welcome back to the God Empowered Podcast. So happy to have you tuning into this particular episode. And if you saw this topic title and you clicked on it to press play, This topic probably interests you because it doesn't come as a surprise if you're a weekly regular listener of mine and you know that this is a topic that isn't abnormal for me to bring to the forefront. it goes pretty in line with what it is that we talk about in regards to entrepreneurship, God, and mental health, and how intersect within your day to day life. But. If you're new to this podcast, let me just encourage you. The episodes that I create are not meant to condemn you. They are not meant to tell you that you've been doing things wrong. They are meant to uplift you. They are meant to bring joy and peace back into your life. They are meant to spark this idea of a new perspective, a new way, a new route that can very well lead To a successful life, a successful business. And we're not just talking about success from a financial standpoint. Yes, it very well could be that, but we're also talking about success from an internal standpoint, how you feel, how you respond and act based off of how you feel and just how you are formed, how you shape more. Into the person that God has always been calling you to be. So My hope for you, whether you are a new listener or a frequent listener, is that this topic lights you up. This topic helps to change your mind for the better and therefore leading you closer to your future self. The beautiful, amazing future self that God has always destined for you to be. Let's talk about today's topic. I want to dive into why and how to surrender your entrepreneurial dreams over to God. This was so heavy on my heart this past week. And it all started when I was outside, I was walking my dogs and sometimes when I walk my dogs, I like to put my headphones in and I just like to tune into worship music and have a moment with God. And while I was playing worship music, a particular song called surrender. by Barlow Girl, started to play. Now, this has always been one of my favorite songs from Barlow Girl. If you're not sure who they are, it is a woman's Christian music group. They are absolutely amazing. I've been listening to them ever since I was a kid and I still listen to them to this day. If you're curious about that song, by the way, I dropped it down below in the podcast show notes or in the YouTube description if you're watching it there. But as I was walking, instead of just listening to the song like I normally do, I was paying very close attention to every single word in the lyrics. And it hit so deep for me. That I started to tear up to the point where I wanted to get down on my knees in the middle of me, walking my dogs outside in public and just pause and have this intimate moment with God. That's how deep it was. And the song, when you listen to it, you'll understand what I'm saying once you do, but the song talks about letting go of your tight grasp over the dreams that you have for yourself and your life and surrendering them to God because he has a better plan for you. He knows what to do with your dreams. He knows the desires of your heart and God knows what he is calling you to in the future. And if you surrender your dreams, you surrender what you so desperately want to happen for you and for yourself and for your family, for your business, for your career, if you surrender that all to him and just trust him with it, you would be amazed and surprised at what he does to it. Whether it be putting his hands over those dreams and blessing them. Or pivoting those dreams and turning them into something better or even closing certain doors in order to open even better doors. You never know what God could do, but no matter what God does, it's all for the purpose of turning everything together for your good. It's all for the purpose of giving you a future, giving you hope that God has always destined for you from the very beginning of time. So this song is exactly what has prompted me to even want to do a podcast episode about it. Because I'm like, man, this is something that I not only struggle with when it comes to letting go of my tight grasp of my dreams, my business, my entrepreneurial endeavors. But I know that so many other people probably struggle with it too. So let's talk about it. Let's get real and talk about our dreams and how it seems so normal for us to cling tight to them, to hustle our way through them until we just get to the success that we seek. But in actuality, what God wants you to do is let go of that normality of holding so tight to those dreams and letting Him take over, letting him hold it in his hands while we trust him with what he does with it, how essential that is, how important that is, and how you would be amazed at what God does with it when you just let him have your dreams. So let me first talk about what surrendering even means. I'm sure we all know the basic definition of it, but I really want to take the definition of surrender and align it to God himself. So I Googled surrender and Google has AI features now. So a ton of different meanings came up for that terminology surrender and all of them gave me chills because all of them correlated with God's role. In the midst of our lives and what position we take within that relationship. So listen to this. Surrender has multiple meanings, including giving up