Goals for 2021

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As 2021 is just about upon us my mind turns to goals for the new year. There are two steps to this for me personally and professionally.

First off, I review my 2020 goals seeing which ones were accomplished, partially finished, or simply never touched. I revamp the ones that were not achieved if they are to be carried forward into 2021. Fine tuning them because I have moved forward in life and made substantial changes during the past 12 months. If they were not accomplished and are no longer part of where I am at and where I am heading, I simply remove them from the list of things I want to do or feel that the Lord is telling me to do. 

Then I add to the list those new goals that appear because of the circumstances I am now facing – such as Covid and being unable to travel. And, I add any new ones the Lord leads me to set for the gift of a new year of life, health, and ministry. As well, any personal goals that I would like to aim for – weight loss, learning to paddle board, trying out new campgrounds.

These are all jotted down on paper or on screen and then comes the time to arrange them and fill in the details of the goal… 

I do this by listing the general categories … 

      • Personal – weight, exercise, rest, reading…
      • Family – gatherings, birthdays, anniversaries
      • Financial – saving, investing, spending, house repairs, budget
      • Friendship – what I am looking for in a friend (another list)
      • Fun (vacation and days off)
      • Faith goals – what I am believing God for 
      • Household goals – repairs, painting, decorating
      • Ministry goals – the call and the message for the new year 2021 
      • Study and reading goals – number of books and areas to study
      • Marriage goals
      • Writing goals – blogs and books

And then filling in the goals for that area being as specific as I can. Of course, a goal can be changed, adjusted, revamped, or eliminated as the year begins and situation and circumstances dictate. These goals are simply to help me to know the direction I am aiming in each of these and other categories. Remember, if you aim at nothing you are sure to hit it. 

I schedule time in my annual calendar for a review and revamp every three months. So, the goals are solid but fluid. Change is inevitable. But the overall direction of life for the year remains the same as determined by the big picture of all the goals together. 

So, much more detailed than …

    • More sleep
    • More music
    • More coffee
    • More books
    • More sunsets
    • More creating
    • More long walks
    • More laughter
    • More hugs
    • More dreaming
    • More road trips
    • More fun
    • More love

However, if this is your first time doing goals for your life and the new year this would be a good start as an outline that then needs to be filled in somewhat.

Reaching Your God-Given Potential – Part Three

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We have been looking at the need for decent and mature friends in our individual journey of life. These are the three types of friends everyone needs to reach their God-given potential…

    • A friend to challenge you and bring out your best
    • A friend to help you find strength in God and grow in your faith
    • A friend to tell you the truth, especially when you don’t want to hear it

We have looked briefly at the friend who will challenge you and help to bring the best you to the surface and forefront. And, a friend to help you find strength in God and grow in your faith. The third type of friend that we must have is one who will tell us the truth – the whole truth, God’s truth, the truth that brings a reality check. And the more successful you become, the more you need this person in your life and, oddly, the harder they are to find.

King David discovered this the hard way. During the season when kings were suppose to be at war, David decided to stay home rather than go to battle. One night he was out on his rooftop when he saw his neighbour’s wife, Bathsheba, bathing outside her house. His selfish lusts spoke louder than his wisdom, so the king sent someone to bring the woman to him. What’s interesting is that whomever King David sent to get Bathsheba had to know that she was married to Uriah, one of David’s closest friends and one of Israel’s greatest war heroes. But since the messenger was on the king’s payroll (and he might have been afraid of losing more than just his job), the guy did exactly as he was told. He summoned the woman to the king’s palace. And if you don’t know the story well. One thing led to another, and Bathsheba ended up pregnant.

Recognizing that this could become a scandal, David tried to get control of the situation. He called he husband home, figuring Uriah would sleep with his wife and then assume the baby was his. But when Uriah refused to enjoy intimacy with his wife while his men were still on the battlefield, David changed his tactics. He issued the order to move his friend to the front line where he was sure to be killed. And he was.

Unfortunately, everyone in the king’s court was too afraid to tell David the truth. So God sent a man who cared enough to help David see the way back to the right path. The prophet Nathan met with David and told him a story that went something like this. “Once upon a time there were two men. One was very rich and the other was very poor. The rich guy had an unlimited number of sheep and wealth. The poor guy had almost nothing and only one lamb, who was almost like a pet to him and his family. When the rich man had a guest come to town, he took the poor man’s lamb and had it butchered for a meal.”

When David heard this story, he was beside himself with anger. David ranted, “As surely as the LORD lives, the man who did this must die! He must pay for that lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and had no pity” (2 Samuel 12:5-6). Fortunately, Nathan loved David enough to tell him the truth. “Then Nathan said to David, ‘You are the man’” (2 Samuel 12:7). That was enough to jolt king David out of his denial and bring him to his knees in repentance before God. 

