Habits of Hope: Cultivating a Deeper Life with God

28.Redefining Success: Trusting God with Our Work and Our Worth, Part 1

• Ginger Harrington • Season 1 • Episode 28

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Do you feel like your worth is tied to how much you accomplish? In today’s high-performance culture, it’s easy to measure ourselves by our productivity. But the truth is, your value isn’t found in what you do—it’s rooted in who you are in Christ. In this episode, we explore the struggle of work-driven self-worth and perfectionism through the lens of Colossians 3:23-24. Discover how embracing your identity in Christ can free you from the need to prove yourself and how Sabbath rest helps shift your focus from performance to purpose.

🎁 Download your free copy of 15 Habits of Hope for Work featuring the best tips from the full series so you can keep growing with grace, not grind.

Habit of Hope
Your worth is not in what you do, but in who you are in Christ.

Key Takeaways

  • When you tie your identity to work, it creates a cycle of striving, comparison, and burnout.
  • Colossians 3:23-24 reminds us to work for the Lord, not for the approval of others.
  • Sabbath rest is a practical way to surrender control and trust God with your work.
  • Perfectionism is rooted in fear, but God's grace invites us to live from freedom, not performance.
  • Embracing your identity in Christ allows you to work with purpose, not pressure.


"Your worth is in Christ, not in your productivity."
"When we work from our worth, not for our worth, we experience real freedom."

Why You’ll Love This Episode
If you’ve ever felt the pressure to prove yourself, this episode will encourage you to step out of the performance trap. You’ll gain biblical insights and practical steps to break free from work-driven self-worth and embrace God’s perspective.

Chapters

00:00 The Pressure to Prove Yourself

03:10 Finding Identity in Christ

06:00 The Balance of Work and Worth

11:59 Prioritizing Your Identity

18:07 Trusting God with Your Work

23:48 Embracing Limits as a Gift

Resources & Links

Habits of Hope Podcast is for informational and inspirational purposes only. This podcast is not a substitute for professional advice—spiritual, medical, legal, or otherwise.


Ginger Harrington (00:00.282)

We live in a high performance, hustle culture. Social media ups the ante on that tremendously. There's nothing I do on social media as an author and content creator that I'm not seeing immediate stats and in, and numbers of whether or not people like it or engage with it. 


How we view our work and maintaining a God -focused motivation and perspective is something that we have to continually work at and be mindful of, and this is why it is an important habit of hope. 


So today's habit of hope:Embrace your identity in Christ rather than seek your worth from your work.


Like I said, this one's a hard one and  it's in the nitty gritty nuances of our motivations. And I s frequently need a heart check and my emotions often will tell me if I am out of balance in this area. I am likely to experience discouragement or frustration or just that insidious sense of not being enough.


When I feel that, I know that my motivations have shifted from finding my identity in Christ to grabbing that sense of worth, trying to prove myself. So we're going to get started with a bit of soul talk today and go deep into the heart. Have you ever caught yourself trying to measure your value by your productivity?


And maybe you've thought, I need to do more. I've been there. And in fact, one of my most read blog posts is about this very struggle. It turns out that many of you feel the same way. Today, we're gonna unpack why this happens and how we can shift our focus. Because the truth is, your worth is in who you are, friend, not in what you do.


Ginger Harrington (02:23.626)

or how well you do it. Being productive enough has been a very long time struggle for me. This unrealistic expectation came from my childhood and unfortunately then of course I've carried it into adulthood and even today I struggle with feeling like I haven't done enough in a day to either warrant rest or feeling accomplished. It's that never ending to -do list. I get to the bottom of it and then I need to do one more thing. 


I'm working on this. I know. And the flip side of it is when we are productive and work is going well and we're performing to a high level, it feels good. It feeds our ego. It feeds our pride. It feeds that sense of self -worth, which so easily can shift from resting in our identity in Christ to how well we're performing. It feels good when we're productive.


We love that and it's important that we get things done and the level of our work is important. What we're talking about today is not throwing out the baby with the bathwater saying, “Okay, I don't have to do anything or it doesn't matter whether or not I work with excellence”. What we're going to be talking about is the motivation of the heart and where we are looking to find our self -worth and our identity.


