Unhurry Hack: When we ask the Lord to help us set healthy goals and daily seek His help, we begin to experience true change.
What is it about a brand new year that brings the desire for new habits to mind?
I hear five little words starting many of my sentences every January: "this year I'm going to ____." Can you relate?
The goals of new years past remind me that I've wanted to exercise more, drink more water, read my Bible more, pray more...the list goes on. What about you? What goals have you made in the past? Do they still linger or have you learned to hone the habit?
Let's talk more about this word "hone"
I've always had a love/hate relationship with goals. As a type A personality, I love to make goals, but because I'm also human and imperfect, they often serve as reminders of incomplete tasks or failures when they start to peter out.
A hone is a tool. It is a fine-gritted stone used to sharpen a razor or other tools with a precision edge. Use this word as a verb and it means to refine or master something, and make it more effective. Additionally, when we "hone in on" something we focus our attention and move towards our objective. So, how can this dictionary dive help you and me? Just maybe it is the reminder we need this year to meet our goals.
This year let's hone our habits.
Goals are great, but let's not limit them to the month January. As we look at our lives and consider our heart, mind, soul, what needs sharpening so that we are living healthy, abundant lives in Christ?
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. --John 10:10
Abiding in Christ allows us to live attached to Him and His will for our lives. God is at work refining us and making us more like Jesus! When we ask the Lord to help us set healthy goals and daily seek His help, we begin to experience true change.
Take a look at how God helps us hone our habits:
It's Christ in me - Galatians 2:20 - "I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."
It's renewal - Colossians 3:10 - My new self is "being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator."
It's transformation - Romans 12:1-2 - I don't have to be conformed to this world and all its worldly trends or habits, instead I can present my body "as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is (my) spiritual worship" and I can "be transformed by the renewal of (my) mind, that by testing (I) may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
*paraphrasing mine.
It's being intentional - Luke 11:28 - My Bible is a gift and treasure and honing tool. I need to know what God says and store it in my heart -- and this only happens when I USE my Bible. But he said, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!”
It's leaning in - Proverbs 27:17 - I can keep showing up. God has given me community and friendships to spur me on if I'm willing to listen and learn. "Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another."
It's living by my true standard -Ephesians 5:1-2 - I don't have to model any earthly person or social media post. I can rest in the Word of God as my perfect guide and standard. As the Bible says, "Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.
It's not giving up - Ephesians 2:10 - If God doesn't give up on me then I shouldn't either! "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them."
It's letting God work - Philippians 1:6 - I am a work in progress, NOT a failure. God keeps His promise to finish His good work in us! "And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ."
It's relying on HIS power - Galatians 5:22-23 - It's not about me-power! The Spirit of God living in me yields good fruit. "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
It's daily life - Proverbs 17:3 - God uses the good, the bad, and even the hard to mold and shape me and deepen my relationship and daily faith. "Fire tests the purity of silver and gold, but the Lord tests the heart."
JOIN ME IN PRAYER:
Father God, teach me to seek you first in all I do. May the goals I set reflect seeking you first and a heart surrendered to Jesus. Lead, direct, and strengthen me this day. Fill me with self-control and motivation to do the things you call me to do. In Jesus' Name, Amen.