Writing a devotional may be a way God is calling you to use your chronic illness to glorify Him.

Rest Ministries has sent out devotionals nearly every day for over 10 years. We are honored that you are interested in writing a devotional for us and maybe becoming one of our regular contributors. Below are our writers’ guidelines. These include information about our style and punctuation as well as FAQ about edits, the amount of readers, and copyrights.

If you are interested in writing a devotional for us, please follow the guidelines and submit 2 samples on our Devotional Submission Form. After Lisa receives them she will let you know where to send future devotionals if you are a regular contributor.

FORMAT AND STYLE GUIDELINES

We do have specific guidelines. The more closely you follow these the easier it is for me (Lisa) to format and post devotionals.

YOUR RECOMMENDED TITLE – See FAQ below for more information about titles.

[SCRIPTURE] – We use NIV for everything on our web site to keep it consistent.

[QUOTATION MARK] scripture here [QUOTATION MARK] REFERENCE: { for example Exodus 4:7} – please spell out the book of the Bible [PERIOD]

Example: “For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow” (James 1:3).

[DEVOTIONAL BODY] – approximately 250-300 words. DO NOT SEND MORE THAN 300 WORDS OR IT WILL KINDLY BE RETURNED TO EDIT. Writing a devotional does not have to be complicated but it does have to be very clear in a short period space. Make paragraphs short, usually 2-3 sentences each. This is much easier to read online.

Share an example of an event, situation, feeling, something the reader can relate to and then dive in with what you’ve learned through this or what you are struggling with and what God is teaching you. When you are writing a devotional, ask yourself, “What do I want the reader to take away from this? What would their ideal response be?”

[PRAYER] 1-3 sentences – make is sound as honest as you can, like a few sentences talking with God, not a “canned prayer.”

[ABOUT YOU]
About the Author:
Share about yourself here in 3rd person. You can share 1 link. {example– Sue Smith lives with in Kentucky with her 6-year-old daughter and her husband. She has had fibromyalgia for 14 years, but finds comfort in reaching out to others through her blog, http://blognamehere.com }

[QUESTION] Ask the reader a question that pertains to your devotional. When you are writing a devotional, consider what would you like people to share about their own experiences, challenges, hopes, fears in the comments section of your devotional? The more intriguing your question, the more comments you may receive and it will spur on more readers to share and learn from each other {this is relatively new on our site}

Please note: we are being consistent and enforcing the word count of 300 words maximum, but this would be for the devotional BODY, which is after the scripture and before the prayer.

 

FAQ

When writing a devotional, what style guidelines should I be aware of?

First, we do capitalize words describing God or the Trinity. This include Jesus, Savior, Lord, Son of God, Holy Spirit, God, etc. We also capitalize pronouns that refer to God, such as He, Him, You, His, etc.

The name of the Bible is capitalized, unless it’s being used generically. For example, if you are referring to our Christian Bible, “Bible” is capitalized; if you’re referring to something as your “housekeeping bible” then this is considered generically, and it should be lowercase.

We generally do not capitalize the names of illness, for example, rheumatoid arthritis, chronic fatigue syndrome, etc. The names of medical conditions; diseases; and procedures, tests, and operations are left lowercase. For diseases that include a proper name, do capitalize such as Lou Gerhig’s disease, Crohn’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease. (Note: the word “disease” is not capitalized.)

When writing a devotional and referring to professionals do not capitalize their titles when using it as a description of their profession. Such as you would write either “I saw the doctor yesterday,” (no capitalization) or “I saw Dr. Smith yesterday,” (do capitalize.) Do not capitalize pastor when saying, “I spoke with my pastor.” But do capitalize, “I spoke with Pastor Joe” or “Rev. Correy.”

We do not capitalize entire words, such as “I was SO VERY lonely. . .” If you are sending your devotional in a text document and wish to make sure a few words are put into italics you can capitalize them and Lisa will format them to italics.

Can I use acronyms for my illness?

Yes, if the first time you mention your disease you spell the words out. For example, in the first paragraph you may write, “I have lived with multiple sclerosis (MS) for fifteen years.” Later in the devotional, you may refer to it as MS. In your bio, please do spell out the name of the illness. Most people only know the acronyms for their own illness, but not other illnesses.

When will my devotional be published?

When Lisa receives your devotional submission it goes into a pending folder and then about 3-5 times per month Lisa does a week or so of devotionals on the web site to post on a specific date in advance. She will email you the date when she knows it. If you submit a few at a time she will spread them out to about one per week. She also posts them in a way that a similar topic by different authors are not overlapped within a week’s time and she rotates whose appear on the weekends.

