45 | How to Write Like God Signs Your Royalty Checks (Not Amazon!)

What if the secret to thriving as a Christian author isn’t hustling harder… but learning to rest?

In this episode, I share a very real lesson God is teaching me right now in a season of transition: how to trust Him as my ultimate provider—even when deadlines slip, income feels uncertain, and the pressure to keep producing is louder than ever.

If you’ve ever wrestled with guilt for slowing down, feared losing momentum when life pulls you away from the desk, or wondered how rest fits into the calling to write, this episode is for you.

Lean in as we explore what it looks like to write like God signs your royalty checks—not Amazon, not readers, not algorithms. Because when you trust Him with your author journey, you’ll discover that rest isn’t wasted time—it’s sacred ground where God does His deepest work.

👉 Listen now to uncover the secret to becoming an anointed scribe!

Transcript

At the time of this recording, I'm exactly five weeks away from packing up our life here in the UK and moving back to South Africa. And let me tell you, I completely underestimated the impact this transition would have on my author life.

The overwhelm, the logistics, the emotions, it's been a lot. But in the middle of all of this upheaval, God keeps whispering one word to me. Rest.

And I don't mean the physical kind.

I'm talking about the deeper kind. The kind that doesn't always make sense when everything in you is screaming to keep working.

Maybe you've been there too, friend. Maybe you're in that place right now.

A season where life is demanding that you slow down,

but your author brain won't stop spinning.

Circumstances beyond your control are pulling you away from your desk. But the weight of unmet deadlines,

potential of shrinking income and waiting readers presses heavy on your chest.

If that's you friend, then you need to lean into what I know God is going to reveal to you today.

Because we're going to unpack what it really means to rest as a Christian authority.

Not just taking a day off, not just observing the Sabbath, but stepping into those longer, deeper seasons of rest that God sometimes calls us into.

The ones that feel scary because the world tells us consistency is everything.

That if we stop producing, stop showing up, we'll lose everything we've worked so hard for.

But what if God's definition of success looks different?

What if his rest is the very thing that sustains your calling as a writer?

This is episode 45 of the Anointed Scribe podcast. So let's talk about it.

I'm Urcelia Teixeira, ex real estate agent turned award winning Christian fiction authority.

When I wrote my first novel on a bucket list whim, I had no idea it would spark a spiritual journey that would redefine my calling. But you know what, friend?

Self publishing wasn't easy. I got caught in the hustle, chasing rankings and sales while desperately trying to stay rooted in Christ.

Now, by God's grace, I'm building my author business his way. And now he's called me to help you do the same, saying,

welcome to the Anointed Scribe Podcast where faith meets business for Christian writers. Let's write, publish and grow our author business God's way. Are you ready? Well then, let's get started.

Hey, it's your author friend, Urcelia. And welcome to today's episode of Anointed Scribe.

Today's message has been stirring in my spirit as I've been walking through a very personal season of transition.

As I mentioned earlier, my family and I are in the middle of emmigrating, packing up our life in the UK and preparing to return to South Africa. And let me tell you,

between homeschooling boxes everywhere and the never ending to do list, my normal writing rhythm has been completely upended.

I'm talking about finding my laptop buried under packing tape, trying to write while surrounded by bubble wrap, and attempting to maintain any kind of routine when everything familiar has been packed away, including my entire office.

And in the middle of this chaos,

a few sneaky little lies have been trying to creep back in. Like, if I stop working,

if I don't keep producing and I don't write the next book, I'll lose momentum,

my readers will forget me or lose interest, and everything I've built will crumble.

Like right now, we are days away from Q4, and everywhere I look, authors are pushing harder to finish the year strong while I'm doing the opposite.

And those old familiar feelings of guilt and pressure threaten to creep in,

whispering that I'm falling behind,

that I'll lose income, that I won't recover if I don't keep up. Have you ever felt that way?

Like if you slow down even for a moment, you'll lose everything you've been working so hard for.

Maybe you're nodding your head right now because you've been there.

Maybe you're there today.

Well, today's episode is for you then. Because God reminded me of a truth I had to learn the hard way a few years back. And it's one I need to keep coming back to, even now.

And it's this.

