The Mindset Shift That Unlocks Overflow

Now it's early in the year when we're recording this, and I know that with January behind us, many of us, even with all of our dreams and plans, or maybe we didn't get around to dreaming and planning, we already feel behind and we are tired. We can't even think about being enough because we're tired. We're tired emotionally. We're tired financially. We're tired relationally. And while we wanna give more to our purpose and be more for our people and show up better for all of the plans that we believe God has in store for us, it feels like we just don't have it to give. We just don't have it to give. So Chrystal Hurst, how can I operate in abundance when I don't even think that what I have is enough? Abundance doesn't begin with having enough. That's the first thing. You cannot judge your ability to experience abundance and overflow in your life by what you have in your hand. What you have in your hand is the seed. It's the beginning. It is access. It is a starting line. You don't determine whether or not you're going to win a race by what the blocks look like. You just put your feet in the blocks and you run. Abundance starts with beginning to see what you already have differently. So we don't look at the starting blocks and think the starting blocks are gonna determine whether or not I can finish running this 100-yard dash. We understand that that is what we're starting with. It is a part of the formula. It is where we put our feet, but we are the ones who move the needle and run the race. So let's talk about this. Let's talk about what it means if you don't feel like you're not enough, but how you connect that with a reasonable thought for abundance, remembering that you gotta do this at home. You gotta do this at home with me, myself, and I, with your people, because home is what you leave the house every day or start your work every day or connect with people every day. This is your starting point. Abundance, first of all, is not about accumulation. Abundance is about impact. So when we talked about home, home is a place of safety and security and warmth and connection. People, hospitality is a posture. It's not about a Pinterest board. It's not It's not about your aesthetic. It's not about everything being beautiful or your home being like the person's down the street. It's about a legacy that you create when you pour into people, not things. And so abundance is always gonna start with how you serve people. It's not about what you put in your pocket. So can abundance be money and what you put in your pocket? 100%. But if that's all you are focused on, you're gonna miss how you get there. You're not gonna run a race well if you're not paying attention to how you start. And home and people and the vision for how you connect and build community, that is a part of how you start. There is no legacy without people. There is no accumulation without people. If I don't serve people well, if I wasn't serving y'all well, you would not be here. So there is no legacy of Chrystal being a coach or Chrystal having a community or the Sister Circle lived out loud where you live. There is no legacy of that without people. There is no overflow that matters because truly in God's economy, if it doesn't bless others, ultimately it doesn't bless. So when God talks about abundance, he's not talking about excess for comfort's sake. He's talking about capacity for blessing. And that's where scarcity will creep in because you'll say, I don't have enough of what it takes for that. I don't have enough patience, or I'm not enough for my kids, or I don't know enough for this job, or I don't have enough energy, or I don't have enough money or clarity. Scarcity is not just about resources. Scarcity is about about a mindset that tells you that what you have disqualifies you from giving. So when you tell me, Chrystal Hurst, I can't do what I'm supposed to do in my life because I don't have enough time and I'm tired— I get it, perimenopause is real. Go to the doctor, do the hormones, do the natural way, whatever you need to do to take care of your body, because your body is a part of your toolbox for living out your life. But people have done more with less. Tricia Goyer had 10 children in her house at one time and was also taking care of her grandmother and still managed to churn out a book once or twice a year for years. She still does this. How does she do it? In the cracks and crevices of her life. Meredith Andrews is writing songs and creating albums while she had 3 children under the age of 7. You want to know how she does that? In the cracks and crevices. So while she's nursing babies and getting little sleep, she does what I did this morning. And as I was reading the scriptures, I heard a tune in my head, and I took out my phone and I recorded it. May never ever be a song, but in the cracks and crevices while I'm reading my Bible for 10 minutes— maybe that's how we should look at it. Maybe instead of saying, I don't have enough, can God use me? I don't have enough, I'm tired. I don't have enough, I don't have the money. I don't have enough, I don't have people who support me. Maybe that's actually the place where we experience the most beautiful parts of abundance, because we can see what God does with little. You only need 90 days to change your life. 90 days of being consistent 90 days of making small right decisions daily, 90 days of focusing on what really matters to you. When you take 90 days and focus, something shifts, something will shift in your life. Now I've got a question for you because I want to give you a place to start. If you had to choose one area of your life that you really wanted to see change in and you were willing to commit the next 90 days to focusing, what would you have to do and what would change? And then I want you to write the answer down. Why? Because when you write it down, it solidifies what you thought into actionable steps in your life. If you've got a place to write it down, great. Even if you do, or whether or not you don't, I want to give you the Full Circle Planner. It's built for 90 days, 90 days of intentionality, and you gotta be intentional because you know what? The next 90 days are going to pass whether you plan to use them purposefully or not. So take the next 90 days, get the Full Circle Planner, and live with intention. Change your life. Abundance is not about accumulating. It's not about what you see growing. It's sometimes not even always about what you can see. It's about the impact that you want to make and the availing of what you have to make that happen. Y'all know the story. It's the little boy with the fish and the