control, stop fighting, allowing yourself to be influenced. Those are three meanings of surrender, giving up control, stop fighting and allowing yourself to be influenced. Let me talk about how all of these are so powerful to the point where it directly correlates to our position versus God's position when it comes to our relationship with him, especially as we go about our entrepreneurial dreams. So that first one, giving up control, you are deciding as the dreamer, as the person wearing many hats, as the founder of that business, that creative endeavor that you are chasing after, you are deciding to give up your control over that and allowing God to control it instead. Trusting him as he controls it. And then there's stop fighting. You are finally taking the time to stop fighting, to stop chasing so heavily, to stop being this anxious ball of hustle, because you're just trying to fight your way to the top. You're just trying to fight your way, overcome those obstacles and climb your way. To that destination that you so desperately want. But when you surrender it to God, you stop fighting. It doesn't mean that you stop working hard. It doesn't mean that you stop putting in effort. It just means that you let go of fighting in that battle by yourself. And you allow God to come alongside you. Not only that, but to lead you through that journey. His way, not your way. So instead of holding your fists up and just, I got to fight. I got to get there. Nobody can stand in my way. You loosen your grasp, you loosen your fists, you bring your shoulders back down so that they're not so uptight and you go. And you just say, God, I trust you. You lead the way through this journey, through these roadblocks, through these obstacles. I'm going to walk through this. I'm not going to run through it. I'm not going to fight through it. I'm going to walk through this with you right by my side, with you leading the way. And then this last one, allowing yourself to be influenced. When you surrender to God, you are allowing yourself to be influenced by him rather than being influenced by the world, rather than being influenced by the hustle mentality, rather than being influenced by your insecurities, your anxiety, what you're not, you are influenced by God, who he says you are. Who he's calling you to be the steps that he is asking you to take the doors that he is calling you to open. And even the doors that he is calling you to close, you are being influenced by him and being obedient to that because you simply trust him. You trust him enough to give up your control over your dreams. You trust him enough to stop fighting and you trust him enough to be influenced by him. When I looked up all the meanings of surrender on Google I sat with that for a few minutes and I was like, wow, there's power to this. And there's so much that I myself want to do better at when it comes to surrendering my own dreams and plans for my business and myself as a woman boss, as an entrepreneur, and just let God have it because you cannot tell me. You listening to this episode right now, you cannot tell me that you have not had an ridiculous amount of moments of anxiety, depression, insecurity, feeling not good enough, exhaustion, as you're chasing after your entrepreneurial ambitions. You cannot tell me that you have not experienced. that, that you're not currently experiencing that to some degree and that there are moments where it feels like it's completely taking over your entire day and you start to lose sense of who you even are in the midst of all that. That's why it's so important to surrender to God because there is a better way God doesn't want you to be this ball of hustle, anxiousness, insecure, depression, trying to chase and please the world, trying to prove your status, prove your worth to the world with the business that you will soon one day run or are currently running and are just trying to scale it to be as successful as you hope it to be. God doesn't want you to be this ball of just that. He wants you to surrender the desires of your heart to him. He wants you to surrender your business to him. And to trust him with what he will do with it. So the difficult question is, how? And I've struggled with this a lot because I am a control freak. I like for things to be in my plans based off of how I see it. And you just might struggle with that yourself. So we really need to sit with How. Do we surrender our businesses, our dreams, our desires over to God and trust him with it? How do we do that? So that our future is better than we could have ever imagined. So that what we're chasing after is an alignment with what God wants for us. So that we can bring back peace and joy and sustainability into our everyday life because we decided to go God's way in our businesses, not our own. How do we do that? Number one, first thing I want to say. You need to remember your role when it comes to your partnership with God. Your entire life, if you love Jesus, if you love God, your entire life should be about a partnership with God. Everything in your life, yourself, your family, how you go about your day, your work, your health, all of that should be in partnership with God. And that word partnership means that there are roles to play within that specific partnership. You need to remember and understand what your role is. This is where a lot of people get confused and conflicted when it comes to