why wait until January 1st to get closer with God when you can just start right now if you don't want to wait until the new year starts to get closer to the Lord and become who he created you to be it is time for you and I to enter our winter Ark together if you don't know what a winter Arc is it's something that's going viral on social media right now it's where you use the cold winter months to basically lock in you use this time to focus on discipline setting goals and hitting goals being
productive limiting distractions and overall becoming the best version of yourself so that once Spring and Summer come you are already your best self I've been seeing the winter art go crazy on social media but I've been wondering what does a winter Ark look like with God I entered my winter Ark 5 years ago when I decided to stop being lukewarm and go all in for the Lord I had a set time where I just decided to leave my old life style where I was drinking all the time where I was finding my worth in how
guys saw me I was just the most unhealthy version of myself and I set that time apart to set healthy habits that would help me focus on God get closer to God become the person that he created me to be and overall reach my full potential in the Lord and ever since I learned how to create those habits I have not been the same since in this video I'm going to share with you how how to enter your winter Ark with God become the best version of yourself in Christ and achieve your goals with the
Lord before the new year even begins if you're new here I'm Ashley I have a series called The Holy girl diaries where I share with you how to grow closer to God and become the best version of yourself in him make sure you subscribe so you don't miss an episode first things first you're going to create a list of rules for your winter art Proverbs 2918 says where there is no vision the people perish so for the next 3 months you are going to set intentions on what you want to focus on I really recommend
taking some time where you're just alone with the Lord and you're asking him what he wants you to focus on for the next 3 months it's going to look different for all of us because God is leading each of us on different Journeys and for each one of us he is going to tell us to prioritize different things at the beginning of the quarter I will set time alone with the Lord and I will just like sit there in his presence and I will ask him to tell me what to focus on and he is
always faithful to put things on my heart to nudge me in a different direction to put Visions in my mind to put words and thoughts and ideas in my mind that then I move forward in faith on and I just believe that that is him speaking to me and him leading me in a direction you're never going to know if it's really God's voice unless you just do it but often God is trying to lead us and he's trying to tell us what to do but we're just not giving him the space to do that
so ask the Lord to show you three to five main things to focus on for the next 90 days I really recommend not focusing on a million things at once but the Lord is very smart and he's very strategic and he's not going to tell you to focus on a million things at once he's going to help you get your vision like locked in so that you are super super purposeful and disciplined the next 90 days I'm going to go over my main winter Ark with God goals with you one spend time with God first
hour of the day this means no phone before reading my Bible I also have been reading a devotional in the morning if you guys want a devotional wreck I have my book The Joy of the in between I've been loving seeing you guys read this devotional in the morning but it's all about if you're in a season of waiting on God and trusting God's timing number two wake up before 6:00 a.m. Mark 1:35 says very early in the morning while it was still dark Jesus got up left the house and went off to a solitary
place where he prayed so there is something about waking up early when it is like still dark out and you can hear the birds chirping and it is just you and God this is my favorite time of the day because it is undistracted time alone with my heavenly father I just love having time where it's just me and him I'm cozying up with my coffee on the couch maybe have a candle going and I just get to hear my father's voice and I get to get in the word of God I also love waking up
early because it gives me time to go to the gym and get a good workout in it also gives me time to feed myself a nutritious healthy high protein breakfast and also I even have time to get ready in the morning put on a cute modest fashionable fit there are so many benefits to waking up early so I really want to focus on not hitting snooze the next 90 days three Steward my body through healthy foods and daily movement some days I'm just going for a walk and talking to God outside other days I am
doing a strength training session at the gym or going to a pilates class but what matters is that each day I am setting time apart to move my body and take care of my body as a temple of the Holy Spirit four get involved in a local church if you've been following my journey I just moved to Los Angeles and I am still still not planted in a church and I really want to be planted somewhere because I will not be able to grow and I will not be able to be surrounded by a good
