Abundant Life Without Hustle: Breaking Free from Performance-Based Christianity | 023

Feb 24

Jesus promised us abundant life — but for many Christian women, faith can begin to feel like one more place to perform. More discipline. More consistency. More productivity. More pressure to prove that we are spiritual enough, obedient enough, or worthy enough.

In this conversation, Leneé sits down with Denise Stiffler and Mackenzie Blasco, hosts of the From Rundown to Renewed podcast, to explore how hustle culture quietly enters our faith and distorts what Jesus meant by abundance. Together, they discuss perfectionism, fear, false humility, spiritual striving, and the exhaustion that comes from trying to fight battles God never asked us to carry alone.

You’ll also hear an honest conversation about learning to rest without shame, recognizing God’s compassionate voice, surrendering your timeline, and approaching the throne of grace while you are still messy. Abundant life is not something you achieve through greater performance. It is something you receive as you learn to trust God, abide in His presence, and allow His strength to meet you in your weakness.

If you have been white-knuckling your faith, measuring your worth by your productivity, or wondering why following God still feels exhausting, this episode will remind you that perfectionism promises abundance through performance — but Jesus offers abundance through presence.

This Episode Is for You If...

You feel exhausted from trying to be a “good enough” Christian.
You measure your spiritual health by how disciplined, productive, or consistent you are.
Rest makes you feel guilty, lazy, or as though you are falling behind.
You struggle to believe God wants you near Him when you are messy or overwhelmed.
You have confused obedience with fear-driven striving.
You are carrying battles, outcomes, or timelines God never asked you to control.
You want to experience God as a gentle, present Father rather than a demanding taskmaster.

What You’ll Learn

Why abundant life cannot be measured by productivity, success, impact, or output.
How hustle culture can enter the church disguised as faithfulness and obedience.
Why perfectionism is often driven by fear, shame, and self-protection — not simply pride.
How to recognize when your thoughts and beliefs do not align with God’s truth.
Why rest is not inactivity, failure, or spiritual laziness.
How grace supplies what you cannot produce through your own strength.
Why surrendering your timeline is especially difficult for perfectionists.
How God meets you with compassion in the middle of the healing journey.

Scriptures Mentioned

John 10:10 — Jesus came so that we may have life and have it abundantly.
Genesis 3:11 — “Who told you?” and the importance of examining where condemning beliefs originated.
Ephesians 6:10–18 — The armor of God and the call to stand firm in God’s strength.
Galatians 5:17 — The conflict between the flesh and the Spirit.
2 Corinthians 10:5 — Taking thoughts captive and making them obedient to Christ.
John 16:33 — We will face trouble, but Jesus has overcome the world.
Numbers 13 — The spies, the giants, and the Israelites seeing themselves as grasshoppers.
Joshua 1:6–9 — Being strong and courageous as we trust God.
Galatians 1:6–9 — The danger of accepting another gospel.
Hebrews 4:16 — Approaching the throne of grace with confidence in our time of need.
2 Corinthians 12:9 — God’s power being made perfect in weakness.
Hebrews 11 — Living, enduring, receiving promises, and overcoming by faith.
Psalm 103:12 — God removing our sins as far as the east is from the west.
1 John 2:27 — The anointing of God teaching and guiding His people.

Resources Mentioned

Stepping into Abundant Living Webinar
A webinar from Denise and Mackenzie designed to help women move from striving and performance into God’s presence, rest, and freedom.
From Rundown to Renewed Podcast
Denise Stiffler and Mackenzie Blasco’s weekly podcast for women who want to move from feeling stuck and depleted into the life God is calling them to live.
From Rundown to Renewed Website
fromrundowntorenewed.com
Testimony Course
An eight-week experience created by Denise and Mackenzie to help women craft their testimonies, connect their stories to Scripture, and communicate them with truth.

Continue Your Journey

If this episode resonated with you, continue your journey with these related conversations. Together, they will help you uncover the deeper roots of perfectionism, recognize the difference between God’s voice and the voice of pressure, and learn how to live from grace instead of striving.

Explore the Battle Between Flesh and Spirit by listening to Flesh vs. Spirit: Why Christian Perfectionists Struggle (and Why It Means You’re Not Failing) - Episode 11

Continue into Why Perfectionism Traps You Between Pride and Shame (Episode 024) to explore how perfectionism swings between feeling like a grasshopper and trying to prove you are a giant — and how grace frees you from that exhausting pendulum.

Take the Grace Scale Quiz

Discover where perfectionism, pressure, fear, and self-criticism may still be shaping your relationship with God — and identify your next step toward grace-led living. Take the Grace Scale Quiz now.

Join The Redeemed Perfectionist Community

Join the Redeemed Perfectionist Facebook Community to connect with Christian women who are learning to leave striving behind, receive God’s grace, and experience greater rest, trust, and intimacy with Him.

Lenee' Pezzano