Larissa and I have talked many times in different episodes about struggling with perfectionism. One area that morphs into this subject for me is the fear of disappointing other people that I value, whether or not it is my spouse, my kids, my coworker, my agent. I want to do a great job with my work and I bring that into everything that I do. And it's so easy for it to shift from

a motivation to give my best to a motivation to evaluate and draw worth from my best. I think we can all relate to this. 


Our main verse today is Colossians 3:23-24. “Whatever you do, do your work heartily as for the Lord rather than men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of inheritance.It is the Lord Christ whom you serve.”


Ginger Harrington (04:46.737)


This gets to be muddy water so often, sis, right? It definitely does. And this verse has been a great one for me to remember because as you were talking about, I definitely struggle with perfectionism, fear of failing or disappointing others and remembering why we're doing what we're doing. And of course, where we get our identity is key, absolutely. 


Let's unpack this first just a little bit before we get into our points and there may be a little bit of overlap and that's okay because when it comes to this subject, we need to revisit it again and again and again. So whatever you do, doing is working. Doing is a level of effort that we are expending, and it touches every area of life. It touches how I keep my home,

how I navigate as a wife and a mom,  my professional work, ministry, relationships, and my spiritual life. So whatever you do, whether it's simple things like what you're eating, how you're responding when you get frustrated, how you take care of your body.


How you navigate your work, whatever you do, do your work heartily. That's a word that we don't use a whole lot today. It means doing it well, giving it your all, and that means doing your best, but that doesn't mean perfectionism.


It just means doing your best because one of the things I've learned in therapy is that our best can be different in different seasons. When your kids were younger, your best is different. When your kids are in high school, your best is different. When I had my spouse and he was very much alive, my best is different. My bandwidth is different than it is now. So I work at remembering I'm giving my best in this season, in this moment.


Ginger Harrington (07:09.273)

And not for comparison. It is my best and your best. We could be the same age, both going through menopause possibly, and still our best is different. And for me, one of the things that comes to mind when we're talking about doing whatever we're doing, our work, doing our work heartily, I just think about the beginning of that word with heart, do it with your whole heart. And that is doing, giving your best.


But doing it with a pure heart and a whole heart. Keeping that God-focused motivation is part of doing it heartily. Do your work heartily as for the Lord. That's part of giving your heart to your work by having an attitude of this is for God. This is service. This is gratitude for what God's given me. Do your work heartily as for the Lord rather than men. Because as soon as we

start performing and working for men what they think what they demand what they want whether or not they approve, we start looking to them for an evaluation. We begin to let others define whether or not it's good whether or not it was worthy or worthwhile. It’s  so easy to shift from grounding your identity in Christ to the approval of others.


Fear of man is a big piece of this puzzle. Fear is a relentless taskmaster when we allow it to drive our motivations and our work. There's so much freedom here in these two verses.


And then here's a piece of the identity that may have slipped by our awareness, but when Paul writes that, that you, it's from the Lord, knowing, not wondering, but knowing that from the Lord, you will receive the reward of inheritance. This is part of the promised response, the promised effect of putting our faith in Jesus.


Ginger Harrington (09:34.123)

that we have an eternal inheritance called eternal life. We have the inheritance as a child of God that is firm. is steadfast. We can know it when we have committed our life to Christ, when we have received Christ as the one who has paid the penalty for our sins and we have trusted him for eternal life. Amen. Amen. That will preach every day of the week.


Yes. And you know, a lot of times we don't necessarily think about this verse as an identity verse, but knowing that we are the Lords and that we have an inheritance in Christ because we know that we are a child of God, that is core to our keeping our identity in Christ. And then the last golden nugget at the end of that verse, it is the Lord whom you serve. And you know, I'll be honest, sometimes I totally forget that.


Sometimes my effort and my work gets a little bit too much about me. That’s part of being human. Part of our spiritual growth and a deeper life in Christ is coming to those areas in life where we are aware of wour weaknesses and faults, and then are inviting the Lord to transform us. We depend on him to do that work. And this is certainly an area where we need the Lord's help. 


Larissa, any thoughts about this verse before we move on? 


