#313: Mentoring Moment: Unless the Lord Writes the Book

Welcome to Kingdom Writers, where we help equip and empower Christian writers of all genres to share your unique gifts with the world. We're your hosts, C.J. and Shelli Hitz.

This podcast is filled with spiritual encouragement as well as prayers to help you overcome the resistance you face as a writer. Your story matters.

So today we're going to be talking about unless the Lord writes the book. And CJ has some encouragement to share with you on this topic.

Yeah, so many of you probably found yourself going to Psalm 127, and the first couple verses say, unless the Lord builds the house, the work of the builders is wasted. Unless the Lord protects a city, guarding it with centuries will do no good. It is useless for you to work so hard from early morning until late at night, anxiously working for food to eat.

For God gives rest to his loved ones. And I have to say that I was inspired to look at this passage from a friend of ours named Chad. We had been texting back and forth. Chad's also a writer, and he was basically saying that recently the Lord, as he sits down to write, has been leading him to begin his writing by praying Psalm 127 and really just having the Lord guide him, even as he's writing to be in prayer, as he's writing, just that constant, Lord, unless you're in this.

The author is writing in vain, as the NIV actually uses that word, that it's in vain. The building is in vain. And so I want to just say that our workaholic society will tell us essentially to push and strain and strive in order to accomplish our goals. We see it all around us. We wake up to it. Many of us would agree that books have been written with this method. Okay, New York Times best sellers have been written with this method. But at what cost and to what benefit, we have to ask ourselves. We also see many in the world today trying to protect all of the work that they've accomplished in their own human strength. And if we're honest, you and I have done this very thing where we try to protect what we've built at all costs and as if it's up to us and no one else. Like, we're in this on our own. If I don't get this book done and nobody's going to get it done for me, and I just got to push, push, push, push, push. And so we kind of have this grinding mentality. Our friend Shay has a ministry book actually called Grace Over Grind and kind of goes along with what we're looking at. Here today. But I find it very interesting that this particular Psalm 127 is written by Solomon, who also wrote most of the proverbs, and many of which instruct us to not be lazy, to actually work hard.

But here he's looking at the issue of going it alone without including God in the picture. And that's key right there. So you can still work hard.

But how many of us have worked hard and left God in the dust?

I'll let you know, God, if I need you. And we just sort of move forward with our own agenda. The Lord will allow us to do that for a time until we finally.

Sort of run to the end of our resources, which, by the way, I don't know about you, but my resources run out fairly quickly.

So it doesn't take long before I'm coming back to the Lord for His aid. But whether it's building houses, writing books, both, and we would all agree that both are acceptable enterprises, they serve important purposes. Our motives, though, behind these things are equally important.

The question we need to ask ourselves is, are we doing these things for our own glory or for God's glory? Ultimately, this is why you and I call ourselves Kingdom writers. This is what sets us apart. We're no better than anyone else in the world, but we endeavor to be Kingdom writers. In other words, we're about building his kingdom, not building some monument unto C.J. hitz, unto Leo Wadsworth, unto Deborah Butterfield, like this grand monument. That's essentially what we think of when we think of the Tower of Babel. It was this monument that we're doing this. We're pulling ourselves up by our own bootstraps. We don't need God. We can do things ourselves, and it just doesn't work as a kingdom writer. And so God makes no distinctions between the sacred and the secular in our lives. Colossians 3:23 says, Whatever you do, and that could be working in factory, that could be pulling weeds out in your garden, that could be writing your book, that could be building a house, as the psalmist here says. But whatever you do, work at it with all of your heart as working for the Lord, not for human masters. And that's key right there is that who are we working for? What are we doing this for? And so I would say that God is interested in all of our work, including all of the words that we write. Our books are going to have more substance. I think we'd all agree there that when we can draw upon God's resources.

There'S deeper substance to Our writing, when we partner with God, there's deeper substance, just like as families have more substance when they include God in the building of their home, right? In their relationships with one another. Mother, father, husband, wife, children. When they build their home around the Lord, there's going to be a deeper.

