Before You Ask God for More, Do This

Hey there. I hope you are feeling really good about the launch of your new year. And if you're not, January was a lot. February is a good opportunity for you to simply keep going, keep going and stay committed to what you said you were going to do. That's what I'm doing, staying committed to what I said I was going to do. And one of the things I said I was going to do was to kind of take a break, take a breather, give myself some space and some grace. And that grace is continuing. So while I will be releasing a video at least once a month on my channel, I'm not promising any more than that. And for a little bit, I'm going to keep taking that break on the first Monday public live. You know, all the fun and the foolery. I leave it up for 24 hours, say something meaningful, and then take it down so that I don't have to be embarrassed about what I said when I see real people in my life. That whole thing. Yeah. We're gonna take a break for that. Why? I am having a great time diving deep with the Inner Circle, talking about abundance and overflow and setting our lives up for success. And I wanna continue doing that and clearing space for me to see clearly what God has in store for me next. In the meantime, I'll continue sharing here video on YouTube, audio podcast, um, again, at least once a month. And I'll have an interview or two with some friends along the way. I'm grateful for an opportunity to take a Sabbath year as it relates to all of the marketing efforts that normally come with the opening and the closing of the Inner Circle and events and all of that. Happy to take a break from it. And I'm also happy to continue sharing with you. So thanks for letting me do that in a new pace for the year, giving me new grace for the year. And I pray that you will give yourself the same. So without further ado, here's a podcast that I think will be super helpful to you. I pray it's a blessing to your life. So we're moving into overflow in 2026. And if you've been around, you've heard me talk about overflow and abundance. This has been a long time since I've known that that's what's supposed to be the theme in 2026. And I know that overflow and abundance is about— a part of it is about money, but really it's not about money. It's about mindset and room that you have to receive. And whether we're talking about money or whether we're talking about joy or whether we're talking about relationships, overflow abundance is God's design. He is very gratuitous in how he creates and delivers things. But we can't experience that when we are not aligned. Alignment is crucial. And so a lot of the year in 2026, I'll be talking about what overflow looks like, but more importantly, who you need to be and how you need to operate in alignment to experience that. So overflow, it doesn't just begin with adding more to your life. It begins with releasing what's quietly draining you. And making sure you're in alignment to receive. You know, as we stand on the edge of a new season, there are many of us who are already thinking about what we want next, what we want more of, what we want, how we're praying, and we hope that God is going to answer our prayer requests. But before we reach for more, we have to ask ourselves a question: do we have room to receive it? Because you can want abundance and you can want overflow, but you can still be carrying the things or the mindset or the activities that make it hard to hold the way God wants to operate in your life. You know, in Genesis, God didn't just create the world and say, "Okay, here's some dirt, go plant some seeds." He got everything going, created the animals, all the flowers, the sky, the beauty of the sky. I mean, there was such intentionality. Have you ever looked at the colors that we have? They came from things that God put in nature. So, he didn't just create, he said, "Let me make it beautiful. Let me go above and beyond," like my pleasure kind of service, right? But he started with empty. And we have to say, are we positioned to receive what God wants to give us? And that means we have to constantly be releasing. It's like the paper that comes into your house. If you don't want that paper to overtake your house, you have to constantly be putting paper in the trash or paper in the recycle bin because the paper's gonna come in. It is your job to constantly make sure it's going out. Body, physical, you are supposed to eat. You're supposed to nurture your body with good food and the nutrients that your cells need. But the stuff that you don't need should be exiting the building, if you understand what I'm saying. This is the rhythm of life. Your kids are supposed to enter your home, they're gonna stay with you for a season, and then there becomes a season, it's usually when they start looking cray cray and being frustrated that they don't have freedom, when they need to move out and be on their own. Like, everything has entrance and has exit. We don't do so well with exits. We don't do so well with release. But every season gives us that same narrative, which means if you wanna be in a cycle of overflow, in a cycle of abundance, abundance, you also have to be in a cycle of release. Now, this is what happens when we are struggling. We will say things like, you know, this just wasn't my year, you know, I missed my window, I should be further along by now. And there is a story that we are telling ourselves, and that's the first thing that I want to talk about that you can release. You can release a story you've been telling yourself because sometimes it's— there's actually nothing that's in the way of the next thing God wants to give you except you. Except you. And because you are telling yourself a story about your life, you created a narrative about your life. You've got to pay attention to your story. When you say things like, well, it's just me, I'm all alone. When you say things will never change. When you say, well, I had a different expectation of someone else or myself, or it shouldn't be this difficult. The story that you carry will shape the