Godly Community if I am not planted in the local body God cares so much that we are all planted in a local body Community is so important mentorship is so important serving is so important so I'm locking in and I'm finding my church home over the next 90 days and lastly finish a project that God told me to do at the beginning of the year so I was recently looking back on my January goals and the number one thing that the father told me to do I still had not done yet and what's crazy is
when I recently just got alone with the Lord and I was like God what do you want me to focus on for the next couple months he brought up that number one goal that I still had not done so for the next 90 days I'm going focus on being obedient to the Lord and getting that thing done for him I love 1 Corinthians 15:58 cuz it says so my dear brothers and sisters be strong and immovable always work enthusiastically for the Lord for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless so
I can't tell you guys what the project is and I also don't even know what is going to come of this project or if it's even going to do well if it's even going to be successful but the Lord has showed me that even if I was just doing it for him and even if he was the only one who I got an Applause from at the end of it that would be enough so maybe God told you to do something at the beginning of the year and you still have not done it this could
be your time to do it you're going to make your father proud because nothing you do for the Lord is ever done in vain create daily habits to reach your goals so often we want to focus on the goal and very little on the habits that we need to do to get to that goal so something that has really helped me is habit tracking where I focus on the different habits that I would need to do to accomplish these goals and I make sure I am tracking those habits throughout my days different habits you can
be putting in your habit tracker are reading the Bible daily going on a 15-minute prayer walk getting at least 7 hours of sleep of course you're not going to be able to hit a habit every single day but I want you to just focus on if you miss one day of a habit just try not to miss two over time as you consistently commit to these daily habits you are going to build momentum you are going to see progress and that's going to motivate you to show up to these daily habits even more join the
winter Ark with God challenge so a couple years back I started this challenge called The Holy 40 Challenge and over 60,000 people joined and so I was thinking like wouldn't it be cool if there was a challenge that was set apart for the last 3 months of the year just focusing on growing closer to God and becoming the person that he created you to be so I created a challenge where I teach you step by step on how to enter your winter Ark with God become the best version of yourself in Christ start healthy Christian
habits and hit your goals with God I know I was just talking about habit tracking and I have a habit tracker in the challenge you guys can join the challenge in the description below it's totally free and if you guys want a community to do the challenge with I have my community the tree where hundreds of y'all from all over the world are going to be doing this challenge together the link to join the tree is also in the description as well leave your old lifestyle of sin now people don't want to talk about this
but we need to talk about this each person gets to a point where they are sick and tired of being sick and tired I got to a point where I was so exhausted from try trying to find fulfillment in all the wrong places I said I was a Christian I would go to church but I would also go to church hung over with stamps on my hands and I would also go to church knowing that I was doing things that God was not pleased with and the reason why I was one foot in the world
and one foot with God is because I was still looking to things of the world for satisfaction that only God could bring me so I had to get to a point where I was like just done with it I had to just let it all go I had to stop going out I had to stop going back to these relationships that I was Finding comfort in and I had to go all in with the Lord I believe that for many of us entering our winter Ark with God we have to say no to sin we
have to say bye-bye to sin and we have to step into pursuing Holiness we have to fully commit to that so I'm inviting you guys over the next 90 days y'all know if there's a sin struggle that you keep going back to the Bible talks about it like a dog returning to its vomit I want to encourage you to the next 90 days step fully away from the vomit like you don't want to go back to it anymore you keep going back to it thinking that it's going to make you feel better thinking that it's
going to be different it never is getting drunk is never fulfilling hooking up with that guy is always going to make you feel worthless because it's not God's portion for you God wants you to live life and life to the full so the next 90 days that's what you're going to do you're going to step away from that sinful lifestyle you're going to say uhuh I'm not going to fall into that anymore and you are going to pursue Holiness and run after the Lord and I promise after these next 90 days you will not look
