Hey guys! I’m honored to announce that today’s post was written by a dear friend of mine, Willow Hoffer! She’s got an amazing blog, The Faithful Wanderer and I encourage you to check it out! Hope you enjoy today’s post, because I sure did!

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Writers are world-builders, heart-breakers, and plot-twisters. But most of all, they are creators. Writing isn’t just the act of putting words on a page. No—it is taking an empty piece of paper and letting out your thoughts and creativity. And more often than not, creating something that you wish could exist outside of your mind.

Creativity is a trait that isn’t just a human thing—it’s a God thing. 

When we read the first verse in the Bible, Genesis 1:1, we see that God created. He doesn’t just poof all of the world and its inhabitants into existence, but He takes time on each individual thing. As we read onto the next verse, it says that the earth was empty. It essentially started out as a blank page—until God put his thoughts on it and created the beautiful earth that we live on today. 

As writers, we are obviously called to write. But as Christians, we are called to write for the glory of God, the one who wrote our story. So how can we write in a way that glorifies the Creator?

A lot of people think that writing for God’s glory means blatantly implementing the Gospel into their writing or their story, but really, that’s not the only way. We don’t have to just show that goodness of God, but we can also show what the evil of the enemy does to the world by revealing the truth in our stories.

The first is to tell an unheard story—writing about something that needs to be addressed. Maybe it’s something God has put on your heart, or maybe it’s something that you’ve been battling for a long time. Good examples of this are mental health, abuse, and lies that the enemy tells us. 

The second is an allegorical story—taking a Gospel message or theme and writing a story that reflects it. A famous example of this are the Chronicles of Narnia. The author writes to glorify God and while he doesn’t say outright, “God loves you,” he includes themes and pieces of the Gospel in it to communicate the same message.

And finally, there is the most obvious: writing a Christian story. Now this doesn’t mean a story all about Jesus and his love, although you could certainly write about that! But you can write a story that, in the end, reveals the truth of God in a way that captivates the reader.

All of this is about finding your niché—what is your style of writing? What has God placed on your heart? What do you have to say? And how can your story, whatever it may be, glorify the creator and author of life?

Sometimes, however, writing for God’s glory doesn’t even mean including specifically ‘Christian’ themes. Yes, that’s right—you can do this by providing clean, wholesome content for your readers. Without directly creating ‘preachy’ content, you can write books that are both appropriate and enjoyable. Again, take Narnia for example: there’s war, there’s a little bit of romance, there’s magic and evil, there’s fantasy elements, and there’s modern-day parts as well. It’s got a little bit of everything, but without all the trash that are explicit gore or violence, sexual scenes, profanity, or blasphemy against the Lord.

It might seem like there’s not much instruction on writing for the glory of God. Why is that? Because like I said, this is something you can determine by writing and figuring out your style. But this isn’t something you do just by trial and error. No, you need to bring God into this. After all, you’re writing for his glory, right? Paul writes in Colossians 3: 

 ‘And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. (Colossians 3:17 NIV) 

Bring God into it, involve Him in your story. After all, He is the one who wrote your story.