going about a relationship with God successfully, because they don't truly understand their role and they're not content in their role. They try to play God's role instead. So I've talked about this before in previous podcast episodes. So if you know what I'm about to say, let this be a reminder for you. And if you don't know what I'm about to say, let this be newfound information that I hope enlightens you. Your role when it comes to your partnership with God is faith, obedience, trust, and effort. Faith. obedience, trust, and effort. Have faith in God. Be obedient in what God might be asking you to do. Trust him with everything in your life and your business and put effort in, be consistent in your business. Put effort in your relationship with Jesus and growing that. Work hard in cultivating the kind of life that God wants for you. That's your role. God's role is everything else. God's role is the outcomes, the results, the opened doors. That's God's role. So when you try to step over that line and take God's role and make it your own, because you want to figure out the outcomes, you want to cultivate the results, you want to force those doors open, you aren't staying in your role. You aren't setting boundaries of the role that God placed for you. And the reason for that is because He is God, you are not. You are ultimately trying to play God. And that's a big heart check. Like literally ask yourself right now. If God's role in this partnership is the outcomes, the results and the open doors. In what area of my business right now, am I trying to play God? In what area of my business am I trying to force outcomes, results, Or force those open doors. It's so important to understand your role and to be content in that and to trust God that he knows what he's doing. God knows his, oh my goodness. He knows his role so well, so well. And he will show up. In his role within that partnership with you, every single second of every single day, even when you don't feel it, even if it doesn't seem like it, he is there, actively working, actively doing his role like he said he would, and he desires for you to do the same within your role. Remember that because when you do, that helps you to let go of your unintentional actions of playing God and finally surrendering to him enough to the point where you are content in your role. You're content in having faith, being obedient, having trust, and then of course putting in effort. And you let God take care of the rest. That's the first way where you can practice surrendering. It is a daily practice. I'm over here snapping my fingers because it's so important. It's a daily practice truly. Remember that daily. Remember your role in your partnership with God and trust him with everything else. Second thing. The second how to in you learning to surrender your entrepreneurial dreams over into God's hands is to be very intentional over how you pray about your business. A lot of times it's so natural for us to send prayers up of God, bless my business. God, bring finances in the door. God, give me opportunity. God, let this business be successful. It's so easy and natural for us to pray for blessings within our business. And it's not that that's bad. That's a beautiful thing that you're praying to God to put his hands over your dreams. over what you've created within the business that you're building. But we need to be even more intentional with what else we're praying over. Meaning, are you really trusting God when you're just asking God to bless you? Are you really wanting God's calling for you even if it differs for your calling over yourself? When you just ask God to bless you, I would encourage you to pivot the way that you pray about your business and about your dreams. From asking God to bless you and being so closed minded that's the only option that you're giving God is to bless you, and transitioning that over to open mindedness. God, whatever your plan is, whatever you want for me, I will trust you. Whatever is going to bring me closer to you, bring me closer to the person that you want me to be, cultivate this business into what you want it to be. Whatever that looks like, God, your will, not mine, your plans, not mine. There's a difference in prayer there because now we're not only asking for God to bless it, but we're also saying, Hey God, even if you don't give me this new client, you don't give me this speaking opportunity. You don't bring in finances this month. God, I trust you. I trust you with whatever door you wanna open and whatever door you want to close your will. God, not mine. I put my life in your hands. I put my business in your hands. You are my provider. That is the most important thing, and I will trust in that intentionality over how you pray is everything. Because when you make that statement, when you pray like that, God sees your surrender. he sees your open-mindedness to what he. Might have in store for you because even though you might be praying for this thing over your business God just might have something better in mind and it might not look the way that you want it to look that Better that he has in mind could be you going through an obstacle first a circumstance first You going through something first to better shape you and strengthen you and equip you in order to prepare you For that next best thing that he has in store. You never know what God could be doing But the whole point