If you’ve ever felt like there is no time to write, this training is for you.
In this episode of our Breakthrough series, CJ and I are going to help you as Kingdom Writers overcome this obstacle of a lack of boundaries. What makes this series different than most training for writers is that we integrate the powerful combination of Scripture and prayer to help you breakthrough the obstacles holding you back.
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Notes from this episode:
Scripture: “Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.” Matthew 6:33
- We each need to look at every activity we’re involved with and simply lay it down before the Lord. Ask Him for wisdom on whether to continue or discontinue with it.
- “So be careful how you live. Don’t live like fools, but like those who are wise. Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days. Don’t act thoughtlessly, but understand what the Lord wants you to do.” – Ephesians 5:15-17 NLT
- NKJV says “redeeming the time…”
- “but understand what the Lord wants you to do.” – this implies putting forth effort & intentionality as we seek the will of God. We have to set aside time alone with God in order to hear His voice
- It’s so easy to go through our day “thoughtlessly” as Paul writes. We have endless distractions to occupy our time. Things that offer little lasting value
- Learning to say no can be powerful.
- One of my mentors has said, “You can’t complain about what you allow.”
- Are you a person that often says yes when someone asks you to volunteer (even when you don’t want to or know you don’t have the time)?
- Are the person everyone in your family depends on?
- Do you often do things for others instead of doing them for yourself?
- “If Satan can’t make you bad, he’ll make you busy.” – Adrian Rogers
- Though we can’t blame the devil for everything, there’s a reason Jesus refers to him as the Thief in John 10:10. He loves stealing our time if we allow.
- We usually make time for things we enjoy. We all have 168 hours in a week. By the way, not every aspect of publishing our books will be “fun” but the investment is worth the time spent.
- Why do we so often feel bad setting healthy boundaries?
- I believe we fear judgment from others. In other words, we fear what other people will think. This can lead to being people pleasers.
- Or we have FOMO. Fear of missing out. We want to do All. The. Things.
- Our time on earth is short. We all have 24 hours each day. That’s it. No more, no less.
- For me, if it’s not a “for sure YES!!” then it’s a “for sure NO!”
- Allow God through His Holy Spirit to lead you to do the tasks He has for you TODAY. -Be willing to set healthy boundaries so that your time doesn’t get sucked up doing the “good” instead of being invested in the “best” tasks each day!
- It’s freeing when you take these steps.
- Healthy boundaries are a good thing and protect things that are valuable. For example, a castle will be protected by a large wall or moat.
- Here’s a real-life example of how this might look…
- If I take your pen from you right now, you may not try to get it back. But if I tried to take your phone, that would be another story. Right?
- Boundaries protect things that are valuable.
- Boundaries also protect one of the most valuable things we have, our time. Therefore, we do need to learn to say no to the good in order to say yes to the best.
- One of the keys to Steve Jobs’ success was to “say no to 1,000 things.” (Reference: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/220515)
- What do you need to say no to in your life?
*Whatever we monitor and track, we manage.
- Think about it. Have you ever kept a food diary or daily budget?
- CJ lost almost 50 pounds in previous years and a big part of his success came from tracking his food intake. He didn’t do it forever, but it really helped him be aware of what he was putting in his mouth each day.
1) Track how you spend every waking minute for the next 48-hours in the worksheet we provided for you. You can also use your own planner, notebook or note-taking device if you prefer.
2) Watch for any trends. This is huge. I think you’ll quickly see in just 48-hours where your biggest time leaks are right now (i.e. TV, social media, certain relationships, etc.).
Tools you can use:
- Time Blocking + Pomodoro
- Pomodoro = Productivity
- 80/20 rule
Then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. (John 8:32)
The truth:
“Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.” Matthew 6:33
Prayer to Regain Control of Your Time
Transcript of the prayer:
The next obstacle we want to break through is the whole idea of lack of boundaries and specifically, things like “I just don’t have time.”
