I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. – Romans 12:1 (New King James Version)

If you list five books after the Bible that have influenced you most powerfully, what genres would be represented? I imagine there would be one or two autobiographical books by Christians and perhaps at least one biography of a dedicated Christian. Whatever the genres and titles, the five books, with the Bible, are important to you personally. Additionally, don’t they provide keys to God’s calling upon your work as a writer?

The most challenging points of God’s call upon my life at a critical time started with a little book tossed onto my desk by a colleague. A thin book with an appealing cover, its outside drew me in. Reading it at lunch that day, my eyes fell on a promise:

Fear not, for I am with thee; be not afraid, for I am thy God. I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with my righteous right arm. – Isaiah 41:10

Over a year later, I took a sincere leap of faith in Jesus Christ. These words strengthened that giant, life-changing step:

Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us... – Hebrews 12:1

Through the life, death, and resurrection of His Son, Jesus Christ, God fulfilled every promise and prophecy of His written word. He made possible through His Son a marvelous and eternal life-gift of unequalled value, available to anyone who will believe in Him.

As Christian writers, we want to glorify the great, loving, and sovereign God, whom we worship and trust through His Son. We long to help point others to Him. He moves and motivates us. He can move others to faith. Today, His people continue to share His Word all over the world, from language to language, person to person, life to Life. Their individual writings also point to Him, day by day.

Has God called you to write? You may feel unworthy. We are unworthy. The point is that He has moved us to faith and toward writing.