#211: 7 Tips to Overcome the Overwhelm as a Christian Writer (Breakthrough Series)

Welcome to Kingdom Writers, where we help equip and empower Christian writers of all genres to share your unique gifts with the world. We're your hosts, C.J. and Shelley Hitz.

This podcast is filled with spiritual encouragement as well as prayers to help you overcome the resistance you face as a writer. Your story matters foreign.

Hey, Kingdom writers, this is Shelly Hitz. Welcome to the Breakthrough series. So this is going to be a series of 12 episodes that we're going to dive in deep to the obstacles that you face as a Christian writer. We covered all of these topics in our online prayer meeting episode, and now we're going to dive deep into some practical things and some scriptures that that can really help you. So I hope you enjoy this series. We did record it live on Facebook, and so you may hear us say, you know, comment here or we're gonna have some Q and A at the end. But just know that you can always join us live over on our Facebook page, Christian Book Academy. And we also wanted to provide this on our podcast so that you can listen to these as many times as you want to help you receive Breakthrough. As a Kingdom Writer, have you ever felt overwhelmed at all it takes to write and publish a book? If so, this episode is for you. My name is Shelly Hitz, and I'm here with my husband cj.

Another week, you guys. Thanks for hanging with us all these through the Breakthrough series.

Yes, this is our final episode of the Breakthrough series. Can you believe it? Oh, my goodness. This is including the prayer meeting. It's the 13th episode. So we have just conquered so many of the common obstacles, and today we're going to share seven tips for overcoming the overwhelm. Can I get an amen? I think all of us can say that we've experienced this, that we felt this. And what makes this series different is that we. We're giving you practical training and tips, but we're also coming at it from a spiritual standpoint with scriptures and prayers. And so we're just so excited that you're joining us today. And CJ's going to, first of all, start with some encouragement for you from scriptures, and then we're going to get into seven practical tips.

Yeah. So we're going to start off with a scripture that comes from Psalm 142, and it's verse 2 and 3A. So which means just the first part of verse 3. But it says this is the NLT translation. And it says, I pour out my complaints before him and tell him all my troubles when I am overwhelmed. You alone Know the way I should turn. And I also love the the Passion translation. We've been reading that throughout this series, and it just offers sort of a fresh perspective. Listen to this. In the Passion translation, I spill out my heart to you and tell you all my troubles for when I was desperate, overwhelmed, and about to give up. How many of you have ever felt like giving up? You were the only one there to help. You gave me a way of escape from. From the hidden traps of my enemies. I just love that. And, you know, I did a little research regarding that word for overwhelm, and I found that it was a Hebrew word called ataph. A T, a P, H, ataph. And that word literally means this. To shroud, example, clothe, whether transitive or reflexive, hence from the idea of darkness. So, like, shrouded in darkness, to languish, cover, over, fall, faint, feebler. You know, when you're feeble, to hide oneself, to be overwhelmed, to swoon. And again, it's just a more in depth look at that word for overwhelm. And what the psalmist means when they say they felt overwhelmed. And, you know, as I was doing this research, I found that this word was also found in Jonah. Now listen to this. Jonah 2, 7. It says, as my life was slipping away, this is Jonah. Now, as my life was slipping away, I remembered the Lord and my earnest prayer went out to you in your holy temple. And you know, that word again, for slipping away is that same word used, ataph. And in the esv, it means. It says fainting away. In the niv, it says ebbing away. And some of us have felt at times where your life is just sort of ebbing away. You just feel so overwhelmed and things are just slipping out of your grip and. And yet, how many of you would agree that Jonah was overwhelmed inside the belly of a whale?

Yeah.

In fact, you might even say that Jonah was overwhelmed.

For those of you that can't see it, CJ wrote out a sign.

There you go. There's our Instagram whale.

And there's.

All right, so that's the correct spelling of overwhelmed for Jonah. So, you know, whenever you find yourself overwhelmed, hey, just think of Jonah and just be glad that you're not overwhelmed. You know, you're only overwhelmed. No, in a serious note, all of us get overwhelmed. And that's not to minimize our own overwhelm. It's just to show that, man, sometimes we feel like we've been swallowed up by a big whale and we're just in there. And, you know, it's there's just, you know, nothing happening. And eventually Jonah was spit out up on the beach, and the Lord eventually used him. He obeyed and went and shared the message, not without some complaint, by the way, if you go back and read the story. But again, that word ataph. Overwhelmed. And so I'm going to turn it over to Shelley to share some of these seven tips that we can use to overcome overwhelm.

