S10.01 | Healing and Growth in 2025: Setting a God-Centered Vision
Hello friends, and welcome to a brand new year with Affirming Truths! After a much-needed eight-week hiatus, I am thrilled to kick off Season 10. In today's episode, we'll dive into the concept of vision for 2025. While many people rush into New Year's resolutions, we often neglect the critical step of seeking a God-centered vision for our lives. This year, God is calling us to a new level of healing and transformation.
I'll share simple, actionable steps to create a clear and purposeful vision, grounded in prayer and reflection. Together, we'll explore how to identify what God is calling us to lay down or embrace, ensuring our growth aligns with His divine plan. Plus, I'll give details about an exciting free workshop on January 20th, where we'll walk through this vision-casting process together.
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Key Takeaways
Seek God First:
Carla emphasizes starting with prayer, stillness, and waiting on God's guidance.
Understanding God's vision for 2025 is essential for a clear, purpose-driven path.
Reflect on the Past Year:
Before setting new goals, reflect on what you need to leave behind in 2024.
Identifying behaviors, attitudes, and idols that no longer serve you will help set a solid groundwork for the year ahead.
Set a Vision with God's Guidance:
God’s vision for us often requires courage and trust in His plan.
By setting a vision aligned with God’s will, you allow room for spiritual growth, healing, and transformation.
Bonus Information: Carla invites you to her free workshop on January 20th at 7:00 PM Eastern. This workshop will help you through the process of seeking God, reflecting, setting a vision, and sharing it with others. Register now to receive the replay and an informative workbook designed to guide you through this transformative exercise. REGISTER HERE
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Foundations to Healing—-> https://www.carlaarges.com/foundations-of-healing
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Check out the blog
Resources:
5 Steps to Building Resiliency
Affirming Truths Facebook Community
5 Tips for Overcoming a Negative Body Image
Who You Say I Am Biblical Affirmation Cards
TRANSCRIPT
Carla Arges [00:00:02]:
Hello friends. Happy New Year. Welcome to Affirming Truths. It has been eight weeks. I really needed this hiatus. This eight week time to recharge, reflect, seek God on His will and his plan and his desire for this podcast. It's been three years of podcasting. We are starting season 10.
Carla Arges [00:00:32]:
And I'm so excited to be here and I'm so excited that God has called me to maintain this podcast this year and continue to encourage and support and challenge you all in this way. Now it is 2025, it is the start of a new year and I spent a lot of those eight weeks, like I said, reflecting and visioning out for 2025, seeking God' and so I want to kick off this new year, this season 10, talking about vision. I know that we can be quick to take on New Year's resolutions and I have to say I'm not a huge fan. And really it's because of the mindset that normally accompanies resolutions. The mindset behind a resolution is usually changing something big and fast. And there is a reason why. Statistically I think it's like 75% of resolutions are abandoned by the third week of January. 75% of people don't even make it to the end of the month.
Carla Arges [00:01:52]:
And again, I think the big reason is they, they pull a resolution out of the sky. Usually something that they think that they should be doing. They don't have a de centered why they haven't thought God, they haven't casted a vision and they peter out and they peter out. And I don't want that for you. But more importantly, God doesn't want that for you. And I know that when it comes to our healing, to our growth, to us developing in the spirit, to us being transformed more into Christ likeness and becoming more of who he intended us to be, we need vision. We need a clear vision. We need a God centered vision for how are we going to heal, how are we going to grow? And in that healing, in the addressing of old wounds, in in the addressing of behaviors that may stem from trauma and be destructive to our relationships and our finances and our mental and physical health, in that addressing of those wounds and the healing that needs to happen, there will be transformation.
Carla Arges [00:03:18]:
This is the year that God is calling you to a new level of healing, guys. This is the year that God is saying, daughters of Christ, it's time to arise and take ground for the kingdom. It's time to walk in your spiritual gifting. God has promised us a hope and a future. But he doesn't Deliver it to us in our lap, all tied up in a bow. He partners with us and that means we have a job to do. And part of that job is working with him through by the Spirit in casting a clear vision. In Proverbs 29:18, it says, where there is no vision, the people perish.
Carla Arges [00:04:03]:
But he that keepeth the law happy is he. Where there is no vision, we don't do or become what God wants us to. But when we walk in step with God and His plan and his design, we find joy, we find purpose, we find healing, we find restoration, we find peace, we find comfort, we find all the good gifts of blessing God has for us. And so we need to create the vision and we need to write it down and we need to seek God on it. And we can't be afraid of what it looks like because I'm telling you, if you create a vision with God, it's going to cause you and require you to have courage and to have trust that God will equip you to see it through. In Habakkuk 2:2 it says, and the Lord answered me, write the vision, make it plain on tablets so he may run who reads it. We need to write the vision God is giving us. We need to put it down and we need to act on it.
Carla Arges [00:05:19]:
And so there's four really simple but important things that we need to do when we're actually casting a clear vision and going beyond these, these more surface level New Year's resolutions like I need to lose weight, I need to drink more water, I need to cut back on drinking. None of those things are bad, but they're usually pulled out of the air, so to speak, and driven ego, perhaps more than seeking and desiring God's will in God's vision in our life. So the very first thing, when you are creating a clear God centered vision this year, for your health, for your healing, for overcoming your wounds, for transforming your behaviors which will triple down into every aspect of your life, the first thing you have to do is, is seek God. Seek God in prayer, in stillness, in waiting on Him. Seek God for clarity. Seek God for a picture of what he wants your 2025 to look like. You need to seek him and you need to be open with what he reveals to you. And when we're done this, I'm going to share at least one thing that God has given vision for me that was scary at first, but seek God.
Carla Arges [00:06:51]:
The second thing, after you seek him is reflect on 2024. And it's important you seek him first, because you want his eyes to look back on 2024 and ask God, what do you need me to lay down? What took place in 2024 that I need to leave there? What attitudes or behaviors do I need to lay down and leave there? What idols were in my life in 2024 that I need to lay down? And what do I need to bring forward? What do I need more of in 2025? It's so important to reflect because without reflection you can't cast a clear vision forward. You need to know what your starting point is. And the point of reflection is to get a clear sense of. Here is my starting point. You know, when you go into Google Maps to court, to set the destination, to get the instructions on how to get there, to set the course, to lay the vision of your trip. Before you even get to inputting your destination, you have to start with where are you beginning? What's the starting line? And so the point of reflection is to do that, to really understand starting in 2025, here is where I'm starting. The third thing you're going to do is set the vision.
Carla Arges [00:08:20]:
What is God calling you to do in 2025? Where does he want to grow you? Where does he want to purge you and prune you? What thing is he calling you up to? And it is a calling up. You're going to need to depend more on God. You're going to need to die to self more. You're going to need to rely on the strength of the Holy Spirit. You're going to need to seek God to equip you. He is calling you up to something greater for you to be more of who he created you to be and less of the old man. We are crucified to Christ and we are new and raised to new life. But the old flesh continues to hang on.
Carla Arges [00:09:08]:
And each and every year there's more of dying to self. We have to do so we can glorify God more. And who doesn't want to glorify God more in how we think, in how we speak and how we behave. How was God glorified in your life at 2024? And how much more do you want him glorified in your life in 2025? The fourth thing you need to do is share the vision. You know it said in Habakkuk so he may run. Who reads it? Share the vision. There's a lot of reasons why to share the vision. Of course it sets you up for accountability and support and encouragement as you walk the path.
Carla Arges [00:09:58]:
But sharing the vision gives other people eyes to see how God is moving amongst the body of the church because you are a member of that, that global church. Sharing the vision calls other people up, calls other people out, encourages other people to seek God. Share the vision. Glorify God in what he's doing in your life. Give honor and praise to what God is calling you to do. Share the vision. And I know a lot of this stuff can sound abstract. I'm giving you high level categories here of what to do.
