@LucindaSMcDowel

I think about words a lot. Because I’m an author and speaker, you might say words are my business – thus no surprise my ministry is called “Encouraging Words.”

But this week there are at least three good reasons I’m thinking especially about Words:

1. I’ve just sent the edits for an upcoming book off to the publisher and my mind is on the way all those words were put together as well as the final details to prepare for an autumn release.
2. I’m a bit behind in writing for the next book, whose deadline is only about ten weeks away. I’m asking God for much wisdom and guidance in choosing the just-right words for this very special book of my heart.
3. I’m well underway traveling and speaking for retreats and other events this Spring. As always, praying for the Spirit to anoint every presentation and that audiences may find hope, grace, mercy and yes,encouragementin my words!

As I offer my words to God and others – as I pray for those three items – I must then leave the results in God’s Hands.

Canadian pastor Mark Buchanan shares about this act of releasethat authors and speakers need to master:

“I speak a lot, from many platforms. When I’m not speaking, often I’m writing, writing words that have reasonably wide distribution. I’d delight if none of my words fell to the ground — if none were useless, excessive, dispensable, easily dismissed… But that’s God’s business. He might use the means of cyber technology, savvy marketing, good publicity. But either God, God alone, keeps our words from falling and scatters them wide, or else there is nothing in them worth keeping and scattering in the first place. Our concern, our responsibility, is simply to hear and heed God. It is always and everywhere to say, ‘Speak, Lord, for Your servant is listening.’”

(from The Rest of Godby Mark Buchanan)

So, my concern is to hearand heed God. What a seemingly simple sentence… and yet how complex the unfolding of it!

To hear God, I must be willing to shut my own mouth, open my ears and my heart, and put myself in a posture of receptivity and silence. Now, I ask you, how often do all thoseelements converge? Frankly, they won’t come together unless we make it happen. I’m learning to do just that — it’s essential.

To heed, ah, to heed is to respond to what we hear from God. Stop. Go. Wait. Dare. No. Yes. Wait. Risk. Reach out. Shut up (does God really say such things…you’d better believe it). Listen. “Write the vision and make it plain” (Habakkuk 2.2). To heed is to respond in obedience.

Yes, I think about words a lot. So did my ‘literary friend’ George MacDonald way back in 1880’s Scotland:

“If Thou wouldst have me speak, Lord, give me speech.

So many cries are uttered now-a-days,

That scarce a song, however clear and true,

Will thread the jostling tumult safe, and reach

The ears of men buz-filled with poor denays:

Barb Thou my words with light, make my song new,

And men will hear, or when I sing or preach.”

Diary of an Old Soul, September 11^thentry

How will you “make my song new”today?

Lucinda Secrest McDowell, M.T.S., is a storyteller and seasoned mentor who engages both heart and mind while “Helping you Choose a Life of Serenity & Strength.” A graduate of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and Furman University, McDowell is the author of 13 books and contributing author to 30+ books. Her books include the award-winning Dwelling Places (2017 Christian Retailing BEST Award for Devotional), Ordinary Graces  (2018 Selah Finalist), Live These Words, and Refresh! Lucinda, a member of the Redbud Writers Guild, received Mt. Hermon “Writer of the Year” award and guest blogs for The Write Conversation, Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference Blog and (in)courage. Whether co-directing  “reNEW ~ retreat for New England Writing,”  pouring into young mamas, or leading a restorative day of prayer, she is energized by investing in people of all ages. Lucinda’s favorites include tea parties, good books, laughing friends, ancient prayers, country music, cozy quilts, musical theatre, and especially her family scattered around the world doing amazing things.  Known for her ability to convey deep truth in practical and winsome ways, she writes from “Sunnyside” cottage in New England and blogs weekly at http://www.EncouragingWords.net/ 

Follow Lucinda on Twitter: @LucindaSMcDowel