Ep. 196-How to Bear Fruit in Any Area of Your Life

Ecclesiastes 3:1 tells us, "For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven.” As we navigate through life, we will naturally stop doing certain things and start doing new things. In my own life, I have moved out of the phase of being highly involved in my kids’ lives. They are adults now and are learning to manage life on their own.

There are times when God tells us to stop certain activities so that He can move us in a new direction. There are other situations, though, where God may be calling you to simply pause and stop doing something for a season. After that season is completed, then He may call you back to that thing. 

And that’s what I want to talk about in this episode. I’ve felt led over the last couple of weeks to press pause in an area of my life. I’ll share where I’m pressing pause and how I came to the conclusion that this pause is necessary.

So grab your favorite beverage and settle in as we talk about what to do when God tells us to pause.

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• Email - jennifer@jenniferbooth.com
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One of the biggest blessings I get from writing and podcasting comes when God uses something I’ve written or podcasted about to encourage or speak to me months or years later. I have had the privilege of writing monthly devotionals for a denominational magazine several times over the last few years. When I write these devotionals, I have to submit them about six months before they are published. So, when I read them in the month they were written for, I always find that God speaks to me through my own writing.

Just this week, God used one of my past podcast episodes to encourage and speak to me. I knew my time was limited for putting together this episode, so I went back into the archives to find one to re-air that I thought would be encouraging to you this week.

I decided to listen to episode 38, about 5 steps for bearing fruit. The reason I chose this podcast is because I shared in an episode earlier this year that my word of the year is thrive. And I determined that the way we thrive is to bear fruit. So I thought the episode on how to bear fruit would be a good one to share this summer.

When I listened to it, I was surprised to hear myself talking about Psalm 1. This is the Psalm I talked about in the episode about thriving earlier this year. As I listened to what I shared about bearing fruit, God reminded me of things I need to continue to do in my life now to bear fruit. I’m not trying to brag because I feel that it was the Lord who gave me this message, but what I share in this episode is gold. I don’t even remember writing the episode, so I know it was God who wanted me to share this message.

This episode was first published in April 2019, so some things I talk about are no longer applicable to what I am doing now. You will hear a lot about The Planning Woman, my former brand, but there are certain aspects of what God was showing me about The Planning Woman that are still applicable to what I’m doing through Jennifer Booth Ministries.

I also mention offering coaching packages. I am not doing that at this time. So disregard that information. And I talk about a community group I had at the time. That is now the Live It Out Community group which is not on social media. I’ll link it in the show notes so you can check it out.

So grab your favorite beverage and settle in while we learn how to bear fruit.

I hope this episode blesses you!

Resources mentioned in the show:

• Ep. 38-5 Steps for Bearing Fruit
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Connect with Jennifer:

• Email - jennifer@jenniferbooth.com
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Hey, friend! One of the goals I have with this podcast is to bring you practical tools for living out your faith. That’s why I’m excited to share a conversation I had with my friend and ministry mentor Katie Orr about how to pray Scripture.

In this episode, we talk about:

• Resources to help you learn how to study the Bible
• How you can study the Bible regardless of skill or time
• How to ditch perfection in prayer
• How praying Scripture is an effective way to pray

You will hear at the end of this episode about another recording Katie and I did that I said would be in a new program I’ve created. I have not yet launched that program and am still assessing what it is going to look like. But rest assured that I will share that video in some way as soon as I can.

You do not want to miss this super practical episode, so grab your favorite beverage and settle in as we learn how to pray Scripture.

Connect with Katie:

• Her website:   http://www.katieorr.me
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• Email - jennifer@jenniferbooth.com
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Just recently, I’ve had several friends go through difficult times in their lives. Three women I know experienced the death of their mamas this week. Another family has a 20-year-old daughter who just got diagnosed with cancer. A friend of mine has a 35-year-old son who was diagnosed with cancer a couple of months ago. And then, there are people who are experiencing relationship issues, job loss, or other difficulties. 

Sometimes I wonder how I can help in these situations. Do I take food? Do I call them? How can I be of help? And because I’m not sure what would be most helpful, I confess I often don’t do anything beyond sharing a message on social media.

I believe God has opened my eyes lately to see the needs of people around me. Specifically, those going through a difficult time. So that’s led me to think through how I could help them and show them the love of Christ through my actions.

In this episode, I will share some things you can do when you see someone going through a difficult time. So, grab your favorite beverage and settle in while we learn how to help others.

Connect with Jennifer:

• Email - jennifer@jenniferbooth.com
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Hey, friend! I'm back with another episode from the archives. I've had a busier-than-expected June, so I'm taking the opportunity to share some of my favorite past episodes. I'll be back with fresh content in July.

This week I'm sharing an interview I did with Eva Kubasiak in May of 2022. We talked about a ton of things related to studying the Bible. Eva shares some of her best tips to help you develop a Bible study routine so that you can study the Bible every day. 

Packed full of practical, actionable ideas, I hope you enjoy this episode!

Check out the original episode here for all the show notes and links.

