Answering God’s Call Instead of Chasing the World’s Standards in 2026

Happy New Year! (Half a month late, but I’m always late, so this is actually on time according to my inner clock 🤪) God has been reshaping the way I view the new year and New Year’s resolutions. This year, He is teaching me to discern the difference between responding to His call on my life and responding to the world’s standards of success and worth. Scripture reminds us that, as Christians, we live in the world but are not of it, meaning we are not guided by the world’s standards, but by God’s. And God’s ways do not align with the world’s. When setting goals for a new year, we can fall into one of two traps: We may unknowingly set goals that mirror the world’s definition of success, or we may intentionally avoid goals that would help us follow God’s call because they don’t appear successful by worldly standards. Our responsibility is to recognize these traps and choose obedience to God’s call, even when it doesn’t lead to earthly success or validation, because that was never the goal of our lives to begin with.

There are times, even when we have the best intentions, that our goals get shaped by the world’s standards instead of shaped by God’s calling on our lives. For example, we might make goals for our physical appearance based on what the world says makes us worthy of love, we may set achievement goals within our work so we can feel more worldly success, or we might make personal growth goals so the world will approve of us more. It’s not that working to improve our physical health, committing to our jobs, or bettering ourselves are bad things, however when we do it to be more like the world instead of to bring glory to God, that’s when we run into a problem.

And then there are times that we hear God’s calling, but chose not to make goals that would answer His call because it doesn’t align with the world’s standards. Often times, God’s will for us makes no sense when we look at it with a worldly lens. God might call us to things that humble us instead of highlight us. He may call us out of comfortability and into a challenge. He could call us away from societal success and toward servant-hearted surrender. Maybe He will call us to stop seeking public praise and replace it with private faithfulness.

In my current season, I’m wrestling more with the latter issue. I hear God loud and clear, and have for YEARS when it comes to this platform right here. I’ve felt God nudging me to write more blog posts since 2018, yet I’ve largely ignored the call because it doesn’t align with what the world considers successful or worthy of my time. Blog posts are wildly outdated, not to mention that my blog posts reach about 3 people on a good day. According to the world, I should be doing something that will get me more attention. Something like vlogging or creating content on TikTok. But God’s calling on my life isn’t about me gaining followers, it’s about me following the Lord of my life.

So, even though writing blogs in the year 2026 makes no sense, it’s what I am committing to this year because I feel very clearly that God’s calling me to it. It might not yield fruit the world would consider successful, like leading to writing a book, landing a speaking engagement, or growing an audience. But I know it will yield the fruit that truly matters; I will practice my obedience to the Lord and say yes to His promptings with more consistent blog posts, I will grow in my reliance on God when I feel like I don’t have anything worth sharing, and I will exercise putting my trust in God and believing He has plans to work through me, even if I never know what those plans are.

This is our year to run the race with endurance keeping our eyes on Jesus without fearing what the world might think! This is our year to set goals that will answer God’s call, rather than goals that reflect the world’s ever-changing standards! Take some inventory by answering the following questions, and get excited for how God will move in you and through you this year!

Reflection Questions

–> If you’ve already made goals for the year, take a moment to look over them. Where do you see God’s Word shaping them? Where are they being influenced more by the world’s definition of success? If needed, rewrite your goals in a way that will more closely align with God’s Word in order to bring Him the glory.

–> Reflect on any area of your life where you sense God gently calling you toward something. Have you been resisting because it doesn’t feel impressive, productive, or valuable by worldly standards? What fears or hesitations come up as you sit with that calling?

–> Prayerfully consider this year ahead. What is one practical step you can take to align your goals, habits, and daily actions more closely with God’s calling instead of the world’s approval?