is, will you trust him with what he's doing, even if you don't know? And a good daily practice for this is just to pray over everything. Any random or small thing throughout your work day. like for example, anytime I have a free consultation call with someone who could be my next client or could be my next coaching student, I pray over it. And I ask God to bless that conversation. I ask God to move the conversation how it's supposed to go, to speak through me. And then I say, you know what, God? If this client is for me, let it be help me to serve this client, help me to show up in the best ways to make a difference in their life or business based off of what you've gifted me to do. But if it's not, God, bless that person still. Help them to find the right coach for them. Help them to thrive in not just what it is that they're doing, but to grow closer to you within their day to day life. and if it is in your will God, allow a new door to open with another potential client that I can serve and help to transform an area of their life or business. That kind of prayer, intentional prayer over moments within your business, little things that you want to happen, successful launches. You want this to work well, money to come in here, pray over it and be super intentional about how you pray because that is everything. When it comes to surrendering your entrepreneurial dreams over to God and ultimately trusting him with it. Last but not least, when it comes to how to surrender, how to practice the act of surrendering to God, when it comes to your entrepreneurial ambitions, move. When God says move, this could mean many things and it's completely dependent on what you are hearing from God himself. What is God asking you to start doing, or what could he be asking you to let go of? And you, my friend, whatever that is, you gotta move. This goes back to your role that we were first talking about in being obedient. When God says to start doing something, to stop doing something, be obedient and go. And the reason why I want to highlight this is because this can be such a hindrance to us when it comes to surrendering. A lot of times we don't want to move because we get scared. We might get a little lazy. We might push it off at a time that feels better for us because right now it just doesn't feel like the right time. We might feel insecure. We might feel like we're not the right person to start doing something That God might be asking us to start doing. There's so many things. And that's why I want to bring this up because When it comes to a successful partnership with God and surrendering your entrepreneurial dreams over to Him and trusting Him with it, to the point where you would be amazed at how much better it is in the future when it's God's way and not your way, you have to not hesitate. You gotta move. If you know for a fact that it's God speaking to you, move. Do it. Even if it doesn't make sense, go. And even if he might be asking you to stop doing something, move, do it, go. And I know you might have that question of, Angel, how do I know if it's God? How do I know? It might take some time for you to fully understand if that's God speaking to you. But just some simple practices is if you feel like you're hearing God telling you to start doing something or stop doing something, open up your Bible and meditate on what you're reading and meditate on how that specific scripture correlates to your life and what God might be trying to speak to you in that moment, pray and pray again, over and over. Seek wise counsel from godly people that can help guide you in the right direction. And, even if you're still not 100 percent sure, just move anyway. Move anyway and trust God to pivot you if need be. Move, and then pray as you do. God, I don't know if this is the right move. I don't know if this is really you asking me to stop doing this or to start doing this, but I'm just going to do it anyway. And you pivot me. You tell me if I'm wrong. And if I am wrong, God, if I am not going down the path or the route that you desired, pivot me. Close that door, open that door, wherever you need me to go. But I'm just gonna move and I'm going to trust that you'll come alongside me to help pivot me in the right direction That's just another really healthy habit in surrendering your dreams over to God I'll give you an example God put it on my heart To start being more consistent with these weekly podcast episodes And I think I talked about this before on previous episodes, but he told me to be consistent. I was not obedient to that for a while. Why? Because time was my excuse. I don't have enough time, God. I'm struggling. I don't know how I'm supposed to produce these episodes every week. Okay. How long am I going to let that excuse hold me back from God's calling over my life? Even if it's something as small as, Hey, Angel, go from monthly podcast episodes to weekly, do it, show up more, show up better. I need you to influence your listeners. There are people that are listening to this podcast that I am calling you to help. So show up more consistently. And the funny thing is when I finally was like, you know what, let me be obedient to this. Time for the most part, no longer felt like an issue. It was almost like because I chose to be obedient, supernaturally, God helped me in managing my time better, so that it seemed like I now had more time in order to produce these weekly