As we come into the New Year, I know lots of us are thinking about goal setting. Some may already be frustrated by goals that already don’t seem to be panning out. Today, I’m talking about Christian goal setting. I’m sharing what I’ve learned from years of setting the wrong kinds of goals and how I recovered from the hurt of unmet goals and failures.
This post is the first in a series. Here are others you might like:
- Godly Goals and Identity
- What the Bible Says About Goals
- Striving Toward Godly Goals
- What the Bible Says about Ambition
- What Does It Mean to Work for the Lord?
Christian Goal Setting: First, A Confession
You know I am committed to being transparent and authentic here. So I won’t sugar coat this next confession: I am a bad goal setter. I know how to set goals. In my mind I have plenty of head-knowledge about setting appropriate goals and taking the right steps to work toward them. I’ve written about goals and offered council to others about goals.
But at the end of the day, I rarely take my own advice. Thus, I–Amy Allender–am a very bad goal setter.
I set the wrong goals for myself. My approach to the goals is wrought with missteps. Then at the end of the calendar year, when it’s time for assessment, I feel defeated, deflated, devalued and plenty of other “de” words. I have spent many years looking back in reflection and the thought that overshadows all the sweet memories and accomplishments is that “I’ve failed.”
All along I thought I was pursuing Christian goal setting, because I was a Christian…setting goals. But I was mistaken.
There have been many New Year’s seasons in which I’ve dreamed up what I wished and hoped the next New Year would look like–only to be disappointed when the ideal in my mind doesn’t match the reality. This isn’t always my fault. Many things get in the way: moves, jobs, unexpected loss, new opportunities, separation, stress, illness, etc. But that doesn’t change the fact that I’ve spent many a January feeling another year older, believing I’ve failed because the December 31 me didn’t look the way the January 1 me had envisioned.
Giving Goals Too Much Impact
Last year I pretty much ditched resolutions and New Year goal setting all together. Instead, I focused only on grace. Something that had been missing from my New Year assessment for many years. I spent January trying out a few new patterns and habits–like a test-drive month. I kept a few, I threw the rest aside. And I committed to being graceful to myself as my ideals, goals and ideas shifted, changed, were completed or abandoned.
What I learned is that without trying or being conscious of it, I was allowing my goals (met or unmet) to impact the amount of value I perceived myself to have. My goals didn’t have all the power–but they had some. The truth is, our goals (met or unmet) have nothing to do with our value. Every person is made in God’s image and therefore is invaluable. Only God can supply a safe and sturdy surface for my identity and value to lay upon. Anything else is too fragile and too prone to sink holes.
Exploring Godly Goals
I’ve learned that true Christian goal setting (setting godly goals) looks much different that simply setting secular goals.
After spending all of 2019 focusing on being graceful toward myself when it comes to goals and “success,” I ended the year joyful and content.
This year I want to keep moving in this positive trajectory. After a year off of traditional goal setting I started to wonder what God has to say about goals. How did key Biblical figures work toward goals? Did they have goals? What kind of goals should I be setting? Should I set goals at all?
In short, “What does Christian goal setting look like?”
I’ve spent the beginning of the new year looking deeply into what the Bible has to say about Christian goal setting and godly goals. In true Bible-geek form, I could barely put my Bible down when it was time to stop. I made notes, cross referenced, dug through the concordance and hit the thesaurus. I discovered that the Bible has a lot to say about goals. I’ll be sharing all my findings on that next week in a follow up post.
Christian Goal Setting: Put Goals in Their Proper Place
Before we can appreciate what Scripture says about godly goal setting, we need to put goals into their proper place.
Remember how I told you I used to struggle with feeling like an old failure on December 31? For me, that was a sure sign that I was giving goals more stock in my identity and value than they deserved. Before you set goals or intentions, make sure these truths truly manifest in your heart.
Goals are works.
Goals are works. Our works can accompany our faith. They can be an outward sign of our faith, but works are a separate entity from Salvation or justification before God. Christ saves us from the true death we all deserve. Christ alone justifies us as worthy and right before God. (There are many verses pertaining to this–below is just one example.)
…know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified.
Galatians 2:16
We are created in God’s image.
Every single person who has ever been born or ever will be born is made in God’s image. “Made in God’s image” is part of our identity. Our intention should not be to look like Sally-who-lives-next-door (another mortal also made in God’s image)–but to look more like Christ, our Savior.
Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.
Genesis 1:26-27
We are fully adopted and seen as children of God.
If you understand that misdeeds and imperfection separate you from the one and only, perfect God of all the universe and creation–and believe that Jesus (God’s son, fully man yet fully God) bridged that gap by atoning for those misdeeds to fully reconcile you back to God–you are “saved.” Saved from true death. Saved from a life lived apart from the God who made you. You are seen as fully right before God, fully adopted as His child. Just as earthly parents love their children (adopted or biological) God loves His children.
As adopted children, God gives us an identity. He offers us a name, a place to belong, a purpose, and an inheritance.
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding, he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.
In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, in order that we, who were the first to put our hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory. And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.
Ephesians 1:3-14
God sees our hearts.
God knows us. There is nothing we can hide from Him. He created us and understands us in intimate ways we will never fully understand. God’s ideal for our lives is that we look more like him and less like the world. Scripture warns against working in selfish ambition. Godly goals will never be self serving. Before you set new goals, pray to align your heart with God. Ask Him to reveal any selfish motives behind your intentions.
But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. Such “wisdom” does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.
James 3:14-16
Next week I’ll be back with part II of this discussion, fully ready to show you all that I’ve learned about Christian goal setting and godly goals. Some of it just might surprise you. Until then, I’d love if you joined me over on Instagram. Thanks for being here!
Want more on godly goals? Check out the rest of the series!
