Writing for His Glory is a series of reflections and writing prompts drawn from a writers’ workshop I teach for high school students. God spoke all of creation into existence His Word; as He made us in His image, we can glorify Him with our own. My prayer is that these reflections prompt you to wonder, praise, and pick up your pen.
Great writing requires a keen eye. To draw a reader into our inner world, we need to provide sensory details to make the imagery come alive. For the Christian, a keen eye also helps us perceive God’s goodness and presence in the everyday.
The word “behold” occurs 1,000 times in the Bible, because as fallen creatures we too often don’t see. We don’t attend to our own sin. We don’t pause to admire the artistry of God’s creation around us. We don’t see his mercy and love at work in all things.
Writing for God’s glory requires us to approach the world differently. “Come and see what God has done,” we read in Psalm. 66:5, “he is marvelous in his deeds for the children of man.” John Piper urges Christian writers to sharpen their vision: “Look at the Word, and look at the world, in a quest to see God as marvelous. Cultivate a capacity to see what is there, and to savor what you see. It is more likely you will find heart-awakening words if you are awake yourself.” (John Piper, 2022 Desiring God Writers’ Summit)
The following two literature readings are great examples of taking one feature of everyday life – a bell tolling, and the end of day – seeing it, and reflecting on the Lord through it.
For Whom the Bell Tolls by John Donne, 1623
The bell tolling softly for another says to me, Thou must die. Perchance he for whom this bell tolls may be so ill as that he knows not it tolls for him. And perchance. . . they who are about me, and see my state, may have caused it to toll for me, and I know it not.
The church is catholic, universal; so are all her actions. All that she does belongs to all. When she baptizes a child, that action concerns me, for that child is thereby connected to that head which is my head too, and engrafted into that body whereof I am a member. And when she buries a man, that action concerns me. All mankind is of one author, and is one volume. When one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language; and every chapter must be so translated. God employs several translators; some pieces are translated by age, some by sickness, some by war, some by justice. But God’s hand is in every translation. . . .
As therefore the bell that rings to a sermon calls not upon the preacher only, but upon the congregation to come, so this bell calls us all; but how much more me, who am brought so near the door by this sickness. . . . The bell doth toll for him that thinks it doth; and thought it intermit again, yet from that minute that occasion wrought upon him, he is united to God.
No man is an island, entire of itself. Every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend’s or of thine own were. Any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee. Neither can we call this a begging of misery, or a borrowing of misery, as thought we were not miserable enough of ourselves, but must fetch in more from the next house in taking upon us the misery of our neighbors. . . .
Affliction is a treasure, and scarce any man that enough of it. No man hath affliction enough that is not matured and ripened by it, and made fit for God by that affliction. If a man carry treasure in bullion or in a wedge of gold, and have none coined into current moneys, his treasure will not defray him as he travels. Tribulation is treasure in the nature of it, but it is not our home, heaven, by it. Another man may be sick to, and sick to death, and this affliction may lie in his bowels, as gold in a mine, and be of no use to him. But this bell that tells me of his affliction, digs out and applies that gold to me: if by this consideration of another man’s danger, I take mine own into contemplation, and so secure myself, by making my recourse to God, who is our only security.
Evening Prayer by Jane Austen (1775-1817)
Father of Heaven! Whose goodness has brought us in safety to the close of this day, dispose our hearts in fervent prayer. Another day is now gone, and added to those for which we were before accountable. Teach us Almighty Father, to consider this solemn truth, as we should do, that we may feel the importance of every day, and every hour as it passes, and earnestly strive to make a better use of what thy goodness may yet bestow on us, than we have done of the time past.
Give us grace to endeavor after a truly Christian spirit to seek to attain that temper of forbearance and patience of which our blessed Savior has set us the highest example; and which, while it prepares us for the spiritual happiness of the life to come, will secure to us the best enjoyment of what this world can give. Incline us, oh God! To think humbly of ourselves, to be severe only in the examination of our own conduct, to consider our fellow creatures with kindness, and to judge of all they say and do with that charity which we would desire from them ourselves.
We thank thee with all our hearts for every gracious dispensation, for all the blessings that have attended our lives, for every hour of safety, health and peace, of domestic comfort and innocent enjoyment. We feel that we have been blessed far beyond anything that we have deserved; and though we cannot but pray for a continuance of all these mercies, we acknowledge our unworthiness of them and implore thee to pardon the presumption of our desires.
Keep us oh! Heavenly Father, from evil this night. Bring us in safety to the beginning of another day and grant that we may rise again with every serious and religious feeling which now directs us.
May thy mercy be extended over all mankind, bringing the ignorant to the knowledge of thy truth, awakening the impenitent, touching the hardened. Look with compassion upon the afflicted of every condition, assuage the pangs of disease, comfort the broken in spirit.
More particularly do we pray for the safety and welfare of our own family and friends wheresoever dispersed, beseeching thee to avert from them all material and lasting evil of body or mind; and may we by the assistance of thy Holy Spirit so conduct ourselves on earth as to secure an eternity of happiness with each other in thy heavenly kingdom. Grant this most merciful Father, for the sake of our blessed Savior in whose holy name and words we further address thee.
Our Father which are in heaven,
Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come,
Thy will be done,
in earth, as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
as we forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil:
For thine is the kingdom,
and the power, and the glory, forever.
Amen.1
Writing Exercise:
Choose an observation from daily life and write a reflection connecting it to God’s goodness. The subject can be anything you see – a tree, a sunset, your bowl of cereal in the morning. Tie that everyday observation back to what you know about God.
When not writing, she loves adventuring through books with her kids, wandering through the mountains, and chasing dragons out of her kitchen.
- Writing for His Glory: Praise and Lamentation - June 10, 2024
- Writer, Treat Your Words as Offerings - April 22, 2024
- Writing for His Glory: Meditate on His Word - March 20, 2024
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