{Godly Gain} Are you striving in the flesh or the Spirit?

Welcome to the Author Audience show, the podcast that helps you reach more people with your message, create a book, connect with your audience, change lives. Here's your host, Shelly Hitz.

Hey, guys. Welcome to this week's edition of Godly Gain. I'm CJ Hitz.

Hey, I'm Shelley Hitz.

And today we want to ask, are you striving in the flesh or. Or are you striving in the spirit? We're going to talk about that here in this short episode regarding something we all deal with.

This is a very personal teaching because it's something that God has really spoken to us recently.

Definitely. You know, I think so many times we can get caught up in really striving. When we say strive, we're really talking about doing stuff sort of out of our own effort. Now, you can also strive to do things out of the spirit, but we want to actually really focus on, you know, how often we strive in our flesh in order to get things done and try to make something happen and sort of forcing things in order to just make something, anything happen. We're so satisfied with results that really aren't eternal, that will do anything or we'll resort to anything in order to just get something done to be productive, as the world so often demands.

And the world applauds that. The world applauds productivity. And I teach it. You know, I teach productivity. I teach taking action. But we want to really, like, fine tune our focus, like when we're thinking about that. Productivity.

Yeah. So I want to start off with a scripture that really just came to mind for this, this topic, striving, you know, in the flesh versus the spirit. And many of us are familiar with Psalm 46:10, which simply says, be still and know that I am God. I will be honored by every nation. I will be honored throughout the world. And those words, be still are really literally translated to cease striving or to relax, let it go. And so there's just a huge comfort and a peace whenever you really do let go and let God. You know, I think so often we try to force something and then we go to God and say, do you.

Approve or it's not working. God, what do I do once we're tired and worn out?

So really just to be able to meditate on Psalm 46:10, to really be still, to put yourself in that position where you're literally not striving, you're resting, and you're just continuing to commune with the Lord, you're seeking him, his direction. And when you do feel a nudge from him. When you do have an idea, go for it. But really seeking him first and just resting, knowing that you're seeking his counsel, his wisdom. You know, James talks about, you know, if anyone lacks wisdom, he should come to God, who generously wants to supply that. And yet many times we even miss out on that. We're not still before the Lord, we're not hearing. And so we just sort of run with what we really want to see happen before consulting the Lord.

Yeah, and recently we had kind of a real life situation, or at least I did. I've talked about it before on the strength finder test. I'm an aa. You know, those are two of my five top strengths. Activator achiever. So I'm a doer. I'm like, I'm a striver. Is that a word? Yeah, I do a lot of striving, and I have been a workaholic in the past, and so this really hits home for me. And so recently I was doing some marketing for mycoloradorritingretreat.com it's where I'm going to have a small group of women that I'm going to help them to get their first draft done, you know, get their book done. And I wasn't seeing the results that I wanted to see. And I think what happens is sometimes when we're taking action, when we're doing things and then we're not seeing the results that we hope to see, we get disappointed or we think, okay, what else do I need to do? You know? And we get into that striving mode of, okay, I need to do something else. I need to sort of. So I'm thinking, like, okay, what do I need to do? How can I market this? And I just remember. Was it last week or the week before?

Yeah, last week.

Last week. I just got to this point where I was in tears, literally, because, I mean, we had a couple signups, but we weren't at break even yet for our expenses. And none of my efforts, none of my striving was seeming to work. It was not seeming to get the results that I wanted. And I just remember sitting in our bedroom and I was just crying, and CJ walked in and what did you say to me?

I basically just felt like the Lord was saying, shelly, you need to quit striving in your own effort and really just allow God to do what he wants. And we'll just. We'll pray, we'll give it to him, we'll submit this retreat to him, but then just let God Answer in the way that he feels best.

Yeah. So I remember, like, because I was in the moment of desperation and I remember you said, shelley, I really feel like the Lord has told me we need to stop striving. And I'm wondering if there's anyone out there that's listening right now that might be at that point where you're just like, ah, you, you're either overworked, you're tired, or you're working so hard you're spinning your wheels and you're not seeing the results that you really want or need. And you just need to hear that verse from Psalm 46. It actually, in one of the translations, it cease striving and know that I am God. And so I had to confess to God that I was trying in my own strength and that I wasn't trusting him. And I remember God giving me some very specific things to do to cease striving. And for me personally, it was like, I've got to let go of the results. Wouldn't you know it? In the next week, two people have already signed up. And for the single room, which is even a little bit more and our expenses are now covered, you know, I'm breathing a sigh of relief. But, you know, when it happened, it happened after I ceased striving. And I said, okay, I'm not going to do anything more. I'm not going to Lord, this is in your hands and I'm going to trust you. And C.J. and I had both been praying. And then I also sensed that God, you know, had led me into another action because this is a season right now. I'm going into an intense season of 12 weeks of beta group for my next book project. It's going to be a video series. I'm going to have a live video that I'm going to be creating and giving every week. It's going to be intense.

