This episode is going to help you answer the question, “Am I worshipping success, or Jesus?”

This episode is SO JUICY because I share a bit about my story about how I was UNKNOWINGLY worshipping success, how I navigated that, and ultimately 3 solid steps that you can implement today that will help you keep your eyes focused on Jesus & step away from idolizing the things in this world. Without further ado, let’s dive in.

If you’ve been a part of my journey for the last year and a half or so, it’s probably no surprise that this phenomenon of being obsessed with success is the topic I’m covering today and the first theme of the Reclaimed to Reign membership.

If you are an entrepreneur, or even if you’re not, I’m sure that you have come face to face with hustle culture and this ultimate STRIVING mentality, which is this urge to constantly do MORE and to be MORE.

I’ll be the first to tell you that it’s a good thing to want to better yourself, and to learn from mistakes, but the problem comes in when we become so OBSESSED with success and goals that we ultimately IDOLIZING and WORSHIPING this concept of become “better.”

While I am an advocate for learning and growing, the self-development world can actually become a trap. Because the truth is, if you’re not careful, we can unknowingly begin to worship doing more, which leads to ultimately worshiping ourselves, as opposed to worshiping the one true God.

We then start to think that all we have to do is become better and start “manifesting” our desires.

This is a topic very near and dear to my heart because I experienced this first hand.

Looking back, I had no idea I was worshiping success. I had NO idea I was seeking validation from the world. And I definitely didn’t think I was trying to seek glory from my works, so of course I had no idea I made myself an idol.

But like I said, there is absolutely nothing wrong with learning from our mistakes and making better choices, but it’s when we convince ourselves that WE are the answer, and that WE are the key to change, abundance, happiness, or freedom…

THAT is when we begin idolizing ourselves.

Because WE are not the answer.

He is.

And we have to constantly CHOOSE to look at Him, because the world truly makes it so easy to look at ourselves.

Like I mentioned, this is a topic I have experienced first hand. I want to go back to my first 2 and a half years of entrepreneurship.

During those two and a half years, I was SO obsessed with hitting my goals. Now, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with intentions in place–businesses need those. BUT goals really focus on DOING as opposed to BEING, and recently, I’m going to be honest–I haven’t set goals in my business in MONTHS because I always have had a tendency to focus on what I’m doing, or not doing, when I set goals.

I will probably record another episode regarding goal setting versus intention setting and how that developed, but in the meantime, there is a book I want to recommend that actually mentions this concept somewhere in the book–it’s not what the entire book is about, but there is a section in this book that talks about NOT setting goals and what to do instead, and it made me realize I’ve already been doing that for awhile, and I just didn’t even realize it. That said, the book is called, “To Hell With The Hustle” and it’s by Jefferson Bethke. I highly, highly recommend it.

But anyways, to make a long story short, I was so obsessed with hitting my goals to where I truly felt like I was working 24/7. And the reason is because I wanted to move out of my parents’ house. I had just moved back in with my parents after I experienced a deep season of depression, and ended up quitting my job and moving home.

My BIG goal was to make enough money as an entrepreneur to move out of my parents’ house. That was my ultimate motivation.

Btw, if you want to hear the entirety of my story, go back and listen to episode1 of this podcast. I share in great detail how I got started, my spiritual breakthrough, and the mission of this show. So, head there next if you want to learn about that.

But on top of wanting to move out, I was really deep into network marketing at the time, and I found I experienced this HIGH every time I would rank in advance, or be featured on a leaderboard, or be validated and recognized in any way. I even remember sharing with people that I was very recognition driven. The truth is, I was very motivated by money & being validated and recognized.

And I didn’t realize it at the time, but it controlled me.

The thing is, when you dig deeper into this and discover the root of wanting to make more money, moving out of my parents’ house & wanting to be recognized & validated and gain approval from people…

It all came back to pride.

Pride doesn’t always look like being narcissistic, or having this huge ego & arrogance that you deter people away from you.

And worshiping ourselves doesn’t necessarily look like we’re praying and worshiping ourselves. It can look like having so much PRIDE that we become so DRIVEN by our fleshly wants and desires that we unknowingly put ourselves and our wants above God and His wants and desires.

1 John 2:15-16 says:

“Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world.”

We are called to be in the world, but not of it.

And truthfully, I had no idea I was worshiping myself.

But I know I had to experience it, over and over again, because I would not be here sharing this story with you today if I did not.

