Quoting Scripture in a novel

Happy Easter!

Chiming in on a related topic, not about quoting scripture, but about having characters pray in fiction.

An author friend believes she should not have her characters pray in dialogue or thought in her stories, so God would not "hear" these prayers and think them real.

she will only write "Bob prayed" or something like that. Have you ever heard of this? Seems to me He would know which prayer is from real people.

callalily61 said:

That's a new one on me, Inspie. My MC prays once or twice in each book, generally for courage as she's about to go after the armed bad guy. My opinionated opinion agrees with you: God knows the difference between NF and fic.

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Thanks.

Honestly, my first reaction was to scoff that her God is too small! But then I wondered what scripture might have to say:

Romans 8:26-27
"And in the same way, the spirit also helps our weakness. For we do not know how to pray as we should but the spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings to deep for words. And he who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the spirit is because he intercedes for the saints according to the will of God."

If the holy spirit intercedes for us with God, praying for us when we don't know what or how to pray, then surely he knows the difference between a real prayer and one simply read aloud.

callalily61 said:

Roger, you are the Yoda of this forum. (<--not being snarky)

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What she said!!! Thanks.

callalily61 said:

Roger, you are the Yoda of this forum. (<--not being snarky)

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"You must unlearn what you have learned." -- Yoda

Better ears, though.