, a fight for our minds because the enemy does not want us to fulfill our calling as writers. 

This picture of the spiritual battle for our minds came to me in the winter of 2015/2016 after I agreed to become one of the spiritual advisors for ICWF. As I took on the role of intercession, I became suddenly overwhelmed, discouraged and weakened by the enemy. My own writing suffered. I cried out to God for strength and understanding.  He heard my cry and provided a way out through prayer--and a desire to fight for my mind and the minds of fellow writers. 
And, in that, He guided me to seek a mind of peace, because only out of peace can true freedom be realized--freedom to stand firm against the enemy's lies and distractions, freedom to hear Him as we write and freedom to write what He wants us to write. Isa. 26:3 and Phil. 4:6-8 are my go-to passages in this. I have learned my need to pray before writing--a Pre-Writing Prayer, if you will. Or, what I have termed, "My Prayer Manifesto." This is my verbal declaration combating the enemy and then calling upon and believing in God's promises. This is where I go before I write.

Connie Mae Inglis lives life out of the silence of spending time with God. She loves to write, paint, travel, read, sing, laugh, play with her grandchildren and just see God in those things. She lives in Edmonton, Alberta but part of her heart will always be in Southeast Asia where she lived and worked as a Wycliffe missionary for almost 20 years.

Stretched by a New Style: The Sonnet by Connie Inglis

This summer I set the goal of reading and working through the book, Writing the Life Poetic by Sage Cohen. The exercises have been both instructive and fun, although I'm not near as far along in the book as I'd like to be. Sometimes life just gets in the way and I need to be content in that.

With this month's challenge of trying something new in my writing, I thought I'd be more deliberate in writing rhyming poems instead of free verse. To be more specific, I thought I'd try writing sonnets throughout the summer, something I've never intentionally focused on. This has definitely been stretching for me. I've been re-reading many of Shakespeare's sonnets for inspiration and have fallen in love, once again, not only with the iambic pentameter that floats the reader on but also with the poignant word choice and deeper meaning behind each word and each rhyme. Shakespeare was a genius! My attempts are feeble in comparison but they are attempts, nonetheless, and so I press on.

Last week I attended my nephew's baptism. It was a beautiful celebration. A few months ago my nephew's mom and I discussed how the pre-baptism and post-baptism time can be difficult because Satan does NOT like this outward proclamation of faith. In fact, he hates it. My nephew needed to be aware of this attack, to stand firm in Jesus' love and be ready to fight. The following sonnet comes out of this discussion. It too reflects the battle we have as writers to fight the darkness with our words and to do it because He loves us and we love Him.

For Love, In Love -- 1 John 4:13-19

Unknown servant enlists and arms for war,
With shield and double sword prepared to fight,
Spurred on by faithful ones who've gone before,
Against dark, evil foe in Spirit's might.
He questions not his good and righteous King
And sacrificial Son who speaks his name;
This spoken Word gives strength and joy to sing,
In defense, offense, watchman--he remains.
The enemy quits not, his hate severe,
To cut the soldier down, to cause to fail;
Then soldier cries the Name dispelling fear,
In life or death his peace and hope prevail.
In love the soldier heeds the battle call,
For Love has paid the price and won for all.