Substantive essence to the dynamics of the family. But without that, it's pretty shallow. When we're doing this all for ourselves, it's shallow. So regarding houses, we've all seen that houses in our society are deemed as status symbols, right? And so if you just think of this psalm, unless the Lord builds the house, the work of the builders is wasted. And of course, we can look at this as not just a physical house, but we can look at that as a building, a home, building a family unit, building a life together. But let's just take the houses as a physical.

Illustration here. Houses are. Are used as status symbols. There are many people all across this country, around the world that have houses that look really good on the outside, but they're hollow on the inside there. There's not a lot of substance in terms of the deeper meanings. And I think the same thing can happen with our books. You know, just like many times, people will buy this house that might even be well beyond their means. They might be up to their eyeballs in debt, but they look good to society. They look really good on the outside. I think sometimes we write these books because we want some status. We want to be looked at as important as an expert as, wow, look at, they wrote a book, they have a book in their hands. And we build this up to where one day I'm gonna hold this book up and it's almost like our precious. You know, it's like, I'm gonna have this book. It's gonna be the thing that, like, causes me to make it, like, have this status among people. And again, we can get our motives very mixed up. We can place our security. The psalmist mentioned security.

And how there is no security without the Lord protecting something, a city we can do all we can to protect. We can have this security behind our book, but it'll crumble. It's here today and gone tomorrow. I think we'd all agree that when we just build our security around something so temporal, it's here today, gone tomorrow. And so why is the work wasted here? According to the Psalmist, I would suggest that it's wasted when we trade the eternal for the temporal. It's truly wasted when we're looking at nothing regarding the eternal, nothing regarding the kingdom, and Again, you could write a cookbook. It doesn't matter. It could be a secular theme. It's okay. It's just that. Why are you doing that? Are you doing that partnering with the Lord, or are you just saying, I'll let you know when I need you, Lord? So prayerfully we can go about a project with the Lord or leaving him in the dust, essentially, because how many know that the Lord can give some pretty darn good ideas regarding recipes?

He could give us some ideas about training for a race if you're writing a book on running or.

Skiing technique or whatever it might be. He. He's the author of Life.

And so I want to just transition here regarding God giving rest to his loved ones, because we see that at the end of that passage that it says here.

God gives rest to his loved ones. In other words, it's useless for you to work so hard from early morning until late at night, anxiously working for food to eat as if it's all on you. For God gives rest to his loved ones. Now.

Regarding rest for his loved ones, our work becomes a problem. Our writing becomes a problem when it goes beyond the limits of what God set for it. And I can just relate this to running. As someone who loves to train and put my body through some training for endurance and races, that there's something we runners refer to as over training syndrome. And if you fall into this category, it's training to the point where your body can't recover fast enough and eventually that leads to an injury because you haven't given your body the rest. You see, the. The magic isn't in the actual training. The magic is in the recovery and the sleep. That's when the most improvement comes. That's when the body adapts. That's when it recovers so that the next day or two days from now, you can go beyond what you did two days ago. Okay, so it's the body adapting, but it has to have proper recovery. In the same way, I believe you and I as writers need recovery. But that recovery looks like connecting with the Lord. It means partnering, walking hand in hand with the Lord, saying, I'm not going to sit down and write as if it's all up to me right now. I'm going to walk hand in hand this whole day. That's what we call the Sabbath. That's why a Sabbath is important for all of us. And it doesn't have to necessarily be Sundays, but it's that whole idea and mindset that I'm going to take aside a day, whatever that looks like. And I'm going to partner with the Lord and seek him and worship him, because it's not all up to me. I'm acknowledging that I need the rest. And Solomon tells us in Ecclesiastes 3, there is a time for everything. So this is. This is a theme of Solomon today. We're seeing him write the Psalm. We're seeing him write Ecclesiastes, the Proverbs. He, the guy had wisdom. And yet there are themes throughout that we might say, oh, that seems a little contradictory. He's talking about resting here, but working hard here. But no, you see this theme of him always saying it's foolish to go about life without including God in the picture. When you and I rest for our writing labors, we prove that God is ultimately still in control. The earth's still spinning, by the way, even when we rest and we allow ourselves to be refreshed and energized by his spirit. This leads to what we've referred to in the past. Some of you have heard us say that one God idea is worth a thousand good ideas. And I'm telling you, I believe the best ideas come from the Lord when we're at rest. Just like the best recovery for an athlete comes when they are at rest, allowing all of their hard work to now adapt so that they can then do it again two or three days from then. Now, I just want to close.

