HAVING A GOAL

Here we are, standing on the starting line of a New Year. The slate has been wiped clean from the year which has just passed. Have you let go of both your failures and successes of the past year to make room for whatever lies ahead for you during this New Year? Or, are you holding on to the pain and disappointments of last year? Maybe you had a goal for last year which never materialized, and now you are scared to hope anymore. Are you holding on to your successes in case you don’t have any victories in the coming year?

          Do you have a goal that you want to accomplish during this New Year? Paul, the Apostle said, “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.” (Philippians 3:12, New International Version).

 If we really want to accomplish our goal in this new year, we need to press on to be the best that we can be at what we do. How do we become the very best at what we do? By doing what Paul did. He “pressed on” even in the midst of great trials. To “press on” means to “forge ahead” or “to preserve.” We need to “preserve,” to keep going when we don’t have any more strength or energy to pour into what the Lord has ordained us for.   We should not give up on the goal or purpose the Lord has given each of us when it gets tough, or we feel discouraged. Perhaps other people have told us our goal cannot be accomplished, especially by us.

 Just remember, it was the Lord who ordained you for the particular ministry you are in, not the people who are telling you that the ministry cannot be accomplished by you. The Lord said to Jeremiah, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; Before you were born I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations.” (Jeremiah 1:5). It is an awesome thought that the Lord knew each and every one of us before He formed us in the womb. I don’t know what goes through your mind when you think of that. But when I think that the Lord knew me way back in eternity past, and knew I would be disabled, and still He ordained me to be one of His writers, all I can do is marvel. The Lord knew I would only be able to type with one finger, yet He still chose me to serve Him as a writer. No wonder all my life I had an intense desire to be in ministry. I count it an awesome honor to serve my Lord, and His people with the gift of writing which He has blessed me with.     

 Maybe your goal is more difficult than you thought it would be to achieve, but that is no reason to quit trying. We all need to be like the Apostle Paul who laid hold of the purpose that the Lord had for his life.

          Paul knew that in order to press on, he had to stop looking behind him and keep his focus on what was ahead for him. “Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead,  I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:13-14, New International Version). We, like Paul need to focus on what is ahead, and leave the past behind us and not allow the negative experiences and voices, whether our own, or those of other people, to haunt and torment us. None of us can move forward when we are still holding onto the past with one hand, and stretching to hold on to what is waiting for us ahead with the other hand.  

          Once we have been able to really let go of all that has held us back, we are ready to embrace all that the Lord has in store for us in the future. Paul said in the verse quoted above that he is “straining” for what the Lord had planed for his life. If we are going to achieve our goals in life, we need to strain, focus on, and put all our effort into accomplishing our goal or purpose, for which the Lord has created us.

At the end of his life, Paul had an assurance that he had accomplished the Lord’s purpose for his life, that he was able to say, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” (2 Timothy 4:7). Are we so focused on the Lord’s purpose in our lives, and putting 100% of our strength and energy into the race the Lord has set out before each of us, that we would be able to make a statement as Paul did? I ask the Lord constantly, “Lord, am I pleasing You and fulfilling Your purpose for my life? I pray that I am.”

The Lord rewards His faithful servants. We are told in two separate Bible passages that we will never be able to imagine all that God has in store for us. A prophet in the Old Testament tells us, “For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, nor has the eye seen any God besides You. Who acts for the one who waits for Him.” (Isaiah 64:4). Paul reiterates this truth in one of his Epistles. “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” (1 Corinthians 2:9).       

In 2023, let us all leave the past behind us, as we strain and press into all that the Lord has for each of us.

 

                                        By Cindy Mead

 

(All Bible quotations are taken from the New King James Version unless otherwise stated)