You don’t have to wait for the beginning of the year to recalibrate. If you are feeling frustrated, or feeling pulled in several directions or wondering why things haven’t worked out, or a difficult family situation, if any of these things are happening- you don’t have to wait for the beginning of the year.

I promise you recalibration is the foundation of having success in every other area of your life. This is a very bold claim, but I think you’ll find as you read this article that it is a very true claim.

Goal Setting

I am a little addicted to goal setting and creating vision. I get addicted to the process for a couple of reasons:

One, I enjoy brainstorming and thinking outside the box, putting puzzles together. Anything that involves seeing something big as possible and putting the things together so it happens.

Two, I have seen over the years how effective it is at helping me stay on track and accomplish the things that are really the priorities in my life, and what needs to happen for my children.

This article isn’t just about goal setting.

It’s important to get into the right mindset for setting your goals. As a life coach, I also have a life coach – and a lot of these things came from her. One of my coaches, Mia Renee, has a podcast called God Centered Success – you can check her out if you have any kind of interest in incorporating faith in your business. A lot of this came straight from the Bible but it also came from her, so I want to make sure I give credit!

Let’s start with Jesus and start our focus by acknowledging our role with Jesus, before we get busy doing all this planning. As we are getting started I want to ask- do you know Jesus personally? If you do not have a relationship with him, there could not be a more important goal than a personal relationship with him. If that isn’t your first goal, to know him personally- to love him with all your mind, body, and spirit- then you don’t need to go any further with your goal planning. This is the ultimate goal for the year- learn to know Jesus.

Romans 10:9-10 says “If you confess from your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead- you will be saved. For with the heart, one believes and is justified and with the mouth, one confesses and is saved.“

We know from scripture and a lot of you know this already, and this might just be a reminder. We know that we are fallen as humans and we have all sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God. There is no way for us to be in a relationship with God, except for the fact that Jesus came to earth and lived a sinless life and died on the cross as our sacrifice for sin. The thing we must do is accept that gift. Accepting that gift means acknowledging that he is Lord.

What does this mean? It means recognizing that sin is real, that we have it and we need a Savior, and that we choose to allow him to be in charge of our life. It is not just a matter of do I believe Jesus was a person who came to earth, do I think that He died on the cross for our sins, do I think that He had a good influence, do I think He had good things to say. It’s not just that- the Bible tells us that even the demons believe and tremble. What sets us apart? Believing and following Him. Our obedience is not required, but it is our gift back to him for sacrificing for us.

It requires recognizing that our sin does separate us from God, that it is a hindrance to a relationship with Him and that requires repentance. It requires recognizing that sin is not something that we want and that we want a relationship with him. All this is encapsulated in this idea of confessing from our mouth that Jesus is Lord, and then we get to believe in our heart that God raised Him from the dead, which shows He had the power to do what He said He would do.

I encourage you, if you haven’t taken the step of asking Jesus into your heart- this is the best step to take on your path to recalibration. Take a minute and ask him into your life, and if you don’t know how to do that well, you can reach out to me, or reach out to other believers in your area. I promise they would love to help you.

Let’s move on, assuming that you are coming from a place of believing that Jesus is Lord of your life, how do we steward our year well?

There are four concepts of our role in Jesus, and how we can live our year, they are:

1 : Dependence

2: Acknowledge

3: Trust

4: Listen

Dependence

Isaiah 40:28-31 says “Have you not known, have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth He does not faint or grow weary. His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint and to him who has no might- he increases their strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted, but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they should walk and not faint.“

How do we walk and not faint? It is by depending on God; it’s by counting on him. We do have action on our part. W must put one foot in front of the other, but it is through His strength and power, and his ability that he gives us to keep going. Friend, if there is a place in your life where you don’t know how you can keep going and you are exhausted and weary, can I encourage you to stop looking at your problems? Glance at your problems but gaze at God who gives us that ability.

If you are sitting there thinking you are so exhausted and weary- Let me encourage you: 2 Corinthians 12:9 “But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.”

Our weaknesses are the perfect conditions to work with God, so we have the opportunity to just get busy.

Relying on the Lord for strength outside of yourself is possible but dependence on him brings good fruit and that is part of self-control isn’t it? Recognizing what we can and can’t accomplish ourselves and depending on Him.

