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).

We know that setting goals is important because 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? Today we’re going to talk about three reasons to set goals, and tomorrow we’ll talk about three more.

1. 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 goals and move toward them as you keep your eyes focused on them.

“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).

2. 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 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).

3. 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. But here’s the good news: God doesn’t expect you to do everything! The key to being effective in life as a follower of Jesus 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).

PLAY today’s audio teaching from Pastor Rick

Talk It Over

• How do your goals reflect what you believe about God?
• Does your family set goals together? Why is it important to do this as a family?
• What things do you spend your time and energy on that may not really matter?

Give hope, prayer, and encouragement below. Post a comment & talk about it.

We need to secure our border. There have been many words spoken about the funding fight to do this, but consider these: “The bill before us would certainly do some good. It would authorize some badly needed funding for better fences and better security along our borders that should help stem some of the tide of illegal immigration in this country.”

Here’s a link to the editorial at Fox News.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., a fiery populist on the left, announced she is forming an exploratory committee for a 2020 presidential run.

Here’s a link to the editorial at the Chicago Tribune.

Two Questions to Ask of Your Goals
By Rick Warren

1

“When you eat or drink or do anything else, always do it to honor God” (1 Corinthians 10:31 CEV).

It’s important to set goals. But not every goal that you can set is a good goal that God’s going to bless.

So how do you know the kind of goal that God will bless? Ask yourself these questions:
“Will my goal honor God?”
What kind of goal brings glory to God? Any goal that causes you to trust him more, to depend on him more, to love him more, to love other people more, to serve him, to serve others, to be more unselfish.
The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 10:31, “When you eat or drink or do anything else, always do it to honor God” (CEV). Everything can be done to honor God. You can honor God by taking out the trash. You can honor God by washing the dishes. You can honor God by doing that mundane task at work. How? By doing it with the right motive: gratitude. If you want your life to bring honor to God, set goals that help you be the best you can be for God’s glory.
“Is my goal motivated by love?”
God is not going to bless a goal motivated by greed, envy, guilt, fear, or pride. But he does honor a goal that is motivated by a desire to demonstrate love to him and to others, because life is all about learning how to love.
Why is it important to have goals based on love? Because if you set loveless goals, you’re going to treat people as projects. You’re going to run all over them to reach your goal. You’re going to run over your spouse, your family members, our friends, and other people as you climb up the ladder of success. God says, “No. You’ve got it all wrong. It’s not about accomplishments. It’s about relationships. It’s about learning how to love.”
“Do everything in love” (1 Corinthians 16:14 NIV). Your number one goal in life should be to learn how to really love your family, your neighbors, and even those who are hard to love. That makes you more like God, because God is love.
PLAY today’s audio teaching from Pastor Rick
Talk It Over

What goals will you set for yourself for the next year? How do they hold up under these two questions?
How does your attitude toward menial daily tasks change when you consider that everything can be done to honor God?
Have you considered how your goals affect other people? When you do, how do your goals change?

Give hope, prayer, and encouragement below. Post a comment & talk about it.