Goals Help You Do What Matters Most
By Rick Warren
“God can do anything, you know — far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams!” (Ephesians 3:20 The Message).
The Bible tells us that Jesus set goals. In fact he often announced publicly what his goal was for the next phase of his ministry.
So why should you set goals? We’re going to talk about three reasons today and three more tomorrow.
You need to set goals because it is a spiritual responsibility.
If you don’t have goals for your life, you have already decided to let other people run your life. When you don’t decide in advance what’s important, you’re letting other people decide. You end up wasting your life, because you haven’t clarified how you want to grow as a follower of Christ.
The Bible says that to be spiritually mature, you have to set your goal and move toward it as you keep your eyes focused on it.
“I have not yet reached my goal, and I am not perfect. But Christ has taken hold of me. So I keep on running and struggling to take hold of the prize. . . . I run toward the goal, so that I can win the prize of being called to heaven. This is the prize that God offers because of what Christ Jesus has done. All of us who are mature should think in this same way (Philippians 3:12, 14-15 CEV).
You need to set goals because they are statements of faith.
If you’re a believer in Jesus Christ and you set a goal, you’re saying, “I believe that God wants me to accomplish this by this time. This is what I believe God is going to do in my life.”
Goals aren’t just a statement of faith; they also stretch your faith. The bigger your goal, the more your faith will be stretched. And that pleases God.
Ephesians 3:20 says, “God can do anything, you know — far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams!” (The Message).
You need to set goals because they focus your energy.
Focus is the key to an effective life. If you spread your energy out and diffuse it over a whole bunch of things, you’ll make no impact at all. But if you focus your life, it’s going to be powerful, and it will change the world.
You don’t have time to do everything. Here’s the good news: God doesn’t expect you to do everything! The key to being effective in life as a woman or man of God is to do what matters most and forget everything else. Goals help you maintain that kind of focus.
“I do not run without a goal. I fight like a boxer who is hitting something — not just the air” (1 Corinthians 9:26 NCV).
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Talk It Over
How do your goals reflect what you believe about God?
Does your family set goals together? Why would it be important to do this as a family?
What things do you spend your time and energy on that don’t really matter?
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This devotional © 2017 by Rick Warren. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
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