Acknowledge

As you begin your path of recalibration- acknowledge Him- 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 says:  Rejoice always,  pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus for you.“

I talk all the time about how it is possible to love God, love others, and enjoy it. Part of the process of enjoying it is to become familiar with what enjoyment feels like. Does it feel natural and okay to enjoy something, or does it feel wrong? If we are out of practice around the concept of joy then when it comes along we will actually resist it. It feels uncomfortable, you are not familiar with it- so we actually do things to resist it.

However, the Bible says to rejoice always and to give thanks in all circumstances. When we get in the habit of noticing His goodness in our life, as new things come along that He is doing for us, we will be more apt to notice the goodness that He is bringing in. It will be a more natural extension of where our mind goes. This is the second habit to develop: Acknowledge Him.

If you are thinking you are in a specific place right now that you can’t imagine He wants you to rejoice about something: like a death, or the illness of a child, or something else grieving your spirit – Whatever it is that feels super painful, I encourage you that even though it is not an easy thing to hear, James 1:2 says: “Count it all joy my brothers when you meet trials of various kinds for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness, and let steadfastness have its full effect that you may be perfect and complete lacking in nothing if any of you lacks wisdom let him ask God who gives generously to all without reproach and it will be given to him.”

So it might not be what the world wants to hear in a moment of grief, it certainly wouldn’t be the easiest thing to hear, but this is what the Bible tells us to do: to count it all as joy.

I lovingly encourage you that if you haven’t taken a moment to acknowledge his goodness, you are actually resisting the ability to see his goodness in your future. As believers who are called to share the love of Christ with others- we want our faith to be contagious, don’t we?

Trust

This year, part of your job and vision casting is to trust the Lord, Proverbs 3:5-6 says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge him and he will make straight your paths.“

Now this one takes some serious self-control for me because I definitely have my own solid “understanding”. It can be easy for me to forget to ask Him for direction. But, part of self-control is going back and remembering He knows better because He knows more than I do. Now, I can remember He knows more than me- but sometimes I forget that it applies directly to my current situations.

We cannot rely on what we think we know, but to must ask Him for direction. Believe that He is powerful enough to direct you wisely. If you say you are doing the best you can, and it doesn’t seem like things are working out, remember, Romans 8:28 “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”

Whatever that thing is for you right now, maybe it is a relationship quarrel or a parenting dilemma- I encourage you to be patient that all things work together for good to those who love Him. You can trust Him. God is trustworthy. There is plenty of evidence that He has kept His promises.

Listen

Luke 5:5-6 is where Jesus has finished speaking and He says to Simon Peter “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch” and Simon answered, “Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets.” ⁶ When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break.

I was really encouraged by this story the other day, Simon Peter listened to Jesus and it’s interesting to me that he listened to Jesus about a subject matter that he was extremely skilled at.

Listen, I know this isn’t your first day parenting or your first time dieting, or exercising, or anything else on your radar. This is not your first rodeo, and even if it is a new situation you have likely done your research.

This was so eye-opening to me, Simon Peter likely could run circles around people in this area. He could be considered an expert in fishing. But Jesus comes in and tells him to go out and do something he has already done.

Let me encourage you this year: have self-control and listen to God. Listen to him, even if it’s something you feel like you have tried before. If it is what he is telling you to do- listen, and go do it.

Look, I don’t know what that thing is in your life you have been persevering with but, there is a moment where if you are listening to God- the benefits will be net-breaking.

For even more on this and how to know if you are actually listening to what He is saying, or how you can know He will get your attention: catch the podcast on this topic.

This is how you have self-control around the rest of the things you decide to do this entire year- Depend on Him because he will renew your spirit and he will keep you running and not fainting. Acknowledge Him so that you are in the habit of noticing all His blessings He is pouring into your life each and every day. Trust him. Lean on His wisdom and understanding. Listen to Him. Listen to what He is saying to you today and take action from that place.

If you set your goals from those places- it’s not going to matter what goals you set, you won’t be able to get away from His blessing. He is good and when we are in alignment with Him- awesome things happen.

If you are loving this article, I encourage you to check out Supermom School! We are entering enrollment season for a new year- where we get together as a group and enjoy working through different strategies to love God, love others, enjoy life, and do it with accountability and a whole lot of fun. I would love for you to join us! Enrollment is June and July and there are some great bonuses if you sign up early.