Larissa Traquair

I just think it's such a great reminder and I love that you brought it up that it may not be the kind of verse we go to for identity and yet unpacking it and this is why we dig deep into the Word. This is why we are in God's Word consistently and then why we're called to do life together because you bring up a great point that will give me a lot of food for thought and


as you struggle with that last piece, it is the Lord Christ whom you serve. And when I bring it back to that, then I'm not fearing man, and I'm not worried about disappointing someone else if I am in line with what the Lord has called me to do, and I'm doing what He has called me to do. Great verse, I love it. Right. So the first point that we're going to make on this today, and we've already touched on it a good bit, but it's like this is an action.


Ginger Harrington (12:02.763)

This is part of how we do it. Prioritize your identity in Christ. It can be so easy to think, yeah, yeah, identity in Christ, you know, that's theology and it doesn't really impact my daily life. Friends, understanding and living out of your identity in Christ impacts every moment of your life, everything that you do.


This is the foundation and we need to make it a priority because it is so easy to get busy with life and fear of man and our work and performance standards and just not think about it. And the enemy loves for us to not be thinking about this because it's so easy to shift to your flesh and begin  defining yourself based on what others say or what you think or your performance versus grounding your identity in who God says you are. So a couple of talking points on that. It's so important to keep coming back to your identity in Christ. And I mentioned just a few minutes ago that there are some lists available and we'll link some of that to the notes as well because


It doesn't have to be every day, but I at least once a year try to meditate through and review and reflect on verses about my identity in Christ. How about you, Larissa? How do you keep your thoughts and priority on your identity in Christ? 


Larissa Traquar

This has been a big struggle for me and something that I have been learning over these past few years of how important it is. And so if we remember how important it is, then we're a little bit more motivated or it will come to mind more. And I do something very similar, finding those scriptures that remind me of who I am in Christ and also focusing on the characteristics of God. So if God is good, right, and he's only an ever good, then I can trust even that particular situation I find myself. 


(14:25.857)


This is such a great point, Ginger, and I can tell I am better operating from my identity in Christ. I have a lot of work to do in this area and I'm excited about it though. That's the neat thing about all of this that we are talking about is we get to do this and the Lord wants to transform us. He's in this and he's gonna help us succeed in it. So we're not just trying to conjure up something. This is God's will for our lives.


We get to do it and not only do we benefit, our relationships benefit from us knowing where our identity is. that's a great point too. We'll need to unpack that one in a separate episode because that is its whole thing in and of itself. One of the reasons why we want to regularly review or study or meditate or affirm who we are in Christ, what those details are, what those truths are, the specific scriptures, is it's important for us to know that. And it's important for us to recognize that what is true about us spiritually is the most true thing about us, because our past history tells a different message. When I think back to past history, I really struggle with that fear of disappointing people.


Well, that came from things that happened in my past. We've touched on this type of stuff before, but a life message from my past history that plays in my mind so easily is a disappointment. Yeah, that is not my identity in Christ. is not. But emotionally, sometimes that is a message about what I believe about myself and part of growing a deeper life.


and connection with God is that we're learning to recognize when those false messages of identity pop up and being able to recognize and say, no, that's not true. And be able to tell ourselves the truth. I am a child of God. I am loved by God. I am accepted by God. Christ died for me. I've been redeemed. You know, there are so many, so, so, so many truths.


Ginger Harrington (16:49.031)

And so it is well worth our time on a regular basis to review them. If we don't know them, study them. And to some of them I've memorized because I just need them at the ready because this is an area where I do struggle. Let's continue on to our next point. And this our verse today touched on that. Remember that it is God's work, not yours. It is God who we serve.


