Every Goal to God
"Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth." Ex. 20:4
Two- Every Goal to God
Try to imagine what it would be like to play football or basketball without goal lines or hoops. Up and down the field you would run. Back and forth you would carry the ball. It would not be much fun at all. What's the point? The thing that makes the sport exciting is scoring points. A life without goals is a mis-spent life. Many people come to a time in their lives when they no longer have goals. It is then that they lose their way and purpose.
When you were a child others set your goals for you. Your teacher gave you lessons to study and learn. Your parents gave you tasks to accomplish and jobs to do. After you finished grade school, your next goal was high school. Then came college or graduate school. Life without goals is a life without direction.
Happy is the man who sees life as a holy errand. Happy is the man with a mission or a task. To live a life without goals is to play baseball without bases, basketball without hoops, and hocky without a net. After a while, you wonder "what's the point." Look at the goals you have set for yourself (these are the nets, hoops, and home plates of life). If you cannot articulate your goal perhaps it is not a goal after all. Don't let your life be an accident.
We all live in five important worlds at once: The Physical, Intellectual, Social, Financial, and Spiritual. God is interested in each area of our lives. It is wrong to assume that only the Spiritual is pertinent to Christian living. God needs to be God of my financial life as well as my religious life or he is not being allowed to be God at all. We must not lock the Lord in one compartment of life and exclude Him from others.
Take your spiritual journal (If you don't have one, you should start one) and reserve the last five pages for a record of your goals.
Title each page with one of the five areas of living. List at least one long range goal and several short range goals which are the stepping stones to success. Then begin working to reach the goal you have set for yourself (these are private and personal).
1) Write it down. If you cannot write it out, it is not a goal. Goals are not general. They are specific. Writing it down will clearly mark and define the target. If you are not able to articulate the goal, how will you recognize it when you achieve it? Writing it down is like filing a flight plan before you take off. The wonderful thing about goal setting is you decide where you want to go.
2) Goals are higher and harder than usual. A Basketball hoop is eleven feet off the ground. If they were two feet high no one would play the game. Don't set your goals too low. God has designed life so that our best is on the top shelf (so to speak) and requires standing on our tiptoes and stretching to reach the high and holy calling. Goals should be measured by our best and not necessarily by that of others. The idea is to each day be the "new and improved" you. A good Sunday school superintendent will be a goal setter. Reaching more boys and girls for Christ is general; reaching ten new boys and girls is specific.
3) Don't set goals too high. Real goals are realistic. Running a one-minute mile is not realistic. Someone sitting on death row need not waste his time running for President of the United States. 2Every Goal to God
"thou shalt not make any gaven image..nor bow down to them" Ex. 20:5