In her January 9, 2016, post at Blog4Writers, Emily Akin advises writers to seek God’s purpose for their writing by “praying daily about our writing projects and desires.”

What excellent advice!

Do my words honor God? Are my words true? Are they edifying to those who read them? Do I communicate Gospel – or – law? These are things I need to pray about often.

Not only do I need to pray about the content of my writing, but I need to pray for God to help me in other practical ways: that God will allow me time to write each day, and that I will be a good steward of that time; that He will give me inspiration and clarity (What does He want me to say?); that He will remove distractions and that my mind will be able to focus, so that I can be productive at the keyboard; that He will help me to effectively market my writing.

Another person’s perspective and critique are tremendously valuable to a writer. I frequently ask a friend or peer to proofread things I’ve written. I ask these readers questions like: Have I communicated what I intended? Was my tone appropriate? What would make this better? How much more earnestly should I ask the same questions of God, going to him in prayer!

I pray about many things over the course of a day, but it is all-too-easy to forget to pray about my writing. Am I ready to write? First, I need to pray.

Thank you, Emily, for the reminder!