By @JennyLCote

I’m often asked, “How do you organize your writing schedule? Do you designate a certain amount of hours in a day? Do you get up early or write in the middle of the night?”

My answer is that, for six days a week, any hour is fair game. Sometimes I write in the middle of the night when my characters choose to wake me up with their brilliant ideas that will evaporate if I don’t capture them in the wee hours. (I’ve threatened to kill them off if they keep waking me.) I’m currently hunkered down in my writing cave to meet the deadline for my eighth novel, and have an insane writing schedule of ten to twelve hours a day.

But on Sundays, I drop the pen.

At the start of my writing career, I didn’t do this. I still had a day job, after all, so I didn’t have a lot of writing time. My pen needed to move throughout the weekend. But I couldn’t shake the conviction that not only shouldn’t I write, but I was commandednot to write on the Sabbath. Funny how I always felt my pen running out of ink on Sundays. I was blowing off the fourth commandment.

Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work…For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. (Exodus 20:8-11)

I despise legalism. So did Jesus. When he healed people on the Sabbath and caught flak from the Pharisees, he shot back, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.” (Mark 2:27-28)

I think I’m sometimes guilty of ignoring or bending the rules because Jesus appearedto do so. Don’t I live under grace now? Rules don’t save me. Only Jesus saves me, right? But Jesus also said, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.” (Matthew 5:17-18)

Hear two things about what Jesus said about ‘working’ on the Sabbath. First, the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. God knew we neededrest. It’s frankly kind of stupid to fight against rest! If God needed to rest after six days of creation, what makes us think we don’t need rest after six days of creation with our pens? Our minds, spirits and bodies need that vital rest to refill our empty ink wells when they run dry. This rest isn’t to keep your pen from moving—it’s to make your pen powerful when it moves at God’s designated pace.

Secondly, Jesus said that HE was the Lord of the Sabbath. Not us. He’s made the rules and we’re supposed to follow them. He didn’t come to eliminate the rules, but to fulfill them. God’s rules are for our protection. He hems in those He loves with healthy boundaries. Yet we push against the boundaries far too often. But notice the rank of this commandment to keep the Sabbath holy. It’s fourthon the list—above honoring our parents, murder, adultery, stealing, lying and coveting. That means it’s a big deal, and we should take it seriously.

God even repeated this idea of rest in other ways to drive home its importance:

Six days you are to gather it (manna), but on the seventh day, the Sabbath, there will not be any. (Exodus 16:26)

But in the seventh year the land is to have a year of Sabbath rest, a Sabbath to the Lord. Do not sow your fields or prune your vineyards. (Leviticus 25:4)

God promised the Israelites He’d feed them with manna in the desert, so he sent manna six days a week with enough to last over the Sabbath. Nutrients in soil become depleted over time and the ground must lie fallow every seven years to allow those nutrients to return. Do you know why the Babylonian captivity lasted for seventy years? It was to make up for the time that the Israelites refused to rest. You can’t steal Sabbaths from God. If you refuse to rest, you’ll have to pay for it eventually.

There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from their works, just as God did from his. Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will perish by following their example of disobedience.  (Hebrews 4:9-11)

If you feel like I’m putting you on the guilt train, just give it a rest. The positive side of Sabbath rest is that it’s a way to improve your writing and increase your joy in the process. Giving your pen its Sabbath rest will allow your mind to cease from the writing frenzy that tends to dry out what flows from your pen. You’ll be utterly amazed at how much better you write when you’ve intentionally told your mind that writing is off limits for a day. And greater joy? If you’ve dedicated your pen to God’s glory, Soli Deo Gloria, joy naturally flows by following the rules penned by the Author of Life.

Reverence for God adds hours to each day. (Proverbs 10:27, TLB)

If you do as God has commanded and allow your pen to rest, He’ll give you more hours on the other days to accomplish your writing. And when you honor Him, He’ll honor you.

Award-winning author and speaker Jenny L. Cote, who developed an early passion for God, history, and young people, beautifully blends these three passions in her two fantasy fiction series, The Amazing Tales of Max and Liz® and Epic Order of the Seven®. Likened to C. S. Lewis by readers and book reviewers alike, she speaks on creative writing to schools, universities and conferences around the world. Jenny has a passion for making history fun for kids of all ages, instilling in them a desire to discover their part in HIStory. Her love for research has taken her to most Revolutionary sites in the U.S., to London (with unprecedented access to Handel House Museum to write in Handel’s composing room), Oxford (to stay in the home of C. S. Lewis, ‘the Kilns’, and interview Lewis’ secretary, Walter Hooper at the Inklings’ famed The Eagle and Child Pub), Paris, Normandy, Rome, Israel, and Egypt. She partnered with the National Park Service to produce Epic Patriot Camp, a summer writing camp at Revolutionary parks to excite kids about history, research and writing. Her books inspired a VBS Curriculum, Heroes of HIStorywith original music, animation and scripts. Jenny’s books are available online and in stores around the world, as well as in e-book and audio formats. Jenny has been featured by FOX NEWS on Fox & Friends and local Fox Affiliates, as well as numerous Op-Ed pieces on FoxNews.com. She has also been interviewed by nationally syndicated radio and print media, as well as international publications. Jenny holds two marketing degrees from the University of Georgia and Georgia State University. A Virginia native, Jenny now lives in Roswell, Georgia. Learn more about Jenny and her books at www.epicorderoftheseven.com.