Be Intentional and Strategic

Spiritual growth does not happen on its own. One must be intentional and strategic about it. Why is this the case? Companies know that if they want the business to grow in a competitive environment, they must have a good strategy and invest resources to win. The key word here is competitive. There are a lot of things competing for your attention and priorities. If you are not being intentional to win, your competitors will. Your job wants you to give more strength to generate more revenues for them, advertisers want you to spend more money on their products and services, and so do your families and friends who want more of your time to entertain with them. They all compete with God who wants you to spend time with him and to give your heart, mind, soul and strength to love him above all others. Matthew 22:37-39

Being intentional is to make a decision for something, and then design your life to achieve it. It starts with a decision. So the first step is to decide that you want to grow spiritually. This decision must be firm and meaningful to you.

Once the decision is made, you develop a vision, which is the reward for your hard work. Then you design a multi-prone strategy to achieve your vision. A multi-prone strategy considers all the elements that are critical to support the plan. Yet it is not complicated or difficult to achieve, because it is targeted and it leverages resources that are already available to you.

Ready for an amazing 2025? Let’s do it!

Create a Vision

Imagine yourself at the end of 2025, what do you see? Do you see someone who is happy, secure, and confident? Or someone who is patient, generous, and well-organized? Or do you see someone who has direction, clarity, and peace? Do you see yourself in a new career, in a dating relationship, or engaged to be married? Do you see yourself healthier and stronger physically? What are your desires? If you could have only one thing in 2025, what would that be?

Be super intentional about who you want to become – not just what you want to achieve (tactical goals). You may have a plan to develop your career or skills, or a financial plan to buy an apartment or to take a trip. But this plan – your plan to grow spiritually - should supersede them all. Why? Because spiritual growth lays the foundation for true success in life. Do your spiritual growth right, and it will support, accelerate, and enrich other goals. You won’t just become a husband, you will build a strong marriage; you won’t just own an apartment, you will make a home filled with joy and laughter.

For the longest time in my life, I wanted to be like Leigh Kinnard. Leigh was the women’s ministry leader in my church. She was a bit older than most of our high-energy, type-A personality ministry leaders in my church in New York. Leigh is from the South and is what we may call a Southern belle – poised, reserved, and graceful. She is my vision of being calm and gentle, patient and kind. I wanted to be like her – she modeled for me qualities in Jesus that I want to grow into.

What spiritual qualities would you like to cultivate in your character? Be specific in your vision, and keep it simple. Focus on the most important things.

Protect Your Time

Time is a precious gift of life. In fact, I see time as life. If you waste $50 on a poor-quality product that breaks immediately, you can take a side job and earn $50 to buy something that works. If you waste five hours fixing something and it didn’t work, that 5 hours are gone forever. You cannot buy that time back.

How you spend your time in 2025 will decide who you will become in 2026, and beyond.

Once you decide to invest in your spiritual growth, block out time in your calendar – and do it now! Because if you don’t, someone else will, but for their agenda, not yours.

There are two aspects to using your time for spiritual growth, one is habit and the other is engagement. Most of us have developed habits like brushing our teeth in the morning and at night, or eating meals at a fixed time 2 to 3 times a day. Good habits keep us healthy and efficient. Two habits are fundamental to our spiritual growth. One is our daily devotional – time we spend with God in the morning where we connect with him in his Word, in prayers, or in music. Just like a good night’s sleep restores us and prepares us for a new day, morning devotionals prepare us to win the spiritual battle for the day. Jesus the son of God sets this example for us (Mark 1:35). 

The second fundamental in our spiritual growth is weekly corporate worship. This is the time we spend with other believers to worship God together and to enjoy fellowship with one another. The Bible commands that we meet regularly. First, this practice honors God, second,  it helps protect and strengthen our faith.  Read Acts 2:42-44, Hebrews 3:13

If you are not already in the habit of committing your time to these daily and weekly routines, make it your goal in 2025 to incorporate these habits into a natural part of your life.

Beyond these basic habits, protect your time in other spiritual engagements. Examples could be small group attendance, spiritual programs at your church, weekly sabbath, annual retreats, or corporate fasts. Check your church calendar for special events like marriage retreats, single’s weekend, or women’s day. Book your calendar for these events and protect them from being taken by other priorities.

Learn from NY Times Bestseller Author James Clear about habits

Nurture Spiritual Relationships

Most of us are surrendered by relationships: family, school friends, coworkers, neighbors, church friends. The time we spend with them has influences on our lives. While we don’t always get to choose our family, coworkers, or neighbors, we can be deliberate in choosing our spiritual friendships.

Who is in your spiritual circle? Whose sermon helps deepen your faith? Who are examples of a Christ-like individual you aspire to be like? Who are your close spiritual advisors? Who do you trust? Who do you confess your sins to?

In the 2006 movie The Devil’s Wears Prada, Nate said to Andrea, the assistant of a very demanding fashion magazine editor “You know, in case you were wondering - the person whose calls you always take? That's the relationship you're in.”

So true. The people you spend most of your time with may have the biggest influence on your life. If you want to grow spiritually, then you want to be surrounded by people who can influence you spiritually. This is logical.  But you must be intentional about it! In 2025, make the time for spiritual relationships that will help you grow spiritually. Search, pray, and engage. And when God brings you the right persons, be ready to invest time in building a deeper friendship and opening up your heart to them.

Commit to Training

Apostle Paul was a hardworking and effective missionary who established churches and forever changed the history of humanity. His journey to success was not without sweats, pains, and sacrifices. He shared his perspective on success here:

“Do you know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly, I do not fight like a boxer beating the air. No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.”

Paul was not only intentional about his goals, both long term and long term, but he also understood the need for discipline and training. Specifically, he wrote his protégé Timothy (2 Timothy 3:16-17).

“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

Yes! The Bible can give us the training we need for our spiritual growth! The formula is simple (Be taught, be rebuked, be corrected, and be trained). However, implementing the process can be quite hard. The key here is putting into practice what we learn. Just reading the Bible, attending small groups, or listening to sermons is simply not enough. That is only step one! You must be prepared to go through all the steps if you are committed to spiritual growth. After you hear a message on forgiveness, do you practice forgiveness? After you read a Bible verse about being a child of God, do you begin to approach God as your loving father? Or do you simply agree that these are good ideas and move on to something else?

Make a commitment to yourself and to God that you will accept the training God wants to give you for your spiritual growth in 2025.

Learn more about being trained by God’s word with this Bible Study.