It's okay to rest and put your writing life on the back burner for a little while.

Because God is your provider.

Not your hustle, not your social media posts, not your book sales or your email lists or your routines.

God.

Just God.

And that's what we are going to talk about today.

So if you're listening while you're folding laundry, driving,

or maybe sneaking a quick walk between writing sessions, I invite you to lean in,

grab your journal later, if you can, come back to the podcast and listen to it again. And then let's talk about what resting in God looks like.

So let me take you to Psalm 127, because this is where God really started working on my heart about this.

Verses 1 and 2 says,

unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labour in vain.

Unless the Lord watches over the city, the guards stand watch. In vain,

in vain you rise early and stay up late eating the bread of anxious toil,

for he gives to his beloved even in their sleep.

Let me translate this to author language.

Unless the Lord builds your author business,

the author labours in vain.

It's pointless to get up early and to write until late.

Eating the bread of anxious labour, for he provides for you even while you sleep.

Are you hearing this?

Just sit with it for a minute. Because when the Holy Spirit first revealed this to me, it hit me like a ton of bricks before. Because here's what anxious toil looks like.

Anxious labor looks like this for us authors.

If I don't post on Facebook today, I'll get buried in the algorithm. Out of sight, out of mind, right?

If I don't send an email this week, nobody will buy my books.

If I don't write and release fast enough, readers will walk away and find another author.

If I don't keep hustling, if I don't keep grinding, if I don't keep pushing myself, I'll lose everything I've built.

That, my friend, is anxious bread. And at one time I ate bread for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

But here's the thing about anxious bread.

It never satisfies. You can eat and eat and eat of it.

You can work and work and work and you'll still feel empty. You'll still feel behind.

You'll still feel like it's never enough. You'll still compare and fall short. And you'll end up like a hamster running to nowhere in its wheel until you burn out from sheer exhaustion.

Ask me how I know.

So I want to ask you something and I want you to pause for a moment and really think about this.

Where are you eating the bread of anxious labour in your writing or your author business right now?

Or what does that look like in your day to day life? Is it the constant checking of your sales numbers?

The obsessive scrolling through other authors success stories and Facebook profiles?

The late nights you spend tweaking your marketing strategy and your Amazon ads when you should be sleeping?

Just sit with that question for a moment.

Where am I eating anxious bread right now?

And here's something I discovered, friend. Resting is not laziness. I'm going to say that again because some of us need to hear this again today. Just because you are resting does not mean you are lazy.

Resting is in fact an act of faith.

Think about it. It takes faith to close your laptop at a reasonable time when you have a deadline looming.

It takes faith to step away from social media when everyone's telling you that it's the only way to reach your readers.

It takes faith to take a Sabbath when your to do list is screaming at you.

It takes tremendous faith to say, God, I trust you to do more with my obedience than I could do with my striving and friend. That's exactly what Psalm 127 promises us.

He gives to his beloved even in their sleep.

Let that sink in. Even while you are sleeping, he provides for you. He's working while you are sleeping.

That means while you are resting, even stepping away for a weekend,

God is working on your behalf. He can open doors you didn't even know existed.

He can move hearts toward your book that you couldn't have reached without a thought Instagram posts.

He can sell books while you are at the park with your kids or spending time with your husband.

He can connect readers to your work while you are going to church with your family.

He can bring opportunities you didn't even plan for and couldn't even orchestrate even if you tried.

Why?

Because he called you to be an author?

You are aligned with the plans he has for you because you sought his vision in it.

I've seen this happen in my own life so many times. The book sales that came when I was on a social media break.

Because God provides for us even when we are resting.

So let me ask you this. What would it look like for you to rest on purpose this week?

Not out of burnout, not because you've collapsed from exhaustion,

but out of faith.

What would intentional faith filled rest look like in your life?

Now let's get really real here. Let's talk about one of the biggest enemies of rest. And that's comparison.

Comparison is that lion that roams in the night waiting to strike and devour.

Just when you've taken that leap of faith to rest in God's provision, we see other authors publishing faster. We watch them hitting best seller lists while we are still trying to finish our first chapter.

We see them signing contracts, booking speaking gigs and booking signings, building empires.

And if we're not careful, we start to think I'm behind. I'm not doing enough.

