Happy New Year! How to Plan Your 2025 with God

You see it too, right?

The TikTok videos recapping people’s 2024 with the audio “And with that, the 2024 season comes to an end” speaking over aesthetic clips of their year’s highlights.

The “it girls” and “clean aesthetic girls” grabbing their newly purchased cute planners, showing you how they are planning their 2025 goals and exiting their lazy girl eras to enter their new productive girl eras.

The people on Instagram, X, Facebook, and Pinterest collectively posting quotes about what they’re leaving behind in 2024 and choosing to prioritize in 2025:

Mindsets. People. Relationships. Jobs. Habits. Shows. Technology. Addictions. Emotions.

You see it too, right?

You see how obsessed we are with new starts, fresh beginnings, and “Day 1.”

Honestly . . . we should be.

Granted, we should not be obsessed to the point where we choose to postpone any new project, new habit, new goal, or new identity to the start of a new year. That’s a bit of a stretch (and I say that as a textbook definition procrastinator).

We should be obsessed, however, to the point that we value, cherish, and enjoy fresh starts. New beginnings. Renewals.

Renewals can be the beginning of a new year. They can also be the beginning of a new quarter, a new month, a new day, or even a new hour.

What’s great about new beginnings and fresh starts is that they make us feel like we can just close one chapter and open the next one. They provide a way for us to move on, even if the previous chapter had an unfinished ending, had poor character development, or just didn’t fully make sense.

But what do you do if you’re still stuck in one chapter and can’t just leave it in 2024? Or what if the idea of 2025 just leaves you with a sick feeling in your stomach because you’re scared of the unknown and what you’re getting yourself into?

Take heart! Feeling sick or scared of the new year is normal. However, left unchecked, it can lead us into procrastination and leave us as poor stewards of our time, resources, and energy—things that God has given us to bring Him glory and bring about our good.

Whether you’re excited for 2025 or you’re dragging your feet from 2024, here are 3 ways to plan with God for your 2025.

Place God at the Center

I used to plan my days down to the last detail.

What time I got up, the sequence of tasks for getting ready in the morning, what responsibilities I would take care of at work, the chores I would do upon returning home, and the wind-down activities I would complete right before bed were all puzzle pieces swarming in my head. Some days they clicked together seamlessly. Other days, they crumbled— along with my self-worth.

In our culture that values the hustle and the grind, we tend to plan our days similarly. Before we even go to bed, we already have a running list in our minds the worries for tomorrow (or if you’re a Type A like me, you already have your to-do list prepped and ready on your desk).

Friend, there’s a better system. A better way to plan our days, our years, and our lives.

That better way? Place God at the center.

“Therefore don’t worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”Matthew 6:34

Jesus’s words here are an invitation to lay down the worries of tomorrow and just focus on today.

He knows what will happen tomorrow. We can trust that He does.

To trust Him, we need to place Him at the center of our days and of our lives. We can do so by incorporating encounters with Him into every element of our day.

  • Spend time with God. When are you going to meet with Him and for how long? What chapter of the Bible are you going to read and how will you study it? Having a quiet time structure that works for you will allow you to draw close to God and savor your time with Him. In turn, this will allow Him to pour into you, grow you, and lead you!

  • Talk with God all day. Prayers don’t always have to be 30-minute conversations with heads bowed and eyes closed. Can you converse with God on your way to work? Can you use your break time at work to find a quiet place to pray with Him? Can you send up a 5-second prayer every time you start to feel distressed or lonely during the day? God wants to hear from you. He wants to be a part of every second of your day. So pray constantly!

  • Worship Him. Praising God is more important than anything! Oftentimes we stack our prayers with requests for provisions but never refrains of praise. How can you worship God and praise Him for who He is? That can look like listening to worship music in your car on the way to work, sharing the gospel with someone, bringing up what God has done in your life in a conversation, and choosing to start each of your prayers with a praise about one of His characteristics or what He has done for you before telling Him your provisions.

By placing God at the center of our day, we don’t have to worry about tomorrow. It’s only when He is at the center of our lives that the rest of the pieces around Him start to make sense. Only then can we relax a little . . . because we are resting in Him.