Many people around us tell us the things we want to hear, rather than helping us to see the truth. And the more successful we become, the more difficult it is to find people who have our best interests at heart. That’s one reason we must connect with people who love us enough to be blatantly honest. In other words, a true friend. 

David’s son Solomon wisely said, “An open rebuke is better than hidden love! Wounds from a sincere friend are better than many kisses from an enemy (Proverbs 27:5-6 NLT). 

When was the last time a friend loved you enough to give you an open rebuke? Has someone loved you enough to offer helpful correction? If not, you might be missing one or two very important relationships that could help you grow, thrive, and succeed. Everyone needs people in their lives who will candidly tell them the truth. Maybe you need to connect with someone who’s willing to show you what you need to see so you can become the person you’re suppose to be.

Winding up the three blogs…

Which kind of friend do you need most in your life right now? Someone who helps you be better? Someone who helps you draw closer to God? Or someone who tells you the truth about yourself?

Is one person’s name popping into your head right now? Someone you could consider getting to know better and sharing your need for this kind of connection? If not, ask God to provide the right person at the right time, that friend who can help you grow closer to Him and to make decisions leading you in a divine direction.

Reaching Your God-Given Potential – Part Two

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We started looking at the need for decent and mature friends in our individual journey of life. These are the three types of friends everyone needs to reach their God-given potential…

      • A friend to challenge you and bring out your best
      • A friend to help you find strength in God and grow in your faith
      • A friend to tell you the truth, especially when you don’t want to hear it

We looked last time at the friend who will challenge you and help to bring the best you to the surface and forefront. Let’s look today at a friend to help you find strength in God and grow in your faith.

This second friend can help you find strength beyond yourself in the midst of temptation and weakness. Jesus as Samuel helped David see that God wanted to do more in his life than he ever imagined, a guy named Jonathan helped David find strength in God when he needed it most. David was chosen to be the next king, but God didn’t promote him to the throne immediately. God still had a lot to do before He replaced Saul with David. First, David became a war hero winning the hearts of thousands. David was so effective on the battlefield that women danced in the streets singing, “Saul has slain his thousands, and David his tens of thousands” (1 Samuel 18:7). You can just imagine how jealous that made an already insecure king. Feeling threatened by David’s rising popularity, King Saul plotted to take his life. David was forced to flee to the mountains to hide from the raging monarch’s posse.

There, in David’s darkest moments, God sent him an unlikely friend to help him find spiritual strength. King Saul’s own son Jonathan recognized the error in his father’s ways and stood faithfully by his friend David. Here’s how Samuel describes the courageous show of support: 

“While David was at Horesh in the Desert of Ziph, he learned that Saul had come out to take his life. And Saul’s son Jonathan went to David at Horesh and helped him find strength in God.”

I love that simple phrase, which describes so clearly one of the key ways Jonathan served David: he “helped him find strength in God.” There may not be a more valuable gesture one friend can make to another than pointing them toward God, encouraging them to seek His power, loving them toward God’s unending strength.

This friend is someone who will listen and care. Not always giving you the answers you are seeking for. But, there to listen and have your back as you struggle through the issues that you face in life. They are not an ‘answer man.’ They are not there as ‘Mr. Fix-it.” They are there to listen, to care, and to help you see what God is doing and where He is taking you in the situation you are facing and the current spot in the journey that you are on.  

This friend will be praying for you and with you. They will be a safe place for you to recover, refocus, and regroup. They don’t judge. They simply love, support, and encourage you.

So, who helps you find strength in God? If you don’t have anyone, it’s time for you to connect with someone who can help. God already has that person ready for you. It’s not a sign of weakness to ask for help., It’s a sign of wisdom.

Reaching Your God-Given Potential – Part One

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Let’s consider the three types of friends everyone needs to reach their God-given potential:

      • A friend to challenge you and bring out your best
      • A friend to help you find strength in God and grow in your faith
      • A friend to tell you the truth, especially when you don’t want to hear it

To look at and illustrate these three types, let’s look at the life of David in the Old Testament to see the people that God used to make him the man God wanted him to be.

First, everyone needs a friend who makes them better, and makes them want to be better. You don’t have to know much about David’s life to know he was far from perfect. But even with all his mistakes, sins, and shortcomings, David was still described as “a man after God’s own heart” (Acts 13:22). If you study David’s life, it becomes clear that the right people at the right time helped him become the right man.

Although David had many people who made him better, I’d like to start with Samuel. During the time when God rejected Saul as king (and this is a different Saul than the one we read of in the book of Acts), God chose Samuel the prophet to identify and anoint the next king of Israel. When Samuel visited the house of Ben Jesse (David’s dad), he saw an obvious candidate. The oldest son was strong, handsome, and qualified. Samuel thought that surely this man was God’s chosen king. But God told him not to consider his stature, because God doesn’t look at the same things people look at. Most people judge others by their appearance, but God looks past their appearance and into their heart (1 Samuel 16:7).

