Feeling weak?

If you’ve been seriously pursuing writing for any length of time, you know that the writing journey is not easy.

Becoming a Christian author requires a huge amount of strength: strength of will, strength of character, emotional strength, spiritual strength, and even physical strength.

But what about those times when you don’t feel strong? What about those days when your brain just won’t work? When your body seems to be against you. When circumstances are making it difficult or even impossible to write.

I’ve been re-reading Psalms lately and have noticed something I never quite realised before.

Over and over, the psalms refer to God as our strength. For example, Psalm 18 says, “I will love you, O Lord, my strength.” (Ps. 18:1, NKJV)

I have often prayed, and heard others praying, “Lord, give me strength.” This is a good prayer to pray because it reminds us of our dependence on Him.

But Scripture doesn’t only say that God gives us strength. He is our strength.

Stop a moment and really contemplate that statement. God is your strength.

If you are a Christian covered by the blood of Christ, you have the Holy Spirit, the Spirit who raised Christ from the dead, within you. In Him, you are strong.

But you might be thinking, I don’t feel strong!

The apostle Paul didn’t always feel strong either. In 2 Corinthians 12 he tells how he begged God to remove a particular weakness that he was struggling with.

God did not remove that weakness, but He gave Paul something better. He used Paul’s struggle to reveal the power of Christ’s strength working through him. As Paul said, “He [Christ] said unto me, ‘My grace is sufficient for thee: for My strength is made perfect in weakness’…Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities…for when I am weak, then am I strong.” (2 Cor. 12: 9-10, KJV)

Paul felt weak. But by God’s grace, he focused on facts rather than feelings. Christ’s strength within him was a fact. That was why he could say, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” (Phil 4:13, NKJV)

Christian writer, you are united to Christ just as Paul was. You are weak. But Christ is strong. Because He is not only with you, but within you, you are strong.

As Philip Henry, the father of the famous Bible commentator Matthew Henry wrote: “We can do more than we think we can, through Christ strengthening.” (Christ All in All)

Lean on Christ. Cling to Him. Spend much time in prayer and reading His Word. Trust that His strength will work through your weakness.

And keep writing!

I love all kinds of writing, but fiction is an area that I am particularly passionate about. It’s also an area in which I have a lot of experience. That’s why I’ve created this “Fiction Corner” where I give you practical tips you can implement to improve your storytelling.

Crafting characters that feel authentic is vital for good storytelling, especially if you’re wanting to communicate a Christian message through your story.

The secret to creating characters that feel real to your readers is to create characters that feel real to you.

Do the characters in your story feel real to you?

Test yourself by imagining each of your major characters in the following scenarios. If you immediately know how they would respond, you know them! If you don’t know how they would respond, spend some more time developing them until they feel real to you.

Scenario 1: If a spider crawled out from under your character’s bed, what would your character do?

Scenario 2: If your character was walking along a beach and saw someone drowning, what would your character do?

Scenario 3: If your character unexpectedly met someone who had hurt them in the past, what would your character do?

Scenario 4: What would your character do if a stranger approached them and asked them whether they believe that God exists?

Keep writing for His glory!