Episode 26 - I Quit: How to Break Free from Exhaustion and Learn to Trust God.

What does it really mean to say, "I quit"?

In this special Launch Day episode, Val Mitchell shares the heart behind her new book, I Quit: How to Break Free from Exhaustion and Learn to Trust God. Through personal testimony and biblical truth, she reminds us that quitting isn't about giving up on life—it's about letting go of the burdens God never intended for us to carry.

Reflecting on the past four weeks of studying Martha, Mary, Moses, and Elijah, Val explores the hidden causes of exhaustion and points listeners to Jesus' invitation in Matthew 11:28-30 to exchange weariness for His rest.

With honesty and encouragement, Val shares how trying to be "Superwoman" left her emotionally, spiritually, and physically exhausted—and how a life-changing encounter with God taught her to stop relying on her own strength and begin trusting His.

If you're overwhelmed by responsibilities, carrying hidden pain, battling fear or anxiety, or simply tired of trying to do it all, this episode is your invitation to lay your burdens at Jesus' feet and experience the rest only He can give.

In This Episode You'll Learn:

•  Why saying "I Quit" is an act of faith—not defeat. 
•  Four common causes of exhaustion and how to overcome them. 
•  What Jesus meant when He said, "Come to Me... Take My yoke." 
•  How surrender leads to freedom, peace, and lasting rest. 
•  Practical steps to stop carrying what God never asked you to bear. 

Key Scripture:
Matthew 11:28-30

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest... Take my yoke upon you and learn from me... and you will find rest for your souls."

✨ I Quit: How to Break Free from Exhaustion and Learn to Trust God is now available on Amazon.

Reflection Question:
What is one burden you're ready to quit carrying so you can fully trust God?

Welcome to Valetha's Greatest Moments with God, a podcast for women who desire to hear God's voice, find healing, and grow closer to Him.

Each week, Val Mitchell shares personal stories, biblical insights, and powerful revelations from her own walk with God. Through real-life experiences and practical faith lessons, you'll discover how God speaks in everyday moments, guides us through difficult seasons, and invites us into a deeper relationship with Him.

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Until next time,

Hear God's Voice.
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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:34

