Tag: #GoalSetting

January in Summary

I have spent the better part of January praying and waiting on God for what he has for me. I don’t have all the answers but, I have made a conscious choice to make sure that I am in a place where I can get the answers and directions, I need to ensure that I end up in the place where God has destined me to be. I can’t achieve the dreams God has given me by myself. I need the interference of someone who knows better and someone much stronger than me to help me get to my desired destination. My natural self is prone to discouragement and inconsistency. Without his divine assistance I will lose strength and momentum along the way. Because I know this, I have given myself over to prayer and supplication and focused more on receiving what I need to excel this year and the decades to come.

With the month rapping up I have confidence that God has my back because I have taken out time to make the necessary sacrifice that will enable me to excel this year. Of course, there is the requirement for ongoing, supplication further down the road, but for now I know that it is time to begin the journey and take that first step in Faith. Faith that God has heard your prayers and that he is with you and won’t let you take steps in the wrong direction. You can only have this assurance if you have really spent time in surrender to God in prayer.

Another thing I have been more deliberate with, which I will certainly continue to practice is reading the word and praying it back to God. The Bible in one-year plan on YouVersion has been a great resource in maintaining this. The plan gives you 4-5 chapters in the new and old testament to read daily and encourages you to write your thoughts and take away points at the end of each daily reading. It is spilt up in monthly portions so you can catch up here with February, if you would like to join. You are also able to invite others to join you with your daily reading habit and turn it into a group bible study. It’s also a great way to get your family members involved and keeps you accountable. It is a very useful and helpful tool if you are seeking to develop discipline in this area of your spiritual growth.

Finally, I’d like to encourage you to review yourself each month. How did your January go? Did you pray more like you said you would? Did you stick to your goals? Did you commit your goals into the hands of the Lord and trust him? Did you write down the words and instructions you received from him? Are they in line with the Word? Which scripture spoke to you the most this month as you read the word?

As you continue to ask yourself questions that evaluate your journey into 2020, think of what you can do better or differently in February and set yourself small targets to do things that will further develop your spiritual life. Yes, I am asking you to prioritise your spiritual goals above every other goal. This is what Daniel and his friends did. Their spiritual goal was to please God and worship him alone and to fulfil the requirements of the law of God even if that meant going against the customs, norms and legal decrees of the Land. Instead of their health, education, careers and finances declining, they flourished, prospered and excelled in all that they did. I strongly believe that if you prioritise your spiritual goals and do what is said in the scriptures you will also begin to experience flourishing in your finances, relationships, career, health and wellbeing. This is what God wants for us and what he is willing to give us.

So, about those goals…

We often wait to reach the half way mark of the year before we start looking at our goals again and assessing how well we are doing. But I don’t think we should wait that long before we take another look at what we’ve achieved so far, how well we’ve done or how far we’ve strayed from our intended goals.

So, today I had a look at the more detailed notes I have for each goal in my goals journal and I noticed that

a) I had forgotten some things I wrote down and if I used what I wrote as a measurement of my success I wasn’t doing so well, and

b) perhaps I was a little too eager and excited and gave myself targets that were to high to reach.

And finally, C) I noticed that in the last few weeks I have focused more on achieving some goals and have not payed any attention at all to some others.

I’ve been asking myself if perhaps I gave myself to much to focus on in a short time. My goals are centered around the theme of development and having some tangible results at the end of the year. So for instance, I want to develop myself academically which obviously means that I will have some sort of qualification from a short course or will be enrolled on a course by the end of the year as evidence of that development. I also hope to see development spiritually, so I tasked myself to study particular sections and topics in the Bible in addition to my daily reading activity. I also want to develop my mind and broaden my thinking so I’m adding reading a new book every month on my list of things to do to achieve my goals, which in turn will also build my library.

These are just a few of the goals I put down, but as you can see this will inevitably place a demand on my time and finances and will also mean that I feel underdeveloped and stunted in my growth if I don’t meet my daily, weekly or monthly targets.

I’m sure you’re starting to see the importance of reviewing goals and assessing how practical the plans you’ve made are. No matter how smart your goals are they can out smart you if they don’t practically fit your current life style. Yes, of course you should be willing to change, but don’t make goals that will require you to make too many changes at the same time in a short space of time.

But here is what is even more important, No matter how smart your goals are and no matter how smart you are in working towards your goals, you CANNOT OUT SMART GOD!

Your goals are incomplete if you have not made spiritual goals, and they cannot be achieved if you do not priorities your spiritual goals. “Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and every other thing will be added unto you” (Matthew 6:33). You and I are the the Kingdom, and righteousness is our right standing with God, which is only made possible through the help of God, a thing we enjoy as a result of our relationship with Him.