Yeah. So if you've ever felt overwhelmed with the prospect of writing and publishing a book, just let us know. And I think, you know, there's moments even for those of us like CJ and I have published over 50 books between the two of us. And when we were working on his most recent book, which, hey, you got your proof this week, CJ got the proof of his book.

So fun, right?

A Heart for Prayer. Very thankful for this.

We were working on that. There was just moments that I still was feeling a little overwhelmed. And I've done this dozens and dozens of times. And so, you know, we're gonna share with you seven practical tips. And the first tip is take a mini break.

Just take a mini break. Whatever you can do, maybe. I'm gonna give you a list of things that you could maybe do. But if you can do nothing else, take three deep breaths. So three seconds breathing in, three seconds breathing out. And it's scientifically proven to help calm you down, taking those three deep breaths. If you can't do anything else, take that. You know, do that. But taking a mini break. Here are some other ideas. And for those of you here that can comment, go ahead and share your ideas, too, of what you do when you need a little break, and you just need a moment so you can listen to some calming music, go for a walk. C.J. and I often say, getting our vitamin D and our oxygen, when we go outside for a walk, sit in silence. So just some time of meditation. And it's been also proven Carolyn Leaf, she's done a lot of research on this, but she was talking recently, like, when you just take some time in silence. 17 minutes, I think was what she was saying. But let's say 20 minutes. That's what a lot of people will recommend. It can really, really help you. And I know that 20 minutes, it seems like a waste of time because you're sitting in silence, but it really helps to calm you down. And it's something that I've been doing more frequently as well. Hey, guess what? You could take a cat nap. You could take a nap. And I did this the other day. Like, I actually don't know if I slept really deeply, but I just laid down and I just took a nap. I just let myself take a little bit of a nap, and I felt so refreshed when I woke up. Now, if you take too long of a nap, that could get into more. Right. You could read a book for fun. For fun. Have a cup of coffee, have some tea on the porch or deck. I have my tea with me right now. I actually have some throat coat tea today because my throat was hurting a little bit. But I'm like, in the name of Jesus, I'm not getting sick.

I have too much to do. Right. The first draft challenge is coming up soon for Christian Book Academy. It's so exciting. But you could play an instrument that really calms my mom. She'll sit at the piano. She has a mini grand piano, and she'll do that. You can pray or journal your prayer exercise. Have some time in nature. I know for some people, gardening or just being outside in nature is just so calming for you. So something that fills you up. Take a mini break. A lot of times when we're overwhelmed, we feel like we don't have time to take a break, but that's actually when we need the break the most. Right. So that's number one. And, cj, you want to tell us what number two is?

Yeah. So the second thing you can do is do a brain dump.

Yeah. So I've talked about this a lot. A brain dump, where basically you're taking all of your thoughts, you know, when you're in overwhelm. I don't know about you, but I've been there recently, and I just have these, like, swirling thoughts, and it's just, like, all going in my head. And sometimes you just can't make any sense of them because they just keep going and going and going. Whereas if I will just sit down, and a lot of times I will just take a simple piece of copy paper. I won't even take my journal. I'll just take a simple piece of copy paper, my pen, and I will just sit down and I'll start writing out everything that's coming up. Everything that I need to do, I'll get it out of my brain onto paper, and then I can start to make sense of the things. And then it's like everything gets out of my brain. And for some reason, it's like my brain can finally quiet down.

Clearing space.

Yeah, because you feel like, oh, I can't forget this and I need to remember this. And whereas when you write it all down. It's like, okay, it's all here. I'm not gonna forget it. I know, I know. These are the things I need to do. But then you can, like, clear that space, and then your brain can quiet. So then you can look at your list. And number three is to prioritize those things. And so what is most important for you to finish first? So, like, when you're writing a book, you know, you might be already starting to think about your book cover and the formatting or the editing or, you know, uploading and distribution or all of these things. And guess what? You don't even need to worry about that until you have your first draft. Until then, you do self editing. Until then, you have professional editing. Like, there are so many steps before that. Guess what? Don't even worry about that right now. Let's just say first things first, you will get there and you will be able to do those things. And in Christian Book Academy, we walk you step by step by step through the process. We give you exactly the recommendations of who to hire or how to do it. And so just take a deep breath and say, what is it that I just need to do today? And maybe that's just writing, you know, getting into that consistent writing routine so you can finish that first draft.