I am so grateful that the Lord has delivered me from that, but truth be told, I am nowhere near perfect, and this is still something that I have to consistently watch out for. Because of that, I’m so grateful for His love, His grace, and His mercy when I go to Him and repent. I’m so grateful He continues to deliver me from this.

And if you are experiencing this, or know someone who is, God loves you. He will deliver you. But you have to seek Him above all else.

All of this to say, I have 3 things you can implement today to get your eyes back focused on JESUS instead of yourself.

1. Repent

It’s important to totally purge ourselves of our sins and transgressions every day.

You cannot produce fruits of the spirit if you are holding on to sin, and the truth is, we fall into sin every single day. Circumstances can happen daily that can tempt us to fall back into it. The world can suck us in so fast–I told someone the other day the world is almost like a vortex. One minute, your eyes are totally on the Lord, and then the next, all of a sudden, the world sucks you back in and you don’t even realize it.

But that being said, it’s also important to keep in mind that this is an ongoing layering process.

This means that as we are growing and evolving with the Lord, we will continue to be sanctified. There are multiple layers to flesh-fueled feelings and thoughts–think of it like an onion.

For example, you may find for a while that you have remained steadfast in your faith and don’t really have doubts anymore, but an entirely new circumstance or scenario happens that triggers you again.

This may not happen because you have “failed”–it may be happening because you’re progressing, and you’re ready to peel back the next layer just like you would an onion.

That being said, it’s important to remember that this is something to address daily, and you may have to address the same temptations and sins several times. But please do not hold on to shame when you do this. It’s so important to also release the shame and guilt as you surrender the sin–that’s why Jesus died for us. You do not have to stay chained anymore.

Something to keep in mind, it’s crucial to humble yourself before God and repent before moving forward.

This is where you may fall on your knees and cry out to Him for forgiveness. This is where you apologize and open your heart to Him because you truly want to please Him.

As you repent, it’s important to go to God in prayer.

Truth is, I have an entire process inside of the membership dedicated to tools to help you overcome spiritual warfare & self-sabotage. Repentance is part of one of those tools, but there is literally a 29 pager of tools paired with a 50 minute video lesson. The lesson is called the Armory because it is an Armory FULL of tangible ways you can biblically fight against the enemy. Personally, this is something I wish I had years ago, so the Holy Spirit worked with me to create it and I’m so excited to bring it to you inside the membership.

2. Focus on Jesus and INTENTIONALLY seek Him daily

This probably comes to no surprise, but a way to tangibly do this is to develop your own Queen Routine. I have an entire lesson dedicated to this inside of the membership as well, BUT I want to share a little bit about what that is today because I’ve found this to be the foundation for everything.

1. The Queen Routine consists of the 7 P’s:
   
   1. Praise
   2. Propel
   3. Presence
   4. Pursue
   5. Proclaim
   6. Prayer
   7. Prepare

The Queen Routine lesson is 30 minutes long and 19 pages in Google docs, but I’m going to give you the Cliff Notes version of it now.

The Queen Routine is something I recommend implementing on a daily basis to get your eyes focused on Jesus.

Praise:

First and foremost, we must praise Him. We must humble ourselves and go to Him with a pure heart, delighting and being in awe of Him and His love. It’s so important to take your eyes off of self and put your eyes on Jesus.

Praise consists of:

• Worship
• Gratitude and Thanksgiving

Propel:

This part of The Queen Routine consists of:

• Purge by repenting of sins and transgressions
• Propel through “problems”

It’s important to not shut down when we are faced with problems, or hard circumstances in our lives. It’s important to reframe your perception and to see the good (Romans 8:28), even if it’s hard. The Queen Routine goes deeper into this, but remember, this is the Cliff Notes version.

Presence:

Presence is all about being still and meditating on Him and His Word. When was the last time you stopped and just listened?

We live in a world that promotes hustle culture where we fill our to-do lists to the brim, and then get into the habit of “manifesting” our desires, and asking God to bless us… 

But when was the last time we stopped to listen to Him?

Pursue:

Pursue the Truth by diving deep into His Word.

Studying the Scripture is critical.

The Sword of the Spirit (The Word) is the only offensive weapon against the enemy (along with prayer), so without it, we cannot fight our spiritual battles. Not only does The Word aid us in battle, but it prepares us for the Holy Spirit to reveal things to us.