How do I know what is going on with devotional writers or get announcements?

Lisa will sign you up via her address book to receive updates for devotional writers. There are also 2 private writers groups where we post information. Lisa will let you know where these are at so you can participate in one of them and also fellowship with the other writers.

When should I send seasonal devotionals?

We are always looking for devotionals about summertime, back to school, autumn, Christmas, etc. as well as other events. When writing a devotional that is seasonal, send it to Lisa in the same way you would any devotional, but put the words “seasonal submission” into the subject line so Lisa is sure to see it quickly.

How is the clip art chosen?

Lisa uses clip art services that she pays an annual subscription to. If you occasionally have a photo of your own you’d like considered to go with your devotional (for example, you wrote about a quilt and have the actual quilt still and would like a photo of it) just attach it to your devotional submission. Do your best with lighting and to make the photo interesting. If Lisa doesn’t use it, it’s often due to poor photo quality that couldn’t improve upon.

How do I get my bio posted at the devotional writer’s page?

Send Lisa your photo and description and she will get it up ASAP!

How many people receive the devotionals?

About 4000 via email, many others via our web page, links of Facebook, Pinterest, etc. If you have a Facebook account, Twitter, Pinterest, etc. please be sure to post a link to your devotional, like it, Pin it, Tweet it. If you use social media help us spread the word.

What edits does Lisa typically make? Why did she change my title?

Lisa shares. . . I understand that it can be hard to see your writings edited or your title changed. I am a writer too. That said, I am also the “editor” and I try to maintain well-written devotionals where the meaning is clear and concise for our readers. I typically edit content very little, but I may change a word (or 2 or 3) if I think a different way of formatting a sentence makes the meaning more clear for the reader.

We also wish to reach out to the millions of people online who are searching for help through their illness journey, so we do use SEO (search engine optimization). People frequently search for “their problem” in first person online. So there may be 40,000 people searching Google for “Why is God allowing my illness?” instead of 1300 who are searching for “Understanding why God allows your illness.” A few adjustments and making sure those key words are in the devotional, title, and question at the end can make all the difference between 2000 people reading your devotional or 25.

Regarding titles, many devotional books have very simple titles such as “The Deep Valley” or “Quiet Refreshment.” These can work in a book format, but on the internet these do not capture the reader’s attention. People read the devotionals via their email or online and are used to scanning and prioritizing what they read. Therefore, the more specific the title is, and the more it intrigues the reader, the more likely people will actually see the devotional. I don’t wish for you to spend time on a devotional and have only 20 people read it when it’s sent out to over 2000 people.

Also, after over 3500 devotionals, we’ve pretty much used up all those generalized titles. We are looking for (1) specifics about your content; (2) titles that are not “Christian-ese” that a non-believer or new believer will  understand; and (3) titles that have the word illness or pain in them so people searching online for help or encouragement can find the devotionals.

When a devotional “posts” what does that mean? Where is it posted?

We have two web sites where it posts and then we also have subscribers to the devotionals on the Amazon Kindle e-reader. The 2 sites are our main web site http://restministries.com and our “devotional only site” http://chronicillnessdevotions.com . Be sure to check both web sites a few times during the week your devotional posts to see if there are any comments. If there are, feel free to respond to the people! So far, Nook not does have capabilities to describe to blogs.

Do you accept devotionals that have already been published on another site?

Rarely. We have so many people who are following their calling to find purpose in through writing a devotional and reaching out to others. We are happy to have a way that God can use them to reach more people with encouragement in Christ.

Who owns the copyright?

You do. Everything on the Rest Ministries web sites say “Copyright Rest Ministries – [date]” but this is just so the material is not reprinted without our knowledge or permission. You own all copyrights to the devotionals you allow us to post, and can use them in a book or on another site in the future. If you do choose to post the devotional on another web site (or 2 or 3) please consider rewriting about 30% of it so neither of us in penalized by Google for posting “duplicate content.”

When writing a devotional, can I quote from a song in my devotional?

The easiest answer is no. You can find a detailed explanation here on Google Answers. Since Rest Ministries does receive donations for our services and we also have devotionals for a small price on Kindle, it could be assumed we profit from our devotionals, even though they are free. There are very old hymns that are no longer under copyright law. The general rule for USA Copyright, is that it is public domain 70 years past the death of the creator. Some copyrights, however are passed down to the family of the original composer/lyricist. If you wish to mention a song, the best way is to write the title and then link to either an appropriate video of the song or a page that has the lyrics.