Dipping the Quill Deeper: From Conquered to Conqueror

by Eva Marie Everson

John Wesley (1703-1791) the English cleric who became a leader of a revival movement known as Methodism, once wrote these words:

After my return home, I was much buffeted with temptations, but I cried out, and they fled away. They returned again and again. I as often lifted up my eyes, and He “sent me help from his holy place.” And herein I found the difference between this and my former state chiefly consisted. I was striving, yea, fighting with all my might under the law, as well as under grace. But then I was sometimes, if not often, conquered; now, I was always conqueror (Journal of John Wesley, “I Felt My Heart Strangely Warmed”).

As we writers prepare for upcoming conferences, whether we are new to this writing thing or not, we often find ourselves returning home with a source of positivity pulsing through our arteries and veins that declares, “I can do this! I can write a book . . . an article . . . a blogpost . . . a devotion . . . a poem.” We have everything we need now. Someone told us we canwrite. Someone else showed us how to beef up the weak areas. Someone pointed out where our strengths lie. We sat under the masters of the craft and took copious notes. We returned home and pored over them and, then . . .

Somewhere, sometime deep in the night or early evening or the middle of the day or just as we fluttered our eyes open, we hear another set of words whispered in our ears. Words that say, “You cannot do this. You are not a writer. You are a wannabe and only a wannabe and you will never be more than this.”

This is where we have to turn it all over to God. We cannot depend on our abilities or the words of others or the teachings and inspirations found in hours upon hours of workshops and general sessions. We must cry out, as Wesley did, to God and ask Him to send help “from his holy place.” We must now let the Holy Spirit do His work within us, fully. 

That said, if Wesley struggled with such doubts, then I believe it is not outlandish to expect we will too. If you are a new writer, I hope you will read this next part carefully: I have published 40 books, countless numbers of devotions, blogposts, articles, etc. and I still have to shout over that voice that tells me I cannot. I still have to cry out to God for help. For reassurance.

But the more often we do so, like Wesley, the more often we will find ourselves not the conquered, but the conqueror. We will discover that, unlike before when the fight left us drained and shaking, now the fight takes little out of us because we have called out and believed first. 

The moment I awakened, “Jesus, Master,” was in my heart and in my mouth; and I found all my strength lay in keeping my eye fixed upon Him and my soul waiting on Him continually (The Journal of John Wesley, Thursday, 25).

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Eva Marie Everson is the president of Word Weavers International and the director of its two conferences. She is the multiple award-winning author of nearly 40 works and has received awards as a speaker and Bible teacher. Eva Marie is often seen at writers conferences across the States. She served as a mentor for Jerry B. Jenkins’ Christian Writers Guild for several years, and taught as a guest professor at Taylor University in 2011. She and her husband make their home in Central Florida where they enjoy their grandchildren. They are owned by one small dog and a princess cat.