In past years, I have set physical, financial, and spiritual goals. Occasionally I add some crazy goal about time management and getting up earlier in the morning, but those always seem to fail! This year the only thing that comes to my mind are my spiritual goals. I used to crave the accomplishments of endurance sports, academic excellence and professional recognition. For whatever reasons, those desires are completely dead. Maybe I don't have the ability anymore. My box full of medals and t-shirts have worked their way to my basement. They seem to remind me that those goals were great, but God wants me to store up treasures in heaven. The reality of getting older has a way of making you rethink your priorities. I don't condemn anyone else in those endeavors, only myself because they tend to pull me away from my first Love. My blessed physical thorns have served to ground me to my Bible instead of increasing my mileage. And that's where God has shown me my 2013 goals.
I was reading Colossians. Paul's prayer for the church at Colosse was this..."And we pray in this order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to His glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son He loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins." (1:10-14) Within this prayer lies my goals for this year. I don't know how to measure their success, but God does. He said, " And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek Him (Heb. 11:6) So boldly I claim these goals:
- Live a life worthy of His call
- Seek to please Him in every way
- Bear fruit in every good work
- Grow in the knowledge of Him
- Be strengthened by the power of the Holy Spirit to have great patience and endurance
- Joyfully give thanks for the inheritance of eternal life I have in Christ
My only action plan is to pray this daily, and wait to see how the Lord makes it true. "May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The One who calls you is faithful and He will do it!" It's pretty awesome to have New Year goals that don't depend on my own power or discipline. I'm not sure why I didn't think of this before!
