No More Running:

#34 Three ways we’re tempted to run and what to do instead with Jen Brooks

• Crystal Loyd • Season 2 • Episode 34

Share episode

Send us a text

On today's episode Jen Brooks, Bible study teacher, author, and speaker joins us to share her wisdom on navigating these difficult times. Together, we explore why our result-driven society makes it challenging to remain still and how we can find a divine purpose hidden in the waiting. Jen offers practical advice for fighting impatience and the temptation to run away when facing uncertainty. By tuning in, you'll gain valuable insights on embracing these periods with faith and trust.
3 ways we’re tempted to run and what to do instead.  

1. Instead of devising  your own plan - submit to His 

2. Instead of resisting Him and turning away from Him - go to Him (Mt 11:28) 

3. Instead of letting your thoughts run into destructive places - take them captive to Christ.

Jen is offering a free gift-Spiritual Warfare Toolkit Spiritual Warfare Toolkit - (anchoredandassured.com), which can help you combat negative thoughts and doubts with God's truth. Whether you're currently in a season of waiting or supporting someone who is, this episode promises to leave you feeling encouraged, grounded, and hopeful. Don't miss out on this rich discussion on faith, trust, and spiritual warfare.
 

Connect with Jen Brooks through her Website @ https://anchoredandassured.com and YouTube Channel https://youtube.com/@anchoredandassured?si=S7aJfBo28nPlgvBh and Facebook https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61551900576964&mibextid=LQQJ4d and even Instagram https://www.instagram.com/anchoredandassured/#


And don't just listen—run on over and join the No More Running email list info@crystalloyd.com and share a five-star podcast review.

Join the newly added No More Running Private Facebook group. 

Would you like to do some one-one Coaching with Crystal, email her at info@crystalloyd.com and connect with her on No More Running Facebook and Instagram https://www.instagram.com/crystalloyd2/#

Music by:
Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!):
https://uppbeat.io/t/ben-johnson/the-closer-we-feel
License code: OANRIZTQXLUUV6EL

Support the show

Speaker 1:

Thank you for joining me today on Gather Around the Table with a Spiritual Purpose, the podcast for hurting women who refuse to stay in the herd. To learn more, visit my website, crystalroydcom. That's Crystal with a C and Lloyd with one L. You can also follow me on Facebook at Gather Around the Table with a Spiritual Purpose and Instagram at crystalroyd2. Spiritual purpose and instagram at crystal world too. You're welcome to contact me at gather around the table at crystal worldcom. Recording in progress. Let's see how this goes, jen okay yeah, take two.

Speaker 1:

Sorry I had to go get. That's okay. It's just satan, you know, and just I know the battle. It's been a battle. Um, even at our home it's just been a battle. Okay, lord god, our home it's just been a battle. Okay, lord God, help us and be with us. And just I know that this is going to be a powerful podcast and, like you know, our coach says, christy Wright, that you know it's just when we feel the most resistant. It's what we need to do the most. That's what you know you're calling us to do the most. So we need help, we need you to just, you know, get the distractions out of the way, the tech difficulties out of the way, and just speak through me and Jen Lord, so that we can help women, even if it's just one woman, lord, that we can help women all over the world. In Jesus name, amen. Okay, all right, let me I'll go back into. Okay, all right.

Speaker 1:

Hello, runners, it's Crystal Lloyd, your host of no More Running. I am so excited for today and you know, if you've been following me any at all, that I love guest days. I love it when women come on and they share their stories or their wisdom with us or their coaching with us. And today, I'm excited, our guest today is Jen Brooks, bible study author, teacher and speaker with a passion to equip others to know, understand and apply God's truth, god's word, daily to their lives. The Lord first called Jen to teach his word over 20 years ago and she's an author of four books. I can't even write one or my first book Struggling people, struggle. But she is an author of four Bible studies and one being lowly devoted hope I pronounced that right lowly devoted and in-depth study of the life of King Solomon. Who doesn't like to study the life of King Solomon? And then embracing one that I wanted to mention was embracing an aching heart, addressing the horrors of human trafficking. Now, jen, I think we might need to have another podcast just about this book and just about the horrors of human trafficking. So you be praying about that. But today, today we are going to, she's going to share her wisdom with us and she's going to coach us.

