When Strivings Cease: Replacing the Gospel of Self-Improvement with the Gospel of Life-Transforming Grace

Grace Secures What Striving Cannot

In this hustling, image-forward age of opportunity, we feel more anxious than ever. Despite all the affirming memes and self-reflections that dominate social media feeds, approval and worth often seem assigned to what we do rather than who we are. And we end up constantly feeling like we’re behind, lacking, and failing—at home, at work, with friends, with God.

Ruth Chou Simons knows something about feeling measured by achievement, performance, and the approval of others. As a Taiwanese immigrant growing up between two cultures, Ruth was always on a mission to prove her worth, until she came to truly understand the one thing that changes everything: the extravagant, undeserved gift of grace from a merciful God.

In When Strivings Cease, Ruth guides you on a journey to find freedom from the never-ending quest for self-improvement. She draws on biblical truth to show you how to:

• confront the ways you look to superficial means of acceptance and belonging;
• find relief in realizing self-help isn’t the answer because you can’t be so amazing that you won’t need grace;
• stop seeing God as someone to perform for and start finding delight in responding to his welcome; and
• let go of trying to rely on your own strength, your own abilities, and your own savvy by truly understanding the divine favor Jesus purchased for you.

With personal stories, biblical insights, practical applications, and touches of original artwork by Ruth, this transformational book helps you escape the pressures of hustle culture and embrace the beautiful truth that God’s favor is the only currency you need—because in Christ you are enough.

Ruth Chou Simons is a bestselling and award-winning author of several books —including GraceLaced, Beholding and Becoming, and Foundations. She is an artist, entrepreneur, and speaker, using each of these platforms to spiritually sow the Word of God into people's hearts. Through her online shoppe at GraceLaced.com and her social media community, Simons shares her journey of God's grace intersecting daily life with word and art. Ruth and her husband, Troy, are grateful parents to six boys--their greatest adventure.