The other thing we need to remember is that as we work towards our goals we need to constantly check what our motivations are. Is my desire to develop myself in 2018 godly? Am I driven by godly motivations, to please God with my growth and become the person that God wants me to be or am I focused on just getting it done and being able to say that I ticked of things on my list? You can work towards achieving your goals and do so well at this, but can be feeding of on the wrong motives. You might go on for years achieving all your goals before realizing that something is missing. It is the reason (purpose) behind what you do and not what you do that brings true fulfillment.

So, what am I taking away from my experience this afternoon? My focus needs to remain on being motivated on the advancement of God’s Kingdom in me and the promotion of righteousness as I work towards fulfilling my goals. I also see that there is a time for everything and that I cannot do everything at once, but I must stick to what is important and what I’ve decided to do now, being faithful and committed to it.

My prayer is, as always, that God causes what our hands find to do to prosper and makes us find rest in the fulfillment of all He has promised us in this year.

Christian’s and their Resolutions

With the year coming  to an end it’s quite natural to reflect on the year, all the achievements and make new plans for the coming year. You are probably already planning your vacations for next year, thinking about destinations or thinking about going back to school, writing exams starting a business or whatever else you have planned. This time of the year can also be a little nerve wrecking, particularly when you have had some prayer request that don’t seem to have been answered, and with only less and less time left in the year it doesn’t seem likely that the current year will birth a miracle for you.  With the world shouting out about goal setting and writing resolutions that will result in success, we might feel that we should have taken matters into our own hands instead of relying on God to make changes. With all this in mind how can we prepare in a godly way, so as to be inspired with fresh faith for the year ahead?

If you’ve had a few years now that have not ended in the way that you expected, in spite of making smart goals and well thought out plans, the question that might be playing on your heart might be whether goal setting is a godly practice. Maybe we should  trust God in prayers and see what he will do?

Proverbs 3: 5 and 6 admonishes us to,

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take. (New Living Translation)

The obvious meaning we take away from this scripture is that we need to totally depend on and trust in God for direction and instruction. This is very true, but it also means that we need to have plans, an idea of what it is we want to do. You can’t trust God for the goals you want to achieve if you don’t have any! Smart Goals are God given goals and should therefore always be in line with our God given potential and purpose. For instance, becoming a Pastor of a new church plant aimed at reaching the unchurched is a godly vision. However, if your potential is to start a local business or perhaps it is to become an influential politician, you will quickly find that you are executing the wrong goals with the wrong tools.

King David desired to build God a temple, a place where God could dwell. The ark of the covenant had been the only physical place that represented the presence of God since the days of Joshua. This ark had been moved from place to place and never had a designated resting place apart from the large tent project commissioned by Moses. David’s passion for God inspired him to build a place for God. A glorious temple in honor of God. His idea was great and God approved of the idea, however as he sought God and acknowledged Him, in regards to this idea, He found out that God did not quite approve of his execution. It would not be David that would build the temple instead David’s son the one who would be made King after him would be the one to build the temple.

Sometimes acknowledging God means making adjustments to our plans, changing and postponing our goals, and sometimes scrapping them all together. In the case of David it meant that he only had the opportunity of financially contributing towards the goal, but He missed out on being part of the building project, he did not have the opportunity to see the building or attend the opening service. Whilst this seems like a loss, he would have certainly been more disappointment if he had gone to build the temple against God’s will. He would have attracted the disapproval and anger of God instead of the blessing and favour he received.

When your plans and goals are completely in line with God’s will for your life, you will  always attract God’s favour and grace.

But why didn’t God allow David to build the temple as he desired? It was his idea, so why was the burden of execution put upon the shoulders of his son Solomon?

The answer is found in verses 11-13 of 2 Samuel 7, which says,

11… . Also the Lord tells you that He will make you a house. 12 When your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you, who will come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. (New King James Version)

God’s purpose for David was to be a man of war. David was a fighter with the heart of a worshiper –  a warring worshiper. David was a destroyer and killer and a protector of Israel. Although he had a good heart with godly intentions, he still had to do things God’s way.  He was just part of the beginning of what God was planing not just in Israel but in the entire world. Even though, what we do is very important to God, he is even more particular in how we do it. Saul, David’s predecessor and mentor, did not take this into account and suffered worst possible punishment for his sin. “Obedience is better than Sacrifice”, were the words of Samuel to Saul after he made a sacrifice to God, which he as a King, had no business making (1 Samuel 15: 22). Seeking God’s face for our own goals has a huge impact on not just our own lives but on the lives of our descendants. Saul’s disobedience attracted a pattern of generational mishap and curses for his family, not only did the presence of God depart from him, but His sons to the third generation experienced misfortune and made wrong choices themselves.

You are more likely to continue down the path of wrong, if you are disconnected from the one who has the right direction. 

David’s one good choice to follow after God’s heart rather than his own carnal desires, led to him having a throne that is established forever. God is interested in legacy and not just that one goal you are looking to achieve. It is important to ask God for clear directions about what he wants you to do and how he wants you to do it. Let God fit your goals into the godly legacy he is trying to build through you.

set goals