Speaker 1:

On a season of waiting. It can be so hard I know I have. I'm just impatient. Let's just be honest. I'm impatient and impatience makes me run, and then the struggles that come along in a season of waiting. So this is what she's going to teach us. She is going to give us just poor wisdom into this. And then the temptations to run. Yeah, have you ever been there, done that? Oh, yeah, me, and I'm still struggling with it. Ways, we're tempted to run when we face those struggles while waiting, and what to do instead of running. I love this what to do instead of running.

Speaker 1:

Thank you, jen, for being our guest and thank you so much. And I am not going to talk. I'm not going to try. Let me say this I'm not going to try to talk too too much, because I want to hear from you and I want to hear your wisdom, and I'm going to give you the stage and let you just take it away and help us in this waiting season. You know God has called me to do this, but yet sometimes I feel like Lord, I'm still waiting here, I still don't see the clear picture, or I'm waiting, I don't know what to do next, and then I'm just tempted to run like, okay, nothing's happening. So I'm, I'm out of here. God, I mean, I thought you called me to this, but I don't know. So here I am going to give you the stage and you just pour wisdom into us, jen Thank you so much.

Speaker 2:

Thank you so much, crystal, for having me here today. It's truly an honor to serve you and your guests today, and I am so excited to address this topic today because I think it is one that we can all relate to. We have all experienced a season of waiting and, like you said, let's be honest, waiting isn't fun, it's not preferable and we don't like it. It's uncomfortable for us, and there are a lot of reasons that make it uncomfortable for us, and I would just like to bring out some of those to the surface as we start our conversation today. Number one we are doers. Our society highly favors and acclaims results. We are result driven society and we're doers.

Speaker 2:

We like to be on the go, go, go go. In fact, we can be so busy. Sometimes our heads are spinning and before we know it, we can be in the captivity of activity. We just keep going. We're on a hamster wheel. We keep going. We want to go, go, go. So it is hard to be. Still, we don't like it.

Speaker 2:

Another reason is that sometimes we are tempted to see waiting as a waste. We are tempted to see waiting as a waste of time and we don't see the value in it. However, there is always purpose and intention with the season of waiting, or God would not have ordained it. So we need to be careful when we start to see waiting as a waste. Another reason why is because waiting can be extremely hard. Sometimes, when God ordains a season of waiting, it's in the midst of a situation that can almost start to feel unbearable, so it is painful.

Speaker 2:

Another reason why we may not like a season of waiting is because we equate that with a sense of loss of control, and we don't like that. That's another very uncomfortable feeling. We want to be in control. We want to be the one that's calling the shots. We want to be the one that's setting our pace and setting our course, and when we feel that total loss of control, that can make us extremely uncomfortable. That is huge. And then another reason is we just plain out feel impatient. We are a culture that has become so accustomed to instant. We have instant messaging and we can message someone on the other side of the world and they get that message almost instantaneously. So we have instant messages, instant replay, instant pudding. We want what we want and we want it now.

Speaker 1:

Yes, I agree, jen, and you know what we are teaching our children and our grandchildren this as well. I mean, it's like now, now, and that we expect it from God as well. Now, god, you know? I prayed about this. Where's my answer? God, right now, right now. Yeah, you're right. That control, letting go of that control, is so hard. I agree completely.

Speaker 2:

It is so hard, and I think, when we find ourselves in that place of uncomfortableness, and we don't like it, we don't want it. So what we do is we default to changing our own situation or making it more conducive to our liking. We want to make it more enjoyable, more profitable, more result driven. So we, then, can be tempted to run, and I have three ways I'd like to share today that we can be tempted to run in the face of a season of waiting, wow.

