Personal Growth, Manifesting + Faith

I’ve spent the last year doing a deep dive into the world of personal growth. I’ve been hanging around the edges, dipping my toe in for years but this year I jumped right in. I went to a Tony Robbins one-day conference, read and watched all the things from Rachel Hollis, never missed an Ed Mylett podcast, met weekly with my therapist, spoke 3x’s a month with my business coach Alli Worthington and through these people were introduced to countless others who I have followed and been impacted by.  I’ve added so many new life giving habits to my daily routine in the last year, and while still (always) in progress, there has been significant life changing growth that has taken place. I’ll always be a personal growth junkie at some level. I’m just too driven to stay stagnant.

Recently I’ve been thinking a lot about the intersection of personal growth and faith. Specifically around the idea of “manifesting” and the messaging that there is power within YOU to accomplish anything you put your mind to. I get why this concept is so popular and so effective. Humans are creatures of habit and when we get stuck, having someone tell us to get out of the rut and start moving in the direction of our dreams can work! We’ve been created with logic and reason and gifts and talents and in our own strength we can make things happen. What I am wrestling with is, if I create success in my own strength then I get all the credit and the glory. But if I have the opportunity to obtain any measure of success in my life...I want GOD to get all the credit and the glory. I want to so clearly be able to point to all of the doors He’s opened, all of the relationships He has brought into my life, all of the opportunities He put in front of me. All of which I then worked hard to bring to fruition, but none of which would have happened without Him. I feel a very subtle but important difference here.  Because in both scenarios hard work, effort, grit and gifting are required. However, in one scenario I am the creator of my destiny and in the other I am stewarding the opportunities given to me by my Creator.

As I’ve wrestled with these thoughts + the tension that lies in them, a few scriptures have jumped out to me:

Psalm 37:5

Commit everything you do to the Lord. Trust Him and He will help you.

Proverbs 19:21

You can make many plans, but the Lord’s purpose will prevail.

1 Corinthians 8:2-3

Anyone who claims to know all the answers doesn’t really know very much. But the person who loves God is the one whom God recognizes.

So how do we balance the pursuit of becoming all that God created us to be, and living up to the potential He’s given us while not striving for our own destiny?  The tools and resources offered by personal growth leaders are a great way to grow the gifts God has given us. They give us practical and actionable ideas for being more efficient, leading well, and not burning out. We should use the resources available to us and not throw the baby out with the bathwater. But we must also be intentional to recognize where those gifts originated, where our opportunities have come from and to Whom the credit is due.