So number one is take a mini break. Number two is to do a brain dump. Number three is to prioritize your list. And then number four is focus on only today. So I read a book, and they talked about the Navy seals and. And they talked about some different strategies that they were helping the Navy SEALs to get more focused and be able to really finish their intense training. And one thing that they began to train them to do is to only focus on what they were doing right then in the moment and not think about everything that was coming before they had to finish. I don't know if this was a boot camp or something like that. And this is a big one for me. I think really big, and I think really far out. And so I will start planning things. Like, I'm already starting to think about things for Christian Book Academy for next year. Like, I don't. You know, it's like sometimes it's, you know, you can write down those ideas, and sometimes that's good. But when you start to think so far out, all of a sudden you're like, well, then I have to do this, and then to this and this and this. And all of a sudden it starts to pile up and. But guess What? I have 12 months to get that done. But when you start thinking of everything in the moment, it gets your heart racing a little bit and like, oh, my goodness, how am I going to do this? How am I going to do this? This just isn't going to work. And so think about, what is it that you need to do today? Focus only on today. We put unnecessary pressure and expectations on ourselves to do all the things. That is a big one. You know, I have been there too. It's like, I want to do all the things. And yet we are finite human beings. We cannot do everything. And so what is the focus that God has for you in this season? There's seasons. There's seasons of work, seasons of rest, seasons of play, seasons of healing. There's different seasons, seasons. And so what do you need to do today? Something that I like to do is just take the things that I need to do today and put it on a separate piece of paper or on a sticky note and then put my master list away where I can't see it that way. It doesn't like, stand there, like, staring at me like, you have all these things you need to do. It's like, no, this is exactly what I have to do today. And that's it, you know? And it really helps take away some of that overwhelm.

And if I might just interject, you know, Jesus even told us, don't worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow has enough trouble of its own, right? And I think that that doesn't tell us that we can't plan, right? Can't continue to brain dump and put that stuff that hits your. Your mind paper. But what he said is, don't worry about it. In other words, don't let it be life sucking to the point where you're thinking ahead and letting all of what's ahead steal from what he wants to do today. And so it's just a matter of perspective. Get all that stuff out, write it out, Plan, do the brain dump. Of course, Proverbs tells us to plan. Planning is good, but not to worry. Because worry is life sucking. It just steals the life from us because we're tossing and turning, losing sleep over thinking about that thing that might be six months from now, right? And it doesn't affect today.

It definitely takes your energy. I don't know. For me, it really can take me down quick. And so, yeah, it's such a difficult thing in our culture to do that, but it's such an important thing. Yes, plan. But then stay focused on what is it that God has for me today. The Fifth thing is to eliminate or delegate. And this can be the painful part is to eliminate. Like typically.

When we're overwhelmed, there's a good chance that we're over committed. CJ just said something to me the other day. He's like, you always tend to over commit yourself.

You think, you know, and I think I can do more than I can do. Is that the truth?

She can do a lot, but don't we all sometimes spread ourselves a little thin?