And Shelley, you can jump in anytime, but I want to. I want to close with looking at verses three through five, because there are many scholars that have said they don't know if the original.

Text would have included all of these five verses together. But I want to make an argument that maybe the psalmist Solomon did. Did want to include all of these together.

So before you read that, I just want to jump in real quick for the first couple verses when, you know, it talks about anxiety and working through anxiety. And I noticed that when I would start having anxiety and I would really start processing that and journaling and praying about it, typically it's when I was feeling like I needed to do this on my own. It was up to me. You know, we've had our business full time now ten and a half years, and there have been many times that I've just had this weight of the world on my shoulders, like, how are we going to pay our bills? And typically the anxiety comes when I'm thinking it's up to me. And yet the Lord has shown me. 2017, I had a breakthrough moment, and I was like, I've Got to start Sabbath. I've got to start practicing the Sabbath. I've got to start resting. And I now call myself a redeemed workaholic. And yet the. The Lord has made me even more fruitful, you know, and it's like I'm working less and yet God is doing more. And so, you know, I also like the way the message says these first two verses. It says, if God doesn't build the house, the builders only build shacks. Do you want your books to just be shacks? No, you want them to be mansions that many, many people can come and receive shelter and help and nourishment. Right. We don't want to just build shacks. Says if God doesn't guard the city, the night man, night watchman might as well nap. It's useless to rise early and go to bed late and work your worried fingers to the bone. Amen. And I've done it. I've done it. I have worked my worried fingers to the bone. Don't you know he enjoys giving rest to those he loves? And so I just want you to know, like, I'm living it out and I'm still, like, having to work through it. I'm still having to process. And recently the Lord showed me that when I start having this anxiety, this worry, it's because I'm not visualizing God in the future with me. Like, we're in the middle of a book launch for Kingdom writers right now, and I started feeling anxiety. And the Lord's like, visualize me in the future. Like the results that I am there, I am already going before you. I'm making the way. Every book sale that happens is, you know, is a blessing. And whatever happens right now, this is just the beginning, it's not the end. And so anyways, visualizing the Lord in that future with you, him providing for you, him giving you the ideas, the words. That has really helped me as well.

Yeah. Amen. Well, like I said, I want to just mention a couple Comments on Verses 3 through 5 here. Again, this almost seems like a separate topic, but I think that we're going to see the connection here. Solomon says children are a gift from the Lord. They are a reward from Him. Children born to a young man are like arrows in a warrior's hands. How joyful is the man whose quiver is full of them. He will not be put to shame when he confronts his accusers. The city gates. Now, I want you just to track with me here for a second. Isn't it interesting.

That children, while given by God, are conceived when we're at rest.

Not when we're toiling.

I would say that children are normally conceived in bed.

Which represents that resting place. Okay. Solomon in verse two talked about how God gives his children rest. He gives his loved ones rest. I think he even blesses our work at rest. I think we can be sleeping and the Lord can still be bringing about book sales. He can still be bringing about ideas. You wake up with an idea on the forefront of your mind and you write that down.

Or a lot of people have told me they dream about their book and they get their book ideas in their dreams.

But here's the connection I'm making here regarding children being conceived in that resting place. I believe our best books are going to be conceived in a place of rest. As we pause to seek the Lord.

He'Ll supply the substance rather than us trying to just gut it out and quickly exhausting our strength. And so think of the things that are conceived in life. I mean, we think of children, but we think of those books. Think of our book babies, you know, that are being conceived out into the world that the Lord is going to use. He's going to multiply. He's going to bring fruitfulness.