Speaker 1:

That's so good. I'm so excited about that because you know so good. I'm so excited about that because you know I am used to running, but most of the time I'd run away from God. And you know, I think in my waiting, when I don't hear from God and there's not any action from God, then I think he's ran. So then, well, I ran, run myself. So I'm excited. So then, well, I ran, run myself. So I'm excited. And to hear those three steps and to help us move from running to no more running, so tell us, ok, the first step.

Speaker 2:

So that's a perfect segue. So here are the three ways we can be tempted to run in a season of waiting, and the first one is we can be tempted to devise our own plan, to come up with our own scenario. We are going to fix this, we're going to help God along. We've got it all mapped out, what we're going to do, how we're going to do it. It's going to be faster results, better results. Whatever it is, we think we have the better way. We're going to just come up with our own plan and we're going to execute it. And you know that never ends well. We start to manipulate people and situations and circumstances, and we think we've got the way mapped out for ourselves. You know who I think about when I think of that scenario is Abraham and Sarah when God promised a son and they decided they got tired of waiting.

Speaker 2:

Okay, lord, you promised me this. I don't see it happening.

Speaker 1:

So they took matters into their own hands. Yes, and the same way. We are the same way. But don't you love the word of God? It's full of examples like this and that we can relate. Oh, I love that we're the same.

Speaker 2:

You are exactly right. They took matters into their own hands and really, with the core issue, there is an issue of authority that needs to be established who's the one that's the leader? Who's the one that's fault? Who's calling the shots? That's the leader? Who's the one that's fault? Who? Who's calling the shots here in this scenario?

Speaker 2:

You know, when my children were little and there was a power struggle of some sort going on, I can remember the my favorite way to end that power struggle was to look them directly in the eye, have them look right at me, no distractions, and I would say who's the mommy? And I made them answer me and they would just look at me and say you're the mommy. And I said that's right, and that was enough to shift the power struggle and the correct in the correct way of thinking, because you're the one that's calling the shots, mommy, you're in charge, you're the boss, and sometimes we've got to do that with ourself and we've got to be able to step back and say, okay, who's the leader? Who is my authority? Am I going to submit to what God is calling me to do, the way he's calling me to do it, or am I going to call the shots?

Speaker 1:

I love that. I love that. And we have to I would say almost say it out loud and be like God, I'm not in control here, you are in control. And even be honest with God and say I'm struggling here because I'm not hearing from you and I'm waiting and I don't know how to wait, I don't know how to wait patiently. But God, you are in control, you're the father instead of the mama. You know, you're the father, that's right.

Speaker 2:

And then when we establish that authority yes, lord, you're the one, you're my leader Then we have to take it to the next step of choosing to surrender an act of our will. That okay, lord, I'm going to choose to put you in the posture of the one I'm listening to, but then I'm also going to yield to and surrender to what you're calling me to do your will, your way, your plan and then to step forward in obedience in that, because there's a distinction there. There are two different things.

Speaker 1:

Well, jen, I will tell you that that is what this podcast is all about. It is a no more running. It's a surrender to God and his authority and his calling or purpose for your life. It is a surrender and it is a daily surrender because I have to do it every day. But I still struggle with taking back that authority myself, especially because in my life the authority figures was not trusted. I could not trust that. So I have a hard time with you know, the trust with the father, um, and then taking back that authority myself, because then I protect myself that way.

Speaker 1:

Or, uh, you know, if I give god control or authority, what's going to happen here? I don't know about that. But no, that is so good, I love it. And then to say, okay, god, no more running, I surrender. That is so hard for someone that has been abused or, you know, something has come in their life and they are a runner and they know they're a runner. You know, because a lot of women that listen to this podcast, they struggle with this and I want you to continue going on and telling us more and repeat the first and second one for us, because I don't want anybody to miss that. So repeat those two for us, because I don't want anybody to miss that. So repeat those two for us.

