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As you look ahead, I hope you’ve already penciled in some goals to pursue over the next 12 months. January is a great month for goal setting, but it is coming to an end so take a moment right now to rethink your priorities and refocus on what really matters. 

I shared with you five reasons goals are important. But that doesn’t mean every goal is good. There are some goals God won’t bless. For example, you could set a goal to watch every television episode of your favorite program this year, and it’s likely God won’t bless that kind of goal.

On the other hand, God blesses goals that honor Him. What are those goals?

Goals that bring glory to God.

The Bible tells us everything we do can bring glory to God if we do it in the right attitude and with the right motivation (1 Corinthians 10:31). Any goal that makes us more grateful to God, draws us closer to Him, or involves sharing Jesus with others brings God glory.

This means the same goal can be one God blesses and one He doesn’t, depending upon the motivation behind it. If you set an attendance goal for your church, ministry, or business…or set a sales goal, health goal, or financial goal because you want to bring attention to yourself, that’s not a goal God will bless. But if you’re motivated to set that goal because you want to see more people come to faith in Christ and then grow as His disciple, that’s a godly goal.

Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 5:9, “Our only goal is to please God whether we live here or there” (NCV). Pleasing God needs to be the motivation behind every goal we set.

Goals that are motivated by love.

God is far more interested in why you do what you do than what you do. He’s more interested in your heart than your actions. God won’t bless goals we set because of fear, envy, or peer pressure. But if love motivates our goals, God will bless them.

In fact, 1 Corinthians 16:14 says, “Do everything in love” (NCV). Why? Because love is the number one lesson God wants us to learn in life.

Two kinds of love motivate our goals—love for God and love for others. When we set a goal to get in shape as an act of stewarding what the Lord has given us, that’s a goal motivated by love for God. When we set a goal to do something special for our spouse weekly, that’s motivated by our love for others.

Goals that fulfill one of God’s purposes for your life.

God has five purposes for our lives—worship, fellowship, discipleship, ministry, and evangelism. God’s purposes are eternal, and he always blesses us when we pursue them.

Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 9:26, “I run with purpose in every step” (NLT). Paul was a committed runner with purpose when it came to pursuing God’s purposes. He wanted to do what God wanted him to do, and he refused to let distractions get in the way.

The Bible often compares life to a race. In a race, runners don’t get to change the finish line.

The finish line is preset. The same is true for our lives. God’s purposes are the goals we must pursue. We don’t choose them. He does.

Goals that are set in faith.

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. The Bible tells us, “Without faith it is impossible to please God” (Hebrews 11:6 NIV).

If a goal is too small, it’s not a goal. It’s a to-do list. A goal is something big enough that you must depend upon God to complete it.

Goals that are achieved with God’s power.

You can find a large selection of self-help books on Amazon or at your local bookstore. Some of them have good advice, but none of them can provide what the Bible does. They may teach you about time management, forgiveness, or dieting. They may even have brilliant strategies, but none of them will give you the power to manage your priorities in life, forgive someone who has hurt you, or renew your mind. Only God’s power through the Holy Spirit can do that.

Your goals matter to God. As you look to make 2022 your best year, look at the goals you’ve set for the year. Are they the kind of goals God will bless?

Conclusion

We’ve looked a lot at goals and goal setting.  So, have you set your 2022 goals yet?  What are they?  Have you written them down? When will you begin reaching them? Who have you shared your goals with for accountability and prayer?  Would you like to share them with me? I love you and I am praying for you!

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Recently I read an article written by Joel Rainey.  I agreed with much he had to write.  So, I am adapting it with my personal thoughts in this commentary.

Several years ago, a group of students at Kent State University gathered to observe what would, in just a few years, become known across our country as “Black History Month.” 

Their vision for recognizing the contributions of African Americans to advance civilization is the reason I learned about such towering figures as Booker T. Washington, Mary McLeod Bethune, Harriet Tubman, and Maya Angelou.  

But of all the figures I learned about, the one most polarizing to my community was a Baptist preacher whose life ended with his murder on a Memphis balcony on April 4, 1968.

Listening to the various and sometimes vicious statements about him resulted in the first lesson about leadership my nearly 18-year-old self would learn from Martin Luther King Jr.

Today, most everyone loves King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, but few are aware of what transpired in the aftermath of that speech, or the cost involved in bringing about the change necessary for King’s dream to be realized.  

If you want to change the world, it’s going to cost you. Similarly, if you’re going to lead a ministry or church to change the world, then planting or revitalizing it toward these ends carries a hefty price.

