I popped the question to a friend of mine while she was over for dinner. “What are your ultimate goals in life?” She looked at me like I’d said, “ecvrkupbtblruggsptb.”
“What do you mean?” she asked back.
“What do you live for in life? What do you want to see happen while you are alive, because you are alive? What are your greatest desires?” I explained.
“Um, well, I want to live for God and be a good wife and mother” she answered.
“Good, good. Okay, how… How do you plan on accomplishing this?” I asked.
“I’ve never really thought about it.”
The Beginnings
I probably would have answered the same way if I hadn’t been exposed to goal setting when I became a real estate agent almost ten years ago. My manager sat down with me and gave me an assignment—to write down all my goals for life. I had never considered goal setting before, but I diligently complied, and over the year revised my list until it was just right.
Running with Aim
Even though I was provoked to goal setting by an unsaved boss, the reason I still set goals is found in 1 Corinthians 9:26. Like Paul, I want "to run in such a way, as not without aim.” Even on a day to day basis, if I know what I want to accomplish that day, I will get far more done than if I just move around aimlessly.
Goals clarify what we want. They give direction to our thoughts and how we spend our time.
How can you know where to go if you don’t know where you want to end up? What is your ultimate objective in life? What are your smaller objectives? Proverbs 14:8a says “The wisdom of the sensible is to understand his way.” Understand where you’re going, what you’re doing, and how you’re getting there.
Goals help give direction to everything you do. Imagine coming with me to my son’s basketball game last Saturday and seeing no baskets. As we sit down confused, we hear this announcement: “We are going to play basketball today without any baskets. We want the kids to just have fun and not feel pressure to make ‘goals’.” The game would be chaos. No one would know where to go or what to do. The goals provide direction.
What Does the Bible Say?
As Christians, God gives us clear direction about what we should seek and want. Paul talks about his ultimate goal in Philippians 3:7-11, 13-14:
“But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from {the} Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which {comes} from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead... Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of {it} yet; but one thing {I do:} forgetting what {lies} behind and reaching forward to what {lies} ahead, I press on toward the goal (denotes "a mark on which to fix the eye," and is used metaphorically of an aim or object) for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” ( Vine, W. E. "Goal," Vine's Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words. Blue Letter Bible. 1940.)
Short summary of Paul’s life goals: Know Christ. Inherit His righteousness. Spend Eternity with Him.
Words or phrases the Bible uses for goals (depending on the translation) include: ambitions, outcome, aim, desire earnestly, finish my course, and accomplish my purpose. Here’s a sampling of these phrases used in Scripture:
“Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him.” 2 Corinthians 5:9
“But the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.” 1 Timothy 1:5
“… obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls.” 1 Peter 1:9
“Therefore I run in such a way, as not without aim; I box in such a way, as not beating the air; but I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified.” 1 Corinthians 9:26
“And [Jesus] said to them, "Go and tell that fox, 'Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third {day} I reach My goal.’” Luke 13:32
The Bible clearly points us toward spiritual goals. And the ultimate goal of every Christian is to know Christ and be like Christ. That is the greatest goal. Our additional common goals, as believers, are eternal, spiritual, and unseen. They are focused on fulfilling God’s plan, growing into the likeness of Christ, and reaching eternal life. If you already set goals, you probably have individual goals too. Personal goals often involve exercising our spiritual gifts God has given us. Later on in this post, I will talk about the spiritual importance of personal goals.
Impactful People Set Goals
Listen to this amazing and powerful quote from John MacArthur about the importance of setting goals:
“Now in the Christian life we are pressing toward a goal. That goal is not the satisfaction of my own needs. That goal is not the satisfaction of my own desire for greater significance, that is not the goal of my life. The goal of my life is to be like Christ.
