💥 What are your goals for the year? 💪

Maybe you don’t even have any goals this year… that’s fine. But I am sure that you want this year to be better than last year, no matter how good last year may have been – that’s a goal even if it’s very general and not too specific. I am not one to have a list of goals to achieve because it creates a pressure to perform. Rather, I seek God and enjoy the empowering He gives to do and accomplish what He leads me to do and accomplish – it’s much easier than creating my own list of unrealistic things to reach for! If God calls you to accomplish something, there will be a supernatural blessing and empowering to accomplish it, while your own plans and goals need to be funded and empowered by you.

You could say that I do have some “unwritten goals” or a general expectancy for the year: I want to see our ministry grow in reaching more people and seeing more people established in freedom and the abundant life. I want to see our personal and ministry finances increase, and I want to step into more and more of what the Lord has for me. I am just not chasing after these things, rather I am seeking God and seeing these things come to pass as an overflow of relationship with Him. This happened with GraceLife, and some people find this shocking, but I never aimed to plant a church, and I never had the goal of growing GraceLife into a church-planting movement. We have just been seeking God (our primary goal), enjoying a relationship with Him and doing what He leads us to do (which leads us to a few God-birthed goals). 

 

^“33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”
Matthew 6:33 New King James Version (NKJV)

It’s not wrong to desire prosperity nor is it wrong to have goals, but true success is birthed out of the goal of knowing God. When we seek first the kingdom of God (His way of doing things and His priorities) then provision and success flow naturally! It’s added unto us, not earned!  

^“11 For I know the plans and thoughts that I have for you,’ says the Lord, ‘plans for peace and well-being and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. ¹² Then you will call on Me and you will come and pray to Me, and I will hear [your voice] and I will listen to you. ¹³ Then [with a deep longing] you will seek Me and require Me [as a vital necessity] and [you will] find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.”
Jeremiah 29:11-13 Amplified Bible (AMP)

God has good plans for us and they are plans for peace and prosperity, but we should never make those plans our primary aims or goals. Our primary aim should be to seek Him and to fellowship with Him – to know Him more. To grow in relationship with God. When we put the effort and time into seeking Him and growing in our relationship with Him like some of us do into reaching other goals (like getting fit or making more money) we will experience more and more abundant life as a byproduct. But first things should be first: seek the Giver of the good plans, and not merely the good plans.