Be Goal Oriented Christians in 2013

Ask my wife. She’ll tell you that I’m a goal oriented person – sometimes how singularly focused I can be with a particular goal drives her a little crazy. But not long ago I noticed that several of the men in our church were bicyclists. When I was in my twenties I loved cycling and I once road a couple of legs on a tour with a bicycle mission’s team called Bikes International. So I got it in my mind recently that I was going to take up cycling again. In doing so, I have set goals for myself. I have set short-range goals and long-range goals and after a few months I can now tick off multiple short ones and the long ones appear more and more realistic with each time I hop on my bike. The result is I’m losing weight. My heart and lungs are in better shape. My arthritis has become more manageable and I’m taking less medicine. These are all benefits with which God is blessing me for doing a better job of taking care of myself at fifty three years old. To Him be the glory. But here’s the really important thing. God has spiritual goals for me as well, just as He has spiritual goals for you. So how does one know what one’s spiritual goals should be? It’s simple really. Christ’s basic aim was to do his Father’s will and as followers of Christ we have the same objective. Here are five spiritual goals that will help you do that in 2013. 

Goal Number One – Please God – Be obedient in 2013.

We please God by being obedient to His word and His calling on our lives. This in turn produces spiritual fruit that can be observed in good deeds and an increased knowledge of God and the relationship he wants to have with you. Be obedient in 2013.

For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; Colossians 1:9–10 (NASB95)

Goal Number Two – Know God – Spend more time in the Word in 2013.

God is transcendent. In other words it is impossible to know and understand God completely. However, He has taken great care throughout history to reveal as much about Himself as we can handle. That revelation, that divine disclosure if you will is found in His Word. Spend more time in the Word in 2013.

“This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. John 17:3 (NASB95)

Goal Number Three – Be Faithful to Jesus Christ – Abide in Christ in 2013.

Being faithful to Christ is abiding in Him. That means making Him the center of all that you do. Abide in Christ in 2013.

“Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me.  John 15:4 (NASB95)

Goal Number Four – Love One Another – Make it your goal to love more in 2013.

Paul tells us in Corinthians that it doesn’t matter what kind of spiritual gifts you have if you are short on love. Even if you speak with the tongues of angels, without love it’s nothing but noise. But here’s the deal. There are those who are easy to love and there are those who are difficult to love.

God wants you to choose to love them all.

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. John 13:34 (NASB95)

Goal Number Five – Spread the Gospel – Make it your goal to share Christ more in 2013.

Christians often talk about the Great Commission, but the truth is research demonstrates that few Christians actually engage in sharing Christ and the majority of those that do don’t do it often enough. Make it your goal to share Christ more often in 2013.

“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:19–20 (NASB95)

Keep your eye on the prize – the goal at the end.

Don’t forget, while we have a long-term goal of doing the will of the Father, He has a long-term goal of abiding with us. That’s why He sent His Son and it’s also why we have the Holy Spirit to give us strength and power to achieve our spiritual goals in this life as we aim for the highest goal of all – an eternity with God.

Scripture to claim:

For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:38–39 (NASB95) 

Submitted By John Dennie