Speaker 2:

So the first way we can be tempted to run in a season of waiting is to devise our own plan and then set out to achieve it. The second way is refers to our posture of heart, and we can be tempted to run away from God rather than to him in the midst of our waiting Because, as we addressed, waiting can be very hard. Let's not minimize that. Sometimes there can be intense suffering or weariness that accompanies a season of waiting. And that's where we will be tempted, in a season of waiting, when we're in pain like that, we're going to be tempted to have our heart pivot and run away from him rather than to him. And you touched on that when you said it's ultimately a faith and a trust issue.

Speaker 2:

You know, proverbs 3, 5 through 6 tells us trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. Acknowledge him in all your ways and he will direct your paths. We have a choice to make when we have that season of waiting. We're either going to lean into our logic or we're going to lean into the Lord. And Proverbs tells us lean not on your own understanding. That's counterintuitive to us. We want to lean into our understanding and when we don't understand it, our heart is going to be tempted to protect ourselves. We may start to get angry with God, we may blame God, we may become so frustrated with him that we pivot away from him. And that's where he invites us to come to him in that, and to trust that his grace and his mercy and his love will be there to minister to our hearts as only he can, in that moment when we turn back to him.

Speaker 1:

Yes, I also want to.

Speaker 2:

I also want to bring to light here the fact that sometimes we equate a time of waiting as silence or stillness on God's part, and that is not the case.

Speaker 2:

When we are in a season of waiting, we can rest assured God is at work in us, even if we can't perceive that as such. In fact, it is sometimes a season of waiting when he does a mighty work in us. It may not be fun we didn't sign up for this season of waiting and we may not like what he wants to refine in us during that season of waiting, but that's where we need to trust that he is at work in us, that he is for us, he's not against us, he is for us, he's not against us, he is for us. And if he has ordained this time of waiting, there is an intention and a purpose behind it, and he is at work in us, even though we don't perceive it at the time. Oftentimes it's when we get to the other side of that season of waiting that we can look back and see the fingerprints of God all over our situation. And we can look back and then say, oh that was God.

Speaker 1:

Yes, yes, oh, yeah. And it's so much easier and clearer once we get to the other side of it. And then we're like, oh, okay, god, I get it, I understand. Okay, god, I get it, I understand. Oh, I'm so sorry that I was so impatient that I took things in my own hands.

Speaker 2:

No, yeah, and sometimes he uses those times when we have nowhere else to look but up. He allows us to come to the end of ourselves. We've tried our own way, we ran, we came up with our own plan. Each one was a dead end. We may have pivoted our heart, become angry, frustrated and turned our back to him. And sometimes he allows us to come to the end of ourselves when we have nowhere else to look but up. And then he looks down at us and says, okay, are you ready to do business with me now? Yeah, when we have that rawness and that honesty before him and we come to the end of ourselves, I can remember, after going through a season of waiting, through infertility treatments, we became pregnant with our first son and I thought, okay, that season of waiting, which was so hard, is now over.

Speaker 2:

Now this part will be smooth sailing. What a surprise when, 15 and a half weeks, I started to bleed and contract every two minutes and I spent the next six months on bedrest. What we're to run when you're on bedrest for six months? And I remember looking up and the Lord saying to me are you ready to do business with me now? And boy did he ever. And I think we are wise, when we're in a season of waiting, to not become resentful and turn our heart away from him, but instead to say Lord, what are you trying to show me through this, what are you trying to teach me?

Speaker 1:

And when we have that teachable, humble heart before him that teachable, humble heart before him, he's going to speak, yes. Yes. When we have that open heart and that the open ears to say okay, god, I have, I've tried it my way, I've ran and ran and ran. Okay, god, no more running, I'm here, I'm ready to listen, I'm ready to obey, let's do this and let's do it your way, the better way, yeah.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, right, the way you've designed, because it's all about his plan, his will, his way and, as you so succinctly stated, we need to surrender to him and what he's calling us to do, like outlines. I like to know where I'm going. I like to follow a neat, neatly crafted, well thought out, organized outline.