the same step away from lukewarm friends or friends who don't know God at all 1 Corinthians 15:33 says do not be misled Bad Company corrupts good character I know that many of us have friends that are not fully pursuing the Lord and you don't have about leaving those friendships entirely I would never tell you to just drop someone because you are following God but I will say that your closeness to people that are not following Jesus will have to change if you want to live a life that is consecrated to the Lord that means that
if you want to live a life that is Holy and blameless and you want to live a life that pleases and honors God it is going to be very hard for you to do that if your best friends and the people you spend all your time with with don't know Jesus at all the Bible tells us walk with the wise and become wise a companion of fools suffers harm it tells us we are not to be unequally yolked with unbelievers because light cannot even have fellowship with Darkness so I know you do not want to
drop friends I get that you shouldn't drop friends but you spending Friday Saturday Sunday with this group of people is not wise for the next 90 days if you really want to have a winter with God what this might look like is for a while you might just have this Gap where you're not really hanging out with anyone at all and your only close friend is Jesus most Believers I know have had a season where it was just them and God and they had to step away from those old relationships that were not helping them
grow closer to the Lord and it was just them and Jesus when I started following God like wholeheartedly I had to kind of step away from some relationships that were tugging me in a different direction and in instead of going out on Friday and Saturday nights I was at home with my Bible or I was like jumping around in my room dancing to worship music and just like being alone with God and you would think like oh that's a little sad I was actually having the most fun time ever because I was with my heavenly
father and I was getting to know him on a personal intimate level but here's what I will say when you step away from these friends and step away from spending all your time with people who don't know Jesus and you focus on getting closer to God and you also get planted in a local church and you also are praying and you're asking the father to send you good Christian friends over time he is going to do that and he is going to be faithful but you don't get to that next season unless you first step
away from the close friendships that you have with people who are in the world you're not going to get here unless you take the step back and you're like all right I'm going to obey God and I am going to believe that he has good people for me even if that means I need to be lonely for a season God is going to use this time to develop me and he is going to send the right friends into my life at the right time and when he does you will be available for that because you're
not going to be spending all your time with these people who are not your people get involved in a local church the Lord made the church for a reason he made the church for us to grow for us to be in community with one another for us to have Fellowship for us to read the Bible together study the word together church is so good for you to be planted in I need to take this advice as well that is why I'm making it one of my winter art goals to get planted in a local body
make an action whiteboard so I have done this in the past couple of months and it has worked wonders for me what I will do is on my whiteboard I will write down the different habits that I want to focus on and then what I will do at the end of the day or at the beginning of the day I will make sure I write that I did that habit and what I'm doing is just consistently reminding myself of the actions that I need to take to hit these goals that I want to accomplish you
do not reach goals by focusing on goals you reach goals by focusing on the process to get to those goals reward yourself for your progress it is so important that we celebrate the wins what I've done when I've had to finish really hard projects or when I've wanted to motivate myself to do hard things is I've made rewards for myself for hitting those goals or those habits for a certain number of days so what I did in this past month is I wrote down these habits and I said if I hit five of the seven
days each week of the month of those habits I would reward myself with a certain thing so last month I rewarded myself with a coffee machine some of y'all it doesn't even need to be monetary it can be like you are going to reward yourself with like pain in your nails whatever it is make sure you are celebrating the wins even if it's just a simple cup of coffee from your favorite coffee shop you don't want to just celebrate when you hit a goal in the future because you don't always know when you're going to
hit that result but you can always celebrate showing up to the journey find an accountability partner having accountability is going to just work wonders for you what I recommend is finding one or two friends that you can share your goals with and say I would love your accountability I would love for you to check in on these goals and then make make sure you're also checking in on their goals this is really going to motivate you when times get tough and you just need a friend to tell you that you can do it build a
