Every Christian writer I know has wrestled with this question: Is this calling from God, or is it just my own ambition? Here's how I learned to tell the difference.
The first time I felt called to write, I dismissed it as pride.
Who was I to think I had something worth saying? There were already so many books. So many voices. What could I possibly add?
I spent three years in that dismissal. Three years of journaling privately, of writing essays I never shared, of feeling the pull and then talking myself out of it.
Then a mentor said something that changed everything: "Grace, the enemy doesn't waste his time discouraging things that don't matter."
The fear of calling
Here's what I've come to understand: the enemy attacks what God has ordained. If you are experiencing intense resistance to a creative calling — if every time you sit down to write you feel unworthy, unqualified, or afraid — that resistance itself may be a sign that you're on the right track.
This doesn't mean every impulse to write is from God. But it does mean that the presence of fear is not evidence of the absence of calling.
How to test the call
I use three questions when I'm discerning whether a creative direction is Spirit-led:
First: Does this serve others, or only myself? God's callings are always outward-facing. They are always about equipping, encouraging, or building up the Body.
Second: Does this require faith? If I could do it in my own strength, it's probably not a God-sized calling. The things God calls us to are always slightly beyond our natural capacity — because that's where we learn to depend on Him.
Third: Does it persist? Passing fancies fade. True callings return, again and again, no matter how many times we try to set them down.
A word to the waiting writer
If you are reading this and you feel the pull to write — to share your story, to teach through words, to create something that points people to Jesus — I want to say this directly: that pull is not an accident.
God wastes nothing. Not your experiences, not your pain, not your particular way of seeing the world.
Write. Start small. Start imperfectly. Start today.
The world needs your faithful voice.
Grace Elaine Mercer is a New York Times bestselling Christian author, sought-after speaker, and Bible teacher whose books have helped hundreds of thousands of women walk deeper in faith, purpose, and the unshakeable love of God.