Setting your course for a new season
God has plans for our future. Do you think He would like you to know those plans? Absolutely! He would not have plans and then not reveal them. How are you going to walk in faith if you do not know His plans? How are you going to be obedient?
“‘I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans not for your calamity but for your welfare in order that you might have a future and a hope’” (Jeremiah 29:11).
Our perspective is key. It is the way that we have positioned our hearts that will determine whether or not we are going to apprehend what God has for us.
Some ask, “Does this next season hold opportunity for us?” Absolutely, but you have to perceive it. Otherwise, you will miss the opportunity.
As we discuss future seasons, what do we need to have in place?
Here are two things that need to be in place to set a course for a new season.
1. The right philosophy
Philosophy is not a college class; philosophy is your perception of life.
“The eye is the lamp of the body; so then if your eye is clear (the way you see things), your whole body (your future) will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body (your being; your future) will be full of darkness. If then the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness” (Matthew 6:22).
Your philosophy is like your perspective. It is actually the faith you live. When push comes to shove, what faith do you really live? That is your philosophy on life. It is the core principles that guide you.
Your philosophy in life is going to morph consistently. It is changing all the time and it will increase or shrink.
You ask, “Well, how do you increase that so you can start to see the opportunities?” A challenge for you is to renew your commitment to start learning again.
Never stop learning
I encourage you to learn something new—this desire and commitment must be renewed.
Hosea 4:6 says, “My people are destroyed for the lack of knowledge.”
As you develop another skill, do you understand how you increase your future? If you only have one skill, you do not increase your future. Find something you can develop and increase.
Learn as much as you can. Work on yourself harder than you work at your job. If you only work at your job, you will make a living. However, if you work on developing yourself, you will increase your future. Recommit your heart to start learning again.
2. The right attitude
The second step is not only having the right philosophy, but also having the right attitude. It is said that life is made up of 10 percent of what happens to you and 90 percent of how you respond to those circumstances. There are many things you can’t control. How will you respond?
There are two places in your life toward which you will have to have a good attitude:
Toward your past
You need to feel peace about your past. It is important to make your past useful—past experiences, past victories and, even more important, past losses and past failures. Review them, reflect on them and see where you went wrong. Make corrections and then invest those lessons into your future.
Toward your future
We are building a future. How? Through hope and faith. I challenge you to not take your future casually. Your future is you; it is your potential. I want you to design it well, as God would design it.
“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for; the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1).
If you have no hope, how are you going to build it with faith? I encourage you at the beginning of a new season to take time to plan out what you believe God has for you. What would God desire for this new season?
The clearer you have it down, the more you will be able to build with faith and set your course in obedience.
God wants our future to be more than good intentions. He wants it to be materialized. The miracle piece is action; that finishes off hope. It produces new life.
Have the right attitude toward your past; make it one of your mentors. Fill your life with faith and hope and this will produce a fantastic future.
Photo source: istock
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