posture that you have when you enter the next season. It doesn't mean that you don't feel that way, but there's one thing to acknowledge your feelings, and it's another thing to accept a narrative. Not every story that you tell yourself deserves to come with you. Some stories need to be rewritten, and other stories simply need to be laid down. Isaiah 43:18 says, "Forget the former things. Do not dwell in the past." So you gotta look at the stories that you're telling yourself and say, Is it— maybe how you feel, but is this true? And if it's not true, or you can't determine that it will be true forever, you want to release the story that is limiting what God can do. So for me, it's like, well, I've got to work hard. I've got to do my part. I've got to market and grow and do all these things. And 2026 for me is a year of what happens if I don't? What happens if that's a story I've been telling myself? And if God's word is true, that if I let the land lie fallow, he will make sure that the land rises up to feed me, literally and figuratively. Like, what does that mean for me to say, uh, that maybe I have adopted a Chrystal Hurst to provide on her own mentality? Is that true? Is that how I'm behaving? Maybe it is. How will I know if I release that activity? Now let me tell you another thing that will come into this storyline, um, and that is what we do in critiquing ourselves. So many women don't enter a new year carrying failure They enter the new year carrying judgment. And you know what judgment sounds like? It sounds like self-critique. And self-critique can often sound spiritual. It can sound like, "I should be further along," or, "I wasted my time," or, "I should know better by now." But critiquing doesn't produce growth. It produces shame. And you know what shame becomes? Shame becomes handcuffs that you are wearing that God has already provided the key for. But you keep wearing them, the jail cell door is open. But if you're like, but this is who I am and this is what I haven't done and this is what will never change, you are holding yourself hostage. For me, because I am a— I think my gift is identifying cracks in the ground. I am a fissure finder. That is my gift. My perfectionism can serve me well in project management and developing programs and all of that. It does not always serve me well when I turn it inward because I'm gonna see every little thing that's wrong. But I can choose what I rehearse. I can say, "You know what? Well, man, my journal is pretty empty this year. I didn't really journal at all. Like, my kids or my grandkids are never gonna have anything to remember because I couldn't get my act together to journal on a regular basis." Or I can say, "Chrystal Hurst, you took a ton of pictures, and when time allows, you'll go back through and write the story that you remember." Or maybe you won't have time to write the story, but girl, you did your best living the year. You didn't have the bandwidth to record every little thing. Acknowledge it, but how you rehearse it will determine whether or not you are in a released state for reception. Y'all have heard me say, talk to yourself like you would talk to a friend. Brené said, talk to yourself like you would talk to someone you love. It's like a report card that never gets turned in, and then the new 6 weeks doesn't start, but you just keep holding the report card, going over and over the grade that you made. You send the report card home. The kid looks at it, the parents look at it. In the old days, the parents used to have to sign it, and then you send it back and you have a fresh new 6 weeks to tell a different story. The report card period is coming to a close. You're going to acknowledge what you did and didn't do. You're going to learn from that, and then you're going to stop holding on to the critique. You don't have to critique your year to close it. Let me release you of that. You don't have to critique the year to close it. So number one, number one, release the story that you're telling yourself. Number two, I want I want you to release the standard that you are measuring yourself by. Some of the weight that you're carrying isn't from failure or your perceived failure, it's from expectation. And there are unspoken standards. Now, are those standards you put on yourself? Are those standards that the society has given you? Are those standards that your husband or your parents, your family of origin, um, where, where do these standards come from? Where do these invisible timelines come from? There are rules that you never even agreed to, but somehow they're keeping you in a state of restriction trying to meet them. And the standards— here's the thing— the standards are not bad, but standards don't account for grief. They don't account for growth. They don't account for caregiving or years with small children when you barely can catch a nap. They don't account for change or fatigue. They don't account for places and spaces where God has asked you to be obedient that did not align with the standards or the plans that you have. So when the standard is no longer your actual season or doesn't fit your current season, what happens is that standard can become a burden instead of a guide. Matthew 11:30, my yoke is easy. There is a guide. There are instructions. There is a framework, but the burden is light. God is not standing over you with a cane or a belt or a stick or a taser trying to zap you every time you don't get it right. He's like, guiding you and leading you. He's a gentle shepherd who simply wants to make sure you're safe. He wants to make sure you are led beside quiet waters and that he wants your soul to be restored. So if your standards are crushing you, your standards may not be coming from God. Release the standards that no longer serve who you are becoming. Now, here's how this looks. We had a standard and then we're trying to resolve everything by the last day of December. And when we realize we can't do that, let me tell you what happens. Those standards overflow into January, which is why you join the neighborhood gym. This