It's God who's called us. It's God who's given us our gifts, our talents, our capabilities, our opportunities, and even the desire to do what we're doing and to serve Him. So it's God's work. So when we invite God into the process, it shifts from performance to partnering with God. It shifts from my ability I'm tapping into and relying on Christ to provide.


in my work, in the moment, in this specific task. I'm also relying on Christ to help me have a pure heart and a right motivation. I'm relying on Christ not to give into the fear of man or that prove it, I must prove it mentality. And I need that every day. How about you, sis? I definitely need it every day. I don't even have to leave my house and I need it. I know,


I think I went to the of the bed you wake up in in the morning. I can definitely I need it. I need him more of him less of me. I love that we need more of God less of me and all of us need less ego less flesh in our work and more Christ identity art in our work. We're the motivation is really to


serve and glorify the Lord in partnership with him. And honestly, it's a lot more fun and a lot less pressure to work this way. I love Dallas Willard and I've just learned so much from his wisdom over the years and his books and things like that. And in the book, Living in Christ's Presence, John Ortberg interviews him and in some of his last talks and interviews that are in this book,


Ginger Harrington (19:13.067)

And they're talking about this very subject. Dallas gave this illustration that has helped me tremendously. So friends, I want to share it with you. He talks about that. We really need to learn to trust God with our work and to give our best effort, but not trust our best. He, you know, compares that to bowling. I know, right? Like what does this got to do with bowling? We invite God into the process. We give God our best effort and we release.


our work, we release the outcomes to him. There comes a point where you got to let go of the ball. Yes, you do. And the ball is going to go down the lane and it's going to hit what it hits. But once you let go, you can't control it. No, you have no control over it. And the same is true of our work. Once we have done the work, we can't necessarily control the outcomes.


You know, when we've worked really hard and the outcome isn't what we hoped for or expected or felt like we had to get this certain level of something in order for it to be okay. You know, we're trying to control the outcomes. Release your work to God and trust him with the outcome. I tell you what, the Lord puts that image of letting go of the bowling ball in my head a lot. That's a great visual because though I don't bowl, I'm very familiar with the game.


And this will be something that I will be thinking about as well in the future. Right, you know. So involving God in your daily activities, this is, you know, those habits of hope that we talk about so frequently, just inviting God in the all that you're doing in the day and staying connected with Him, acknowledging that both our efforts and the results are in His control. And a practical way to do this is to offer your work to Him.


When we see our work as an offering rather than a performance, it changes our perspective. And one of my favorite verses that touches on this is Romans 12, 1, and I like the way it's stated in the message. So here's what I want you to do. Yeah, with just that very phrase, you got my attention. So here's what I want you to do. God helping


Ginger Harrington (21:36.863)

It's not all on us to do this in our own strength. Take your everyday ordinary life. You're sleeping, you're eating, you're going to work and you're walking around life and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing that you can do for him. And so that offering, and this is something I talk about a lot in my book, Holy in the Moment. Offering your moments to the Lord makes them holy.


and our work is sacred, even non -ministry related work is sacred when we are entrusting it to the Lord and have that right heart motivation where our identity is grounded in Christ rather than how we perform and what we do. Larissa, how about a verse that's meaningful for you on this? I really like what Proverbs says. It has a great verse to help us remember that it is God's


and that He helps us. Very similar. So this is out of Proverbs 16, 1 through 3, and this is out of the NLT. We can make our own plans, but the Lord gives the right answer. People may be pure in their own eyes, but the Lord examines their motives. Commit your actions to the Lord, and your plans will succeed. And it reminds me that I can make my own plans, and there is freedom in that. The Lord has gifted


and given us freedom and then also we're called to commit it to Him. Lord, I want to do a podcast. Lord, I want to volunteer at this certain place. Lord, I want to get a new job. And you take that to the Lord and commit it to Him, release it and see what He has to say about that. So I like that verbiage in Proverbs.


Yes. And you know, sometimes we make plans and do work and it feels like that the answer, you know, that God gives a no, or he doesn't open up an opportunity and that can be really discouraging. can be disheartening, frustrating when you feel like you've got a great plan and you're going after it 110 % and nothing is working.


Ginger Harrington (23:58.023)

And it just feels like the Lord's not in it, not blessing it. Being able to step back and remember, hey, I make my plans prayerfully, but God is the one who is given the answers he's providing. And he may be doing something different right now. And letting that be our key to connect with the Lord and seek. What does he want us to know about this? You know, are we on the right? Are we heading in the right direction? Are we doing the things that we need to be doing right now?