When all the obvious sons turned out not to be God’s chosen one, they finally called in the least likely one, the youngest, who was out tending sheep. And God spoke to Samuel and said, “Rise and anoint him; this is the one” (1 Samuel 16:12). Everyone would have been shocked by this announcement. David was just a kid, and a little rough around the edges, camping next to his family’s flock of sheep. There wasn’t a single person in David’s family who would have picked him as the next king. But God used one man, Samuel, to help David see that God’s will for his life was more significant than anyone could have imagined. 

Samuel made David better – much better. The prophet helped David see himself the way God saw him – as a leader, warrior, poet, and king. He wasn’t just some kid, cut out for nothing more than wrangling sheep for his whole life. Samuel told David, “You’re the one! God has chosen you!” God had a glorious plan, and Samuel helped David glimpse it.

Do you have a few friends who make you better, people who see your potential? Think about it. Do your buddies at the gym make you better? Or the ladies in your Bible study help you grow? Do the people you work with make you sharper? Do the people you run with make you stronger?

If not, connect with someone new, someone who makes you better.

If you need to get closer to God, connect with the right person who can help. If you want a good marriage, there’s nothing like befriending people who have strong marriages. If you want to grow in your parenting skills, you might find someone wise and do life with them. Walk with the wise and grow wise. If you hope to start a business, then gleaning from someone who started a successful business is a great place to start. If you need to learn to handle your finances better, I know that if you pray for the right influence, God will answer that prayer.

David’s son Solomon, the wisest man who ever lives, said, “As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend” (Proverbs 27:17 NLT). Instead of hanging out with people who dull your skills or put down your dreams, it’s time you start finding friends who make you sharper. If you connect with someone who makes you better today, then you will write a totally different future for yourself – God’s future. This is what David did with the help of Samuel.

Who sees you, the real person inside you, the way God sees you?

More next time….

If Not…

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I was thinking of making some changes in the way I live life. Some small. Some of major proportions. These were life changes with respect to how I express myself – clothing choices, where I live, how I live. Also under consideration was a change in what I am doing for a living – how I minister, where I minister, the nature of the ministry. And, of course, like you I can think of so many reasons why I should not make the changes or, at least, not make them now.

This was especially true in regard to changing the focus of my ministry. Doing less travel and more writing so as to complete the books that have been prophetically spoken about numerous times in the past decade. 

As I was thinking about all this I heard God says, “If not you, then who? If not now, then when?” And, I was immediately thinking – later, much later.

I then read the following ay Jennifer Reed:

“ Can there be a more insidious word? Later, as in, ‘I’’ll do it later.’ Or, ‘Later, I’ll have time to write that book that been on my mind  for the past five years.’ Or, ‘I know I need to straighten out my finances … I’ll do it later.’

‘Later’ is one of those dream-killers, one of the countless obstacles we put up to derail our chances of success. The diet that starts ‘tomorrow,’ the job hunt that starts ‘eventually,’ the pursuit of the life dream that begins ‘someday’ combine with other self-imposed roadblocks and lock us on autopilot.

Why do we do this to ourselves, anyway? Why don’t we take action now? Let’s face it: The familiar is easy; the uncharted path is lined with uncertainties.”

When it comes to change and grasping something new it seems that there is always a reason why we will not, can not, should not, could not, grab hold of the opportunity that God seems to be speaking to us about. We think that it can wait. I mean why rush into things. However, that too is just an excuse. 

It seems to be that we are lacking a sense of urgency. A sense of “redeem the time” as the Bible states. A lack of a sense of adventure which prevents us, anchors us, to what we think is safe, secure, and comfortable but often seriously is not. However, we don’t know that, so we hang on to the comfortable thinking we are safe. And, hang on today thinking there are endless tomorrows still to come in our lives. 

But, as believers, we were born again into a new life as a new creature. And within this new life we are given is a radical nature that craves adventure and does not want to settle for what is. In fact, if that sense of adventure is ignored and we settle for being safe we become seriously self-centered, selfish, and, worse still, boring. And, I think that most Christians are boring. Have you listen to what they talk about? Right, themselves.

So, I made a decision. I would “do it now.” I would make the changes. I would step out in faith and begin a new phase of my life and my ministry. I would move forward regardless of my fear of failure. I would start regardless of having to trade security for the unknown. And, yes, I needed to move forward in spite of the fear of being overextended financially. Then there is the fear of what others will say or think. Wow! So many fears to simply ignore so as to move forward and do it now. 

What about you? Are you waiting for something or holding on to something that is preventing you from just “doing it now?”