Imagine waking up to a life that energizes you in every possible way. Imagine carefully crafting every aspect of your life (relationships, work, rituals, health) in a way that is uniquely designed to make you feel more alive, more joyful, and more fulfilled. Maybe you are thinking to yourself right now, that it seems like a pie in the sky dream because for you, life just isn’t working. Most days you feel like life is happening to you, not for you. You feel disempowered, overwhelmed, and stuck. How could you possibly wake up energized in this chaos we are experiencing?

A lot of times when we are feeling this way, it is because we have forgotten to live intentionally, the way God designed.

Living intentionally doesn’t just happen by accident, rather it is about being curious, making conscious choices and taking deliberate actions every day to bring about the outcomes and feelings you desire in your life.

Intentional living means to live by design not by default. To live by design means that you no longer live on auto-pilot. You are learning to let go of the belief that your life is the sum of your circumstances. Intentional living is about co-creating your life with the Creator of the Universe (God) to make your highest contribution to the world.

Intentional living starts with curiosity. Christina Crook, Author and TEDx speaker once said, “curiosity is a crucial condition for feeling fulfilled and alive and our need to nourish our capacity for wonder grows as we age.”

In the Bible, we see first-century crowds being curious to hear Jesus teach and that interest, for many, led to hope, healing and a purposeful life. Jesus also encouraged the people He encountered to stop and reflect on what they really were truly desiring and seeking in life and from Him. For example, when Jesus encountered the blind man by the Jericho road, he asked the man “what do you want me to do for you?” (Luke 18:41, NIV) When is the last time you paused and got curious about what an intentional life really looks like for you? If Jesus asked you what you wanted from Him would you know how to answer that question?

Designing your life together with God begins with nurturing a holy curiosity about the Lord and His plans and promises for you. Do you take time to learn more about God or do you feel you’ve gotten so familiar with passages over the years that you can just carve your own path without checking in with God? Curiosity can be the invitation to dig deeper and ask good questions in order to see things through fresh eyes.

The next step to living an intentional life is to set your intentions. For many years, I confess I did this without God’s input. I would ask questions like: What is my life for? What do I want to achieve? And then write down my dreams and desires and go after them. Unfortunately, this practice was all about imposing my own will and not aligning myself with God’s will. When we are operating under our own will and motivations, our identity becomes cemented in the things we do, rather than in the One who called us in the first place. Our perspective is limited to our own imagination instead of leaning into the One who can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine.

Now listen, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money. Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, ‘If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that’”.

James 4:13-15 (NIV)

Notice that this is not about making plans apart from God, but about being curious about who God wants you to be and what God wants you to do.

One useful exercise is to ask the questions, “Who does God want me to be in regard to my (spirituality, health, mental wellbeing, work, restoration, etc.)? How will I commit to living that out in my daily life? Here are a few examples:

• God calls me to be content (1 Timothy 6:6-8) therefore I am committed to living abundantly with fewer things so that I can spend more time with the people I love and less time managing the things I have and/or worrying about the things I don’t have.
• God calls me to honor my body (1 Corinthians 6:19-20) therefore I am committed to being strong and healthy so that I can have energy at the end of the day to give my best self to my family.

Once you’ve set your intentions the third step is to align your daily actions. For example, if you’re committed to being strong and healthy, ask yourself: “what broad goals will help me achieve these intentions?” For instance, you could have some broad goals like eat healthier or be more physically active. From there, ask yourself “what day-to-day actions can I take that will add up to my desired result over time?” You may want to set daily goals like eat 4 cups of vegetables per day or walk 3 miles every day.

Know that intentional living is a lot like taking a cross-country road trip. Along your journey, you’ll need to pull over and refuel. You’ll need to stop, put gas in your car, grab a bite to eat and stretch your legs – not once, but multiple times. On your way to living your best life, you need to do the same, which is why the final step in intentional living is to reflect, re-evaluate and revise your plans based on these questions.

• Is this what God wants for my life?
• How’s my progress in regards to the intentions I set?
• What has God been able to accomplish so far in me and through me?
• What have been some of the most powerful learning moments so far?

As you take time to reflect, don’t forget to pause and pray and listen to what God wants to say. Then make a conscious choice to either continue pursuing your goals as is or make revisions to your plan as needed. An intentional life isn’t about perfection, but progress. It’s about being curious and having the courage to step into the purpose that God has called you to. Living an intentional life empowers you to start:

• Becoming a woman who is hungry for God and His word.
• Creating possibilities for your life that energize you and glorify God in the process.
• Living each day on purpose and not just coast through your life.
• Courageously taking leaps of faith and not just wait for better timing or more signs.
• Confidently choosing, even if imperfectly, actions that add to your life, not take away from it.

