#164: Prayer for Writing Your First Chapter

So let's pray now for courage to actually start writing. And writing your first chapter can be one of the hardest parts. Maybe you feel pressure to get it perfect or you keep putting it off because you're just not sure where to begin, or you're not sure how to write that first sentence. But every book starts with one sentence. And God will give you the words as you take the step of faith. And I want to just encourage you that you do not have to write in chronological order to. You can write whatever you feel most inspired to write right now. You don't even have to finish that chapter. You can just write one section and one chapter today, and then you can write other things at other times. But we wanna pray for you so that you can start writing with confidence and finish your first chapter. So, cj, why don't you pray?

Yeah. And the scripture that is our anchor for this prayer is Zechariah 4:10. The first part of that verse which says.

Do not despise these small beginnings. For the Lord rejoices to see the work begin, to see the plumb line in Zerubbabel's hand. And, of course, this was in regard to rebuilding the temple. And it just made me think of all of you. Wherever you're at in this journey, you're looking at this first chapter. It's daunting. And you're not even happy with the way things have started. And yet the Lord says, do not despise these small beginnings. On this book, he's rejoicing that the work is beginning. And I love this. To see the plumb line in Zerubbabel's hand. We might replace that by saying, with the pen in Mabel's hand, whatever it may be, that this is what we're rejoicing in. And so, Father, we look at this word and we say, this applies to any situation where we're beginning something. So often the enemy tries to cause us to quit and give up in the beginning. And we ask, Lord, that you would help us to see things from your perspective. Help us to rejoice in the work that is beginning on our books. We have had a book idea. We have seen an outline come together. And now we're beginning to write this first chapter. And, oh, my goodness, it just feels daunting. And yet we know that all things are possible with you, Lord, as we hold this pen in our hands or this keyboard at our fingertips, we're asking, Lord, that you would guide and direct us in this small beginning. We offer it to you even as an Offering, just like a drink offering, we're offering it to you and saying, lord, what can you do with this? Would you multiply it? Would you allow one chapter to become two? Would you allow two chapters to become three? Lord, we're giving you the dreams that you've put in our hearts, the desires that we have to write for your glory in this first chapter. And we thank you, Lord, for what's ahead. And we rejoice as we undertake this effort. In Jesus name, Amen.

Amen. As I was praying for you to finish your first chapter, I saw a picture of a really amazing piece of chocolate cake with chocolate icing. That's my favorite. But you can imagine whatever your favorite cake is, but for me, it's chocolate with chocolate icing. And I saw us as Kingdom writers, when we're writing this first chapter, it's taking your first bite of cake. It's so good and you love it. It's, oh, this is so good. But you're not satisfied. You know, there's more. You're like, I want to keep eating the cake. I. I wanna finish. How many of you know that most of you would not want to stop with one bite of cake, right? And so let me pray for you as you write that first, that you would actually have a desire and God would stir up in you that motivation. I can't wait to take the next bite, I can't wait to take the next bite until that whole piece of cake is finished and you have finished your first draft. Amen. So let's pray. So, God, thank you so much for each Kingdom writer that is here and listening right now. We just pray that as they write their first chapter and that first bite of cake, it can be just so good, but they just know there's more. And Lord, I just pray that instead of feeling like dread or instead of having that inner critic say, oh, I don't even know if this first chapter is good enough, I pray that they would celebrate. They would see it like a bite of cake, their favorite cake. And they would just be like, wow, God, thank you. Thank you for this first bite. Thank you for this first chapter. I cannot wait for the second bite, for the next bite, until we finish writing this book together because you're partnering with God as you write. So, Lord, thank you so much for what you're going to do to help these Kingdom writers finish that first bite, that first chapter. And we just pray this in Jesus powerful name.