And then sometimes the issues of problem with motivation. And the next part of that verse talks about that the Lord weighs the motivations. He knows, He knows what's in our heart. He knows better than we do why we do what we do. Sometimes it's just that growing process of learning to surrender our motivation and our desires and our fears and our work and how all of those get all tangled up together.


being able to surrender that to him. So I love that. And it really does point to, you know, God and the outcomes that God loves to bless our work. Yes, he does. I agree. We do. But he's more interested in what's happening on the heart level than what's happening on the success level. Right. And to him, definition of success is different. That's what I have to learn. Right. Is that I, what I define as success,


is different from the Lord, and then that's why we wait, and we wait patiently, and we trust. All of these things that we're talking about is really redefining success from a Christian perspective versus the world's perspective. We are just partway into this, and it's such high


Content here if this is resonating with you just copy the link and text it to a friend that you might know who's struggling with Self -worth and identity and their work because this is something that we all struggle with and we're gonna finish up today with this last point of Embracing our limits as a gift. So Fran I'm gonna pass this one off to you for a sec. This is a great


Ginger Harrington (26:14.835)

Embrace our limits as a gift and just that statement alone We could spend the whole time unpacking that because that is not something I wake up every morning going. Okay today I'm gonna embrace my limits as a gift One thing we talked about is practicing Sabbath and soul rest helps us hold our work with open hands We trust God with our unfinished work as we set aside weekly time to rest and worship a few years ago God impressed


upon Ginger the importance of following his example in the creation account in Genesis, not only to practice Sabbath, but that it is an act of worshipful rest. And for me, I have started doing this. I've been doing this about six months, maybe a little bit longer, practicing Sabbath. And we know that it doesn't have to be Sunday. It doesn't have to be Friday night to Saturday night. It's different for each family. And we've talked a little bit about


There's no comparison. There's not a thing that says you have to do it this day or that day. It's just a commandment to rest and God gave us that perfect example. I do it on Sunday. I do it all in one day and I have noticed a difference both in my attitude and stress level and also it has helped me focus on God more. And one way


One boundary I set up for myself is there's no work, right? So if I have something I need to get done by Monday, I get it done by Saturday. I don't do laundry. However, I'll do dishes because I don't like dishes to pile up. I know other people I've read Jordan Reiner has a book about this and he talks about they don't do dishes either. And that is okay. Whatever you want to do, however you set up the parameters, of course, you're going to talk with the Lord about how that looks.


And it will be different for each of us other than the fact that we are taking intentional time to stop and rest both that physical rest and then that soul rest that you talk a lot about Ginger. Right. And you know, when we are allowing pressure driven informants culture and expectation, that fear of failing and that insistence on success, we allow that to be our driver.


Ginger Harrington (28:37.247)

our motivator, our heart motivation. It's very difficult to step back if the work isn't done. It's very difficult to set the work down before it's finished, before it's at the level that we want it to be. And, you know, sometimes there's a deadline where there might be not really be much of a choice. There is a reality check in our, in this day and age, but organizing our life around this principle of taking


regular time each week to rest and trust God with our work that even though we are going to take time to rest, that the work is going to get done, that He's going to be with us in the process and we can trust Him with it. And that for me is so hard when I feel pressured.


And it's also hard for me when I feel super enthusiastic when I get going with the Lord on content and things like that. I'm cooking and creativity is snapping and popping and I don't want to stop. Absolutely. And then there's other times where it feels like such hard work and the ideas aren't coming and the responses aren't coming. The rejection letters come in when we're exhausted. We end


facing the challenge of burnout in our work. When we're exhausted, we are less resilient in our faith and our emotions to be able to handle when things aren't going well or when the pace is super fast. But having those regular times where we know we can step back and rest and guilt free rest. I love that Jesus, that the Lord has given us a permission slip to stop and rest.


every single week. I love that. I think we really have to redefine how our culture has presented the idea of Sabbath. Jesus talked about how the Pharisees, the scribes and the Pharisees had a very legalistic focus of Sabbath and it was so rigid. And he said, the Sabbath is for man, not man for the Sabbath. God gave us Sabbath as a blessing. ultimately,


Ginger Harrington (30:52.745)

