I will commit everything I do to the Lord.
I will trust Him to help me do it and He will.
Have you ever been ready to give up? Have you tried everything you know but feel like you’re banging your head against a brick wall? What do you do when the accuser tells you that your best isn’t good enough – that it never has been and never will be?
Perhaps it’s a manuscript you’ve been working on for years. You’ve rewritten it not just once or twice but many times. Still you’ve been unsuccessful in finding anyone interested in publishing it. And it makes no sense because you know it’s something God has called you to write. You’ve studied the craft. You’ve gone to critique groups and conferences trying to find that missing something. And now . . . now you’re not sure you can keep on keeping on.
That was my experience with my first book that some of you know was rejected by 42 publishers over a six-year period. If I had given up (and believe me, there were many times I wanted to), it and the eight books that followed would never have been published. I would not have founded the Greater Philly Christian Writers Conference in 1983 or said yes in 1997 to directing the Colorado Christian Writers Conference.
Yes, there have been many times when I’ve doubted and when, as my friend and writing mentor Lee Roddy admonished me years ago, I’ve “listened to the wrong voices.” The accuser still taunts me. “You’re not smart enough. You can’t do this.” And that’s true. What the Lord asks me to do is so far beyond my abilities. I can easily become overwhelmed and stressed. Like dangling my little toe in quicksand, I can get sucked down into that dark place of doubt and fear. It happened again just yesterday.
I need, we need to …
Keep our eyes on the Lord, on how far we’ve come, and on the prize. It’s easy to allow problems and challenges to consume us and to blind us to the Lord’s presence, to how far we’ve come, and to the prize. “I strain to reach the end of the race and receive the prize for which God is calling us up to heaven because of what Christ Jesus did for us” (Philippians 3:14 TLB) Paul wrote from prison in Rome. Paul had reason to be greatly frustrated and discouraged by the loss of his freedom. He could have questioned the Lord and concluded that his ministry was over. Instead he focused on the needs of the churches and wrote letters that continue to encourage Christ-followers almost 2,000 years later.
Cut the tapes from our past. Although Paul never forgot the person he was before he encountered the Lord on the Damascus Road, he did not wallow in the past or dwell on what others thought or said about him. Instead he embraced the truth of Zephaniah 3:17: “He is a mighty Savior. He will give you victory. He will rejoice over you with great gladness; he will love you and not accuse you” (TLB). Paul was able to preach and write about the message of salvation because of his firsthand experience of God’s love, mercy, and forgiveness.
Don’t grieve the Lord by our lack of faith. Although sometimes it may seem that He’s not listening, we need to trust that He will equip us with all we need for doing his will (see Hebrews 13:20). It’s not easy to wait on the Lord and to have Hebrews 11:1 faith in what we can’t yet see, but “God’s gifts and his call can never be withdrawn; he will never go back on his promises” (Romans 11:29 TLB).
Do our best and trust God for the rest. The fear of failure can paralyze us if we let it, and that’s exactly what our adversary wants. I grieve for the books that have not been published and for ministries that have been abandoned because of the evil one’s accusations. I pray for those who are frustrated and discouraged by the need to build their platform and questioning their call to “write His answer.” Friends, we must not leave God out of the equation. Instead we need to affirm His promise that He is “able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us” (Ephesians 3:20 NIV).
Father, help us to believe You and not the accuser. Thank You for loving us and for being bigger than our fears. Thank You for encouraging us not to give up. We will keep on expecting you to help us. We will praise you more and more. We will walk in the strength of the Lord our God (Psalm 71:14, 16 TLB).
What promise do you claim when you are tempted to give up?
I keep an excerpt from Write His Answer
taped to the cabinet next to my desk.
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when the loneliness of writing and the
enormity of the task threatens to overwhelm me,
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Your voice consistently points to the Lord and His plan for each writer. Thank you for that! Too often, formulaic approaches to getting published or finding success are the focal point of conferences or groups. You encourage me to choose being faithful as my ultimate goal and to leave the success in His hands. Bless you!
Thank you for your encouraging words. You said it so well. May we all “choose being faithful” a our “ultimate goal and to leave the success in His hands.”
For the past 3 years I’ve co-directed a Christian writers conference in WI. On Tues. the director was killed in a head-on collision. Not only am I dealing with the loss of a friend who mentored me, but the conference center is talking about dropping our conference this year. In Nov. the director & I planned this year, had staff lined up and were ready to go. I’m mourning the loss of a friend and the possible death of a conference that has trained Christian writers for 66 years, I was up to my waist in quicksand! Thanks for your encouraging words, advice, but most of all for the scripture you shared.
Oh Father, please hold Susan close as she mourns the loss of her friend. And please speak to the hearts of the conference center leaders. Renew their vision for this conference.
I luv this blog, Lori. I pray it will reach and touch many who are entertaining ‘the thought’ of ‘giving-up!’ It strikes chords of truth and rings loudly what needs to be heard! ❤
Father, thank You for helping me to post this blog despite all the challenges I had in formatting it. Yes, please let it reach those who are on the edge of giving up and thank You that You never give up on us.
[…] Father keeps nudging me to make our needs known. That’s hard for me. I’m far more comfortable being on the giving side. Friends have suggested a Go Fund page. Instead, if Father leads you to help us financially, I’d like to give you a copy of #My Family Too. It will be available by mid-December. It’s an updated edition of the first book I wrote that was rejected 42 times over a five-year period before it was finally published in 1989. (See my February 13, 2015, post “Tempted to Give Up?”) […]
I can’t tell you how many times I want to give up. I think that I only imagine that The Lord wants me to write. That I’m wasting my time writing instead of doing what God really wants me to do. That if He wanted me to be a writer He would have helped me be successful. I’ve gotten so close many times but something always goes wrong at the last minute.I figure if I’m looking foe ‘a sign’ the rejection must be that sign. Then I realize that if all I want to do is God’s will, then I just need to be patient. He’ll get those books out there when HE’S ready. He has a lot of other things to do before He gets to me. I need to trust that my turn will come. It’s words like yours that help me to see that. Thanks, Marlene.
Please forgive me for not responding. My husband had a serious fall September 30 that could have taken his life. Recovery took 5 months and he still has pain in the knee he broke. I visited your website and Facebook. Surely Father is blessing your writing. I love your heart. Linda Howard, Associate Publisher, Children and Youth, Tyndale House will be at the August 8-10 Greater Philly Christian Writers Conference. Also the editor of Focus on the Family Clubhouse will be with us. At the May 15-18 Colorado conference Tim Shoemaker will teaching a continuing session on Reaching Youth through Fiction. I’ve found the connections at writers’ conferences have been a key to getting my work in print. Be encouraged, Lisa. I have found that the writers who struggle the most with self-doubts are the ones Father has truly called and that the evil one sees as a threat.