Goals, Callings and Priorities

 It is so important to have goals for your life. Without clear goals in life, we go round in circles without achieving anything significant.

If you have ten priorities, you have no priorities.

But it can also be dangerous to have too few priorities. There are very successful doctors, preachers and business people who have neglected their spouses or children.

I love classical music. When I think of the greatest composers, I always see amazing achievements but abject failures in their family lives.

But one composer shone with heavenly glory.

Johann Sebastian Bach was so devoted to music that he damaged his eyesight studying sheet music by candlelight. He was extremely focused, but his first priority was the love of God.

He was also a faithful husband and a very good father.

He had many children and some of them also became excellent composers.

There are fanatics who only have one goal in life, but there are also duty-bound people who only want to be good Christians without a clear idea of a particular goal or personal calling from God.

What would it be like if Paul only wanted to be a good Christian and nothing more?
What if Johann Sebastian Bach only wanted to be a good father and church organist and nothing more?

Do you only have one goal in life? Perhaps you should ask yourself whether you are perhaps too self-centred or whether you are neglecting some important duties.

Do you have a clear idea of your identity and calling or do you only have a vague idea that you should be a good Christian?

Ask God to show you what he has created you for.

Every person is unique. God has created you for important tasks. Not only famous people are important in God's eyes. God has a plan for your life.

We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith;

if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach;

if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead, do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully. Rom 12:6–8 NIV

You may think you are not a prophet or teacher, but you can study the Bible and teach your children.

You pray for someone and an encouraging word comes to you for that person. Maybe you should share that thought with the person.

Maybe you are a practical person. You are a good gardener. Your neighbour is sick and his garden is unkempt. If you work in his garden, you might be able to win your neighbour for Jesus.

If you like to play the piano or guitar, maybe you can visit a retirement home and encourage the elderly with music.

We all have talents and abilities that we can use for Jesus.

What is your thing? Who needs your help? When you pray about it, what comes to mind?

Just do it!

 A life without a clear goal is like a ship without a rudder. No matter how virtuous you are, your life goes in circles, leading to no fulfilment. You will be frustrated and stuck.

David prayed in a psalm:

“LORD, let me know my end, and what is the measure of my days; let me know how fleeting my life is. Ps 39:4 NRSV

What are the secret dreams in your heart of hearts?

Your dream could be the key that opens the door to your destiny.
But your dreams will lead to nothing without God.

On the other hand, we all need order in our lives. We all have duties that we have to fulfil. Without discipline, without routine, life becomes chaotic. Without order, your dreams permanently remain just dreams.

If you have a goal, you have to act, you have to do something.
If there is no order, can a family or a business function?

A football team needs a strict training routine. Everyone has to be on top form. Daily discipline is absolutely essential.  

But what is the goal?
Fitness? Punctuality at training sessions? Always obeying the trainer?
No.
    - Your goal is to win football matches.

And what is your goal as a team member? To be a good footballer? Partly for sure.

A champion team never consists of eleven good footballers.
You need first-class midfielders, defenders, strikers and goalkeepers.

But even that is not enough. You need fitness coaches, physiotherapists, sports psychologists and, in today's world, computer technicians.

Are you a Christian?
Do you want to be a good Christian? What does your routine look like?
Are you faithful and reliable in prayer and Bible study? Are you punctual and regular in meetings?

There's nothing wrong with that.
But what is the goal in your Christian life?

Are you a midfielder or a goalkeeper? Are you a fitness trainer or a sports psychologist?

We need to win people for Jesus, but what is your role and where is your mission field?
Are you gifted to evangelise on the street or blog on the internet?
Are you called to serve as a nurse in a mission in Africa or as a social worker in California?
Are you called to work in an office and pray for your colleagues with genuine love?

What is your thing?

• Some fast a lot and pray for hours in intercessory service.

• Others help the homeless, asylum seekers or prostitutes.

• Are you a housewife or a retired widow?

• Maybe you have a mission as a friendly neighbour and intercessor.

• Our cities need friendly neighbours.

What's your thing?
If you're not sure, you can still start doing something.

• You can ask God to give you direction.

• You can pray every morning, ‘’Dear God, what is on your heart?

• You can pray, ‘’Who should I contact today?

• Or ‘’How should I pray for my family or friends today?

• Or ‘’What is your priority for my life right now?

When you get a clear impression, don't push the thought aside.

Don't let yourself be distracted. Do something.

If you have a goal, you have to act, you have to do something. But if you act without a goal, you will remain stuck despite all your efforts.