I have to keep up. I have to work harder. I have to hustle more. I have to push.

But here's what Psalm 127 is trying to tell us.

Not all success lasts. In fact,

Shakespeare famously wrote this line in the Merchant of Venice and it says, all that glitters is not gold. Have you heard that? Or as J.R. Tolkien puts it in one of his poems, not everything that glitters shines See, you can be releasing books like Mad and be super busy.

And you can have posts going on social media every day, four or five posts every day. You can be profitable. You can have all the external markers of success,

worldly success,

and still be completely out of alignment with God's plan.

Still be building something that won't last,

still be laboring in vain.

Because unless the Lord builds it,

it's built in vain, right?

I've watched authors burn out trying to keep up with someone else's pace. I've seen writers compromise their values trying to match someone else's success.

I've been that author, pushing myself to exhaustion, trying to achieve what God never asked me to achieve in the first so instead of rushing ahead, instead of trying to match someone else's output or timeline,

what if we embraced the pace God has set for us?

What if we trusted that his timing is perfect even when it feels slow to us?

Take a moment and think about this.

Where have you been? Comparing your chapter one to someone else's chapter 20?

Where have you been comparing your slow season to someone else's harvest season?

Where have you been looking at someone else's Instagram reel and feeling like you are failing.

Comparison will rob you of rest every single time.

It'll convince you that you can't afford to slow down. It'll make you feel guilty for putting down your pen and picking up your Bible instead.

But I'm here today to tell you, friend, that God's economy doesn't work like the world's.

In his kingdom, the last are first, the weak are strong, and those who rest in him are more productive than those who strive in their own strength.

And here's something else I've learned through multiple seasons of writing, publishing and life transitions.

Provision doesn't stop when you do.

God provides in launch seasons and in lulls.

Think about it. He provides when you're in the middle of a book launch,

running on adrenaline and coffee,

and it provides for you when you haven't written a word in weeks because life got complicated.

God blesses when you are writing furiously, when the words are flowing and you can barely keep up with the inspiration.

And he blesses when you're moving across countries like I am right now, when your manuscript is buried in a box somewhere and you can't even remember where you put your favorite pen.

God is faithful when you are publishing book after book,

when you're on a roll and everything else seems to be clicking.

And he's equally faithful when you have to pause for family,

when you have to step back to care for aging parents when you have to slow down, to shepherd your children through a difficult season.

Your business, your books, your platform, your future.

It's all sustained by him, not by you.

Let me say that again because somebody needs to hear it. It's all sustained by him,

not by you.

And that means you don't have to fear rest.

You don't have to feel guilty for slowing down. You don't have to panic if life forces you to pause. You don't have to apologize for having seasons where writing takes a backseat to other responsibilities.

Because you are not self made. You are God made.

You are heaven backed. You are anointed to write. And the anointing doesn't expire when you take a break.

It doesn't diminish when you rest. If anything,

it's renewed in the resting I remember a season a few years ago when I had to take an unexpected break from writing.

Family circumstances demanded my full attention and I couldn't maintain my writing schedule.

I was terrified. I thought my readers would forget me. I thought my momentum would die. I thought everything I'd worked for would just disappear.

But you know what happened during that break? My previous books continued to sell.

New readers discovered my work through recommendations from other readers.

Opportunities I had planted seeds for months earlier suddenly bloomed.

And when I returned to writing, I came back refreshed with new insights and deeper stories to tell.

God was working while I was resting. He was building while I was trusting. He was providing while I was pausing.

Now, before we wrap up, I want to give you three practical ways to step into rest as a Christian author. Because I know some of you are thinking, this sounds great, but how do I actually do this?

First,

schedule rest on purpose. Don't wait until you are on the verge of collapse.

Don't wait until your body forces you to stop. Block off Sabbath time in your calendar and treat it as sacred as you would a deadline.

Plan breaks between book launches. Build margin into your calendar.

I'm talking about actual white space in your planner. Days when nothing is scheduled.

Mornings where you can drink your coffee slowly while you spend extra time in the word perhaps.

Evenings where you are not checking email. Weekends where your laptop stays closed.

And here's the key. When you schedule this rest,

protect it.