Now let me approach this from another angle, as well. I have never met a successful person, an effective person, an impactful person in any realm of enterprise in the world who was not committed to reaching goals. The people who impact the world are pursuers. They're winners. They're competitors. They know what it is, and listen to this, to ignore personal comfort to reach a goal outside themselves. They make incredible sacrifices for the wrong reasons to reach the wrong goals. But the people who impact society, the people who affect society, the people who leave an imprint on society are not the kind of people whose lives are consumed with making sure their own needs are met, even from a human viewpoint, to say nothing from a spiritual viewpoint. Those in the spiritual dimension, however, who leave an impact are equally competitors, winners.
I don't think people really understand that. I have read enough biographies of famous Christians, I have heard enough messages and lectures, I have read enough articles, I have visited enough places in the world to see the memorabilia of famous Christian leaders to know this, there are no hidden secrets about an impactful life. It is the direct result of a maximum effort to reach a spiritual goal and in the process ignore your own personal situation. It is amazing what great preachers, great theologians and great missionaries have suffered in the process of reaching a spiritual goal. And they all have one thing in common, it was of little concern to them to consider their own human condition, apart from the fact that they considered it theologically, it was of major concern to them that they follow Christ, pursue Christ.
There are no secrets. Effective lives belong to people who pursue goals that are outside themselves and they pursue them almost blindly. The same is true spiritually. The people who leave an impact on the church and the world are those who have a spiritual goal on which they are focused, that goal of being like Jesus Christ. They pursue that with little thought of the conditions of their own human life. That's Paul...that's Paul. He says, "I'm not interested in anything else," [Phil 3] verse 8, "I consider everything else a loss, all I want is one thing, I want the prize," verse 14. That's what made him great. It was that ability to be so totally focused on a goal. And that's what we're talking about, that's what we're talking about. We all are called to pursue the goal. And again, the goal is to be conformed to the image of God's Son, as we noted two weeks ago. We are pursuing that, let say it simply, as our total Christian duty. Can I simplify the whole Christian life for you? The whole Christian life can be boiled down, pursuing Christ's likeness. That's it. That's it.” (MacArthur, John. http://www.gty.org/Resources/Sermons/50-35_Fleeing-from-Enemies?q=goals)
The Ultimate Goal
The goal of life is to know Christ and be made like him. It is our ultimate objective. But we must have a way of achieving that objective. We must have a plan, and then break that plan up into daily chunks until our goal is reached.
If I want to know Christ, I MUST know His Word. I remember when the WWJD (What Would Jesus Do?) bracelets were trendy. I thought the concept was great, but the application of the concept sometimes killed me. I heard people who would “What would Jesus do?” and then act completely contrary to Christ without even knowing it.
For instance, I remember someone who was faced with a conflict over talking about the gospel. After thinking, “What would Jesus do?” she backed off from mentioning hell and judgment and talked about keeping love and peace, saying things about how Jesus loves the atheist and such. (Which is contrary to God’s Word—Psalm 5:5-6.) She backed down from proclaiming Christ, because she thought Jesus would have sought peace. She didn’t know what Jesus would do!
She obviously forgot that when Jesus was in the temple with the money changers, He didn’t seek peace. He didn’t first try negotiating. No! He got His whip!!! He overthrew their tables and drove those moneychangers out. THAT’S what Jesus did! (John 2:14-17) If she had known God’s Word, she would have known what God would do.
Too many times to remember, I have heard and seen people misrepresent Jesus because they just didn’t know Him. We will NEVER be like Christ if we don’t know Christ. We must know His Word if we want to know Him. If I want to know Christ, I have to seek Him. I absolutely must know and understand His Word, and constantly grow in that knowledge.
Additional Goals
Each time we see goals in the Bible, they have a spiritual end. But we can also have individual goals, based on the desires, spiritual gifts, provisions and lot we have received from God. My specific goals include growing in my spiritual gifts. Remember the parable that Jesus told about three servants who were all given different amounts of talents? Two of the servants doubled their money, but one of the servants buried his. And when their Lord came back, he was proud of the servants who doubled their talents, but furious with the one who didn’t. (Matthew 25:14-30)
God has given us resources, talents, gifts, and privileges and when He returns, we will give an account to Him of our lives. Goals help us to do all we can to wisely use what
God gives us. I set goals that keep me accountable to use what God has given me.
