It’s the end of the year which means everyone is preparing for 2020, myself included. As you begin to set goals for next year I want to share this truth with you: Faith doesn’t have a five-year plan.

The Holy Spirit spoke that to me a few months ago as I was thinking about my life and how it’s nothing like I planned, but better. For me, 2019 was a year of faith leaps. I abandoned my plans completely to follow God as He called me to move to a new city, move out on my own, change jobs, serve on a new team at church, and completely surrender my finances.

This year I learned that trusting God is better than trusting your own plan. We try to make things happen, but God knows what’s actually going to happen. Allowing Him to lead you will save you so much heartache, frustration, time, and energy. As you plan for 2020 I encourage you to take a different approach and seek God for goals instead of setting your own and asking God to bless them. If you’re ready to surrender and experience more of what God has for you follow these three steps.

1) Be Honest about Your Desires

God desires a real and intimate relationship with you. True intimacy doesn’t hide or pretend. Yes, God knows everything, but He loves when we invite Him into an area of our life. Jesus is LORD but he’s also a friend. He cares about what matters to you. Take some time to write down the things you want the most and be honest.

2) Seek and Surrender

Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. - Luke 9:24-25

Jesus calls us to lay down our life and follow Him. I know that this may be difficult because what if God’s will is for you to do something you have ZERO desire to do, like become a missionary in a foreign country. continue living with your parents one more year. or keep driving an old car so you can pay off debt instead of spending your money on fun things like travel.

You may think you know what you want, but God knows what you need. We can’t possibly see every curve life is going through and all the ways our well-laid plans won’t work out, but God does. He knows the beginning from the end and how to get you where you need to be. You can trust His plan because you can trust Him. He is good and he is for you. How do I know this? Because He died on a cross for you when you were dead in sin. He was thinking of you long before you started living for Him.

What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? - Romans 8:31-32

Take the list you wrote to God and surrender it. Ask Him what your priories should be for the next season or upcoming year. Ask him what you should stop doing and what you should start. Listen carefully and don’t shoot down what God says just because it’s different than your ideal plan.

3) Follow God’s Timeline, Not Your Deadline

After you ask God about His will, ask Him how he wants you to get there. Following God’s will requires following God’s pace. The bible tells us that His ways are not our ways so don’t assume you know how to best achieve the goal He gives you.

If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. - James 1:5

More than once I’ve tried to accomplish God’s will in my own way. Friends, that doesn’t work. Our thinking is limited to human knowledge. God is bigger than that. He can make a way where there isn’t one. Maybe he wants you to pick up another job, or maybe He wants you to fully surrender your finances, get on a budget, and be faithful with making minimum payments for a few months. Who knows, He might bless you with a raise, not so you can increase your lifestyle, but so that you can pay off your debt quicker without wearing yourself out by working 70 hour weeks. We can never predict how God is going to work in any situation.

God’s Way is Best

Don’t let culture or a clever quote define how you live and plan your life. Your life is hidden in Christ (Colossians 3:3) and you’re not called to conform to the pattern of this world. The world says strive, God says be be still. The praises hustle, but God commands us to honor rest. You’ll get where you need to go when you follow the one who goes ahead of you. Don’t believe the lie that you’re going to miss out if it doesn’t happen by your deadline. You will never miss out by being obedient to God.