If you want to lead well, you can learn these six lessons from a man who launched a national dream toward which we still aspire today.

1. You will find your ideas among the unpopular minority.

So many of the ideas King forwarded are merely assumed today. Nearly every citizen in our nation is aghast at the thought of segregated lunch counters, burning crosses, and “separate but equal” schools. Not to mention segregated drinking fountains and public restrooms.

Yet just a moment ago in time, these things were all real and accepted as the norm. To that world, King’s “dream” sounded more like a nightmare. 

The threats on his life, police brutality throughout the American South, and the confrontation between federal and state governments show his ideas weren’t readily accepted.

Standing on this side of that history, we tend to look at the romanticized version of King embodied in his famous 1963 speech in front of Lincoln’s memorial. 

It’s nearly impossible to stand firmly within the 21st century and believe his lofty picture of “the sons of slaves and the sons of slave owners” sitting down together was so opposed. 

Great ideas aren’t often initially received as great ideas.

2. You must care about something bigger than yourself.

His life was threatened. His family was threatened. He received multiple bomb-threats, and most of his letters were written from jail cells. 

To endure such hardship, you must look beyond your comforts toward something bigger. And you must believe that the bigger picture is possible.  

Do you care enough about ministry and the church and its potential impact on the world to endure inevitable hardship? 

3. You will be misunderstood – often!

Growing up in the South, I heard many adults speak of King as a “troublemaker.” I remember asking–quite innocently–why it was so wrong to seek equality between whites and blacks. 

The multiple answers I received sounded something like this:

• He stirred up things he didn’t need to stir up.
• He caused so much unrest. Surely there was a better way to do it.
• He could’ve left well-enough alone. Things weren’t that bad.

To be a change-agent you must be prepared to be seen as a troublemaker. 

4. You may never live to see the change you created.

Even after King’s death, the social environment found mixed-race marriages were still heavily frowned upon. Interracial marriage in the United States has been fully legal in all U.S. states since the 1967 Supreme Court decision that deemed anti-miscegenation state laws unconstitutional. [Wikipedia]

King’s dream continues to unfold today, and he never lived to see most of it. 

Initiators of lasting change may never be able to personally experience the benefits of such change.

5. It may cost you your life.

King’s life was horrifically, unjustly, and suddenly cut short on a motel balcony in 1968 because people hated him and his message. 

Throughout his professional life, King seemed acutely aware of this possibility and embraced it as part of the potential cost. 

People who change the world are willing to give their life for the change they believe necessary.

6. While mighty things can be done for social justice by pure passion, can you imagine what really could be done for God’s eternal glory as a true believer in Jesus Christ.

King made references to Scripture and to Christ to further his cause for social justice.  Yet, he denied three core values of Christianity.  In a doctoral thesis, written by Martin Luther King in 1949, Dr. King denied that Jesus was the son of God, that He was born of a virgin, and denied that He was resurrected.  This thesis is referenced here.

His application to evangelism was stated as being this.  Drawing on D. T. Niles’s homily “Evangelism,” King notes that while many look to the church during their time of need, “hundreds and [ thousands] of men and women in quest for the bread of social justice” [unfortunately not salvation by faith alone in Jesus Christ – Ponz] leave disappointed. King later prepared a full version of this sermon for publication in Strength to Love.

My lesson is this, there is no question that Dr. King was a great man and served the efforts of civil rights admirably. It is also difficult to judge one’s salvation since only God knows the truth. It is, however, easy to conclude that anyone who denies Christ as God, denies His virgin birth and bodily resurrection, would be judged under the words of the Bible in 1 John 2:23 “No one who denies the Son has the Father…”

Every cause I champion, including social justice, must be for God’s glory alone and the eternal salvation of others through faith alone in Jesus Christ…no matter the color of their skin.

Conclusion

So, who’ll be the next world-changer? The next change-agent whose ideas make this a better society. I’m not sure. But without these traits, there can be no substantive, transformative, legacy-creating leadership. 

God, give us more ministry and church leaders willing to count the cost—and pay it for the sake of something bigger than themselves.

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“For there is a proper time and procedure for every matter…
Surely no one knows the future…”
Ecclesiastes 8:6a, 7a (NET)

Dear ones, as you look ahead at the new year, take some time to reflect on your life and ministry. What needs to stay the same? What needs to change?

One of the most important things to consider is how you can stay tuned in to God’s timing.

Every great accomplishment involves timing.

