Be very careful how you live, not as unwise, but as wise, making the most of every opportunity.” Ephesians 5:15-16
The start of a new year always gives us the opportunity to reflect, to plan and to make changes. As always, people set for themselves New Year’s Resolutions, new goals and make plans for the coming year.
There has been much said over the years on the uselessness or the fleetingness of New Year’s Resolutions. People begin with great intentions only to lose motivation, drift back into old habits and get stuck in old ruts, once again resigned to live a life of passivity.
But as believers as we head into a new year, we should be looking to make 2024 a year of purpose, for God’s purposes.
Paul warns us in the book of Ephesians that our time is short and we should be making the most of every opportunity that is presented to us. He writes to be careful how we ‘live’. A lot can be wrapped up in the phrase ‘how we live’ but I think it can be summed up into 3 main areas: our time, our resources and our energy.
So what are some practical ways that we can be intentional in how we live?
Eliminate distractions
The key to being focussed and intentional in our life is to eliminate distractions. Distractions can come to us in many forms and they are used to push us off course, to drain us of our energy and resources, and to grind to a halt any momentum we have begun to gain. We live in a society that is focussed on busyness, distraction and entertainment. It can be very hard to even know your own thoughts with all the noise going on around you. Just owning a smart phone will keep you distracted for days!
The deception when it comes to distractions is that the things that are often distracting us are not evil in themselves. They can fly under the radar undetected for periods of time and we can be unaware of the impact these things are having on us. Jesus said ‘it’s the small foxes that spoil the vines’. It’s the little things that may seem small and insignificant, when added up over time can have a big impact. These little foxes may be biting into our finances, into our time, and stealing our joy and peace.
We must spend some time honestly contemplating our lives and think about where our time, resources and energy are being spent and whether these things are serving us well and bringing us closer to fulfilling our purpose in Christ, or whether they taking us further away.
Plan for Purpose
Once we’ve identified and eliminated distractions, we must fill these vacuums that we’ve created with deliberate actions that will bring us towards Christ and his purposes. The word ‘intentional’ means: on purpose; or deliberate. If we are to live with wisdom, making the most of every opportunity, we must live intentionally, we must live on purpose. And that means making plans, setting goals and being proactive with our actions, rather than reactive.
We must ask ourselves what we want this new year to look like, what habits we want to form, what actions we want to produce and put in place plans to make that happen. Many of us have good intentions, we want to be all that we can be through Christ but unless we put into action a plan to make it happen, we will see yet another year go by with little change or little difference made. As the famous saying goes : ‘If you don’t plan, you plan to fail.”
For each of us, our goals may look different depending on what our current circumstances or stage of life we are in or depending on our areas of weaknesses and struggle.
For some of us, we may need to get rid of the little foxes that eat away at our valuable time. It might require that we get rid of the distractions in order to better spend our time elsewhere. Whether that be hobbies, the influences of unsaved family and friends, social media and ‘doom scrolling’ the news or internet. These can be the things that eat away at our time, leaving us no room or thought for personal evangelism, fellowship, follow-up and personal devotion.
For others, it might be our resources. We may need to have better control of our finances in order to be able to bless others. Saving some money up to be able to go on an interstate or overseas impact team, maybe to a conference. Maybe it’s simply using our money more wisely to be able to be more hospitable, have people over in our homes for meals or fellowships. Maybe we have a home, a resource God has given us but we need to release it for his purposes and open our home and our heart to sinners and new converts.
For some of us, it’s our energy. In order to fill up our spiritual cups, we may need to cut off things that zap of us of our energy, that steal our peace and our joy. This might include doing a media fast, turning off things that distract us or affect us negatively, spending more time in the word of God, in prayer, in reading spiritual books, listening to sermons. Blocking out the white noise so we can hear the still small voice of God.
It might mean prioritising fellowship with sisters in Christ, so we’re not isolating ourselves and drawing back. It may simply mean we say no to worldly pursuits in order to protect our limited energy so that we can do things for God.
What ever it is you want to do for God this year, you must be intentional and you must plan to make it happen. It’s so easy to go through life just reacting to everything that happens around us and never getting around to doing the things we truly want to, or the things that truly matter.
I encourage you to sit down and write down some spiritual goals for this year, and make some plans towards making these happen.
Remind/Revisit/Refocus
As in any battle waged in warfare, you may set out with a battle plan but along the way you may face some hits and opposition to those plans. This is no different to us. We may be in a great space, gaining momentum, things are going well and then we get hit with sickness, or a financial set back or a curveball comes from left field. This is not only part of life but part of spiritual warfare. The devil knows that if he can distract us, push us off balance, withhold our resources, that he has a chance at taking our focus away from our core purpose.
So as we work towards the plans that we have set for ourselves this year, we must expect that there will be opposition, that there will be setbacks and distractions. But as the old saying goes: ‘you’ve got to get back on the horse’. Falling off, getting distracted can be easily overcome as long as we don’t stay on the ground but learn to keep getting back on the horse, no matter how many times we fall off it.
Every month, revisit those goals you have written down, remind yourself of the importance of them and refocus your efforts once again. Have these written down in your prayer journal. If you have as bad a memory as me, set up a reminder in your phone every month to automatically remind you of these goals and track your progress towards them.
Tools for the Job
You may be thinking by this point that you feel tired just thinking about thinking about goals! My challenge to you this year is not necessarily to fit more into your calendar, to put in more effort, or to be more tired - but simply to spend your time, energy and resources on doing what’s important. To have a vision for this year, to make a plan and set in motion some actions to make that happen. Consider the way you are living your life and see where small changes can be made. Paul uses the phrase ‘wisely’ which can be modernised to say ‘don’t work harder, work smarter’.
First and foremost, when we honour God with everything he has given us, there is a supernatural strength available to us. His grace is sufficient for us and his strength is made perfect in our weakness.
None of us can do the work he asks us to do in our own strength or in our own abilities, we must rely on his supernatural strength and provision to get us through.
But God also provides us with practical tools to help us to do the work to which he has called us.
If you’re struggling with budgeting and money management, there are so many books, budgeting apps and resources that are available to help you. If time management and organisation is your issue, there are many tools to teach skills, apps and reminder functions on your phone to assist you. If you want to work on an area but need an accountability partner, ask a sister to come on board with your goal and work together to achieve it.
Where God guides, he provides everything we need for the task at hand. Whether that be supernatural, practical or in the form of one another.
I encourage you to think about what you want the year 2024 to look like and take ownership of your contribution towards it.
Here’s to 2024 being the year of purpose that God has intended it to be!
“Living with intention means saying no to the things that aren’t important to us so we can say yes to what matters most” ‘ Crystal Paine