Today is a good, good day. I am wearing, and it's showing up backwards, I think, but I am changing. And I have to tell you why I'm wearing this shirt in a second. But in the meantime, my name is Val Mitchell. If you just happen to just click on this session, I welcome you here. And every Saturday at 10 a.m., we all come together to talk about special topics that are near and dear to us, something that God wants to share or ultimately to get us moving and shaking in the things of our purpose and destiny. Amen. And this week I'm excited because it's my official launch day of IQ. It is how to break free from exhaustion. It is up in Amazon. Grab your copy today. It is now available. So if you recall, for the past four weeks, I came on live every Thursday, and we talked about the reasons many of us reach a point to say, I quit. Now we talked about not just, oh, I quit life or I quit my family, but what is it in our lives that are causing us to be so exhausted that we had to recognize it. And then from that, with God's help, with trusting in God, say, you know what? I quit doing this. I'm going to trust God a little bit more. If you don't recall what we talked about, we looked at how things were interrupting us in our minds, in our spirits, that no matter even with sleep, we can sleep one hour, we can sleep 10 hours. It did not fix the exhaustion. And if you recall, we walked through Martha's life. Martha was a good friend of Jesus. That every time he came into town, she opened her home with us. But we saw in the Bible that she was the type of woman that was into every detail. So she did so much. She always overextended herself to the point that when Jesus came over one time, she said, Jesus, get my sister Mary to help because I'm exhausted. I'm doing all this stuff. And we learned that with God, He doesn't ask us to be overextended and do those things. He asks us just to come to Him and allow Him to carry those burdens. Amen. Week two, we dealt with those hidden burdens, those things that we carry on the inside that may have happened, a traumatic experience, loss, grief, separation from someone we care about. But we try to mask it and we try to bury it and keep pressing. But what we didn't realize is that was the root of the issue, which is causing our exhaustion. And what we got out of that discussion is that God says, Bring me those things, bring me those hidden burdens. You had traumatic issue loss or traumatic experience. Bring it to God. Week three, we talked about responsibilities. Me as a single corporate mom, I got children's responsibilities. I got work, oh my gosh, work responsibilities. Those come with responsibilities as well. Not alone with just normal household things and friends. And then if you got family that pull on you because you're that dependable one, you're that one they can count on. All of that stuff that you carry creates exhaustion. So we learned in week three by looking at the life of Moses, where his father-in-law Jeffro came in and said, Moses, you're doing too much. You gotta release some of that responsibility. Yes, each and everything that you're carrying has to be done. There's no ifs, ands, the but. All of it has to be completed. But God never said all of that had to be done by you. So we learn how to be wiser in managing the things that we are carrying. You delegate some things, you prioritize, okay, I can focus on this today, and I don't really have to touch that till later. We kind of talked about those types of things that create exhaustion in week three. And then finally, last week, we dug into well, who I love the most was the life of Elijah, where sometimes we allow fear, we allow anxiety, we allow those hidden pressures that come at us. As a life of a busy mom, a life of a corporate woman, even men, you deal with pressures that come from life on top of all the exhaustion activities that you go through. Amen. And what we learned in last week's message was all of that sometimes pushes us into isolation. Where we get to a point where we're not saying I quit about getting rid of those things. We just say I quit everything. I don't want to be bothered, I don't want to deal with people, I'm not doing any more responsibilities. I quit. And we talked about that. And we talked about how God came looking for Elijah when he reached that point and hid in a cave. And we said that God sees you, God knows what you're going through, and God understands those barriers. I even shared my personal test testimony from the book that God said, Hey, I know what it's like being a single mother. I know what it's like carrying all those burdens alone. I come to help. And he told Elijah the same thing. I come to help. So we dealt with that last week. So each week we talked about specific reasons of how we become exhausted. And no, I didn't capture everything, but I tried to hit the main points. A lot of us are just trying to do it all. We want to be a good wife. I will be a good wife one day in Jesus' name. We want to be a good mother. We want to be a good person in the office, a good employee that we're signed up for. Even if you own your own business, you want to be that good person that's faithful to your customers. We know that's what you want. You even want to be good to God, you want to please God in your walk. All of these things we recognize. But what God gave me the heart and desire to write this book called I Quit is that He sees that. But what He wants us to do in return, He wants us to trust Him, go to Him and allow Him to take your burdens and put on His yoke. And we'll talk a little bit more about that. Amen. So what do we do today? When I wrote I quit, I really wasn't telling people to quit life. I really wasn't saying, like when Elijah went into the cave. I'm done. I quit. I really quit. I have reached those moments. I have. But I learned how to come to God with those frustrations. I learned how to say, okay, God, you allowed all these things to come my way. And what many of us do, which I was doing at that time, is that when the burdens, just like I had that example of a purse where you're constantly putting things into it, where eventually the straps