Fear is a cruel, relentless enemy. If writing can be compared to a battle, fear is one of the Christian writer’s most deadly archenemies.
Fear can inhibit your progress, rob you of your joy and hinder you from sharing your work with others. Worst of all, fear can bring your pursuit of writing to a dead halt.
I would be lying if I said that I am a fearless person who has overcome all of the fear in my life once and for all. At this very moment, as I write this, there are fears in the back of my mind.
But I will say that as the author of two published novels, I have won many, many victories over this enemy, especially in the area of writing.
Actually, let me rephrase that: Christ has won the victories. But through all of the battles, I have learned strategies that increasingly enable me to penetrate that fog of fear so that I can see Him again.
Before we go any further, I need to define what I mean by “fear.”
Fear can be a good thing. I, for example, have a fear of jumping off of cliffs. I think that this is a healthy fear. (If you disagree, let me know!) It’s based on the truth that if I do that, I will probably die or severely injure myself.
But there is another type of fear that the Puritans often described as “slavish fear.” This is the type of fear that does us more harm than good. Usually, this fear flows from subtle lies that lodge in our minds and muddle our thinking.
Have you ever noticed how deceitful fear can be? Take, for instance, a fear that almost every writer struggles with: “What if my writing isn’t good enough?”
Regardless of how we define “good enough” we are believing at least one of the following lies when we ask that question:
1. “If my writing isn’t good enough, I will be a failure.” No, you won’t! Even if you are a terrible writer (which you probably aren’t) God is not limited by that. The quality of your writing will never stop Him from accomplishing His perfect plan for you and using you for His glory.
2. “If my writing isn’t good enough now or in the next five years, it never will be.” False! Writing is a learned skill. It took C.S. Lewis ten years to write The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. He was so disgusted with the original version of the story that he destroyed it. The moral of the story: If you keep writing, the day will come when your writing will be good enough!
3. “If my writing isn’t good enough, I might publish something that will destroy my reputation forever.” Writers don’t have to publish to find out whether or not their writing is “good enough.” All we have to do is show it to someone trustworthy who will give us honest feedback.
4. “It’s impossible for my writing to be “good enough”.” That may be true if you define “good enough” as writing a book today that is as good as Pride and Prejudice. Sometimes we have ginormously high expectations of ourselves. But if you have given today’s writing task your very best and have done it to the glory of God, it is good enough. If you do it with all of your heart, the work you do today is good enough for today.
When you fight fear with truth, it’s amazing how quickly it dissolves.
It’s interesting to see how many times in the Bible the command “Do not fear,” is followed by a truth.
· Do not fear, “I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.” (Gen. 15:1)
· Do not fear, “I bring you good tidings of great joy” (Luke 2:10)
· Do no fear, “for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” (Josh. 1:9)
· Fear not, “for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; You are Mine.” (Isaiah 43:1)
· And many, many more!
Truth, and especially the truth found in the Word of God, is a powerful weapon against fear.
It is by no means the only weapon…but this article is getting quite long. I will save the rest for next week. 🙂
In the meantime, look up some more of those “Fear not” passages in the Bible and flood your mind with truth!