After you spend at least a few minutes praising God, you will remember how big and capable He is. Remembering what He’s done for my soul makes it easier to entrust Him with my present and my future. So, after praise, my next step in the writing process is to surrender my stressors. These stressors apply to writing and to life, and I know you know them. They are often the cause of “writer’s block.”
Surrendering the stressors removes the block between you and God so that you can hear Him to record any thoughts He is giving you as you write with Him. You likely know what your stressors are. Some, however, may not be easily seen. After working with writers for more than 20 years, I’ve made a list.
The top writer/life stressors are:
- Time
- Money
- Overwhelm
- Fear/Worry/Anxiety
- Indecision/Distraction
- Comparison
- Perfectionism
- Procrastination
- Lack of knowledge
- Health/exhaustion/lack of energy
- Family/Relationship issues/Conflict
So, to surrender these stressors, we simply give these issues to God. Sometimes these stressors are situational, and sometimes they become sin issues. We may have a legitimate fear of danger in a precarious situation, and God guides us to ask Him for wisdom, deliverance, help, and peace. If we are stuck in fear for an extended period of time, and the Bible tells us not to fear, then we start to sin by not giving our fear to the Lord. If we have let fear fester, we need to confess that fear as sin.
If we are procrastinating, we are really fearing that we aren’t good enough. But we are made in His image, and He has equipped us with all things pertaining to life and godliness. So, procrastination is either the sin of being stuck in fear or in unbelief.
We may be sick or unable to focus. I’ve struggled with chronic illness for the last decade, but there were times that I used my sickness as an excuse not to make the most of my time, and there were hours, mornings, or even days that I was lazy, saying that I just couldn’t do it. Looking back, I realized, I may not have been able to work as fast or as long, but I still could have done more than I did. But I gave myself an excuse.
I am able to give my stressor to God because of the blood Jesus shed for me on the cross. He shed blood so I would have life and have it abundantly, on Earth as it is in Heaven. He shed His blood so that He could go to the Father, send His Holy Spirit, to empower me to do even greater works than even He did! Wow!
So, Jesus wants us to give Him our stressors that He died to remove, and He invites us to appropriate the power of His blood to live!
What an exchange—no, what a gift!!
This transaction doesn’t just get you to heaven. He shed His blood for your physical and emotional healing—for ANY kind of deliverance you need.
So, apply His blood to your stressors, and He will take them from you.
Next, wash with His Living water to be made new! When you are washed, you feel invigorated, ready for a fresh start. When we drink physical water, our thirst is quenched, muscles are loosened, waste is eliminated, and blood pressure is lowered.
Drinking His Living Water calms us, strengthens us, and emboldens us.
After He washes us clean, we are empty vessels ready to receive His words of life. We are ready to receive both from His Word AND fresh words from His mind to share through us to whomever is in our sphere of influence.
Our words of love from His heart may be used to lead to an individual’s transformation, which then when shared and combined with the words He gives to others who write or speak His words, may combine to change a family, a community, a city, a region, and eventually a country.
We don’t know what the ripple effect of the words He speaks to our hearts will be or when the ripple waves will flow out; but He knows, and He is powerful enough to use just one word.
So let’s do our part! Are you ready to surrender your stressors, be strengthened by His Living Waters and record His words? I know I am!
Would you like to join me? I invite you to take one of my upcoming classes! Or download my free resource below and get email updates from me. I’d love to see what words He invites you to write!