on that purse or the wrapping around the purse begins to break because it was never meant to carry that much. But we depended, I depended on my own strength. I thought I was super woman. I grew up in an era where women were starting to walk into their independence back in the 70s. I'm telling my age. And during that time, there used to be all the commercials on TV that talked about I can fry up the bacon, the da da, I can put it in the pan, the I can be everything to please my man or whatever she said, because I'm a woman. We even had Shaka Khan and then Whitney Houston did the remake, said, I'm every woman that you need. I mean, that is the era many of us grew up in, right? So we looked at it as a good thing when you came to us and said, Hey, do this for me. Hey, take that for me. Hey, do this. Hey, don't forget you still got to take care of your man. Hey, don't forget you still got to take care of your children. Hey, I need this and I need you to do it for me. And back then is every woman. So we took it, right? One thing I never even knew I was supposed to do was to go to God with that. I never knew it. I figured God equipped me. I'm superwoman. I can take it, bring it on, right? I'm gonna get it done. But what I fell into the trap, which many of us did, is I reached a breaking point. I reached a point where I wanted to quit everything. I got divorced during that time. Honest, that's true. Reason I know a lot of the reasons I got divorced because I had so much on my plate that I couldn't take care of home like it's supposed to be taken care of. I couldn't take of my husband at the time, like he needed to be taken care of in our marriage. My children and I started spatting big time because I neglected their needs because I'm too big. I made sure they ate, I made sure they got to their activities, I made sure homework was done, but I became more of a drill sergeant versus the mother that they needed. I was at work and my trying to rise up the corporate ladder. And if you know anything about corporate life, especially if you're trying to position yourself for promotion, work comes with that. Work to the point that when you go out those doors, you still have a big pile that comes home with you until it gets done so you can be fresh and ready for the next day. All of that demanding, and I thought giving God what he needed was just going to church on Sunday. I did not pray, well, I did not have a prayer life. I did not, and when I was at church, I got the what do you call it? Dopamine that you got the shot where the songs are good, the pastor gave a good word, walked out the door, didn't talk to God until next Sunday, and did what I had to do. And I got to a point where I really, really hit a brick wall. I hit a brick wall mentally. I hit a brick wall. I had no spiritual life, spiritually, and I quit. I really did. I broke down and I cried every night. I didn't really understand how I got myself in that situation, but I knew I couldn't do it anymore. I needed to, I needed my kids because they were going down a path that I saw destruction written everywhere. I was officially divorced, so I didn't have a husband anymore. And friends, what friend life? I didn't have time to go out and socialize with friends. And they got tired of calling, asking, hey, come hang out, and I'm too busy. By definition, when you look at the word quit, it really means to stop. It means to cease, it means to leave everything and everyone behind. So when I wrote I quit, as I told you before, it was God said, tell them your story, tell them your journey in the book, where you were, how you were there mentally. And you know me, I always got to find a scripture, a biblical reference of someone that kind of went through that journey. But most importantly, let's talk about how to break them free from that. How did you, Val, break free from that? How did you break free from the mental exhaustion that you went to? So the book I quit is definitely not about go run and hide in a cave and be isolated and quit life, quit marriage, quit responsibilities, quit everything. No, it focuses on what are you carrying that you need to quit yourself on. Sometimes based, and it could be one of the four things that we talked about, or it could be something that's going on in your life today that you recognize that you need to stop doing that's keeping you in that exhaust state. And we talked about what exhaustion was. That just means a lingering fatigue that you can't shake no matter what you do. So what I hope is that what my shirt is advertising today, I am changing. We first recognize and acknowledge what it is we're carrying that we should no longer be carrying. God gave us a solution on how to break free from that. We find that in Matthew 11, 28 and 30. Come to me, come to me, bring all your stuff. Now I'm paraphrasing the word, but bring all your stuff, bring your hurt, bring, bring all these responsibilities that you got yourself into. Bring your kid issues, your husband issues, your life issues. Come to me, all you who are weary and burnt. And what does God say after you come to him and you bring all that stuff with you? And be honest with him. He already, I keep telling my, I tell myself this too. He already knows it, he sees it. So no sense in trying to cover it up or mask it. Bring it to him. God, I'm tired. God, I didn't got myself into some situations with work, this load of responsibility, my children are acting crazy. Whatever it is, God, I'm hurt. I lost a loved one. I'm still grieving over someone's passing away. I miss them. Whatever that issue is, He says, Come to me, all you who are weary, and burdened. And what did he say? He said, When you do that, I will give you rest. When I went to the altar, because I told you I hit a brick wall. I went to the altar and I I was, I couldn't move. I couldn't, I couldn't even think a clear thought. That's how bad it was. And I went to the altar, I remember crying. I remember just seeking the Lord. I when I go to the altar, I tune everybody out. I ain't got time to be like, who's looking at me or what they're gonna say? They used to talk about me at church because I was at