Every person who wants to be successful sets attainable goals at the start of the year. These goals are in line with our dreams and aspirations, and are meant to guide us regarding what to or what not to do. Have you set your goals for the year?
"Look straight ahead, and fix your eyes on what lies before you. Mark out a straight path for your feet; stay on the safe path. Don't get sidetracked; keep your feet from following evil." – Proverbs 4:25-27
I've heard of fellow believers making or writing down their "faith goals," or goals that they want to achieve by faith in God. Some of these faith goals may include buying a house, acquiring a car, getting promoted on the job, even getting married within the year. While these things are good, why don't we set goals that would both require a higher level of faith and accomplish something that God wants?
Hebrews 11:1 tells us that "faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." We know by faith that there are some things that only God can do.
I encourage you to make these things your faith goals this year:
1. Let the Word of God Be Your Constant Thought
"Oh, how I love your instructions! I think about them all day long." (Psalm 119:97)
Some might think that it's an easy thing to accomplish, but seriously, many of us even feel sleepy at the thought of reading the Bible. How much more challenging it would be to let it fill our hearts and every thought!
Make it your goal to love the Word of God, desiring to have more of it and obeying it daily.
2. Grow in the Spirit and Not in the Flesh
"I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law." (Galatians 5:16-18)
While we're in our earthly bodies, we're sure to face the challenges that normal humans do. However, in Christ we're given both the command to be holy and the power to do it – through the Holy Spirit.
Let's desire to walk in the Spirit and not fulfill the lusts of the flesh this year.
3. Be More Christ-Like Daily
"But those who obey God's Word truly show how completely they love him. That is how we know we are living in him. Those who say they live in God should live their lives as Jesus did." (1 John 2:5-6)
Christianity's endpoint is the return of Christ to take home His beloved Bride who has journeyed through the process of being made into His likeness. We all know that God wants us to be like Christ (see Romans 8:28-29). Why not desire the same thing?
No one will be like Christ the moment we meet Him. Rather, it's through constantly beholding His face that we become like Him. Let's desire to be transformed into His likeness.
"But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord." (2 Corinthians 3:18)
