Overcoming Fear for Writers

Overcoming Fear for Writers

“What if I’m not good enough to make it as a writer?” “What if nobody likes my writing?” The “what ifs” could go on for eternity. They spring into your brain and start circling like vultures over your blank, slowly dying computer screen. As your doubts plague you, you start to believe that maybe you’re not cut out for this writing thing after all, and you should just give up. If you give up, you never have to find out if you’re good enough to be a writer or if nobody likes what you've written. If you give up, you’ve saved yourself from those fears, but at what cost? What if you were good enough or could’ve been if you kept trying? What if thousands of people would’ve enjoyed and been blessed by your words? What causes you to back down even though you don’t know the future? Fear. 

Finding Fear's Control

Fear is an emotion caused by the belief that something or someone is dangerous. Sometimes it’s right to fear something. God has placed it in us to run from things that might harm us. Thunderstorms with rough waves can capsize boats, so people check the weather before planning a day on the water. Poisonous snakes are—well—poisonous, so if a person runs across them in their home, they call a professional to take care of it and avoid the snake. Our fallen world is full of scary things people should avoid, but it’s when we trust fear more than God that fear becomes a problem. When fear controls your life, it claims to know the future and what you should do to avoid the danger it detects. It claims that it knows better than God and you should obey it rather than Him. Out-of-control fear, fear that paralyzes, reveals Only God can declare things that have not yet been done and accomplish His purpose (Isa. 46:10, ESV). Fear, however, is a feeling, and feelings don’t know the future. Believers are called to trust in God, not in fear.  

Realizing that fear is just a feeling is the first step to overcoming it. Believers cannot let their emotions rule over them. God instructs them to take every thought captive and submit it to the word of God (2 Cor. 10:5 ESV). They should not let their fearful thoughts take the word of God and determine whether they should obey it. If fear determines whether you obey God’s call for you to write, it’s become an idol and the object of your trust. Each moment, you have to choose who you will serve: the Almighty God of the universe or fear (Josh. 24:15, ESV). Fear has no control over the future like God does. Fear doesn’t love you so much that it sent its only son to die for you like God did (John 3:16, ESV). Why should you serve fear when it has no power and cares nothing about you? 

Yet we still fear because fear is full of questions, questions aimed at God’s character and what God has called us to do. Fear wants you to doubt God’s love for you because perfect love casts out fear (John 4:18, ESV). Fear wants you to hide your writing because it doesn’t want you to bless others with your words. Fear wants you to compare yourself to others because it doesn’t want you to share the words that God has placed in your heart for fear that what you have to say isn’t good enough. Fear uses our deceitful hearts to generate lies that seem reasonable.  

Fear also leads us to question God’s good intentions for our lives. After all, God let the Jews stone Stephen even though he’d done nothing wrong (Acts 7:54-60, ESV). That doesn’t seem like something a loving God would do. Despite that, Stephen trusted that God would use his obedience unto death for good, and God did. Stephen’s death was one of the ways God began transforming Saul, the Christian persecutor, into Paul the apostle (Acts 8:1-9:31, ESV). His death led to the gospel spreading all over the world and thousands of hearts being saved. Fear looms so large because we desperately want to know the future, but God hasn’t given it to us. Unfortunately for us, fear doesn’t know the future either and leaves us stuck. However, believers know that God is working all things out for good and can hope in the glory that he has promised to reveal (Romans 8:18, 28, ESV).

Casting Out Fear

God has given believers something far better than knowledge of the future: trust in Him. When we get stuck on what the future brings, we’re bound to worry. Believers don’t have to carry the burden of the future’s uncertainties because the future is in God’s hands. They can cast their anxieties on God because He cares for them (1 Pet. 5:7, ESV). God uses the situations that they fear to strengthen their reliance on Him. Conquering the suffering that comes through fear produces endurance, which produces character, which produces more hope in God’s sovereign plan (Rom. 5:3-5, ESV). Dependence on God makes your fears insignificant in the midst of his incredible power. 

When you find yourself trapped in fear, determine first whether what you’re afraid of is worth doing. Anything that God wants you to do is worthwhile and will impact both you and others. Imagine if Tolkien’s Bilbo decided not to go with the dwarves like he’d originally planned (J. R. R. Tolkein, The Hobbit, New York: Del Rey, 2014, 3-6). The dwarves never would have made it all the way to Gondor without him; they’d have been spider food or still prisoners of the wood elves (J. R. R. Tolkein, The Hobbit, New York: Del Rey, 2014, 155-187). God will place you in situations that are out of your comfort zone to strengthen you and bless others. Running from discomfort stunts your growth in Christlikeness. Your steadfastness to obey Him even when you're afraid will lead to becoming perfect and complete, lacking in nothing (James 1:4, ESV). 

Secondly, because God blesses obedience, you don’t have to fear the outcome of obeying Him. Jesus told us that we would encounter tribulation in this world, but we have hope because He has overcome the world (John 16:33, ESV). The last sensation that humans want to feel is discomfort, but it is a part of this fallen life. God hasn’t promised that believers will never suffer again, but since Jesus has overcome the world, they have hope of the life to come that will be perfect. Their current life isn’t the only time they have to enjoy. The sufferings of this present time won’t even compare to the perfection of the new heaven and the new earth (Rom. 8:18, ESV). Suffering shouldn't be feared or avoided. Let it drive you to God and cause you to pray more earnestly for Christ’s return. 

Finally, emember that the future is God’s hands, and He cares for you. Worry chokes your trust in God. It makes you believe that He doesn’t care for you and traps you in your despair. But believers don’t have to live in despair; they can cast their anxieties on God because He cares for them (1 Pet. 5:7, ESV). Isn’t that incredible? The God who controls the whole universe cares for you and He is working out the course of this world for your good (Rom. 8:28, ESV)! Since God is in control, He will do what is good because He is good (Psa. 119:68, ESV). You don’t need to fear what the future holds because it’s in God’s hands and He wants what's best for you.

Sum Up

For the writer battling with fear, the God who is in control of everything is on your side. If He is for you, who can stand against you(Rom. 8:31, ESV).  If God is your light, salvation, and strength in ever circumstance, including your writing, who shall you fear (Psa. 27:1, ESV). Trust Him to lead your writing the way He wants it to go; His way is what is best for you and what is sure to happen. Don’t worry about if your writing will be profitable or if other people will like it. Write for God because God has put it in your heart to write. He will supply all your needs (Matt. 6:31-33, ESV). Accept the call out of your comfort zone and into the dangerous, yet wonderful ways God wants to use your writing. You have an all-powerful God on your side. Why should you run from your troubles when He will help you endure them, shaping you into a person He can use for His glory?