Don't let the urgent crowd out the important.

Don't let other people's emergencies become your priorities. The rest is holy. Your rest is holy. It's commanded by God. It's not optional.

Second, trust God with your finances.

I know this is a Big one. So many of us hustle out of financial fear.

We think if we don't make that book sale today,

we won't be able to pay the bills tomorrow.

But instead of hustling harder when money feels tight,

go back to his word.

Pray Psalm 127 over your business.

Literally. Pray it out loud.

Lord, unless you build my author business, I'm laboring in vain.

I trust you to provide for me even while I sleep.

Ask him to show you how he provides. Even when you step back,

ask him to increase your faith in his provision. And then watch.

Watch how he provides.

Keep a journal of his faithfulness. Write down the unexpected checks, the surprise sales, the provisions that come from nowhere.

Build your faith by remembering his faithfulness.

Third Steward. Slow seasons. Well, don't rush out of them. Don't try to hurry through them. Use them to refill creatively,

spiritually, and emotionally. Read books that feed your soul, not just craft books. Spend time in nature. Have long conversations with friends.

Play with your children. Date your spouse. Live your life.

Sometimes the slow season is where God is preparing you for the next big chapter.

Sometimes he's filling your well so you have something to pour out later.

Sometimes he's teaching you things you can only learn in the quiet.

I think about winter, how the ground looks dead and barren, but underneath,

roots are growing deeper. Seeds are preparing to sprout.

The soil is being renewed.

That's what slow seasons do for us. They prepare us for the harvest that's coming.

So, friend, if you are scared to rest, let this episode and the words of Psalm 127 be your permission slip from God.

You can step away from the algorithm. It will still be there when you get back. And honestly, it will probably have changed by then anyway.

You can log out of Instagram. Your followers won't disappear overnight. The ones who matter will still be there.

You can close the manuscript for today. The story will wait for you. Sometimes it even gets better when you give it space to breathe.

You can take the weekend off. You can go on that vacation. You can say no to that opportunity that would stretch you too thin.

And when you do these things, you are not being lazy. You are not being irresponsible.

You are declaring with your actions. You are saying, God, you are my provider.

Not my hustle, not my schedule, not my followers. You,

you're saying, I trust you more than I trust my own efforts. I trust your timing more than my timeline.

I trust your provision more than my plans.

Remember, he gives to his beloved even in their sleep. That's you.

You are his beloved. You are the one he sings over.

You are the one he delights in. You are the one he wants to provide for.

So dear friend,

breathe.

Take a breath right now.

Rest,

trust and keep building with him, not apart from Him.

Because here's the truth. When we build with God,

when we work from rest instead of for rest,

when we trust his provision instead of our production,

when we let the Lord build our house, that's when we create our best work. That's when we write the stories that truly matter.

That's when we impact readers in ways that last for eternity. That's when we build a true legacy that lasts.

Your writing is not separate from your spiritual life. Your author career is not something you have to manage apart from God.

He cares about your books. He cares about your readers.

He cares about your platform. And he's far more capable of managing it all than you are.

So let Him. Let him be Lord over your writing.

Let him be CEO of your author business. Let him set the pace, determine the seasons, open the doors. And you.

You rest in Him.

You work from that rest. You create from that place of peace.

And if this episode encouraged you, share it on your socials and tag me @anointedscribepodcast or share it with a fellow Christian author who might need that reminder that they don't have to hustle to thrive.

Sometimes the best gift we can give each other or another writer is permission to rest.

Keep writing with faith, friend. Keep resting in his provision. And remember,

you are anointed to write not because of what you do,

but because of who he's called you to be.

Friend, before I let you go, I want you to use the Send me a message link in the show notes and let me know where you need God to show up for you today so I can pray for you.

It's 100% anonymous. I can't see your name or your email or your phone number. I can't even reply to you. But I can read your request and I can pray for you.

So I encourage you to use this feature to send me a private message to let me know what you are struggling with right now so we can come together and take this to the Lord in prayer.

And if you found today's episode helpful, please consider subscribing and leaving a review.

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Okay, so that's it for today's show.

Thank you for listening. And remember, for such a time as this,

you have been called to thrive as God's anointed scribe.