A successful football catch requires incredible timing between the quarterback and the receiver. In business, good timing in the market, trends, and with customers—particularly decisions about hiring and expanding—can mean everything. If you sing, you know how important it is to keep in sync with the other musicians.

Surfers understand this too.  You probably remember that when I became a Christian, I was deeply involved in surfing…and since then have surfed in Florida, California, and Hawaii. No surfer says, “Let’s go make some waves today.” Surfers can’t create waves in the ocean. Only God can do that. Surfers wait for the waves that God creates.

That means surfers spend a lot of time waiting. Sometimes they might see a wave and let it go, knowing it’s not the right time. Then the surfer sees just the right wave, starts paddling faster and faster, catches the wave, rides the wave, and gets off the wave without wiping out. Surfing looks easy, but it requires a lot of skill and patience.

The same is true for your ministry. You must develop the skill of timing. 

The Bible says in Ecclesiastes 8:6a, 7a, “For there is a proper time and procedure for every matter…Surely no one knows the future…” (NET)

There’s a rhythm to life. Learning to do the right thing at the right time takes skill. 

Christians often call that skill “walking in the Spirit.” The more you grow as a Christian leader, the better you get at walking in the Spirit. Sometimes God’s Spirit leads you to run fast. Sometimes he leads you to walk slowly.

Folks, don’t enter this new year trying to make your own waves. 

Instead, learn to see and catch the waves God is making all around you.

This is a truth that is essential in almost all we do…and a truth I am learning to apply every day!

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Not that I have already reached the goal or am already fully mature, but I make every effort to take hold of it because I also have been taken hold of by Christ Jesus…I pursue as my goal the prize…” (Philippians 3:12, 14 – HCSB)

Last time we talked about three reasons you need to set goals. This time we’re going to talk about three more reasons why goal setting is so important that even Jesus set goals for Himself.

Set goals because they give you hope to remain strong and moving forward. 

Job said, “What strength do I have left that I can go on hoping? What goal do I have that I would want to prolong my life?” (Job 6:11 GW).

You need a godly goal to keep you going.

A goal doesn’t have to be big to keep you motivated. For instance, if you needed surgery, your first goal in recovery could be to sit up in bed. Then you might work toward standing up and later walking down the hallway. Those are small goals, but they’re all important.

It doesn’t have to be one big leap to get from where you are to where you want to be. It’s many small steps…baby steps sometimes.  A goal doesn’t have to be big to be important. Even small goals encourage you to carry on.

Set goals because they build your character. 

The greatest benefit to your life will not be your accomplishments but rather what happens inside you while you’re moving toward your goal.

The Lord is more interested in your character than your achievements. While you’re working on your goal, God is working on and in you. He is building your character because that’s what will last for eternity.

That’s why Paul said in Philippians 3:12, “I keep on running and struggling to take hold of the prize” (CEV). It takes energy, effort, and purpose to reach your goal, and the result is that you become more like Christ.

Set goals because achieving good goals will be rewarded. 

Proverbs 11:27 says, “If your goals are good, you will be respected” (GNT). When you give your life to a good goal, it brings honor and builds a legacy on earth. But the real reward in setting good goals is going to come in eternity.

The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 9:25-26, “All athletes are disciplined in their training. They do it to win a prize that will fade away, but we do it for an eternal prize. So I run with purpose in every step” (NLT). Paul was a determined goal setter. The Lord wants you to be one, too, so that you can win the prize He has prepared for you in heaven.

Ask yourself these questions then have a conversation with someone…

• If this is a new year, new month, new week, or even a new day in your life, set some new goals. What is something you can do that will motivate and encourage you as you move toward your goal?
• If you’re discouraged today, set some fresh goals. What’s one thing you’ve learned about yourself as you’ve worked toward a goal? What’s one thing you’ve learned about the Lord in the process?
• How do your goals reflect what you hope and expect the Lord will do in and through you?

Have you trusted God’s promise of salvation?

If you’re ready to trust in Jesus Christ to be your Savior, then pray this prayer:“Dear Jesus, you have promised that if I believe in you, everything I’ve ever done wrong will be forgiven and you will accept me into your forever family now and give me an eternal home in heaven one day. I thank you that I don’t have to earn or work for my salvation, because I know that is impossible. Jesus, I am grateful for your love and for your sacrifice that makes it possible for me to join you in heaven. I know I don’t deserve it. I confess that you are my Savior, and I am putting my faith in you alone for my salvation. Now, I want to learn the purpose of my life. And I want to use the rest of my life to serve you instead of serving myself. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.”