If you don't have a goal, you probably won't achieve one.

For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the LORD, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope. Jer 29:11 NRSV

Don’t be distracted.
Ask God for wisdom and then ... Do something.

What are your Priorities

 What is important in your life?

There are people who do not pause to consider their priorities.

A well-known management expert taught that a company must have clear priorities. If you have ten priorities, you have no priorities.

Many organisations have many rules, but no clear priorities.

But what's it to you? You are an employee and you simply have to adapt.

But you also have your own life. What are your goals in life? What are your priorities?

All the main characters in the Bible had clear goals.

• Noah was to build a ship to save his family and all kinds of animals from the Flood.

• Moses was to save the Hebrews from slavery in Egypt, and he led them to the Promised Land.

• Deborah was to lead the Hebrews in a war.

• After the death of her husband, Ruth determined to provide for her mother-in-law.

• God gave Nehemiah the task of rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem.

• Paul was given the task of missionary work among the Gentiles in the Roman Empire and to plant new churches everywhere.

  What is important in your life? Maybe you have clear goals and priorities, but maybe not.
  
  Many people have a vague idea that they should be good Christians. But otherwise they don't have clear priorities.
  
  What is a ‘good Christian’? If your ideas of the Christian life only come from Bible teachings from your church or your family, you will always be torn by other people's expectations.
  
  Again and again we read in the Bible how an apparently ordinary person had an encounter with God and received a calling for their life.
  
  Do you perhaps feel frustrated because you have no clear direction in your life? God loves all his children with all his heart. Jesus is the great King of kings. If you are a son or daughter of a great king, should you remain an insignificant nobody? God forbid!
  
  God has important tasks for you. If you are always busy fulfilling all the wishes of your family or your church or your boss, you will not be able to hear God's guidance.
  
  If you do not yet know Jesus as your Saviour and guide, you will either be enslaved by your own drives and desires, or you will be enslaved by other people.
  
  There are selfish, self-centred people who deal with all kinds of addictions, porn, alcoholism, drug addiction etc.
  
  On the other hand, there are virtuous people of duty who are enslaved by the desires of other people.
  
  Jesus wants to set you free, but not so that you can always satisfy your own desires.
  
  Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. 1 Co 9:24 NIV
  
  But the Christian life is not a competition. Paul does not mean that only a hero of faith should win God's prize.
  
  Every Christian has a unique calling from God, a very special mission in life. If your life is based only on religious duty, you will never find out what God's purpose is for your life.

Don't Give Up. Hope Again.

Abraham and Sarah were way past their used by date but God had promised them a son.

Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead--since he was about a hundred years old--and that Sarah's womb was also dead. Romans 4:19 (NIV) 

 

But Abraham refused to let go of God’s promise.

Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, "So shall your offspring be." Romans 4:18 

If you have a promise from God and you get tired of waiting, you need to build up your hope muscles.

Human hope is often just wishing. Wishing so often leads to frustration and broken dreams but the hope that God gives has power to change your life.

When your hope is in God, you expect God to act. God can do it. If you belong to Jesus, you have an eternal hope. 

This life is a preparation for heaven. Death is nothing to fear. 

But this life is not just waiting to go to heaven. You have a purpose and a calling from God. God put you here on earth for a reason. 

God has a plan for your life but to fulfil God’s plan on earth, you need Faith and Love but you also need to Hope. God’s plans take time.

Noah was called to build a great ship with the help of a small family. He took many years but he finished it. 

God called Moses to take 2 million slaves out of Egypt and to lead them to the Promised Land.

David was a shepherd, poet, musician, soldier and then king.
Esther was a Jewish orphan who became the Queen of Persia and saved the Jews.  

Different people, different plans. Possibly you are not called to be a ship builder, a national leader or a soldier.

Often God calls unusual people to do unusual things in very unconventional ways.

After Ehud came Shamgar son of Anath, who struck down six hundred Philistines with an ox-goad. He too saved Israel. Judges 3:31 

David was called to be a soldier but he won his first battle by hurling a stone at Goliath.

I knew an unusual woman who said she was called to be an evangelist. Everyone knows an evangelist preaches on a platform with a microphone, so some people didn’t take her seriously. Then she left our city and travelled around the country, making connections to other unusual people and telling them about Jesus. 

I once read a book about this. “God made you as an original. Don’t die as a copy.”

God only made one Billy Graham but He also made you as one of a kind, a limited edition of one.

What is your calling?