One of the important ideas I took away from yesterday’s lessons was that our role as writers is to be a bridge; our writing should be a bridge connecting our readers to God. It has always been easy for me to draw the focus of my writing around me; I wanted my readers to know that I received this inspiration, that I discovered it in my Bible reading, that I experienced it in my life. Because of this bit of self-interest, whenever I felt that my faith was low or that my inspiration was dry, I had nothing that I thought was worth writing about.

Our attitude in writing, however, should be purely to serve God, to bring others closer to God, without a hint of self-exaltation or pride. It shouldn’t focus on ourselves and on our work, our ability to analyze, our ability to see things that other people typically miss. It should stem only from our desire to draw closer to God and to have a deeper understanding of his Word. It is this spark, our inner desire to be near to God, that allows us to find the precious gems we find in our study of the Bible. Even when our faith feels dry and we can’t seem to find any gems, and the only thing we have to give to God is our inner spark, that is enough for us to be a bridge for others to connect to God. Because again, our writing was never about our insights or our inspirations; it’s about the source of all inspiration from the Word of God.

The pure and selfless motive to serve God was exemplified by David. He sought to build the temple for God. If he had built the temple, he could potentially receive much of the glory and credit. The temple would’ve been named the temple of David. But God told him that his son Solomon was to build the temple. Had David carried any bit of self interest in his motive, he would’ve either insisted on his initial intention or felt some degree of bitterness. But instead, David earnestly prepared materials for Solomon, giving his all to support the construction, even though later the temple would be called the temple of Solomon and not the temple of David. His primary desire was just to serve God, and not to serve God in a way that could potentially glorify himself. Again, as writers–no, as servants for God, our willingness to write should be for God’s glorification only, having no hint of self-interest.