This is about God's grace. That's what we would call that. Every book that we finish is a result of God's grace. When we include Him. He's the one that's granting us things that we normally wouldn't have. We can go about our labors without him. We can build a house. We can write a book. We can do things without Him. We can choose that. But the Lord says, would you partner with me and allow me to give you some God ideas that you won't have the resources in and of yourself to tap into? I'll give you something otherworldly. I'll give you something that only angels could see at the time. That I'll give you food that the angels feed on regularly. I'll give you something that you can share on this planet that will turn somebody's direction.

In a new way, perhaps for eternity, whatever it might be.

And I just want to close essentially by saying, I think a counterpart in the New Testament, if we were to look at a counterpart, to say it's essentially giving us a similar message. Read John, chapter 15:1 11. Abiding in Christ.

The key to being fruitful is simply abiding in Christ, not in our frantic efforts to go it alone to try to produce our own fruit. You think about an apple tree. You think about a branch attached to that main trunk. You think about the fruit being borne out all on the buds of that branch. The fruit just bears out because it's attached, it's receiving nourishment. It's got a regular flow of the SAP. All the goodies that come from that trunk, from the ground, the roots that are drawing up are flowing throughout that tree. You and I, that's the picture. When we're connected with Christ, when we're abiding.

We'Re going to see the ideas flow. We're going to see the fruitfulness come in our writing. And so let's read that once again. Unless the Lord builds a house, unless the Lord writes a book, the work of the authors is wasted. Unless the Lord protects a city.

Or protects a book, gardening it with centuries will do no good. Guarding all of our hard work and efforts will be no good. It's useless for you to work so hard from early morning until late at night, anxiously working for food to eat. For God gives rest to his loved ones. God wants to produce through you, even at rest.

Yeah. And I was just recently thinking the other day, you know, we. We're just publishing our 70th book. Ah, mind blowing. Can you believe it? Between the two of us? But 70 books, and yet, you know, there were some of those books that I was in that just churning it out, mode striving. And I used to teach different than I teach today. Some of you know that. Some of you have been around a while. And you know, this is. We've had the academy for seven years. And so in the beginning, I taught a little bit differently. And, you know, it's interesting because the one book that I truly know and believe came from the Lord. And it was a book that I didn't want to write, but he asked me to write was broken crayons, still color. And guys, guess what? That book is the one that's still selling today, the most. It makes a majority of our royalties out of 70 books. And so it's so true when you really connect in with the Lord and allow him to give you the ideas, to give you the words. And now all of those books have blessed people. They've all sold copies, they've all went out. But I just want to encourage you like that. That really.

Amazing fruit is going to be birthed from your time with him.

Yeah.

So, cj, why don't you close us in this time with prayer?

Father, we endeavor to include you in every detail of our writing. And we realize, Lord, that our resources become exhausted quickly.

Yeah.

And I just want to ask that you would fill to the brim every single Kingdom writer here today and into tomorrow. I pray that you would birth God ideas. I pray that book babies would be birthed at some point this year that.

We can only give you credit for because it's your grace. And I pray that each one today would feel your presence as they write or as they market, or as they perhaps get organized in their thoughts and their notes, whatever process they're in. I pray that they would sense your presence and that you would guide them. Lord, fuel them by your Holy spirit and we will give you the glory for all of the good things that come about from this virtual writing retreat. We ask this in Jesus name, Amen.

Amen.

Thank you for listening to this episode of Kingdom Writers. We believe that you, as a Christian writer have a specific role to play in the Kingdom of Heaven to impact lives for eternity.

And because of this, we choose to pour out our lives and encourage writers like you to not only tell your stories, but to take the courageous step of self publishing your stories in books that will outlive you and leave behind a powerful legacy. This podcast is sponsored by Christian Book Academy where we help you give birth to your books. We invite you to join our community of Kingdom writers.

Sam.