Connect with Jennifer:

• Email - jennifer@jenniferbooth.com
• Instagram - http://www.instagram.com/jenniferboothministries
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Have you ever thought about the legacy you will leave when you die? I'm not trying to be a downer, but we need to think about what people will remember about us when we're gone.

As believers, our hope should be that our lives pointed to Christ.

In an effort to simplify my summer, I'm sharing a couple of past episodes over the next two weeks. Today's episode was initially released as episode 13, where I talked about leaving a godly legacy.

You'll want to listen in and learn about two people in the Bible, one who followed God and one who didn't. Also, I share ways you can become more intimately acquainted with God.

Next Steps:

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Connect with Jennifer:

• Email - jennifer@jenniferbooth.com
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I have a confession to make. I am a recovering perfectionist. Maybe it’s in the way I’m wired to be a rule follower, but I tend to let perfectionism get in the way of how I live out my faith. And, just being honest here, perfectionism has hindered progress in most areas of my life.

Doing things with excellence is great. But if we allow perfectionism to take over, we can become paralyzed and not do even the smallest tasks we need to do.

At various times in my life, perfectionism has kept me from having a meaningful quiet time with God. And as I’ve talked with other women about their quiet times, they make statements that make me think perfectionism is hindering their efforts to spend time with God.

In this episode, I’m going to share four reasons perfectionism is keeping you from having a meaningful quiet time with God. These reasons are ones I’ve noticed in the lives of other women who say they don’t have time to go deep with God.

So grab your favorite beverage and settle in while I share these four reasons and give you some tips for overcoming procrastination when it comes to spending time with God.

Next Steps:

Join the Live It Out Community

Listen to related episodes:

• Ep. 180: 5 Tools to Help You Have an Effective Quiet Time
• Ep. 178: How I Fit Quiet Time Into My Morning Routine
• Ep. 125: Incorporating Journaling Into Your Quiet Time

Connect with Jennifer:

• Email - jennifer@jenniferbooth.com
• Instagram - http://www.instagram.com/jenniferboothministries
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I’ve talked a lot about reading the Bible lately. And I have sensed that God is moving me in the direction of encouraging women to read the Bible consistently. I’ve learned that when I read the Bible consistently, I’m better able to live out my faith in a way that honors and glorifies God.

Maybe you want to read the Bible consistently but just can’t get motivated to start. It could be that you find the Bible hard to understand. Or you don’t know how the Old and New Testaments relate to each other. It’s possible you think you don’t have enough time to read the Bible where you’ll understand it or get something out of it. Any one of these reasons could make prioritizing reading the Bible a challenge. 

I want so badly for you to experience the fullness of what God has done for you through His Son Jesus. And I want you to fall in love with the Bible just as much as I have. Now this is not to say we are idolizing the Bible itself. I’m talking about loving it as God’s Word and desiring to read it so we can know what God has to say to us.

In this episode, I will share three reasons for prioritizing reading the Bible. Hopefully, these will resonate with you and give you some ideas of how you can prioritize your Bible reading.

So, grab your favorite beverage and settle in as we talk about prioritizing Bible reading.

Resources Mentioned in this Episode:

• Ep. 135-Making Time for Bible Study
• Ep. 178-How I Fit Quiet Time Into My Morning Routine

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Hey, friend! Last week in episode 188, I talked about why we don’t have to do it all. In that episode, I encouraged you to figure out what tasks or responsibilities you can let go of that are either unnecessary for you to do because someone else can do them or are ones that you are doing to please someone or meet someone else’s expectations. The goal is to quit thinking we have to do it all.

I’m taking my own advice and am going to take a bit of a shortcut with this week’s episode. I’m swamped with finishing up two seminary classes this week as I’m recording this episode. I have two research papers due in a few days, so I need to focus all of my energies on completing those well.

So, I’ve dug back into the archives and found an episode that I thought was relevant to where we are in the month. This episode is going live on May 31, 2023, so that means I’ve released a new Scripture Writing Plan for the month of June. I thought it would be helpful as we’re moving into the second half of the year to talk about Scripture Writing. Maybe you’ve been using my Scripture Writing Plans for a while, and you want to uplevel how you are utilizing the plans. Or maybe you don’t use the plans, but you are looking for a way to go deeper in your personal Bible study.

I’m repeating episode 122, which originally aired in February of 2022. I talked about what Scripture Writing is and six different ways you can enhance your Scripture writing practice.

I’ll be back next week with a fresh episode. I hope you enjoy this refresher on the Scripture writing plans.

Resources Mentioned:

• Episode 122
• Live It Out Community
• Grab the latest Scripture Writing Plan

There is a lie that has been going around for decades now that says women can and should do it all. What I mean by doing it all is having a career, raising a family, being a good wife, and taking care of your home. And as Christians, we’ve added being a good Christian to this list. You know, having the perfect quiet time with a cup of coffee and a lit candle with the perfect journal and highlighters.

While all of these things are good in and of themselves, when they become our main focus instead of God, they can become idols. And this lie that women can and should do it all is just that, a lie.

As believers, our main purpose in life is to honor and glorify God in all we do. From there, our lives can look drastically different from one woman to another and one season to the next.

In this episode, I want to share with you how we can stop believing this lie and learn to focus on what God has called us to do in our current season of life.

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