loaves. So when you don't feel like you have enough, this is principle 2, you give what you have. Was what he had enough to feed the people? No, absolutely not. He probably was sitting there thinking with a heart of service and surrender, I really want to help Jesus. I really want to help these people that are hungry. I see Jesus talking to the disciples about whether or not they're going to be able to do anything. They've been listening to Jesus teach all day, and now the people are hungry. And one of the disciples said, we got a problem, Jesus. The people are hungry, so we need to send them away. And the little boy is like, I don't know. This is so not enough. But you can have what I have if it will help. The miracle of the fish and the loaves didn't start with abundance. It started with a boy willing to give what he had. Stop comparing yourself to the women who don't have kids and have all of this time on the weekend to do all these great things. Let them be great in their own right. You use the time that you have. Stop comparing yourself to the woman who's 30 that hopefully has 4 40 years ahead of her to do what she wants to do with her life at 67 years of age. If God gives you another 5 or 10 years, offer what you have. Stop telling me that you can't do what you want to do because you don't have enough money. With the money you have— is there some of you who want to take a course because you want to learn a certain thing and the course you want to take is $1,000 and you don't have that? You want to know how I learned everything that I learned before I started spending money on coaches and courses and all that kind of stuff? I was going to YouTube University. And was it sequential? No. Was Was it always profitable? No, because some people didn't know what they were talking about. Was it, um, always actionable fully? No, because there were some things I didn't know. But did it teach me what I needed to learn in order to do what I needed to do? Yes. I had fish and loaves, and God has made it work for what I'm doing today. So whenever I tell myself I don't have enough— there are positions on the team that, even though I'm not even advertising, we need. I would love to have somebody that follows me all day around to help me create content. That'd be amazing. Can I do that right now? No. So I can lament at what other people have, or I can do what I can with what I have. This boy's lunch wasn't enough for the crowd, but it was enough for Jesus. So God is not asking you to give what you don't have. He's asking you to surrender what you do. When you don't feel like you're the mom your kids need, show up with the time you have. When you start feeling unqualified at work, bring what you know today. When you don't feel spiritually strong, offer the prayer that you can pray right now. When you don't feel emotionally full or available, offer the presence. If you don't know what to say, don't say anything. Don't be perfect. Just come and sit down where you are. What feels insufficient in your hands becomes abundant in his. Enough for now is enough. This is principle 3. Priscilla and I were talking about our kids and how they don't want to work. They want to work, but they're picky about the jobs that they want to take. And we were talking about how their idea of a job is comfort and fulfillment, and it should be right. And we're like, just start somewhere. Because for many people, the earlier seasons where the job isn't the right job and the people aren't the right fit and where you are uncomfortable, that is where you learn some of the best lessons in life about working with people and about developing skills you don't have and about learning to live on less. Priscilla, um, she was talking about how— because I said, girl, please, you didn't have— you didn't never have no starter job. She said, I did. And in my mind, what I meant is starter job like 9 to 5, like that kind of job. She was always doing hustle stuff, and she was willing to do hustle stuff because even though it paid very little, she believed that this would not be her forever, that right now would not be forever. But she had to show up and do what she can right now. God often gives us enough for the season that we're in. We're trying to ask him to give us enough for the story we want to live out, and that's where we fall off the train. He's not trying to give you everything for later. He's trying to give you what you need for right now. We confuse seed with harvest. Y'all, seeds are small. Seeds feel unimpressive. Seeds don't look like abundance, but seeds are not meant to sustain you forever. They're meant to be planted. So, Principle 4: you gotta think about the practical ways that you can learn to live enough right now. You need to look for what you have in your hands. So don't name what you want to do. I mean, you can talk about that, but don't focus on that. Name what you do have right now, not what you lack. One strength, one resource, one relationship, one opportunity. Because scarcity is going to focus on what is absent in your life, and abundance is going to start with acknowledgement. What do I have in my hand? Stop waiting to feel ready, because the Bible says in Philippians 4:13, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. And that verse is not about, you know, performance. It's not about perfection. It's about endurance and sticking with it because God is doing something in me. The strength you need will be built while you do the thing that you can do right now. You're not going to get the strength you need before God is ready to put you in the place that you are looking for, that you are expecting, that you think is abundant. He's not going to put you there with you skipping the stage of right now. What are you doing with what you have? You can say, well, I don't have enough time to, you know, read as much as I'd like to read, but you sit in that carpool line for 15 minutes. Use what you have. You could say, well, I don't have enough time to actually go to school. I don't have enough money. Okay, Coursera is $79 a month. Go take some classes, expand your brain, go Go to a community college or college in the nearby town and say, can I see the syllabus for this class and read the books the kids are paying to read? Be the educated person if you don't have the educated money. Give your all with what you have, not someone else's energy or someone else's more. Stop comparing your season to someone else's capacity because God is going to multiply your obedience in the season that you're in. So Let me review, because I'm giving you assignments here. Name what you do have: a strength, a resource, a relationship, an opportunity. Okay, don't