If you were to ask yourself, “What do I want most out of life? What else do I really want?” How would you answer? Basically, those are your life goals, your life vision. Also, think about this. What do you pray for? In some sense, prayer is goal setting. You have to figure out what you want to ask for it, right? Your personal prayer requests are often your goals (though not always) whether you call them that or not.
What About Money?
Unlike the world, the Bible doesn’t promote monetary goals, which seem to be a common denominator of worldly goals. Proverbs 23:4 says, “Do not toil to acquire wealth; be discerning enough to desist.” And Jesus tells us that we absolutely cannot serve God and money. (Matthew 6:24) If we love one, we will hate the other. That’s because a servant cannot obey two masters at the same time. Whichever one we serve must have all of us.
Getting There
Once we’ve established our goals, how do we make sure to achieve them? What actions do we need to take based on our goals? A goal is achieved by consistent, habitual time set aside each day toward working on it. What things do I need to do each day to achieve my goals?
1.
Develop a plan. Test all your goals by Scripture and then keep the ones that glorify God and align with His Word. Write them down. Then break them up into smaller, more achievable goals and give dates and/or guidelines to them.
One of my recent goals is to really understand Luke 16:10. (It’s the verse about being faithful in what is very little.) First, I printed the verse out in large writing and put a copy upstairs and downstairs. Then I set this goal: I will listen to five sermons on this verse from Bible teachers I highly respect. I didn’t set a finish date to this goal. Instead, I gave myself a challenge. I cannot do a certain thing until I complete this task. I’m currently two sermons into this goal. Now I’m looking at this, not as a small goal, but as a sub-goal of my greatest goal: knowing Christ. This is part of my larger goal to know and be like Christ through knowing His Word.
2.
Read the Bible. For our ultimate goal, we must be in God’s Word—like Psalm 1 says, meditate on it day and night (and whatever you do will prosper). Commit consistent, habitual time each day to reading through the Bible so you will know the character of Christ.
3.
Remind yourself of your goals. Review them daily to give direction to your life and that individual day. I have certain verses typed up on a paper I keep next to my bed. Those papers also include my prayer list, my yearly goals, and my lifetime goals. The papers are put in clear plastic holders. I try to read and pray over these papers everyday.
4.
Be persistent. Galatians 6:9 says “Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary.” The key is to keep on doing what is good. If we want to reap, we must sow and work until the harvest comes.
A man decided to be a farmer. In early February he tilled his land. In March he planted the seeds and throughout the summer months he watered and carefully watched over his crop. But harsh rains in June discouraged him. Some of his fellow farmers had much larger fields, and his looked dismal compared to theirs. He grew sick of waiting and working. Finally in early August he grew weary and gave up. He left his field and moved away. Only weeks later his cropped produced abundantly, but he missed the harvest. This story is silly, of course. But that’s only because crops are predictable. The farmer would be foolish to leave right before the predictable harvest.
Life is not so predictable. We never know when the metaphoric harvest will come. But that’s all the more reason to hang on. We may be only days away from reaping. God knows our due season. So we must be persistent and not grow weary in doing good.
Conclusion
When your life is over, what will it have been? Now is the time to determine the answer to that question. As Christians, above all things we want to know Christ and be like Him. We then must know how we are going to achieve this. For knowing Christ, we learn of Him through His Word and through accurate Bible teaching. We become like Him (sanctification) by understanding and obeying His Word, and through trials (John 17:17, Heb. 12:10).
For our other goals (like faithfully using our spiritual gifts), our plans to achieve them will be each be different. Once we establish our plans, we break those plans up into daily, achievable pieces and keep on persevering toward the prize, while ultimately letting God direct our steps. Consistency leads to habits, which bring us closer to our goals everyday. By developing disciplined habits, we are holding ourselves accountable to doing what is profitable and making our life count.
We only get one life on earth before glory. Only one chance to determine our eternity. Let’s use it well!
My Final Question
Have you ever set goals and written them down? If you are willing to share, what were they and what happened?