That blessing helps us keep our motivation and our focus on God in our work and have more longevity and energy and vitality and creativity and all the things that we need to be able to work well. We sustain that by regular practices of rest. So that rest piece is one aspect of it. And then the trust piece, trusting God.


that even if I'm not working today, that God's got it covered, it's going to be okay, that I can trust Him with my unfinished work. I can trust Him with my work that may not have been as successful as I would have liked. I can trust Him if the opportunities aren't there right now. I can trust Him, whatever it is, I can trust Him. And Sabbath is a way of doing


that's a mouthful, friend. That is. And practically speaking, what I just want to make sure our listeners understand from my perspective is that this was a process. This didn't happen the first Sunday that I committed to it. probably didn't happen the first month of Sundays. It took me at least a few months to create this new habit. So there's much grace in there. I didn't always get everything done on Saturday. Had to do a little bit of it on Sunday.


And now I'm in this really good groove. However, just like you said, there's been a couple Sundays where not everything got done and something had a deadline for Monday morning. I did it and I showed myself much grace and I didn't then tack on other things like, I've blown it. So let's just make Sunday a work day. did the one thing and then I moved forward. So I showed myself much grace. And then one of the other benefits is coming out of that is now that I've been doing it for a while, I crave


It's not a Saturday night, gosh, now I've got a Sabbath. I get to Sabbath, I get to spend extra time lingering with the Lord on Sunday morning and the entire day and rest. And so I crave it more now and now some of it's seeping into my Saturday as well. I'm starting to transition sooner on Saturday prepping for Sunday. So there's much grace if you start this practice and just know it's gonna take a little while to get there.


Ginger Harrington (33:11.169)

The important thing is, you know, to ask the Lord, Lord, how do you want for me to rest? How do you want for me to Sabbath? And being able to recognize that it's an important rhythm of our life. That's a gift. It's a blessing. And it's one of the ways that God has designed for us to stay deeply connected to


and deeply connected to the work that we do the other days of the week with a right heart. It helps us to stay focused on God, which also helps us to keep our identity grounded in Christ rather than our performance. So friends, we have covered a lot of ground today. Just to back up just a second, we are talking about our worth is in who we are, not what we


Our work has so much value. We're not saying your work isn't valuable, but your value is not in your work. Your identity does not come from whether you are a doctor or a mother or a writer or a business person. That's not who you are at your core. In Christ, you are a loved, accepted, valued,


forgiven, blessed child of God and reflecting on those truths of our identity in Christ is so powerful and so practical and so important to helping us stay in a place of freedom where we're not trying to draw our worth and our value from our work because it's such a temptation and


Is an area that as an author and a speaker and working in the traditional publishing field, it's a ha it can be a high pressure field with incredible amounts of expectation of what it takes to get that next book contract or how well your books sell and you know, all of those types of things. But regardless of what field we're in, we need.


Ginger Harrington (35:27.297)

to have that identity in Christ versus our performance. We need to be able to offer our moments and our work and our effort to the Lord and trust Him with the outcomes. And it is a good and holy practice to practice each week, rest and worship and Sabbath, trusting God with the work that is not being done during that time because we've committed that time


to rest, renewal, refreshment, and our relationship with God. So, friend, Larissa, thanks for all of the nuggets of wisdom that you dropped in today. Friends, we're gonna continue this topic for at least one more week, maybe two, we'll see. But we're gonna put all of our tips together into a single spot that you can download and print them out.


And this will be a game changer for you. can go back to that list and remind yourself, get those nuggets, get those scriptures, those tips that will help you remember and stay in that place of working from your worth rather than working for your worth. That changes everything, friends. So again, I hope that you will leave us a review and share this podcast.


with someone that you think could really benefit from this encouragement, because this is powerful, friends. These are habits of hope that make all the difference. As we wrap up today, remember that the journey of finding our worth in Christ is ongoing. It's not something that's once and done. It's something that we do every day. Walking in victory and freedom is something that we do.


continually as we bring our heart and our motivation and our perspective and our work to the Lord so that everything that we're doing, we're doing it with a heart for Christ, a heart to give God our best and to trust him with the rest. so friends, it's been such a great conversation. Larissa, thanks so much for joining us today. Well, friends, we will see you all next week.