Proclaim:

It’s important to proclaim His Word, His promises and His prophecy over your life.

Proclaiming is essentially declaring God’s World Plan–Jesus’ first and second coming (Isaiah 55:8-11; Hebrews 4:12; Revelation 1:16; Luke 4:18; Isaiah 12:4; Isaiah 61:1).

God used His breath and His voice to create the world–it’s the same concept for us. Our breath and our voice is vital.

Proclaiming the Scripture over God’s promises is the process of Jesus gathering His church.

In order to proclaim daily, I recommend putting together Proclamation Declarations.

Proclamation Declarations are essentially declarations of proclamation! It is proclaiming His Scripture and His promises out loud!

Prayer:

Prayer is a must for The Queen Routine, and probably comes as no surprise.

There are so many reasons for prayer, but it ultimately builds a relationship between you and Father God, King Jesus and Holy Spirit.

Keep in mind that Jesus teaches his disciples how to pray in Matthew 6:9-13 (The Lord’s Prayer).

In your prayer time, it’s also crucial to be praying for others also known as intercessory praying. If you listened to episode 10 of the show, you already know how important this is.

But in addition to standard prayer time, it’s so important to pray without ceasing, where you continuously pray throughout your day.

Prepare:

Preparing is all about preparing for daily spiritual battle.

One day, I was calling out to God and asking Him to reveal to me my next steps, and I undoubtedly heard the Holy Spirit say to me, “Prepare for my return.”

It’s funny how we can be so wrapped up in our own world that we forget this isn’t our world at all. It’s His.

So, how do we prepare for His return?

We prepare for battle.

But, how do we prepare for battle?

The physical world prepares for battle by sharpening weapons and training our physical bodies, but Scripture tells us that the Word (the “Sword of the Spirit”) and prayer are our offensive weapons (Ephesians 6:10-20).

We prepare for His return by strategically using Scripture and prayer to fight our battles.

That is what the lesson, The Armory, is all about and exactly why the Reclaimed to Reign Membership was created.

To prepare for His return.

3. You must learn to take your thoughts captive.

Now why is this part of the steps? How is this going to help you stop worshiping success & worship Him?

The thing is that the enemy uses our thoughts against us. He is constantly twisting the truth. He wants us to believe the thoughts we have about ourselves are real.

Thoughts like:

I MUST hit the next rank in my network marketing team to be worthy, and find freedom…

I must hit a 6 figure business to keep up and be an expert in my industry…

I MUST lose weight or I’ll never find love…

He’s sneaky like that.

And our thoughts do control our actions. Because if we actually start believing these lies, we can easily become consumed by them, which can then lead us to take action on those beliefs. Which then leads to looking away from Jesus and focusing on ourselves. So, with our thoughts, we must realize what LIES the enemy is feeding us and then replace them with the Truth.

Replace them with what Jesus says.

And that is it.

Those are the 3 steps that you can implement today that will help you keep your eyes focused on Jesus & step away from idolizing the things in this world.

As a recap, they are:

1. Gain awareness & repent
2. develop your own queen routine with the 7 p’s
3. take your thoughts captive and replace the lies with the truth

Now that you have your steps, it’s so important to continue to keep your eyes on Jesus, breakthrough self-sabotage and spiritual warfare, and find a community of like minded Christian women who just GET IT.

Next Steps

Now, speaking of your ideal clients, pains, fears, and desires, I do have a free training for you to check out. It is called, Attract Your Queendom. And yes, we go over pains, fears, and desires, but it’s really about getting to know your ideal client so you can attract them to you and your content. Y’all. This has been a favorite for a couple of years.

I have had quite a few people literally messaged me and tell me that this free training was a game changer for them. They figured out who their ideal client is, what their niche is, and the pains, fears, and desires of their ideal client even when they hadn’t been able to figure it out before (even after paid courses).

If you enjoy the training, I encourage you to prayerfully consider Faith-Fueled Coach Academy. I created FCA to help women like you finally go full-time online in their coaching business with the Holy Spirit leading us both. If you are ready to start and/or scale your faith-fueled coaching business, head on over to www.hannahbrindley.com/fca to learn more about the program, get on the waitlist and/or secure your spot.
And of course, if you have any questions about the program, or just want to talk things over, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me over on Instagram @hannahbrindley or via email at hannah@hannahbrindley.com.