Join God’s Plans for Your Year

“A person’s heart plans his way, but the Lord determines his steps.” Proverbs 16:9

Planning your year with God is uber important! God sees your heart (1 Samuel 16:7) and He knows what is to come. Why would you plan anything without the One person who literally knows everything there is to know about you and this world and what’s good for you?

The cool thing is that God is already sitting at the table with His building plans for your 2025 laid out. He has a seat pulled out for you, waiting for you to join Him.

How awesome it is that we belong to a God who invites us into His planning process!

It’s okay, friend, if taking that seat seems intimidating. Or if it seems like a hoax. I’m here to tell you it’s not.

Here’s what taking that seat and joining God in looking at His building plans looks like:

  • Seek a quiet place to meet with God. Your closet, your local library, your home office, or a quiet coffee shop will do nicely.

  • Consider fasting before meeting with God. Fast for a few days, a day, a few hours . . . whatever He leads you to do. Fasting serves as a way to hold off your physical flesh’s needs in order to access your spirit’s needs. This is where the Holy Spirit speaks to you the clearest!

  • Plug in some worship music, spend time in prayer, and seek His Face. God says in His Word that He will be found by us when we seek Him. So you don’t have to worry about Him not showing up when you start to pray with Him. He’s already there!

  • Spend some time reading His Word. Read a verse, story, or passage He’s been repeatedly bringing you back to lately. Read anything that He brings up to you during your meeting with Him. Write down what the Holy Spirit reveals to You — words, phrases, themes, goals, tasks, dreams, etc. Write down your questions for Him, too.

  • Spend a few moments sitting and listening to the Spirit. Write down anything He puts on your heart. This is a two-way conversation, after all. God doesn’t want you to take a seat at His planning table and merely be silent. He wants you to listen to what He is telling you, yes, but He also wants you to participate!

  • Take time to review all that the Spirit has revealed to You. Review the verses, words, phrases, themes, goals, tasks, and dreams assigned to you by the Spirit. Review the things He told you not to do. Re-create it all in a neat little list or graphic organizer that you can place as your phone or laptop background so you can look at it often.

  • Finally, conclude your planning session with God. Praise Him, thank Him, and give Him any fears, worries, doubts, and heavy emotions (even the good ones like joy and excitement) that you are feeling. He wants to hear it all!

Taking the seat God offers you at His table can be uncomfortable at first. Trust me, it was for me when I first started to take it. However, with practice, we can grow to become more comfortable with joining God in looking over His plans for our lives. In time, we can learn to enjoy it, too!

Follow Through on God’s Plans for You

It’s our nature as humans to set aspirational goals and buzz with excitement to see them through—

—and then watch ourselves fall short by the second week of January.

God’s plans for your year need to be different. Plan now the ways you will ensure that you are consistently meeting with God to check-in on His plans for you this year and to draw on His strength, love, and grace when you are walking slightly off-track.

  • Break up the year into smaller chunks of time. Spread God’s plans for you over four different quarters: January to March, April to June, July to September, October to December. Then, spread the plans for each quarter over three months. For example: one of God’s goals for me is to “Develop a seasonal, slow-living rhythm.” To accomplish this, at the beginning of each quarter I will block out time to sit down and evaluate what that season looks like for me and ways I can create daily rhythms that allow me to live slowly, enjoy life, and most of all enjoy God.

  • Schedule days to meet with God at the planning table regularly. Plan to meet with Him at the end of each quarter and month to plan for the next. Use this as a time to check-in with Him on progress on His goals and to receive any new directions He has for you.

  • Meet with God at the beginning of each week to plan for that week. Allow Him to speak His tasks, goals, and directions for the week over you. Be willing to listen. Be willing to follow wherever He leads you!

  • Meet with God first thing each morning to plan the day. Get in His word, ask Him what He wants you to focus on today, and allow Him to give you His daily bread for today—just enough to power you through the next 24 hours, no more or no less.

The new year can feel exciting, difficult, or sometimes both. If it feels difficult, different, or just off in some way, know that’s okay. As long as you have placed God at the center of your year, He will take care of you!

Jesus says in Matthew 11:28-30, “Come to Me all you who are weary, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.”

Your 2025 doesn’t have to look hopeless. Or exhausting. Or impossible.

Your 2025 can look hopeful, restful, and possible. All you have to do is know that God’s plans for your year are already set, that He invites you to join the process, and that you can live His plans out one day at a time.

God’s got the rest, friend!

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