My Focus for 2025 - Persist and Pursue

As I have stated in this blog and on my podcast many times, I am not one to make New Year’s Resolutions. I try to spend my downtime between Christmas and New Year in prayer and meditation to gain an understanding of what God wants me to focus on in the coming year. I try to incorporate that focus or theme into my goals and plans for the foreseeable future.

Last year, the theme God shared with me was collaboration. So I looked for ways to collaborate with colleagues, friends, vendors, and even clients. And I must say, God presented some opportunities that I could not have imagined! Without boring you with details, some of these collaboration opportunities came from people that are not in my regular “community of people" and one resulted in a phone call I made out of the blue to reconnect with an old friend.

Some of these collaborations are still developing and I feel there are others in my future. And this is why I think God gave me the words persist and pursue for 2025. I discerned that God wants me to persist in building relationships with my new collaborators as we strive to work together for his Kingdom. And I also think that God wants me to continue to pursue relationships that can result in a multiplication of effort that will enable churches and church leaders to live into the Great Commission.

I also feel that God is instructing me in my own discipleship journey as well. I hear God telling me to be persistent in seeking the wisdom of the Holy Scriptures and to be persistent in living out his teachings. I also hear God telling me to pursue those people in my sphere of influence that need to experience the Jesus of the Gospels and to give my coat to the naked and care for the sick (Matthew 25).

I share this personal insight annually as a way to hold myself accountable because I have put this out into the world. Please don’t get me wrong, there were many opportunities that I missed last year to collaborate because I was afraid or intimidated or unprepared to walk through doors that God opened for me. And I will fail going forward in sharing the Gospel in all the places God directs me. But I know God has given me these words to live into so that I won’t just sit on the sidelines watching and waiting for others to do God’s will.

My prayer for everyone reading this post is that you will take time to understand how God is equipping you for his work this year. I pray that you will see where God is leading you and send you guides to help you along that path. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen!