Who you are being today, you are ultimately becoming. The habits and actions you take today will determine the person you are tomorrow. Today I’m sharing how you can become the person God meant you to be by thinking about the future you.

Resources Mentioned:

Confidence Affirmations: https://ashleyvarner.com/affirmations
The Mindset Reset: https://ashleyvarner.com/mindset
Thrive Bible Study Vault: https://ashleyvarner.com/thrive

Highlights From the Episode:

Who you are being today, you are ultimately becoming. So the habits, the thoughts, and the actions that you’re taking today, ultimately are going to determine who you are tomorrow. Now I know that that can seem really overwhelming.

So today I am going to be sharing how you can become the person that God meant you to be by thinking about the future version of you, let’s jump in.

Hey there, and welcome back to The Renewed Mind. As always, make sure to subscribe if you are brand new here. Welcome, if you are a seasoned watcher or listener then I just wanna say, thank you again for coming back, for wanting to grow in your relationship with the Lord. Because ultimately, that’s what it’s all about, right? It’s about getting closer to him, becoming the person that he wants us to be.

And so whenever I talk about the future you, I want you not only to think about the things that you want to accomplish, like the person that you see whenever you think of your future, but I also want you to think about the things that God wants you to accomplish. I want you to look into God’s word and determine what kind of woman that he wants you to be.

Think About the Person You Want to Be

So, let’s talk about this idea of future thinking or becoming the future version of yourself. So, I want you first to think about the kind of person that you want to be. Think about all the things that would encompass your life, whenever you, five years from now whenever you look 10 years from now. How does the person that you are right now compared to that person.

Now, I don’t want you to be afraid of this idea of like a gap between where you are and where you wanna be, because that’s where personal growth happens. All of this month we’re talking about personal growth here on the channel. And I have talked about vision boards, we’ve talked about micro upgrades, last week we talked all about how you can experience a real glow up, right?

And today, I just want you to think about what you want to accomplish. The things that you want to see in your life in five years from now or 10 years from now. If who you are is the same as that, then maybe you’re not dreaming or envisioning enough for yourself. Because that gap in between where you are and where you want to be is where all the beauty of God changing you and God transforming you happens. It all happens in between there.

So, as you’re thinking about the person that you wanna be, I really don’t want this to be a time whenever you feel discontent about where you are. This is all about you stepping into the person that you want to be, the person that God wants you to be.

So, as you’re looking in his word and you’re looking at different characteristics and different attributes of the person that he wants you to be, you can look in the New Testament and see some of the different characteristics that Paul shares in a lot of his letters to the different churches. He talks about being humble. He talks about mentoring other women. He talks about being rejoicing, even through trials, right? There’s all of these things. And so, if you think about those attributes that God values, maybe the fruits of the spirit is a great place to start.

Does the Future You:

Think about those things and think about the kind of person that you want to be that is expressing those things. Now, I want you to go beyond just kind of the mindset and the personality side of your future self. Now, I want you to think about what the future version of you does.

Does the future version of you watch TV after work every night?

Does the future version of you go to church and then leave without contributing anything? Maybe you go to church and you leave and you know that you can be used somewhere in God’s kingdom and you’re not doing that. Is the future version of you contributing somewhere?

Maybe you’re holding bitterness in your heart. Does the future version of you have that same bitterness kind of weighing them down? Maybe the future version of you is someone who has control over their emotions and their own thoughts. Maybe that future version of you is someone who knows how to take their thoughts captive and doesn’t allow the circumstances around them just to toss them like a wave.

What Does God’s Word say About the Person He Wants You to Be:

I want you to get really crystal clear about the person that God wants you to be. If you think of yourself five years from now and you ask God, where do you want me to be at that point in my life? Am I someone who is spending several hours in your word every day? Am I someone who is really contributing to my community or my church?

Look at those different areas. And then I want you to think about what the holy spirit says, what God’s word says about the person that he wants you to be.

So, I mentioned the fruits of the spirit, things like love, joy, peace, patience. Are these attributes things that people would maybe describe your life as right now?

Maybe there’s one that you wanna work on in the next several weeks and months. Maybe that is patience. Maybe it’s living out your faith. Maybe it is having maturity in your emotions.

So, I have seen firsthand people who are serving the Lord and they love the Lord, but they never get intentional about changing into this future version of themselves. They’re content just kind of dealing with the same problems over and over, the same emotions over and over and they’re never growing, they’re never maturing.

And really, whenever you think about the future version of you, it boils down to spiritual maturity. It boils down to saying, I really want to act in this way but I want God to be able to control me but I want God to be able to control me more than I want my flesh just to speak out in whatever I wanna say. I have had to learn that a lot in the last couple of months as I have been watching and growing and just being really curious about my own thinking and saying, yes, I might wanna say this or I might wanna respond in this way, but instead, I’m gonna allow God’s word to dictate the way that I act.

That’s the kind of future version of me that I wanna be. I wanna be a woman who follows after God’s heart, a woman who doesn’t just run her mouth anytime that she thinks something, I’m still working on that one, right?

I want you to look over the things in God’s word that you want to say, Lord give me the knowledge, that you want to say, Lord give me the knowledge, give me the preparation to start becoming that woman right now.