Speaker 2:

That's predictable, oh I love, predictability, but that's not how God works. We're not following an outline, we're not following a formula or a plan. We are following a person, the living Lord Jesus Christ, and to walk in step with his spirit, trusting that he's got us, that he is sovereign and that he's got the plan and we need to follow him.

Speaker 1:

Yes, yes, yes. So you've got three ways Now. Now, what do we do?

Speaker 2:

We've got the third way the third way that we can be tempted to run from God in a season of waiting is in our thought world, because we know the mind is a battlefield. When we are in a season of waiting we can be very tempted to have our thoughts go into a very dangerous and destructive place. We can start to fight battles of God's forgotten about me. God must not love me the way I thought he did.

Speaker 1:

He ran from me.

Speaker 1:

I mean, you know a lot of times I'm thinking because I think God is like me you know I do and I think, OK, well, you know. A lot of times I'm thinking because I think God is like me you know I do and I think, OK, well, you know, I don't hear from him, I'm not hearing from him, Nothing's happening. So God must have ran as well that I'm. You know. Sometimes I even think, Crystal, you're a little too much. The Lord has ran and he's had enough of you, but not so true, Not true. The Lord is ran and he's had enough of you, but not so true, Not true. The Lord is nothing like me.

Speaker 2:

Thank God, you know I love that because sometimes I get on my own nerves and I want to get away from myself. I wouldn't blame the Lord if he wanted a vacation from me.

Speaker 1:

Well, you know, and I, my family gets on my nerves, yeah, and so I'm like I got to have a break. And so I think that's the way the Lord is. You know, I'm like I have a break from this girl and he runs. And then that's when you're in that waiting season and you're not, you know, hearing from the Lord as much as you think you should, and then you're thinking, okay, well, god's, god's gone, he's ran, he's, you know, he's done with me, because I've been done with God before, and God's people, and you know the ministry, and so I'm like, yep, he's done my trick.

Speaker 2:

That's so true, aren't you so?

Speaker 1:

glad though that God's not like that. You know, he's nothing like that.

Speaker 2:

He's still there, yeah you're right, yeah, or we can be tempted to think, okay, my situation is never going to change, I'm doomed to be in this place forever. So we have to. When we start to have our mind and our thoughts unraveling and going in that downward spiral, we have got to recognize when we are entertaining thoughts that are inconsistent with God's truth, because that's what lies at the core of that. I feel like God's run away from me. I feel like I'm doomed to be in this place forever. I feel like God doesn't love me, I feel like the situation is helpless.

Speaker 2:

Those are lies and let's face it. When we're in a season of waiting, we can be in a vulnerable place, and Satan knows that, and the enemy is going to come and try to intercept our thought process, to take us to those places. And that's where we have got to be able to stop and think about what we're thinking about, because if we stew on those thoughts and we allow them to get in our mind and our thought process, we could be led square into a stronghold, a place of spiritual captivity, and that is where we need to make sure we understand completely that no child of God ever needs to be in a place of spiritual captivity or to remain in a place of a spiritual stronghold. We have been equipped for victory every single time when it comes to warfare.

Speaker 1:

Hold, we have been equipped for victory every single time when it comes to warfare. Yes, yes, and I mean. God's word shows us that and lays that out for us, but we forget that, don't we?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, we sure do that. We have been equipped, and that is why I have created the Spiritual Warfare Toolkit, which is full of biblical principles regarding warfare and it's also full of personal application questions, so that you can devise your own personalized toolkit geared towards your own areas of temptation or things that you're tempted to believe that are inconsistent with God's truth. This is designed in such a way to bring those to the surface and equip you with how can I be free from the enemy in these ways and how can I stand in victory. So I would encourage you to definitely. I've gotten such great feedback from that and I would encourage you to definitely take advantage of having that.

Speaker 1:

I'm excited to check that out and listeners, make sure you check that out and tell us, jen, now, where can they find you? Where can they find that toolkit that you have available for them?