Sometimes when you're in an intense season, you have to let go of something in order to pick something else up new. And I just felt like CJ's words that God gave him to give me was also to apply to the season of instead of hosting all of my live promotional webinars to start automating my most popular best converting webinars. And I started that this last week. I took action. I did what God had prompted me to do. So when you see striving, it doesn't mean you're going going to cease working, but it means that you're going to cease doing it in your own efforts, in your own Flesh. And you're going to seek God, and then he's going to give you the direction. You know what? We already have two new Author Audience Academy members as a result of those automated webinars. It's really good training. It's really good content. And I just had to trust God because I'm like, if it's not live, you know, I'm not going to get the same results. And it's like God just tells me, shelley, breathe.

Yeah, breathe.

So I want to just leave you with another passage that many of us have read many times. And it's just Matthew, chapter six, 25 through 33. And it goes like this, Jesus talking here. That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life. Whether you have enough food and drink or enough clothes to wear. Isn't life more than food and your body more than clothing? Look at the birds. They don't plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your Heavenly Father feeds them. And aren't you far more valuable to him than they are? Can all your worries, you might even say, can all your striving add a single moment to your life? And why worry about your clothing? Look at the lilies of the field and how they grow. They don't work or make their clothing. Yet Solomon in all his glory, was not dressed as beautifully as they are. And if God cares so wonderfully for wildflowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, he will certainly care for you. Why do you have so little faith?

So don't worry about these things saying, what will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear? These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers. Okay, there's a key word right there. It should not dominate the thoughts of we who trust in Christ, we who have an eternal perspective, we who look beyond this world. We're here. Yes, we're working for food and clothing and those things that he provides. But we have a much grander perspective. We can see into eternity. And so these things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers. But your Heavenly Father already knows all your needs.

Seek the kingdom of God above all else and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need. Another translation is seek first the kingdom of God. And so I want to just ask you, are you being still before the Lord? Are you seeking his counsel first? Seeking what would build his kingdom first? Even through your book project, your new business project, whatever that may be? What's the motive behind all of that? And are you seeking the Lord's motives in all that you do all that you say and the people that brings you across in terms of paths. So that's just a word to challenge us all. Myself, Shelley, regarding just our striving and ceasing, that stuff, you know, as God tells us In Psalm chapter 46, it was very convicting.

You know, when CJ said that to me, and, yeah, I knew immediately I knew it was from the Lord. And I'm so thankful that God brings us what we need when we need it. And then I have someone that helps balance me out. We're kind of opposites. He's so laid back.

And I'm like, she's balanced me out many times.

But we were in church last night. We go to church on Saturday nights usually. And we were singing a worship song. It's called Good Father. And I just had tears in my eyes because it talked about, you know, you're a good, good father. That's who you are. That's who you are, and I'm loved by you. That's who I am. And I sometimes wonder if in the striving in the day to day, in all of the tasks that we're doing, in the busyness of building an author platform and writing books, in helping those that God has given you to help and serving those that God has given you to serve, sometimes we might lose perspective on that and we might not see him in the way that he truly is. And when you were reading that from Matthew 6, it was just like that worship song came to mind. Like, he's gonna provide what we need. Doesn't mean he'll provide everything we want. But, you know, he provides. And it's like, why do I worry? So, you know, I shared earlier, I was so worried about the writing retreat and we still have two spots open, but I'm just totally okay with that. It's like whoever God is gonna bring, if it's, if it's these, these women and no more, then that's who's supposed to be there. But it's like, why do I worry? You know, why do I spend that time worrying? And we'd love to now just pray over you and cj. Why don't you pray over each one of us?

You bet. Lord, I just thank you so much for all those who are live with us, but also those who are gonn checking out the recording of this godly gain segment. Lord, we ask that you would help us to truly be still. Literally to cease striving, to relax and just let it go. Lord, I pray that there would just Be a peace that would flood over every single person that would actually take you at your word and live that. And to be able to just rest knowing that you're the provider, that you're even the one that gives us these great ideas. You're the one that inspires us and encourages us and you bring people across our paths to be sharpeners for us and help smooth out some of those rough edges. Lord, I just pray that each of us would just even be able to tune into your voice and hear you so clearly. Which direction to go? Go to the left, Go to the right. What should I do here? What should I do there? That each day when we wake up, Lord, you'd be the first thing on our thoughts, the first person on our thoughts. And when we go to bed at night, you'd be the last thing that we think about. Lord, I just pray that each of us would really practice those things and just become really good at being still and sitting before you and seeking you first. And we just thank you and we ask this in Jesus wonderful name. Amen.

Amen. And if you have not yet, we invite you to join our free Godly gain group@godlygain.com A Place for Christian authors, entrepreneurs, speakers that want to keep Christ at the center. It's a place for support for one another and we'd love for you to join us there. And if you want to get subscription, if you want to subscribe to my live updates so you know, anytime that I'm live, we normally go live with Godly gain on Sundays you can just go to shellyhits.com facebooklive and it will redirect you to some screenshots and show you how to get notified so you know when we are live. But thank you guys so much for joining us today and I just pray that you do. You just feel that peace. You feel that weight lifted off as you stop striving and know that he is God.

Amen.

See you guys next time.

God bless you guys.

Bye bye.

Thanks for listening to this episode of the Author Audience Show. Connect with us online@authoraudience.com where you'll find all the resources mentioned in today's episode. While you're there, grab Shelley's free video training on how to write and publish your book using her six Step Ascent method. Join us again next week to learn how to reach your audience with your message.