Let’s be honest for a moment. 

Have you ever felt that you are wasting your time writing? You have worked countless hours and at the end of the day you might feel that you have nothing to show for it.

No one wants to waste their time investing in something that never reaps a reward. 

Why spend hours upon hours laboring over a story just to have it waste away as a forgotten file on your computer? 

Most authors give up within the first five years. 

One of the top reasons that authors quit is because they feel like their work is “unseen.” They feel like they’re just writing into the void, with no evident success. 

This is a very real struggle. 

Now that we have had a moment of honesty, let me ask you this: who determines your success? 

Is it you? Is it the publishers? Is it everyone else in society? 

Let’s go a step further and ask: what determines success? 

Is it all those zeros on that check? Signing that contract? Maybe earning the respect and trust of everyone around you? Or is it being known—being famous?

These are certainly  measures of success in today’s culture. 

While we might not want to admit it, we use these things to measure our success as well and we believe that this type of success will bring us happiness. We think that if our book is at that store, if we are on a podcast, or if we have a large number of subscribers, we’ll be happy. 

Yet, some of the most “successful” people in the world are the most unhappy. By worldly standards, they’ve achieved the summit of success. You’d think that because they put hard work into something that shows the results of their labor, they’d be happy—right? 

Even the secular world recognizes that there is more to life than just “success”.

Actor Jim Carrey once said, “I think everybody should get rich and famous and do everything they ever dreamed of so they can see that it’s not the answer.” 

You’ll never be rich enough, you’ll never sell enough copies of your book, not enough people will know who you are. 

As Christians, we have to ask ourselves if our definition of success should be different from the world’s. 

I believe it should.

Our success is measured by our obedience to God’s calling on our lives. 

God doesn’t call you to fail, he strengthens you to be faithful.  

Proverbs 16:9 says, “A person’s heart plans his way, but the LORD determines his steps.” 

Maybe you need to hear this reassuring truth today—God is sovereign. He’s in control of everything and everything has a purpose (Romans 8:28, Ephesians 1:11-12, Genesis 50:20). 

Your passion and desire to write is not futile. It’s a gift that God has given you. And what a gift it is to create worlds with nothing but words; to touch lives with simple sentences. 

God isn’t surprised by the ups and downs of your writing. 

I love how John Sale puts it: “If I had the power of God, there are many things I would change. But if I had the wisdom of God, I wouldn’t change a thing.” 

When you are faithful to what God has called you to do, you will be successful. That doesn’t mean you’ll be rich, famous, or even sign a publishing contract. What it does mean is that God will use you to further his kingdom and impact those around you. 

Sometimes you don’t even know how God is using you.

If God has called you to do something, don’t give up because you don’t see immediate results. Instead, be faithful and rest in the fact that God is working in and through you. 

Charles Spurgeon said it this way, “God is too good to be unkind, and he’s too wise to be mistaken. When you cannot trace his hand, you can trust his heart.” Amen! May we take comfort in that. Let’s commit to being faithful in what God has called us to and trust Him with the outcome. 

Thanks for reading guys! If you enjoyed this post please like it, share it with a friend, or subscribe if you haven’t already. Until next time, keep writing for a better tomorrow!