the altar a lot. And I had my one-on-one time with God at the altar. And I didn't care. Hey, I'm going after what I need. You, y'all are here for one reason. I'm here for God. And I went to the altar and I cried and I boo-hooed and I said, Lord, I I can't do this anymore. And I don't know what to do. First words I heard at the altar, which was a powerful encounter for me, was if you know any church, church that are of Christ, let me say that because it's not every church. You have men and women that man the altar. Their job is to protect the souls on the altar so they can have their personal encounters with God. That's pretty much what their responsibility is. So everybody can't handle that assignment. But when I went to church that Sunday, a person came in my ear and whispered, You are forgiven. And the way those three words rang in my ear, I knew that was not the person speaking, that was God. After those words hit, I was out. And then from there, I got, I know it's hard being a single mom. I know. Going through a lot right now to hell. And you know, it instantly reminded me of the story in the Bible about the friends that got their paralyzed friend to Jesus. They actually they were desperate enough and they tore open the roof, lowered them, and placed them at Jesus' feet. They bypassed everybody because they were on, they were there specifically to get a need fulfilled from the man they knew could only do it and bypass, I don't care who's here, why they're here, I don't care if you block the normal way of coming through the door. I have a need and I need Jesus. That's a whole nother word by itself, but I'm not gonna go there because I can feel that. I feel that I do feel that Jesus. When you have a need that you have that's desperate enough that God is the only one that can fix it, you get to Him by any means necessary. That's what I did on the altar. I went to a place where I knew the glory was, I knew where the present was. I wasn't just going to the church across the street because if you're like here in Michigan, which I've seen in a lot of states, there's churches on every corner, but don't mean every church has God in it. Let me get in trouble. Stop because I'm gonna get in trouble there. So, anyhow, I went to the altar. And in that story, when they lowered the man's feet down to Jesus' feet, first things he told him, he said, your sins are forgiven. And then he told him to get up and walk. That's what I experienced. I didn't even go in there saying I repent. I just said, God, I I don't know how I got here. But I know after that moment I walked up and I broke free from exhaustion. If I finish with Matthew 11 and 28 and through thirty, come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me. For I am gentle and humble in heart, for my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. God gave two commands out of that simple statement. Come to me, take on my yoke and learn from me. I had to learn how to walk in this newness, I must say. I had to learn stop saying yes all the time. Sometimes you just have to say no. I had to learn, like we talked before, prioritize what had to be done. What could I give away? And what is is nice to do, but realistically, in this season, in this time frame, I just can't do it. I had to learn those different steps. But all of that came from sitting with God and taking on his yoke and learning from him. If you sit with God with anything that you're going through, he's gonna direct your path. His word lights up our feet, and I'm paraphrasing that. He shows you how to get out of the toughest situations, even the simplest situations, but it's bothering you that much that you have to take it to God. Prime example. I have employees under me, and we are in a time, it's mid-year, and we got to do our uh mid-year uh what we call calibrations, which means you kind of assess where they how they've been performing from January to June, and then you tell them how they're doing and what they need to do to make themselves do right, do right, to do better, excuse me, from June to December. I got one employee and didn't make the cut, so he got a low ranking. I have such a heart that I don't like delivering bad news without giving you a solution. I don't like putting people in uncomfortable situations. I really don't. But sometimes you have to have those tough conversations because how else is that person gonna grow, right? This one was hard for me to do because I know this person, we've known each other for a long time, and he just recently came up under me. So I I was I was having a tough time with this. Really. I really, really was tougher than probably I made it out to be. Because it had to be a written, because he's not performing well, it had to be written up and on HR. So that's like a whole nother thing on your report, right? Nobody wants that for somebody. So, anyhow, long story short, I said, Val, you are weary in this situation. You need to pre do what you preach. What do I preach? Pray about it, find somebody in the Bible that went through it and how to get out of it. So I said, okay, let me do it for myself. So I prayed to God about it, really prayed about it. God help me with this because I have to do it. I can't even pass it to nobody else. I have to do it. Who in the Bible did this? Do you know he came? I love ChatGPT sometimes. It came up with Paul and John Mark, which I was really surprised. Paul and John Mark, I'm off subject, guys. I apologize. But Paul and John Mark, they went out for ministry together. John Mark was didn't complete all of his assignments, I would say, and he kind of backed away from things that were responsible for him to do. So Paul got upset. But then later, Paul and Mark, John Mark got together and they continued doing ministry together. So that revelation that came out of that was John's heart was really for God. So he wasn't being manipulative. He really wanted to do the assignment. He really wanted to do the ministry with Paul. But just, you know, some actions that he did didn't complete the assignment, went through. So, and overall, God said, look at the person, look at their heart, speak on their heart, and