Write it

We are currently accepting writers for our daily devotionals. If you are interested, please read the following very carefully.

What do we look for in a devotional?

Chronic pain daily devotionals are meant to give people a sense of God’s presence and a improved perspective on the day. Devotionals should be simple and to the point, but also have some depth of reflection.

Rather than just writing out your feelings and attaching a verse, choose a specific emotion or experience and give us the details!

Tell us how you have overcome the challenge or how God has given you a new perspective.

Devotional Tips

• Start it off with a scripture, in quotes, NIV version.
• It should have a brief anecdote, example, or quote  such as “As I walked down the street today, I looked up to see a cloud that was shaped as a cross…”
• Word count: be no less than 325 words and no more than 400 words in length. It may be returned if it’s too short or too long. If it is very long, we may consider using it as an article on our web site.
• It should inspire the reader to reflect, be encouraged, and even go dig out their Bible.
• It should be interesting. Write it and then look at it 48 hours later, then edit and send it to us. If you had 3 minutes a day to read something would this fill your need?
• It shouldn’t be too religious. Don’t use lots of religious jargon– For example, don’t TELL the reader about God’s mercy, instead SHOW the reader how you have experienced God’s mercy and why you want to share it with them. many of our readers are not believers or have not been to a church for years.
• Be specific. It should SPECIFICALLY have examples that relate to chronic illness. For example, avoid writing about how to generally “live with illness.” Write about how hard it is to get out of the car, how you’ve learned to not worry about what people think, how your family is learning to adjust to you cooking just 3 nights a week–and how God is part of this. If your devotional does not contain anything about chronic illness or give examples at then have you explain how they relate to chronic illness, it’s likely it will not be printed.
• Refrain from talking about your specific illness but rather use examples that those with any illness can relate to. For example, rather than telling the reader all the ways multiple scleroris impacts your life, explain the frustration about dizziness in one of your submissions.

We encourage you to submit your work, but please understand that there is no guarantee that it will be published. We also request that you have received the Rest Ministries chronic pain daily devotional for a minimum of ten days before sending us your work. We would like you to sit back and enjoy the devotionals first and have a better understanding of what we are searching for.

Logistics

Please read the following for a complete understanding of our submission guidelines. All links open up into a new window.

• Please read our statement of faith. You must agree with this for your work to be considered.
• Devotionals should be formatted correctly. Click here for details and an example.
• Include a 50-75-word bio about yourself at the end written in third person (“Shari lives on the East Coast…”). You may include ONE link to your page at Rest Ministries Sunroom, your author bio at chronicillnessdevotions.com, or an approved personal web site. Not all web site are approved.
• Copyright: No contract is necessary. It is presumed that by submitting your work you have given Rest Ministries the right to publish your devotional on our website, in our HopeKeepers Magazine, or any other publication that we distribute. You will maintain the copyright to your work, meaning that if you have your work published someday, we will not have any rights or privileges to it.
• Compensation: You will be given credit for your work, but there is no monetary compensation. We hope that knowing you are changing lives is a great reward.
• Editing of submissions after acceptance is considered part of the acceptance, and Rest Ministries reserves the right to edit content, title, and length of any submission prior to publication and the author will not be notified of minor changes. It is not our intention to alter an individual’s writing or style, however, we may clarity certain things or correct grammar, spelling, etc. The editors reserve the right not to accept any submission.

If you are interested in writing for us, please submit 2 samples of your chronic illness / pain devotionals, including your bio.

If you have any questions, please contact Rest Ministries’ director. Thank you for your ministry to us and those that we serve through your writing.