It’s the New Year and most of you are planning your year and writing goals. Most of you have heard of creating goals that are SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely) and I’m sure you’re striving to write goals that meet that criteria.
I categorize goals in four main areas: 1) Personal (health, fitness, finances, relationships, family), 2) Intellectual (learning, education, acquire new skills), 3) Career/Business (new job and/or business opportunities, growth goals, improvement goals, networking), and 4) Spiritual (my relationship with God – time spent in prayer, reading the Bible, working for the Kingdom – doing work that has eternal value, fulfilling the call in my life). I write these goals with the SMART concept in mind but when it comes to the Spiritual goals, it gets a little more challenging. How do you measure the impact you have in someone’s life after a deep conversation about God’s love? Is it realistic to think that every person you touch will be changed by the power of God’s love? Can you time every interaction with people that God may put in your path so you can help them? Can you put an attainable number of people you want to minister to each day or week or year? And how specific do you get with the concepts of God explained in His Word? The answer is yes to all of these questions. You just have to plan and set a goal and then let the Holy Spirit guide you each day, each moment, and each interaction with others.
There are some things of course we cannot measure in natural terms like the impact of God’s love in someone’s life but that’s when we trust God that His Word and His love will always produce results. We do our part, which is to share and God does His. We may never see the results while we’re here on earth but we will see them when we get to heaven.
After writing all my goals in all the various categories, I stopped and thought for a while about this key question: Which goal (or goals) will get me closer to fulfilling the call of God in my life? Those are the most important goals that I should focus on because when I am doing what I’m called to do first, then everything else falls into place.
This year, I want to challenge you to write your goals and then prioritize them based on that key question – which goals will get you closer to fulfilling the call of God in your life? If you don’t know what your calling is, it’s time to find out. Seek God with all your heart and ask Him to reveal it to you. He will.