Yeah, it's like, and a lot of times we're not accounting. At least I'm talking for myself. I'm not accounting for everything that it's going to take. And so I think, oh yeah, I can do this and this and this and this and that will be. But then it always takes longer. Right. So it's always best to leave some margin. And God's continuing to refine me, continuing to teach me grace over grind. Like my, my friend Shay Bines has a book on that. But it's a process. And so if we're overwhelmed, we tend to be over committed in some way or we're trying to do more than what we can actually do or what is even actually needed. I was thinking about this right now for the launch of Christian Book Academy. We're in a really fun season, but it's also intense of the launch. And we have writing week going on. This week, I have webinar. Next week we have promotional emails going out and the first draft challenge. I'm creating all of that. And there's all this stuff that I would love to do. I would love to be able to promote on Pinterest. I would love to really do more with my affiliates this launch. I would love to do more Facebook ads for my webinar. But you know what? The Lord was even speaking to me this morning. He's like, Shelly, you don't need to do all those things. Let me take care of it. Trust me with the outcome. God is the God of the outcome. Just because we can do it, just because it might be beneficial, doesn't mean we should do it right. Doesn't mean that is what we're to do. And if it spreads me too thin, that's not going to do anyone any good because I need to have my energy to be able to give out to those that I'm serving. And so same thing when you're writing a book is if you're trying to do all of the things or trying to do it too fast or whatever, it can really spread you too thin. And so what Is it you can eliminate? Like I did this morning? There was a few things. I'm just like, I'm not even gonna try to do those for this launch. Maybe next time. But I just don't even. I don't have the bandwidth. I don't have the team that can. Can really execute that this time. That's okay. You know what? Let it go. What is it that you can delegate? So lately I've really been trying to get good. I have a team. I have a virtual assistant. I have a graphic designer. I have an operations manager. And so I'm like, okay, what is it that I can have them do? Or I'll ask cj. You know, CJ is so good. Like, he'll go and get groceries. Like yesterday he went to the post office for me. Like, you know, he'll do things and, you know, really help take some things off my plate. And so what is it that you can eliminate? I know it's painful. I know. And it's hard because we want to do it and we know it would have value. But is it worth it in the end if it's going to spread you too thin? And then what can you delegate either to your family or to someone that you pay or you barter and, you know, really, really get fierce about this because you want to be doing God's best. You want to be doing what he's called you to do. And ask him, pray, journal it out. Ask him, God, of all these things, you know, after you did your brain dump of all these things, what is it that you really want for me in this season and for right now? All right, so let's recap. Number one was take a mini break. Number two is do a brain dump. Number three is prioritize that list. Number four, focus only on today. Not to worry about the future, but plan for the future. Number five is eliminate or delegate. And then what's number six?

Cj, think in terms of layering. Think in terms of layering.

So have you ever had one of those, like, seven layer cookies? That's one of CJ's favorites.

Oh, yeah.

Busted, right? Or seven layer. Seven layer dip. I love that. The Mexican. We love Mexican food. You think about all the layers. Like, there's multiple layers that go into to making that. And I want you to think of your writing and publishing as layers or whatever you're doing. You know, if you're growing a business or if you know, whatever you're doing, think of it in layers. Like one layer at a time. So when we Think about publishing a book. A lot of times we just think about everything and then it gets so overwhelming and it's like, okay, let's just, let's, let's think of the first layer. First things first. Let's get the first draft done. That's why we're starting with the first draft challenge in Christian Book Academy in a couple weeks. First things first. That's your first layer. Then what's the next layer? The next layer is self editing. Then what's the next layer? You know, and then like one layer at a time.

Coconut, chocolate chips, butterscotch. Oh, that's. You're making me hungry just thinking about this stuff.

I know we might have to go get some tonight. Trying to eat less sugar, but still, you know, we gotta have our treats occasionally, right?

Yeah. Best says, now I'm hungry. That is so good. Yeah. And so what I want you to think about is think about when you're doing a puzzle. What do you tend to start with when you work a puzzle? C.J.

Well, you.

Do you start with the edges or do you start with the middle?

Usually the edges.

Yeah. So, yeah, typically when you're working a puzzle, you'll start with the edges first. So that's prioritizing. You know, you've chosen your priority, but you, you're, you're realizing this is of kind going to happen in layers. It's not going to be like, I'm not going to just put this puzzle together and I'm not going to just start from anywhere. I'm going to start from the edges. So where do you need to start today? You know, like I said, without a first draft, you don't have anything. So that's where we have to start when we're publishing a book, is get those layers, get the first draft going, and then you start to add the other pieces and the picture starts to become, you know, clear. But, you know, if you're trying to think about everything all at once, that's where, you know, you can start to just, you know, try to put puzzle pieces here and there and get frustrated because you can't find one that fits. And it's just like, ah, you know, sometimes we just get frustrated because things aren't going our way. You just take that break, take that little mini break and, like, come back. What is the priority? And what is, what is the layer that I'm on today? We will get there. We will get to all seven layers of that cookie. C.J.

Ye.

