Which comes first? The lyrics or the melody? This "chicken or egg" query is the most frequently asked question regarding songwriting. The answer to that: whichever the Lord reveals to you first. There are times that you strum a certain chord pattern and a melody comes out. There are also instances that we are inspired to write down and express a realization or an emotion.
In my experience, the advantage if the melody comes first is that the song is most likely to have a very catchy chorus and a complementing stanza melody. The challenge is to write down an inspiration that will capture the feel of the music.
When you write the lyrics first, a great advantage is that the song can have a very unique outcome of its melody since it's based on the words and the emotions behind the poetry. It is less likely to be structured and the song is not "boxed in." The big challenge is to shorten some of your written verses to fit in the desired number of syllables to match the song timing. You may have to change many of your original lyrics.
The best thing to do is to allow the Lord to lead you whether what you are holding now is a pen or a guitar. It's His song anyway.
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