is why you say, I'm going to lose 30 pounds in 30 days. This is why you try to massively clean your house, you know, in the one weekend, a warrior weekend. This is why you make massive commitments to changes that you can never uphold, because you're taking the standard and trying to squeeze it in. Release yourself, girl. Release yourself. Don't allow yourself to feel anxious because you see the loose ends. There are going to be loose ends. Your year is rarely going to go the way you planned, and God can work with unplanned years. The season that you're entering, starting the year with unanswered questions or unfinished emotions, is okay. God meets you in motion. He is not a God of perfect beginnings or perfect endings. He is a God of progress. He is a God of sanctification. He is a God of along the way. He is a God of, "I am creating you and molding you as you yield yourself to my process of development." You are the clay, he is the potter. It's an ongoing thing. So where you see a hard end, God is like, "Listen, I'm just getting this party started. Take what you were, what you wanted to be from last year into next year, because this is a part of me growing you up." It's just one 6-week session into another. Ecclesiastes 3:11 says, he has made everything beautiful in his timing. God does everything just on time, y'all. He is a God of order. He's not a God of chaos. And it may feel chaotic to you, but here's the thing: when you look back— or as the church people say, when I look back over my life and I think things over, I can truly say that I've been blessed. I've got a testimony. Where do you think a testimony is built from? The tests. And tests don't always have nice, neat resolve. So release, it should be wrapped up. Get yourself off of that rushed timeline that many of us start the beginning of the year with and just say, we're going to just keep going. It's okay to do it that way. It's all about a first step. Y'all, I like when I go out of town, I like to make sure all my clothes are clean. And that my makeup bag is fresh and that my toiletries are great and all of my clothes are washed and put away. I like to leave my bedroom like if I get hit by a bus and have to come back here, everything is in order. Do you know how much work that is? Let me tell you one of the greatest gifts in my life someone ever gave me. They said, buy doubles of everything you can. If you have toiletries at home in your bathroom, buy duplicates of those to travel with. If you have a makeup bag at home, buy a duplicate makeup bag so that way you don't unpack every time you have to go on a trip. Get a capsule wardrobe. Which that still stresses me out. But anyway, get a capsule wardrobe so that you always know what you're going to wear. I mean, there's, there's that. There's very little to think about. As soon as you finish a trip and you take the clothes out that you need to wash, put immediately back the things that need to be replaced. Like, you know, you're going to always need 2 to 3 pairs of undergarments and intimates. You know, you're going to need— you wear compression socks, you know that you're going to need a nightie. Just have a rolling suitcase. And what I'm telling you is you are still on the journey of your life. Oh, I got chills on that one. You are still on the journey of your life. And rolling from one trip, one year, into another trip the next year. We're gonna make a few tweaks, but it's the same suitcase. You may be lifting off and taking off and landing and doing different things, going to different states, different engagements, personal and pleasure-filled, but you are still in your life. You are living out of the same suitcase. So stop trying to clean everything up when you're just gonna have to pack it again in 5 minutes. Give yourself some grace and just do a little reworking and keep going. Some things are meant to travel with you a little longer than you planned, but they don't have to rule you to be with you. Unfinished does not mean unsuccessful. Okay, number 3, you want to release the weight you were never meant to carry. Some things feel heavy because they're actually not yours. Some of that responsibility you're carrying belongs to other people. You don't have to fix everything. Let me say that again. You don't have to fix everything. There are some outcomes that only God can control, and there's a pressure that you might be experiencing for everything to work or fix or have resolved. You don't have to carry everything forward just because you carried it this far. You don't have to finish it. Let me tell you something. When somebody passes away, the greatest travesty of someone's death for me is that the day after the funeral or the Monday following, everybody goes back to work. There are some that are grieving more deeply than others. There are some that have to now, you know, send in the death certificates and have to do the work of closing out someone's life. But if you go to the bank because a loved one died, that person is on a regular work day. Their life is still going. When you die, there will be things unfinished. I've heard people say that they want to die empty. You want to die empty of the things that matter the most, but there should still be some things on your list that are undone, or else you're not living. And from year to year, it doesn't always have to come with you. Casting all your anxiety on the Lord because he cares for you. Release is not quitting. If it was never yours to hold in the first place, it's trusting. And here's the truth. What you release will create space, and your space is where overflow begins. So yes, expectations of yourself, of your spouse. Yes, you may have to release that the marriage that you thought you'd have is not the marriage that you will ever have. It doesn't mean you stop praying. It doesn't mean you start— stop communicating to your husband that you really, really want you to have a marriage made in heaven. Is he willing to go to counseling? Is he willing for y'all to read a book together? Is he willing for you to have a date? But if he says