How to Set Goals that Align with God’s Will
Do your goals align with God’s will?
My husband and I absolutely love to set goals. We take every opportunity we can to reevaluate our finances, our home projects, our meal plans, etc., etc. and set goals and plans to achieve those goals. It’s exciting and fun and we love the challenge.
But lately, God has been placing a strong conviction on my heart. As we challenge ourselves to chase after our goals, God has been prompting my heart to consider whether our goals align with His will. Because all this time and energy that we spend pouring into our goals is meaningless if it isn’t for God’s glory.
Of course, being financially wise and staying healthy and creating a home that we can open to others are good goals, but is the time we pour into it where God wants our focus? Or are we running ahead with things of this world?
These questions are tough and, honestly, I think that the answers are different for each person and different at different times. It takes time and discernment to learn where God wants you to focus your time and energy.
So today, I want to encourage you in the ways that God has prompted me to discern His will for our goals and our focus.
Where You Focus is Where You Go
Have you ever learned to walk a balance beam? The trick to staying on that narrow beam is not to look at where you are, but to focus on the beam ahead. When you focus on the place you stand, you lose balance. But where you focus is where you go.
Your mind goes toward the goals that you focus on and because of this Satan latches onto the goals that aren’t in alignment with God’s will for our lives.
Most of the time, our goals aren’t bad. Maybe they are to lose weight or to make more money or to be more social. Often it’s when these goals become so consuming that we lose sight of God’s will for us in them that Satan gets a foothold.
So as my husband and I focus on our budget and on saving money, we can find ourselves constantly focused and obsessing over our finances and spending. We can get caught up in thinking and over-thinking about how we will make more money this month. And because of this, Satan gets a foothold. I become stressed and feel an immense amount of pressure to make more money and contribute more to our family’s finances.
And yet God has called me to a path that isn’t extremely lucrative. And so I become discontent with where I am.
Do you see how Satan gets into something that began with good intentions and pulled us away from God’s will?
If your focus begins to spend more time on your goals than on God’s will and love for you, then it might be time to reconsider if this focus is healthy.
Do Your Goals Align with Scripture and God’s Ultimate Call for You
So how do we come up with goals that align with God’s will?
Thankfully, God has laid out a beautiful plan for us in His Word. I know it feels a lot more complicated than that and each one of our callings is unique and special. But the Scriptures lay the foundation for each of our callings.
God calls each and every one of us to love each other above all else. Does this align with your goals?
God calls each and every one of us to go out and make disciples. Does this align with your goals?
God calls us to spend time with Him in prayer and in His word. Do your goals allow for this?
Even something as little as setting home improvement goals can be compared with these calls. Having a home that we feel comfortable and confident in can help us to open our doors to more people. Having financial freedom allows us the opportunity to give our money and our time.
Take time to consider whether your goals align with these callings in Scripture. If they directly go against or prevent you from following God in these ways, it may be time to reconsider your goals.
Keep in mind, though, not all goals need to directly relate. It’s just when they take us away from our primary focus on God and on loving others that they begin to give Satan a foothold.
Need to Surrender Your Goals Daily
With this in mind, it is essential to surrender our goals daily to the Lord.
In fact, this is one of the most important things I have done as I’ve taken leaps of faith in following some crazy goals and callings.
I have prayers written out that I try to pray at least once a week if not daily that surrender my goals and desires and time to the Lord.
I know how easy my goals and my time can get commandeered and distracted from God’s will for me and so I try to surrender them often.
When you pray to surrender your goals to the Lord, He will reveal His will to you in them. Over time, your desires and goals will begin to align with Him completely and you will see blessings beyond belief as you follow Him.
How do you align your goals with God’s will? I’d love to hear in the comments below 🙂
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Agree with your wisdom here, Nicole. And yes, to the surrendering of the goals. Ugh. That’s one I’m having to do more than once a day lately.
I’m a big goal setter. Great post!
I love this! This month I have been sitting down working on my goals and it is SO easy to get caught up in the way of the world. Making sure my goals align with His will is something I am really trying to focus on.
I’ve always used Scripture to set goals but I’ve never really considered “surrendering them daily.” That is something I am going to have to start doing! Thanks for sharing!
We absolutely need to surrender our goals daily! The Lord May have plans that we don’t see if we aren’t continuously surrendering our will and our plans to Him. It’s great to have goals, but we need to seek the Lord first, through prayer and His Word, to make sure we’re on the right track!
This was a much needed reminder for me right now! I’ve been struggling to find time to do it all as I was thrown headlong into the world of distance schooling two preschoolers with a baby while working from home 😂 If I’m being honest, I feel like spending intentional time with God is usually the thing that suffers. I pray and worship literally as a way of life, but the intentional, no distractions, carve it out time is the thing that’s been hard. I’ve felt like I have had exponentially more to do with a fraction of the help. Thanks so much for this reminder to make sure what I’m doing daily is aligning with where God is calling me 💕
I am right there with you, Hannah! It is so hard to spend that intentional time. I think God definitely understands when we have a LOT on our plates, but that makes the time we do carve out that much sweeter to Him. I pray that you are able to carve out even just a few minutes of time with Him. I know that when I finally do, I find more strength, rest and joy to do the things I feel overwhelmed by!
This is a great reminder that our goals need to be aligned with God’s word and yet still be open to His will and changes He may have for us.
Such a timely article. Thank you for this reminder to keep my focus on what’s most important, God’s will and plans for my life. It’s so easy to get distracted by my own ambitions and goals. As I submit my goals and plans to Him I find my true direction. Blessings!