episodes for you. That is the beauty of how God works. When things don't make sense, when money is the thing, when time is the thing, when this excuse is the thing. God will show up when you move anyway, when you obey him anyway, despite all of those things, God will show up and you would be amazed at what he does. I'll give you another example. There was a point in my business where I was flat out broke. I didn't know what I was going to do. And for a while I was like, do I need to go back to corporate? But God put on my heart. He said, angel, you're going to be financially. Okay. Just trust me, keep moving, keep putting an effort. I got you. So when I heard that reminder, I need you to keep putting an effort. I need you to keep going. That is the motivation that I needed to just continue to obey. And as I did, God showed up. I was able to pay my bills. I was completely okay. And I've been good ever since because God is that good. And you would be amazed at how he continues to show up in your life if you would just trust him. If you would just surrender to him. Where my business is at right now, there's no way it would be as successful as it is if God weren't in the picture. If I didn't finally surrender it to him. To start doing certain things, even to stop doing certain things. There's no way I would be where I'm at if it weren't for God. And that is why I'm talking about this within this podcast episode, particularly I know my friend, you have beautiful dreams. I know that there's so many of you that want to get out of the situation that you're in. You hate your job. You want to leave it. You don't like doing this. You want to do this instead. I understand. And living in this world, And feeling the way that you might feel right now can feel draining. It can feel limiting and exhausting, frustrating to know that you feel like you were made for something more. You have this potential and you're just trying to get there. You're trying to leverage it within your entrepreneurial dreams. You want it so bad. But my friend, one of the first steps to take is to surrender. That dream over to God. Remember your role, have faith, be obedient, put in trust, put an effort towards it, but trust God with everything else. Be intentional about how you pray over your business as you go about it, being open minded to what God might want for you. And then of course, move when God says to move. Start doing that thing when God says so, or stop doing that thing when God says so. I know that these are all really hard habits to build. But the whole point behind these things in order for you to actually learn to surrender is to be consistent. All of these things are daily habits. They're daily practices. This isn't a one and done thing where you're like, Oh yeah, I finally moved when God said to move in this area of my business. So I'm good. I got that down. No, it's an ongoing thing. It's a daily habit. It's a daily practice that you have to decide to put into action. And I know you can, I know you can remember when we surrender our entrepreneurial dreams over into God's hands, we are trusting him to provide us with joy and peace and this beautiful future that he has in store for us. We are trusting him to put his hands over our businesses and make it successful the way that God sees fit. Not how we see fit. Or we are trusting him to take that business and to pivot it into something else that he would want that ultimately sets you up for even more success in the future. It's up to you, my friend, when it comes to your entrepreneurial dreams, are you going to go God's way by surrendering them to him? Or are you going to go your way by keeping them to yourself and holding them in your tight grasp, refusing to let go? The choice is yours, but this podcast episode right here was all for the purpose of giving you a perspective, giving you a new way of going about your dreams That could ultimately make you peaceful. Joyful, stronger, successful, prosperous, all based off of what God wants. And that's why we were talking about it today. I know you can do it, my friend. If I can, you absolutely can. 100%. All right. That was a heavy one. I felt it on my heart that it was a heavy one as I was talking about it, but I just hope that it encouraged you today and just gave you something to think about. Now I'm a huge believer in never going the route of business and entrepreneurship by yourself. Huge believer in that. And that's exactly why we have our burnout free biz coaching and community space. So as you're working through and progressing through surrendering your entrepreneurial dreams over to God, and if you're wanting community, if you're wanting one on one coaching, if you're wanting genuine help within that journey, as you progress through that I'm going to be doing a video on how to work on that with God. You can go ahead and grab seven days free within the burnout free coaching and community hub. Would absolutely love to see you in there just to try it out. Within the hub itself, we have courses, we have workshops, we have Q and A's, we have prayer calls. We have tons of resources to help you set your business up for success. Burnout free, God's way, while keeping your mental health centered as well. So if you're interested in that, you can grab that link right down below. And with that, my friend, we will see you next week for another episode of the God Empowered Podcast.