But one step at a time. Amen. And then number seven Like CJ said earlier, capture your ideas for later. So for all the ideas that are not for now, capture them somewhere. You have a notebook, you have a document somewhere that you can then reevaluate later. And I love this illustration. I remember it was someone from our academy on one of our virtual writing retreats shared this. And we have a virtual writing retreat coming up for everyone that's going to join us or is in part of the Christian Book Academy. So excited. Coming up, September 6 and 7. So mark your calendars. But this was the illustration. It's kind of like parking your car in a garage. You're not discarding it. Parking your ideas. So parking your ideas for later is kind of like parking a car in a parking garage. You're not discarding it. You're not saying, I'm never going to do this. You're not being irresponsible with that idea that God has given you. You're simply saying, I'm going to park this idea in the parking garage. It's safe here, and I will get back to it later. This tells your brain, I have my ideas stored away. They're safe. It's okay. I will get back to that task later. But right now, this other thing is my focus. Can you see how that can actually just. Okay, that idea is safe. It's parked there. I will get back to it. And so, cj, just go ahead and do a recap of those seven ways.

Okay? So number one is take a mini break. Number two is do a brain dump. Three, prioritize your list. Four, focus only on today. Five, eliminate or delegate. Six, think in terms of layering, not necessarily the cookie.

And number seven, capture your ideas for later. Just capture and park them in that garage.

Amen. So CJ is going to share some more encouragement, starting with the story of Mary and Martha. We're all familiar with that story, right? I have related to Martha for much of my life.

So It's Luke, chapter 10, 38, 41, for anybody that wants to look at that with me. But I'm just going to read those verses. And it says, as Jesus and the disciples continued on their way to Jerusalem, they came to a certain village where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. Her sister Mary sat at the Lord's feet, listening to what he taught. But Martha was distracted by the big dinner she was preparing. She came to Jesus and said, lord, doesn't it seem unfair to you that my sister just sits here while I do all the work?

Tell her to come and help me for crying out loud. I added that one.

Yeah.

But the Lord said to her, my dear Martha, you are worried and upset over all these details. There is only one thing worth being concerned about. Mary has discovered it, and it will not be taken away from her. And, you know, I just want to point out a couple things in that story that kind of stood out to me, you know, when I was reading. And, you know, first of all, Martha was overwhelmed in the kitchen while Mary was overwhelmed by the teaching of Jesus. And I think sometimes we can easily fall into that ourselves. We get overwhelmed by a whole lot of things that in the end.

Maybe are not the most important things. And yet we can never go wrong when we're being overwhelmed by the teachings of Jesus by sitting at his feet. You know, Jesus said, there is only one thing I want you to think about, that there is only one thing worth being concerned about.

Mary has discovered it, and it will not be taken away from her. And I love that. And that's not to discount anything that Martha was doing in the kitchen. She was doing good things. She was preparing the meal. I mean, for crying out loud, I love to eat. I'm sure you do as well. And yeah, I'm gonna thank Martha. But in this instance, I think what we see is Jesus taking a teaching moment. And I know he had a very cal voice with Martha. He wasn't yelling at her. He was probably even chuckling. You know, Martha, you know, settle down. Come and have a seat with us. And so Martha was doing something productive while missing out on precious time with Jesus. And I wonder if Jesus was even thinking about that. You're not going to have much more time with me, Martha. And you don't even realize how soon that time will come. Come of when I'm going to be taken away here. But I almost just can sense Jesus saying, just come and enjoy that time with us, Martha. The stuff in the kitchen can wait. Just come and spend time with me these precious last days that I have.

And I think we can find ourselves distracted and occupied with a whole lot of busy work at times.

While missing the nuggets from the heart of Jesus. And I think that's so important for us as writers to sit at the feet of Jesus. Sit at the feet of Jesus. We can get overwhelmed by all kinds of the process in book writing, in publishing, in doing all these things that are good things. They still have to get done. But may we not do it at the expense of sitting at the feet of Jesus, of lingering on every word that he's saying, knowing that Those very words are life to the very people we're writing our books for. And so consider that. And I just want to give a quick example, too. I have a good friend named Philip Telfer. And Philip Telfer runs a ministry called Media Talk 101. I've been a speaker for Media Talk. Years ago, I was really busy with speaking on behalf of Media Talk 101. And, you know, Philip and I were talking one day on the phone, and I was talking to him about getting speaking engagements and sending out emails and snail mail, you know, mailings out to schools and churches all over the country, and just talking about, you know, I'm going to get some speaking engagements. And things were coming in. But I'll never forget what Philip told me. This was some of the best advice and wisdom that I've ever been given. He said, C.J. one of the things that the Lord is teaching me is he says, I am learning. And I'm trying to practice the discipline of praying twice as long as the time that I spend in marketing by my emails, by sending out snail mails, by making phone calls to administrators and pastors and such. I'll never forget that. It just hit me like a brick, spending twice as long each day praying and sitting at the feet of Jesus than doing all the necessary busy work that comes with that. I think what Philip was essentially telling me was we can never go wrong. The Lord's going to open doors supernaturally, even as we call upon his name when we pray, things that may never even open, even in all of our busy work and hammering away at those details in the kitchen, so to speak.

