I am so happy that Kathy Ide is providing this guest post for my blog. Kathy has been my editor and mentor for over a year and has shepherded my novel from a raw draft to a finished product.

Kathy’s article is an inspiration and speaks to all of us who write to reflect God’s glory. Enjoy!

“You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” Acts 1:8 (NKJV)

Have you ever read an article, book, or story that really touched your heart? Did you ever think about what had to happen for that piece to get into your hands?

Before you could read it, someone had to buy it from someplace. That place had to purchase it from a publisher, who had to get it from an author. Before that, the author had to have the idea to write it. Even before that, God had to touch that author’s heart with a call to write.

God knows how long it takes to get a manuscript written (and rewritten, revised, edited, proofread), accepted, and published. He also knows who is going to need to read what He wants an author to write, and He knows precisely when those people are going to need it.

Since God knows all that, and since His timing is perfect, we writers can relax! We can trust that He called us at the right time, and He gave us everything we need to fulfill His plan.

Think again about that piece you read that touched your heart. What if the author had let rejection letters or the cost of a writers’ conference or some critical comments from an editor crush her spirit so that she turned her back on God’s calling? Then the moment when God touched your heart would never have happened.

If God is calling you to write, that’s every bit as important as if He were calling you to a foreign missions field. Being a writer is a lot like being a missionary.

Missionaries go through extensive training, including learning the language and cultures of the countries they’re traveling to. Writers need to learn everything they can about how to best reach their target audience.

Missionaries need sponsors. Writers need people who can support them emotionally, financially, and through prayer.

Missionaries are often misunderstood. Your loved ones may question why you’re working so hard at something that seems to have so little reward.

Missionaries sometimes suffer squalid conditions and adverse circumstances because they believe in their calling. If God has called you to write, you may have to squeeze in writing time and costs among all your other priorities.

Missionaries are often rejected by the people they are trying to reach. If you submit queries, proposals, or manuscripts to publishing houses, you will be rejected. But you mustn’t let a few—or even several—rejections sway you from the task God has called you to.

A missionary can reach many people. An author can reach countless individuals through a book, article, short story, play script, or screenplay.

If God is calling you to be His witness through writing, you have His promise to receive power from the Holy Spirit to fulfill that task.

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Kathy Ide is a published author/ghostwriter, editor/mentor, and writers’ conference speaker. In addition to being the author of Proofreading Secrets of Best-Selling Authors, she is the editor/compiler for the Fiction Lover’s Devotional series. Kathy is the director of the SoCal Christian Writers’ Conference and the Mount Hermon Christian Writers Conference. She is also a co-owner of the Christian Editor Network and founder of three of its divisions: The Christian PEN, the Christian Editor Connection. and PENCON. To find out more about Kathy and read her blog, visit her website.