Wherever God may lead you, know that He desires for you to live intentionally and to live with Him, so that you may experience life to the fullest.

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“Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in you. Show me the way I should go, for to you I entrust my life. – Psalm 143:8

Okay, so we are a few weeks into the new year. If you are like me, you have set some new goals for yourself and started the new year super excited to achieve them. Maybe you’ve even been chanting, “This is the year!”

One of the most important goals we can set for ourselves is one that will help us grow in our faith and relationship with God. I have found that when I put my faith first, my other goals in life tend to fall into place as well. But far too often, I have limited myself with an “I can’t” mentality that has kept me from reaching for the bold goals in my life.

One of those goals is to conquer early mornings! You see, I am not naturally a morning person. My bed is warm and cozy and my eye lids would rather not open until the sun is up (which this time of year, is fairly late!). But for years now, I have had a desire to get up before my family and have some time in the early morning to spend with the Lord. I can picture it now: the house is quiet and peaceful, I’m sitting in my comfy chair by the fireplace, curled up in my fuzzy blanket, sipping on my chai tea while I’m spending time with my Lord.

And, while, yes, over the years I have still found a way to make time with God happen, I have always looked longingly toward that early morning picture. It just seemed out of reach, until I realized that the main thing that has gotten in the way of me achieving this goal has been the “I cant’s”. The “I can’t get up that early because I’m just not a morning person.” Or the “I can’t function that early so even trying would be unproductive.”

I am determined this year to stop limiting myself with the “I cant’s” and have the courage to say, “with God’s help, I can!” While I know it will be hard at first, with possibly many difficult, half-awake mornings, I believe that I can get to the other side and reach my goal of that vision I have for my mornings. I know that if I can persevere through the hard stuff at the beginning, I will get to the place where it isn’t so hard and I will reap the fruit of my persistence in seeking the Lord.

While early mornings might not be your goal, what is one goal you can set that will help you grow in your faith and relationship with God this year?

Whether it is to have time with God each day (even if it is only 15 min), to be in God’s Word, to pray more often, go to church consistently or finally check out that small group bible study, God will bless your efforts. Any goal that draws you closer to God is a good goal!

Is there a faith step that you have not taken because of the “I cant’s? If you are willing to trust God and give Him that “I can’t”, He will turn it into something beautiful. He will strengthen you to do what you didn’t think was possible and grow your faith in the process.

I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.”

Philippians 4:13

It is my hope that by the end of this year, you will be able to look back and see growth in your faith and a list of ways you have been stretched, trusted in God and experienced Him more fully.

May you find joy in seeking the Lord this year!

P.S. If you have a faith goal that you would like us to pray about for you, please email us or comment below and we would love to be praying and encouraging you in your walk of faith!

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Each new year brings a sense of a fresh start–an opportunity to hit the “reset button”. This year, more than any other year, we definitely want to move past 2020 into the hopefulness of a new year.

Whether you are a resolution maker or not, the new year is an opportunity to leave behind the things of the past, whether bad habits or simply bad memories, and look forward to new possibilities.

This year especially, I am drawn to these verses in Isaiah 43:16, 18-21:

This is what the Lord says—he who made a way through the sea, a path through the mighty waters…“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland..to give drink to my people, my chosen, the people I formed for myself that they may proclaim my praise.”

I love these verses because they are a reminder to me that God is asking me to no longer focus on what was, but keep my eyes ahead on what He is about to do. The same God who parted the sea so His people could find a way through, is now asking us to leave behind those things that are not of Him and not dwell on what has been. Instead He invites us to focus ahead on what He has prepared for us.

It is so easy for the trauma of this past year to stick with us like a lead weight. We want to move ahead but we are still living in the aftershock of all the challenges of 2020. It was a difficult year and the effects of it continue to linger in our lives, but God is asking us to turn our focus toward Him–toward His presence now and to where He plans to take us in the coming year.

Because when we dwell on the past, we just might miss something new He is doing in us or around us. We can lose sight of where God is taking us and the wonderful things ahead. When we shift our perspective from “what was” to “what is”, we can more clearly see the new things He has before us.

If you are feeling like you are coming out of the wilderness of last year, take heart, He is making a way through that wilderness and bringing His living water to the wasteland. His hope springs up before us! We are His chosen people and He is making us new each day. We are His beloved! He delights in making all things new and providing for His people.

As we go into this new year, my prayer is that we can have eyes that see all that God is doing around us; that we will see His wondrous works springing up before us. We have a new start in Jesus. He is our hope and our future!

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