Carla Arges [00:10:38]:
But I'm actually hosting a free workshop on January 20th at 7:00pm Eastern. And this workshop is going to be about an hour and a half and we are going to go through an incredible workbook I've prepared where we're going to do all of this together. We're going to seek God together, we're going to reflect together, we're going to set the vision together. And we're going to do this in a way that maybe you've never been coached before to look at a new year in a way that you've never been coached before from a biblical and mental health and growth and healing lens. This isn't your self help vision board. This isn't manifestation. This isn't New Year's resolution. This is partnering with God to change your life in 2025.
Carla Arges [00:11:29]:
To change the trajectory of your family and the generations that come. To change the course of your relationships, to change the course of your finances. And these are all connected. Listen. When you have unhealed wounds, when you are not addressing your past traumas, when you are not taking control and ownership over your mental illness, it impacts everything. Yes. Including your finances. Yes.
Carla Arges [00:12:00]:
Including your relationship. Yes. Including the generational legacies you're creating. All of it. Your peace, your joy. Do you want to be less overwhelmed in 2025? Do you want to be less reactive and more responsive? Do you want to showcase more love and grace not just to others, but to yourself, do you want to stop people pleasing and chasing, earning your worth through productivity? Then you need to cast a vision that is God centered and go after that. And you may be surprised what God asks you to do. You know, I have a vision for affirming truth.
Carla Arges [00:12:50]:
I have a vision for my coaching business in 2025. But I also have family vision. I do this exercise in all aspects of my life. And one of the things that God is calling me to lay down, which may seem pretty insignificant and it may seem like not a big deal to some, but God has asked me not to buy any new clothes in 2025. He has asked me to lay down consumerism in that area because there's something he wants to do in me, because there's greater healing he wants to do in me. I have no doubt that part of my. My shopping and buying new clothes is a way of managing emotion, right? Retail therapy. And I've noticed that since I quit drinking, my online shopping increased a bit.
Carla Arges [00:13:48]:
So there was an exchange of a habit, neither one of which is healthy. And God is calling me to full health. God is calling me for. To health in all areas. And he asking me to lay down buying clothes. And when I first heard God ask me that and create a vision for what that might look like for my emotional healing and my mental health and my financial health, I was scared. Because at first I'm like, I don't know if I can do that. A whole year, 365 days, not even buying a tank top, Not.
Carla Arges [00:14:27]:
Not anything. For someone who buys something every month at least once, that was hard and it was scary. And then I realized something. Everything that God has called me to over the years, that has been scary and maybe seemingly insignificant, no to others. Everything that God has called me to that has been scary. Every vision he has given to me each year and how he wants to heal me more and give me more freedom and make me more into the woman he's designed me to be, he has equipped me to do it. And every time I have been obedient and stewarded the vision he's given me, he has rewarded me with greater freedom, greater spiritual depth, more healing of my wounds. From when he called me to stop dyeing my hair, to when he called me to stop using filters on Instagram, to when he called me to stop drinking.
Carla Arges [00:15:42]:
And now he's calling me to stop shopping. He is forming me more into the person that he wants me to be. To be someone that makes impact for the kingdom. To be someone like Christ, to be someone who is healed and whole and healthy that can point others towards Christ. Because I'm not going to be weighed down by the chains of bondage. I am going to be free. I'm not going to be weighed down by the chains of my trauma and my past wounds. I'm going to be free.
Carla Arges [00:16:12]:
And every year God graciously shows me a new level of freedom through the vision he has me cast. And it has always been hard at first and incredible in completion. And so I want to invite you today to cast your vision for 2025. And I want to invite you to do it with me. January 20th. The link is in the show notes, the show notes on my website or the show notes in the app that you're listening to this podcast. The link to register is also in my bio on Instagram. It's free.
Carla Arges [00:16:54]:
If you're registered you'll get the replay and the booklet even if you can't show up live. But God wants you to have a vision for your healing and for your growth and so step into that today. My affirming truth I'm going to leave with you is from Proverbs 16:3 Commit to the Lord whatever you do and he will establish your plans. We're going to create a vision co create it with God so it is his will. We're going to commit it to him and we're going to see how beautifully and just in miraculous ways God is going to walk with us in 2025 to bring those visions to reality. Won't you join me January 20th? I'll talk to you later. Friends.