Speaker 2:

That is on my website, anchoredandassuredcom or anchoredandassuredspiritualwarfaretoolkitcom. You can find me on YouTube. I've got a very uh, I've got a community on YouTube or on Facebook and Instagram, anchored and assured, and my website, once again, is anchored and assuredcom. If you would like to, I am taking speaking engagement bookings now and that can be found on my website as well, or you can. You're free to send me an email, jen, at anchored and assuredcom, and let me know any way I can serve you. I would certainly be happy to do that.

Speaker 1:

Okay, well, we will make sure to put all of that in the show notes so that everybody can just click real easy. I know, right, easy, fast, instant. Yeah that's right, nobody has to wait, wait, just click and you know, get that toolkit. Oh, how funny. You know that is funny, just goes along right along with it sure does but thank you so much for, you know, just pouring your wisdom in real quick. Let's just go over the three steps one more time. Yeah, and tell us a little bit about that.

Speaker 2:

So three ways that we are tempted to run in a season of waiting. Number one we're tempted to come up with our own divide or attempted to devise our own plan and move forward according to our own agenda. We have to make sure we stop, establish our authority and submit to the Lord. Number two we are tempted to have a posture of heart change. We're tempted to pivot away from the Lord and resist him rather than turn to him. We need to rest in the words of Jesus Christ, who invites us to come to him when we are weary and burdened, and he will give us rest. Number three we are tempted to have our thoughts race and run in ways that are dangerous and destructive, and that's where we have got to stand in our truth and who we are in Jesus, and claim those truths from God's word, pray them over ourselves and stand in victory.

Speaker 1:

Oh, I love, I love everything about this, this podcast. I love your teaching, I love your wisdom and I I don't know you pray about this, but I don't want this to be the only time that you are on a no more running, because I feel like you have so much wisdom to share and to just to pour into us runners, because we need all the help we can get.

Speaker 2:

I certainly am honored to serve here and I just have to say I echo that sentiment. I just love hearing your wisdom on this topic of no more running. You certainly have many testimonies from your own personal life that we just get so much wisdom from, so thank you for being so transparent and vulnerable in the way that you share.

Speaker 1:

Well, thank you, thank you. I need the encouragement and the reminder because you know my thoughts go into that deep, dark place that you were talking about.

Speaker 2:

Yes, absolutely.

Speaker 1:

And so I need the encouragement. We all need that encouragement. And we need that friend to bring us out of that darkness of our, of our thoughts you know, but what's so funny?

Speaker 1:

I do want to tell this to our listeners, but you know I had forgot all about this that we are in the same group uh, go-getters group with Christy Wright and, uh, you had been listening to my podcast even before we like got connected, yes, and then you had been listening to my podcast even before we like got connected, yes, and then you had listened to one with me and my husband and it was one of the first ones that we did, and I was. I was so afraid of doing the podcast by myself, so I made him do it with me.

Speaker 2:

Well, you guys did a great job. He rocked it.

Speaker 1:

Thank you and because we both you can tell how new and you know how kind of the fear in there and the nervousness, the anxiety and all that. But I was shocked to to know that that was your favorite one and talking about fear and all that, but um, and I loved it. I was just like whoa, we are in the same group but then we got in the um, the same small group within her, her go Go-Getters Club as well. So thank you, christy Wright, for connecting us somehow some way. That's right and love you, friend, and I can't wait till next time.

Speaker 2:

Same here. Love you as well. Thank you for the honor to serve here today.

Speaker 1:

Oh gosh, I'm so glad. I can't wait till next time. Can't wait, me too, and can't wait till next time, can't wait.

Speaker 2:

Me too.

Speaker 1:

Hey, don't forget, you can sign up for the no More Running email list at info at krystalloydcom and make sure to like, share and follow. We would love for you to leave a review for the podcast. This helps us reach even more women who might find themselves running as well. Gotta run.