wait to feel ready. Know that God is going to build what he wants to build in you as you move. Give your all, your all, not someone else's all. And then you always want to do one thing, one thing. So if you're like, well, listen, Lord, I just want to have a house where I can entertain, because you know I like to entertain, and I want to have our people over, and right now our house isn't big enough. For me to host the family gatherings. So you don't host anything? Cook one meal and invite one friend. Okay, Lord, you know, I really feel like called to share with the people, and my church never lets me speak, or I don't have enough time to study. Uh, I wish I could go to seminary, or I wish I could go to Toastmasters, but I can't because I got a 3-year-old and a 1-year-old and a 6-week-old. Okay, call somebody and have one conversation, one check-in. Okay, Lord, you know what, I one day I want to have an events company, you know, that's my dream. I love doing events, but I have no money to buy the stuff. I have, you know, nobody really calling me. You know, I don't even have money or the connections to create a card and share my— okay, great. So then invite the people you do know over to your house and maximize your opportunity to be a host, a moment of presence. Lord, I want to be the person that just has $100, like Brooke Wilkerson talks about, as he talks about the prayer of Jabez and mindset of abundance. He walks around with $100 in his pocket and is constantly asking the Lord, who can I give this to? Well, Lord, you know, I would love to do that, but right now I just ain't got it. Okay, great. Get one less coffee a month and take that $5 or $10 and have that in your pocket. Because the legacy that you're going to build in your life and the abundance that you're leading up to is going to be a part of the small, faithful deposits that you make regularly, not grand gestures. You always want to be looking ahead, okay? You want to, you want to have the mindset. Everybody wants to know, how can I create abundance in my life? You know, how can I make money? How can I build my business? How can I, you know, have, have exceedingly abundantly above all that I can ask or think in my life. But you have to understand that before we can get to the methods of abundance lived out loud in your life, we got to tackle mindset. Home is like soil. What you do with what you have is seed. Spring is about nurturing and protecting and harvesting. You know, I want to talk about soon what it means to trust God in the dark when you can't see the outcome, but still when you're called to plant. What you do with what you have, especially when it doesn't feel like it's enough. God has never needed you. First of all, he's never needed you. He doesn't need your more. He doesn't need your stress. He doesn't need your striving. He doesn't need you to be immaculate. He doesn't need you to be perfect. He just needs you to be available and to offer what you have. 2 Kings chapter 4, a woman who was married to a priest— some scholars think that that priest was Obadiah. 2 Kings chapter 4, she's calling on the prophet Elijah and she's like, listen, if you don't help me, they're going to come take my kids and put them to work to pay my debt. I am in debt up to my eyeballs, and if you don't give me a way out of this, I don't know what I'm gonna do. She said, I don't have enough. God said, go find somebody else's need, because remember, abundance does not come apart from someone else's need. Delivering to people— at the end of the day, it's all about people. So she goes and collects empty jars, and her emptiness— though the emptiness in those jars was her eligibility for a miracle. So she goes and she gets these empty jars, and then with her little bitty jar She's gonna pour out oil into these larger jars. And it was her using what she had, crying out and saying to somebody, listen, somebody, I need help. And he said, use what you have and go look for other people's needs. You want to see abundance in your life? I do too. What are you doing with what you have? Stop connecting abundance to accumulation and to you being enough. Enough, or having it all figured out, or having enough connections, or enough seed money, um, or enough education. Those things matter, but stop connecting what God can do to you bringing your part to the table. He knows you're going to come with some empty hands. Do your part and then expect that he can fill in the gaps. And remember, when you don't feel like you have enough, use what you have. Do what you can with what you have. It's a whole chapter in She's Still There. Realize that you bringing what you have, that enough for now is still enough. Be willing to hustle with what you got. Seed deposits matter. Apply that. What's one strength, one resource, one relationship, one opportunity you can use? Stop waiting to feel ready and know that ready only matters when it's Jesus being ready to move in your life. Give your all, not someone else's. Okay, look ahead because God can do exceedingly above and beyond anything that you can ask or think according to the power that works within us. If you are asking the Lord, asking the Holy Spirit, what do you want to do with me? You know, a lot of New Age people will talk about things that they're really saying spiritual things, they just are not realizing that they're saying spiritual things. She would say, you look at where the river is going and you just get in it. Your job is not to be able to float. Your job is not to be able to, to create the paddle boat or the canoe. Your job is not to even be able to survive a waterfall. Your job is where is God moving? And just get in like the lazy river. Just get in, bring what you have, and enjoy the ride. So my question for you today is, what is one thing that you could do to cooperate with enough right now? If you don't feel like you're enough and you've been telling yourself the story, "I'm missing something," maybe you're not. Maybe you just need to celebrate what you have and then celebrate what God can do with very little. What's the one thing that you have that you could use? What's the one thing that even if you have not felt like it was enough, maybe if you yield it, pay attention to it, offer it up, maybe it's plenty. And what I hope is that you realize that when you keep offering up and you keep looking for how you can serve people and serve God's purposes, that God will keep showing you how he is actually more than enough for you and the life, the abundant life that he has planned. All right, y'all, I hope that's helpful. I hope it gets your mind thinking about what you can use, and I will see you next time.