Yeah. And, you know, it's amazing because when I spend time with God, and I will admit it was about two years ago, like the change started happening in me, but before that, you know, I would tend to get up and just get right to work, and I would give God the leftovers. And so what I've been doing now is, you know, devoting the first part of my day to the Lord and really having some deeper time of prayer and listening, also having business meetings with God where I'm asking him for wisdom and direction. But what I'm noticing is that he then gives me the ideas and the strategies for what to do. But also that when I am working, it flows more. You know, it's just like when you're writing after spending that time with the Lord, it's like he can just make you more productive. And it can even flow more and better than me trying to just force it myself or Working all these hours. And you know, I have had a really busy couple months with this transition with our academy, all the things that we've been doing. If I, you know, just told you a little bit of all the things that have happened, it would be like, wow, that's a lot. But I also realized that in these last two months, I have taken three vacations which equaled out to 14 days. And I was completely unplugged from email and social media during those two weeks. That is nothing that the old Shelly would have done.

So even in the midst of a really fruitful, productive, busy season, like I was able to take time away. And God's, God's doing it. He's taking care of everything. And to God be the glory, like, you know, when we follow his lead and when we take care of ourselves. Because the other thing is God keeps reminding me I can't give from an empty cup. So if I'm stretching myself too thin, if I am overwhelmed and over committed, then I'm not going to be doing the things that I'm doing well. And so there's so much power in really just connecting with God and receiving from him.

Yeah, getting those God ideas as we.

Linger versus good ideas.

Yeah, there's going to be lots of good ideas. But man, I think it takes a little deeper listening to get those God ideas where you just know, wow, that was a nugget from the heart of Jesus that came to me. You know, there's a great quote that it's unknown, I'm not sure who this is attributed to, but it says, direction is so much more important than speed. Many are going nowhere fast.

True.

And I think that's a great quote. And I felt like the Lord put something on my heart just a few days ago. And what he told me was, don't sacrifice prayer the altar of busyness, instead sacrifice busyness on the altar of prayer. And I think that is where the bread and butter is for all of us writers is we can write a whole bunch of words. But if we want to write the God words, the things that really go straight to the hearts and minds of people who need to hear those, that is when we need to linger. Mary was at the feet of Jesus and allow the busy work to be put off. Even if it, you know, it's not going to be the end of the world, but will never regret lingering at the feet of Jesus.

Amen. Yeah, it's such a powerful thing. And you know, CJ and I have really just, it's been a process, you Know, we've both been Christians for most of our lives, you know, for a long time, and yet it's taken process for us to get here. But we really have seen the power of prayer and we are praying for you. We're praying for the right people at the right time to find us that need, what we have to offer to the, you know, the right person at the right time to, to listen to the podcast. And we're getting testimony after testimony of people that, oh, I just happened to find your podcast and it's exactly what I need. Or, you know, it's just like, it's amazing. And so, you know, even before these broadcasts, we spend sometimes you know, up to 20 to 30 minutes just in prayer and worship and preparing and asking the Lord to just. We've, we've prepared our outlines, we have them here. But you know, for the Lord to also speak through us and to give us what he wants. But the truth for today, John 8:32 says, then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. Free. The truth for today comes from Matthew 11:28. This is the new living translation. It says, then Jesus said, come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. So if you're feeling overwhelmed, if you're feeling like you're just over committed, that you don't have time to write, how are you going to ever do any of this? Jesus is saying this to you today. Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.