How many of you have ever said, “I don’t have time to figure out all the details of publishing my book.” That’s something I think we could all say we’ve said at one time or another.
We’re going to pray specifically in the spirit of, of Matthew 6:33 which says, “Seek first the Kingdom of God above all else and live righteously and he will give you everything you need.”
“Lord we are asking that we would have our hearts completely devoted to you, seeking you above all else. As we do that, we even see that our time is arranged differently. We even see that we do have more boundaries. We have times of just sitting with you and your word, meditating, praying, uninterrupted time with our Father.
I ask, Lord, that each one of us would have a desire implanted in us just as David was a man after God’s heart. I pray that each of us would be men and women writers after your own heart. And as we seek your heart above all else, you’re going to guide us. Bless us with things that are inspired by your heart.
Then we’re also praying in the spirit of Ephesians 5:15-17. “So be careful how you live. Don’t live like fools, but like those who are wise. Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days. Don’t act thoughtlessly, but understand what the Lord wants you to do.”
I believe the New King James talks about redeeming the time.
Lord, we know that the enemy wants to kill our time. We know there’s a real enemy that wants us to waste time on fruitless endeavors. Many times, some of our social media habits can be wasted time or maybe looking at others and their achievements while wallowing in some self-pity.
Lord, I want to pray that you would redeem the time in us. Anything that the locusts have eaten in the lives of these writers and our lives. I pray, Lord, you restore just as your word says. And we pray that as we look at our schedules, as we arrange our time, that we truly would seek after you. With every ounce of our energy and that as we do, priorities are going to rise to the surface. We’re going to have healthy boundaries of what to do, what not to do, how to arrange our schedules.
I pray that you would squeeze out the most important things. I even think of juicing a piece of fruit when you’re trying to get the most juice out of that lemon or lime. Lord, I pray you to squeeze the juice, the sweetness out of us that would bless the world. That we would make the most of the days that we have here on this planet, we ask this in Jesus’ name.
And as I was praying about this, I just felt like the Lord really just said that many of you are just overcommitted. The picture that I got was of you standing there and you have this backpack on that’s pretty heavy. Then you pick up a bag and you put it over your left shoulder.
You pick up another bag, put it over your right shoulder. Then, you pick up a bag and hook it to your elbow. You take another bag and you hook it into your other elbow and grab several things.
Have you ever tried to bring all your groceries in on one trip with several bags in your left hand and several bags in your right hand?
You’re standing there and I come up to you and I ask you if you can roll this big suitcase, which is your writing. You literally look at me and you’re like, no, of course, I can’t.
You have no free hands and are committed to so many things. I saw that you began to look more closely at every single bag, every single thing that you’re carrying. And you begin to actually give some of those bags to people and allowed them to carry them.
You begin to consolidate some bags and to take some things out of bags so they aren’t as heavy. Then you were able to get it to where everything was just on your backpack and one arm was freed to now pull the suitcase. Which represents your writing, publishing, marketing, and you’re able to have that time.
Lord, we pray right now that you would give each person, CJ and I included, wisdom to have proper boundaries. What it is that we need to actually let go of? The need to give to someone else? And to do less of or consolidate? Lord, I pray that right now you would give each person insight through the Holy Spirit.
We’re going to give you a few seconds of silence to ask God, what is it that you could do even today to free up some of your time.
Lord, we thank you that you are the author of time. We thank you that you can do more in one moment than we can achieve an entire lifetime of struggling and trying. And as we also think about our time, we thank you that there is such a thing as supernatural productivity. That there is such a thing as your favor and your Spirit doing things through us that we could never even imagine accomplishing in our own strength. We thank you for that. And we pray in Jesus name, amen.
Free Download: 15 Prayers for Christian Writers
Download the PDF transcript of all 15 Prayers for Christian Writers, here:
https://www.trainingauthors.com/breakthrough/
Share Your Breakthroughs
Share what impacted you from this post and any breakthroughs God gave you as a result in the comments below.
Gods perfect timing. Every thing has seasons.
Amen Mutani!