he's willing and he doesn't do it, Pray about it and keep living your life. I had a young lady come to me recently and she was talking to me about her husband and all of her disappointment, and I said, I hear you. There's nothing that he has done that I can hear you saying that would warrant you filing for divorce. However, you not being happy, that you can change. You are letting your happiness ride on his participation., and you don't have to do that. Some of y'all need to release— some of us need to release adult children. Sometimes the world is a hard teacher, but it's a good one, and they will get the lesson, but it's not supposed to come from you. Some of us are holding on to things at work that, you know, we want to show up, be a good steward, and, and represent the Lord well at work, but some of the things that we are trying to do are not ours to solve. Some of y'all are holding all things together at your church and somebody else needs to serve. You don't have to hold every little thing. And maybe it's a good thing if you take a sabbatical so they can stop depending on you and treating you like your God, that if you don't do it, it doesn't get done. Maybe if you have felt the grace lift for that season, you should release it. Is it the season for you to carry it? Some of you have outgrown old expectations. You have outgrown old identities. You are holding silent guilt for something that God has forgiven a long time ago. You are carrying too much, and you have limits. You have limits. A family member, uh, recently had to go put a pacemaker in, and she didn't go to the hospital until her heart rate was in the high 30s. And I was looking at her and I was like, at what point did you not realize, I'm not doing well? She said, when I went outside to rake the leaves and kept dropping the rake and thought I was going to be out of breath from bending down to pick it up. And I was thinking, You didn't have no other signs before that? Like, like, like, looking back, what was happening that where your body was telling you, ma'am, you're not, you're not well? And then she started telling me all these things, and she said, but I just thought this, and I just thought that. She wasn't recognizing her heart was at a limit, that it needed support, that she needed help. This is where releasing comes in, and this is why it's so important for you to understand that the Lord wants you to bring the things that you are trying to hold together, because if you don't do it, nobody else is going to do it. And he's like, I actually have some help for you, but I'm waiting for you to throw the rake down. You can't receive new things with clenched fists. God is not over— he's not holding back. From you. He's not holding overflow back from you. He has nowhere to put it. So before you reach for more, more clarity, more joy, more fruit, more abundance, more overflow, I want you to pause long enough to ask, what needs to be released in my life so I have room to receive? Feel the places where you feel full and anxious and overwhelmed and exhausted. My new word is exhauster-well-mulated. Exhauster-well-mulated. Because you want overflow, but you're not getting it. And I want you to ask yourself, what are you holding and repeating and rehearsing that is keeping you in your own way? Release creates room for God to reveal some things or restore some things as he has planned. So as we move toward a year of overflow and abundance, that's the question for you. It's not about reaching or rushing, it's about releasing. And you don't have to carry the weight of all the things in order to move into the year with cleaner hands. Release the story and the critique. Release the standard because whose standard is it anyway? And then you wanna release the weight of what you're not even supposed to be carrying anymore. It doesn't even belong to you. So one question: What would you need to release in your life if God wanted to do something new, different, unexpected? What would faith look like lived out loud in your life? I want you to identify that thing, and then I want you to identify how you release it, because God is going to meet you where you are, not where you think you should be. And not where you wanna be, but where you are. So get in right relationship with the things you're supposed to hold in your hand. And when you do, here's what I know. God loves— he is a good father who loves to give good gifts to his children. So how do you make room? You release. And my hope is that today you've gotten some things in your head that you can do that with. Tie the concept to something real in your life. Get it off your calendar. Get it out of your life. Get it out of your mouth. Get it out of your space. Get it off your time. Get it out of your life in a way that will allow you to move differently. And then step back and say, "Lord, I've taken my hands off the plow. I'm wearing the yoke you are giving me." You said your yoke is easy, it's light. Where are we going this year? And what I know, because I've experienced it over and over again, he is a gentle shepherd who will lead you beside quiet streams in the meadows green. He will restore your soul. All right, y'all, tell me in the comments what you're releasing, and I'll see you next week. I hope this episode of the podcast was helpful to you. And I want to give you a small invitation. As I mentioned, the Inner Circle for our core growth levels is closed for the year, but I kept a little window open for those of y'all who are like, oh, Chrystal Hurst, not every Monday. What do you mean? Not every Sunday night release? What do you mean? If you'd like to be in the room on Monday mornings with me and have the opportunity to watch or listen to the replay at your leisure, feel free to check out the Inner Circle Club. It's just Monday mornings, access to the live and the replay. But if a little Monday mentoring for you will go a long way, you're welcome to join us. Simply go to thesistercircle.com/innercircle. You'll see your opportunity to join me there. Have a great week and we'll see you next time. Wow! Wow!