morning routine with God in college I used to be the girl who would wake up at the very last minute and run out the door I would literally eat my Chobani yogurt on the way to class it was just a disaster because I was always late I was always in a rush I started off my day on the worst note if you truly want to enter your winter Ark with God it is going to be a lot easier for you to do that if you're waking up early because you're going to set time apart to
be alone with him the days get busy we have school we have obligations stuff comes up and it's hard to make that time for the Lord but if you wake up even 15 minutes before you have to get to class or you wake up even 15 minutes earlier than you normally do you could read like three Bible verses in that time you can pray in that time you can just journal to the Lord in that time you can surrender day to the Lord and you can commit it to him if you focus on waking up
early every single day for the next 90 days just to get alone with God imagine how much closer to the Lord you will be at the end of these next 3 months fuel your body with healthy foods from God's green earth now I used to be the person who struggled so much with actually enjoying cooking I never really had the time to cook I just would always want to get take out I'd always want to eat junk food I had the biggest sweet tooth so I was just always wanting sugary foods and sugary coffees and
I didn't really know how to make balance meals that tasted good that also didn't take forever to make over the past couple years I have learned how to make quick healthy and easy meals that I actually look forward to that give me energy that keep me full and that make me feel my best and overall live a life that is purposeful and one that I have energy for I created a cookbook book with over 60 recipes to help you feel your best enjoy eating healthy and overall step into your Healthy girl era I'm linking my
cookbook in the description below over the next 90 days focus on fueling your body taking care of your body as a temple of the Holy Spirit and eating balanced meals that give you energy and help you live out God's purpose for your life prioritize daily movement even if it's just a 15-minute prayer walk like that still counts some of y'all are really intimidated by the gym and maybe you just haven't ever even stepped foot into the gym maybe you don't have a workout schedule at all but I just want to encourage you over the next
90 days take care of your body go on daily walks even Park a little bit farther away in a parking lot just so you have more steps to get to the store take workout classes with friends focus on moving your body so you have energy you have endorphins and you feel your best in this season ask the holy spirit for strength I love 2 Corinthians 12:9 because it says but he said to me my grace is sufficient for you for my power is made perfect in weakness your strength does not need to come from yourself
your strength can come from God if God is the one leading you to do these different things in your winter Ark he will be the one to give you the strength to do these different things I've even been tested in this because even waking up early I've had to ask and beg the Lord to get me out of bed in the morning because it just felt nearly possible to wake up I've had to ask the Lord to give me the strength to love difficult people I've had to ask the Lord to give me the strength
to even do this project that he's telling me to do right now that I do not feel equipped for God wants to give us strength y'all he is not asking us to do any of this on our own so just ask the holy spirit for strength in your weakness and I promise he's going to show up consecrate the next 90 days to God what it means to be consecrated and to consecrate something is to set it apart to dedicate it to the Lord to say these next 3 months are set apart solely for the Lord
I am dedicating these next 3 months to God and fulfilling his purposes for my life I'm dedicating these next 90 days to growing closer to God and knowing my Creator most everyone is throwing in the towel for the rest of the year they are saying all right I don't have a church yet but I'll just find one next year I haven't started reading my Bible yet but I'll just read it next year but that's not going to be you you don't need to be like them you get to choose to dedicate this time to the
Lord pursue Holiness and focus on God and in that you will become who he created you to be I'm telling you the more that you focus on the Lord and not even trying to change yourself you will just become more like him and you won't even recognize yourself at the end of these 90 days it is such a beautiful thing when you get to see how God can move in your life how he can change change your heart how he can turn you from someone who was walking this way who was like this to someone
who was completely different who looks like his son Jesus God can do that but he does that as you focus on him the more that you focus on God the more that you will become like Jesus and you will reach your full potential in the Lord if you are preparing for your winter Ark with God comment a snowflake emoji and let's hold each other accountable in the comments below make sure to follow me on my Instagram and Tik Tok @ Ashley heatherington and my Snapchat @ Ash Hetherington so I can hold you accountable as well
I'm going to be having my winter Ark with God challenge in the description below and if you want to join my tree Community get the cookbook or my devotional all of those links are in the description below as well I love you all so much and just remember Jesus loves you more m
