How to Be Super "Successful" in 2021
“Since you have heard about Jesus and have learned the truth that comes from him, 22 throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception. 23 Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. 24 Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy.”
What does it look like to be a Christ-follower who is successful?
Should we strive to be high-achievers and leaders?
I believe we should be in places of influence, as we’re impacting people for Christ. But remember at the end of the day God won’t be saying, “Well done good and famous servant.” He will be acknowledging our faithfulness.
As we remain faithful, let’s redefine success in the process.
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If we need a calendar flip to prioritize the things God is deeming important in our life, then let’s do it! Make the goals, dream BIG and achieve all the things.
• Goals are great.
• Lifestyle changes can be healthy.
• God-given dreams should be pursued.
In our marketing business, before we hire, we reflect on our strategies and processes that are and aren't working in moving us forward. This helps us fix what we need to and be set up for success to grow healthily. We do this as a family too, and I thought maybe it would be helpful for you as well!
One thing we do as a fam around the dinner table is to reflect on the hardest and best parts of our day. Reflecting and processing through these moments together are instrumental in helping us see how God is moving. We should be able to recognize the work of Christ in both. I don’t mean that God is causing the bad, but He is still working IN it.
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As we read in Ephesians 4:21-24, we see success in life starts with surrender.
Surrender your:
agenda,
plans,
goals,
dreams,
failures,
victories,
heartache,
pain,
and "mess" to Christ.
My personal focus heading into the new year is to NOT make self-helping-myself my main focus. Want to join me?
WHAT IF:
instead of journaling through our top 5 goals every day until they’re achieved, we prioritize the Word of God for longer than a 5 minute read?
day after day we trusted the Holy Spirit to renew our thoughts and attitudes as we practiced a daily discipline of prayer?
we lived "LESS OF ME - MORE OF HIM" and were determined to know Christ more?
Do you want to commit to this being a year of knowing?
• Study and know the Bible
• Know Christ more and
• Grow in intimacy with the Lord.
To help me do this, I'm setting up personal benchmarks and scheduling things in my calendar to help me have more study and prayer time. As we practice these Christian disciplines of studying and prayer, it's where we truly learn to surrender our will for God's will.
We exchange our pain for His promises. In the sorrow or sadness, we take the time to settle into comfort from the Holy Spirit. In our achievements and failures, we learn how to bring Him glory. Our goals become aligned with how God's moving. Our attention is fixated on the areas God is inviting us to focus on.
Life isn't always rainbows and lollipops, but sometimes it just might be.
Success is surrender.
A New Year or a new day is a great place to dream into what can be and reflect on what already is. As we do these things and keep Christ our central-focus, we're living the most "successful life" of all.
Grab a pen and paper and reflect on your best and hardest moments over the past few months. Are you able to recognize the work of Christ in both?
Grab your calendar and schedule out personal prayer and Bible study time for this month. Then commit to keeping that in your weekly schedule.
God is at work all around us (and in us), don't miss it!
written by Jenny Randle
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Harvest House Publishers, 2018
Harvest House Publishers, 2020
