Because I teach so much about goals I get a ton of push back from Christians who say things like goals are secular, it is what the world does, goals are fleshly, we are attempting to succeed without God or the power of the Holy Spirit, goals promote pride in our accomplishments, and on the list of reasons go why we shouldn’t do goals. Let me suggest some reasons why being goal focused is very Biblical. First it appears to me from reading the Bible that God is goal oriented. Psalms 33:11 says, “The counsel of the Lord stands forever,
The plans of His heart from generation to generation.” There are many other verses like that, but I am sure we would all agree that God Almighty is not impulsive, or needs to wait to see how things work out before He plans the future. God is all sovereign and amoung other things that means that He is in control of the future. We are created in the image of God and we function best when we function like God at least to the extent that we can. When I write a goal I work hard to decern what God’s will is, so my goal is a “Statement of a commitment to obey God”, and as such would bring His power into my life. “God’s power flows to commitment to obey Him”. As I present my goals to God I say, “Lord, this is what I believe is Your will for my life, but as I pursue it I will be flexible to change it as I would decern Your will”. God gives a bit of His sovereignty to us, and if we prove to be good stewards of that sovereignty, He will give us more. That sovereignty allows us to influence people and to make a difference in the world around us, it is the authority of Christ. The best tool I know of to be a good steward of this “authority” is goal setting.