Inspiration for a story can come from several places. Often times, it's easiest to write from our own personal experiences, changing the names to protect the innocent, but there are many other areas to draw from. As a Christian writer, I have two main points I look for in coming up with story ideas.
#1 Where I Need Personal Growth
Don't worry, it's not a management book. None of us are perfect. In my own life, I need to periodically sit down and think about areas where I struggle and want to improve. Often times, this comes from a sermon my pastor taught. Such a thing happened in November 2017 (yes, it has stuck with me since then).
The pastor had a dry-erase board on stage with various negative things written down that had happened to someone over the course of her life. He then held up an eraser and started systematically removing different events that he thought would improve her life, such as the death of a friend, a divorce, or moving in the seventh grade.
When most of the board had become blank, my pastor said, "Now, which event was the one that caused this woman to seek God and accept Him?".
Nobody knows what event happens in someone's life that pushes them toward God, and often times things happen in ways that are beyond how we see and interpret them. I realized I needed to change my own perspective about others. Thus, the main concept of my novel Legacy was born.
#2 What the Bible Says
After evaluating what I want to change in myself, I go to the Bible and see what it says about my particular topic. In the case above, I looked for stories that addressed how we could have the wrong perspective about someone else and how to see him or her differently.
One story that really stuck out, and subsequently made it into my novel as a point of illustration, was from John 9:1-3. In that story, the disciples came across a man born blind and they asked Jesus who had sinned to cause that to happen. Jesus explained to them that this thing had happened to the man so that the works of God might be displayed in his life. The point: what happens in someone's life that we might judge them for could very well be the thing God is using to draw them to Him.