So it might be things like humility, getting control over your thoughts, maybe submitting to God’s plan for you. Maybe there’s an area in your life that he’s wanting you to step out in faith and you need the building, the personal growth building and you need the building, the personal growth building that it takes to step out, right? We get asked a lot in our spiritual walk to do things. We get asked a lot in our spiritual walk to do things and sometimes we let our fear or insecurity stop us.

And that’s why 180 Confidence is really a hybrid program because I like to work with women and teach them and there’s course material. But I also like to walk alongside them with coaching so that whenever you’re in the middle of, you’re in the thick of it, right? You’re in the middle of your problem and it’s really hard to kind of get a handle on your thoughts and your emotions and you need someone to come alongside you, I tell my clients that it’s kind of like having somebody outside of the bottle to read the directions. to read the directions. Because whenever you’re too close to a situation you need someone a alongside you to help you, right?

So, I have seen, in the women who are in 180 Confidence, I have seen them grow and really mature so much and really mature so much in their walk with God as they go through this journey towards more confidence. So, if you haven’t checked that out, make sure to do that but I really just want you to take the time to look at God’s word and decide what kind of things that he wants you what kind of things that he wants you to start implementing in your life.

What Actions Can You Take to Get There?

You have to ask yourself what actions do I need to take in order to get there?

So of course we have to pray for guidance. We have to be constantly going to the Lord to change hit our thoughts into his thoughts, right?

That’s what taking your thoughts captive is all about. That’s what changing your mindset is all about. It’s ultimately about taking your thoughts and replacing them with God’s thoughts. So those might be thoughts about yourself, they might be thoughts about other people, thoughts about a situation.

So, as you’re praying for guidance, realize that there are actions that God is going to call you to take in order to become that future version of you, that more sanctified version of you. Another step that you can take whenever you are becoming the future version of you is to stay in God’s word.

So, on the blog we have the Thrive Bible studies. There’s literally a Bible study for every single month of the year. You can check out the Walking in Confidence Bible study. These are all kind of a mix between Bible study and podcast. So, you listen to the podcast, like, a mini-podcast episode and then you do the workbook. You can check the out, you can do programs like, The Mindset Reset that are very specifically geared towards biblical truth. But I also want you just to get in God’s word, right? His word.

And saying, God, I want you to show me, give me some role models from your word about the person that you want me to be. Maybe that person is a Proverbs 31 woman, maybe that person is Esther, maybe that person is Ruth or Deborah. You can look at the stories of women in the Bible, men and women in the Bible, to say that’s the kind of attribute that I wanna have.

As I grow in my relationship with the Lord, as I’m becoming this future version of myself, I wanna be intentional about that. I wanna say, yes, I wanna work on being humble, yes, I wanna work on controlling my thoughts.

Maybe you’re someone who struggles with a particular addiction or maybe it’s not even that huge as like an addiction but maybe it’s a bad habit that you need to get rid of. All of that starts with your thinking.

Then the last thing that I really want you to remember whenever you’re thinking about this idea of taking action on becoming your future self, and that is to take your thoughts captive. I have shared this before and I will share it again. As long as I have this channel, I will be sharing that. Your circumstances alone do not determine your feelings, okay? Your circumstances don’t determine how you feel.

Once you realize that, once you realize there’s a buffer in between your circumstance and your feelings, that buffer is your thoughts, that buffer is your thinking. And so, as you begin to realize, hey, the way that I’m thinking changes the way that I am feeling. It’s not the circumstance.

One story that I always love to share is the story of Paul and Silas, whenever they were being beaten, they were getting pretty much persecuted for doing what God had called them to do. And they’re in jail. And what are they doing? They’re singing. They’re praising God. Why? Because if your circumstances determine your emotions then they should have been upset, sad, maybe doubting God because here they are in jail when they were trying to do the right thing. But they weren’t. Because your circumstances don’t dictate your emotions, your thoughts do.

So maybe they were thinking things like what an honor it is to serve God even though we’re in jail. Or God must have a plan for why we’re in here. Or they just loved God so much they were praising him and worshiping him. And that changed their emotions.

So think about the circumstances that you’re in. Think about your personal life right now. Remember the version of you now that we were comparing earlier, it’s okay to have that gap, because the gap is where you grow, the gap is where you are invited in to making changes.

If the future version of me is someone who wants to stay home more then that can be something that I focus on. If the future version of me is someone who makes a different amount of money or someone who looks different, maybe weighs less or whatever, whatever your goal is, think about that gap between where you are and where you wanna be and then ask the Lord, what steps do I need to take?

What thoughts do I need to start with so that I can make the kind of actions that get me to that place where you want me to be? That’s what being a future version of yourself is all about. It’s about asking God, who do you want me to be? What does your word say about the person that I need to be? And then taking the steps to get there.

All right. That is all that I have for you. If you enjoyed all the videos this month on personal growth, please let me know. If you want videos on productivity or mindset and how that relates to personal development, let me know and I’d be happy to create some more videos like that for you. Also, I wanna make sure that you know that we are now offering a monthly Christian meditation on this channel. So you can go back, check out the Christian and the biblical meditations that we’ve provided for you and use those to start changing your thinking and changing your mindset.

As always, I’ll leave all the links below to The Mindset Reset, to The Six Month Mastermind, to that meditation playlist. And I will talk to you guys next time. Have a great week.