Yeah, good word. So we're going to close in prayer and you know, if you're feeling completely overwhelmed at this moment, I just want to ask that you would, you would just lift up the heart's cry that you have to the Lord. And as I'm praying, you know, you just lift up your burdens, lay them at his feet, just like he says, bring him to me. You know, Jesus wants to make your load light. Jesus has really done the heavy work for us. He's done the heavy work in the big picture and he wants to even lighten your load today and allow you to focus on the very things that he wants to drop into your heart and your mind. So, yeah, Lord, I just thank you so much for each and every person that has been on here live, but also is going to listen to the replay and the podcast. We just thank you so much, Lord, for this technology that we can actually use to share messages like this and be able to encourage and Inspire. And Lord, I pray specifically for the person that is feeling completely overwhelmed. Maybe they came into this episode just really struggling in this particular area, just spreading themselves thin, just feeling like they have nothing else to give. They don't even have any room to breathe. Lord, I want to pray that right now you would lift that burden in Jesus name, that you would allow them to feel your presence, that they would even feel a load sort of being lifted emotionally, mentally, spiritually, whatever it is that is causing them to be heavy laden. And Lord, I even just pray that at the name of Jesus, that their overwhelm would be calmed, that those waves.

And those winds would be calm. Just like the story of when Jesus was out on the Sea of Galilee with his disciples when the storm rose up. Lord, would you calm the storm right now? And we call upon the name of Jesus right now to say, peace, be still. And Lord, would you just allow each of us to.

Bask at your feet today, accomplish what you have for us today and not allow worry to rob us any longer and the things that are ahead. But I just pray that you would just do a powerful work in each one of us regarding this whole thing of overwhelm. Bring breakthrough, Lord, and we just thank you for all of this series, the 12 different things that we. The obstacles that we.

Faced and talked about. And Lord, I pray that you would just allow this to be an ongoing process of daily breakthrough in each and every one of these obstacles that all of us Christian writers face. And Lord, we will give you the glory and the honor for the victory that you, you alone can bring about in our lives. And we'll ask this in Jesus mighty name. Amen.

Amen. As CJ Was praying, I got a picture. God often speaks to me in pictures. And I saw like each of us was like, standing at this whiteboard. I have a big whiteboard in my office, and there was all this stuff written over it, all these different colors and all these things. And I just saw Jesus quietly come up and start erasing things off of the whiteboard.

He was like, nope, that's not for now or that's not forever, you know, and. And this is for me as well. You know, it's just like. But there, there, there came to be, like, margin on that whiteboard. There was white in it. It wasn't completely covered anymore. And so that's our prayer for you too, is that in hearing from Jesus and hearing from God in prayer, that you would be led on what he's taking away from your plate. And it also reminded me of the story of Gideon. I think we talked about this in another episode, but basically, God took Gideon's army from what? Do you remember the numbers?

Yeah, it was 30,000 to 300.

Yeah, it was like something like that. And CJ is much better at remembering numbers, but it's from thousands to 300. And God was reminding me that in that picture where he was taking things away, that he wants to get the glory. And so he wants to take things away from your schedule and away from what you're doing and be able to provide that divine favor, that divine productivity, those divine connections, you know, all of these things that he only he can do, but he wants to do something in you that is so amazing and that will show the world his power and his glory. But just like Gideon, he can do with our few things more than what we could do with a whole whiteboard full.

And so I just want to encourage you in that. And so thank you so much for joining us for the breakthrough series. This is our last episode. If you haven't signed up, make sure to get the download our 15 prayers. There's a specific prayer for that CJ wrote out and then that I had for this topic of overwhelm. But for every single topic we've covered, you can Download that@trainingauthors.com Breakthrough and then we're going to be live again Monday, the final day of writing week. We're going to be coming on live again the same time and bringing a special message to you just to help to wrap up writing week and to launch into our first draft challenge with Christian Book Academy. So we're looking forward to having you come back for that and we will see you next time.

And let's not forget today's word of the day, which is overwhelmed. I hope they add this to the Webster's dictionary over whaled. All right, that's in honor of Jonah. God bless you guys.

All right, bye, guys.

Thank you for listening to this episode of Kingdom Writers. We believe that you, as a Christian writer, have a specific role to play in the kingdom of heaven to impact lives for eternity.

And because of this, we choose to pour out our lives into encouraging writers like you to not only tell your stories, but to take the courageous step of self publishing your stories in books that will outlive you and leave behind a powerful legacy. This podcast is sponsored by Christian Book Academy, where we help you give birth to your books. We invite you to join our community of Kingdom writers.

Sam.