5 Prayers For Christian WritersExemplo

Overcoming Perfectionism as a Christian Writer

The fourth obstacle we want to break through is perfectionism. This can actually be a root of procrastination. We think our first draft needs to be perfect. We have a paralysis of analysis. We keep looking over the details and it's just not quite right or we want perfection instead of a working piece that continues to be refined. 

That's really what those first drafts are all about. You just write it out, get those words out of your heart, out of your mind. Get it on paper, on your computer, whatever method you use. And then we can go back. Nobody’s first draft is very pretty. The most gifted writers in the world need to refine that first draft.

We want to pray along the lines of Ecclesiastes 11:4. “Farmers who wait for perfect weather, never plant. If they watch every cloud, they never harvest.”

Our Prayer…

“Father, we don't want to be farmers or writers who are always waiting for the perfect conditions. We know we live in an imperfect world and yet you somehow take our imperfections and you do wonders with those things that we would have never imagined. 

And so, Father, we want to pray against a spirit of perfectionism that can sometimes paralyze us and prevents us from moving forward. This idea that unless I can do something perfect, I can't go any further. We pray that we wouldn't be afraid to throw our sloppiness out there and then allow the process of refining to take place.

We pray that even if people have to start dumping things on paper in all kinds of jumbled ways before going back and rearranging some of those thoughts, let it be so. May we look at that paper as a glorious work of art in process, not as something that has to be perfect right now. 

We’re praying this for ourselves as many times it has been a connector to procrastination and the need to be perfect. We pray we would be instruments in your hands. Even though we're imperfect, we are perfected in Christ. We know you can do wonders through our lives, things that we'd never be able to do on our own.

The picture I got was of a transformer toy. I really sense that many of you have a certain expectation of what your first draft should be. Of what your final draft should be. You have a perspective that your first draft needs to be perfect and God right now wants to transform that expectation into something completely different. Just like a transformer toy is maybe a car and then it's a person. God wants to transform our mind and our expectations by changing the way we see things. Father, take the pressure off. There is no pressure in Jesus' name. 

This is a privilege to be able to write. It's a privilege to be able to share what God has given us. To share our gifts with the world. Father, we pray right now that you would transform our expectations and perspectives and cause the lie of perfectionism to fall away. May it no longer be an issue. In Jesus’ name, Amen.”