then make suggestions on the things they didn't do right. Went to my girlfriend's and I said, I need you to pray over me so I can sit down and do this assessment. Yeah, I prayed and I went to someone else to partner with me and pray to get it done. And then after that, everything flowed. The weight was lifted. I was able to write what I think is a nice report that still keeps him in a good light, but still highlights those things that he needs to do better. I say all that to say, I don't know why I got down this rabbit hole, that God can take on anything. He can definitely take on anything, and he gives you the wisdom on how to get through it. But you have to partner with him with it. Because if that was just me without praying and going into the word, I'd probably to this day still be figuring out how we're gonna have this conversation. Amen, amen, amen. All right, so I don't want to keep you long, but I am excited. Like I said, once you identify what it is that's got you bound, what's holding you, what is causing you to be so exhausted, identify it. And if it's like me, where I didn't know what it was, I didn't realize that being what I call the superwoman, taking on everything, was actually the reason what was causing my exhaustion. If you can't recognize it, go to God with it. Go to God with it, pray in Matthew 11 and 28. Come to me, all who is weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. And then pray, God, I need some rest. I'm I need some rest in this. Identify what it is, show me so I can learn from you. He will tell you, he will definitely tell you, amen. So I'm wearing my I am changing shirt because I want people to see that you are changing. You're going to quit and break away from exhaustion. You're going to be free from this and no longer carry this burden and start learning to trust God. Yes, my book launches today. You can grab it on Amazon where they are sold. And when you grab the book, remember, I didn't write about how to become a stronger woman. No, I wrote the book about how you can become or how you can change. I am changing and become a woman who trusts a stronger God, a God that can handle everything that we carry. Amen. So I want to leave you with one question before I go. What are you quitting from today? What is it that you are carrying that you say, you know what, Val? Today I am quitting. What are you quitting from that you're gonna break free from that exhaustion and learn to trust God? Are you gonna quit from fear? Is there something fearful that you're you're holding on to and you're worried about what's gonna happen tomorrow? What's gonna happen if this doesn't work? What's gonna happen if I drop the ball? Because they do depend on me. I'm fearful if I let it go that it won't get done, and that that's not gonna end well. God said, bring that to me too. What are you quitting today? Are you quitting anxiety? Is you like, no, I am so so tired of being anxious all the time. I'm tired of being jumpy. You know, I quit. I'm not doing that no more. It's a big one. Are you quitting from trying to do everything and be everything for everybody? Are you gonna quit from trying to be a superwoman depending on your own strength? Are you gonna quit from that? Are you gonna quit from carrying everybody else's issues? Being a mom, I got two grown kids, and sometimes they throw things at me that I feel because I'm their mother, I just naturally supposed to take it. But you know what? I am I'm gonna quit from that too. If I'm being honest, sometimes some things they gotta get on their own. Because I serve and trust a guy that does all, that knows all. And I love the verse in 1 John 2, I think it's 2 and 1, that says, I love you and I love your seeds in truth. So if God loves me, he loves my seeds, my children in truth. Oh, he got them. So I want to say, let's break free together. Let's break free from exhaustion. Allow my book, I quit, to help you do that. Allow one of the lives we did on Thursday to help you do that. If you didn't see any of them, go back and watch them. They're still on my page. Let's break free together from exhaustion. Amen. Let's be able to get rest. The real, ooh, do you know what real rest feels like? When God gives you rest, when you can lay your head down on that pillow and wake up and just say, God, I feel good today. It's a beautiful day outside. You start noticing things you never even noticed before. You start seeing how the sun looks, how God's creation on earth looks. You can love on your children more. You can look at your husband and or your significant other and say, you know, let's do life together. You can take care of yourself. You know how many of us neglect ourselves because we're too busy being too much from everybody else. What is it you're quitting from today? And allow my book to help you through that. Again, I'm Val Mitchell. I thank you. I am way past my time. But I love you. Let's walk in together. Say we are changing. And because I quit from, and I'm just gonna leave a line there, whatever you're quitting from, because you're gonna break free from this exhaustion and learn how to trust God. And my book is on Amazon, it's available today. Go grab your copy. I am waiting on my copies to come in the mail, or I would be just flashing it all over the place. Once it comes, I think I'll share with you guys. If anyone wants a signed copy from me, let me know. I would gladly sign in and send it out to you. I love that kind of stuff. But if you know someone who needs to give this message, send it out to them. Share it with them. If you know someone that just needs to say, I quit from whatever it is that's fueling me to cause exhaustion and long-term fatigue in my life. Grab them a copy of the book and send it to them. Say, hey, I think this is gonna help you change and be able to trust God more and get some rest and do things in your life. Amen. We got purpose over our lives. We got things to do that God has called us forth into. We can't do that if we're tired and exhausted. Amen. Amen. All right, I'm excited. Have a great, great Saturday. Enjoy the rest of your day. I love you guys, and I'll see you next time.