4 Effective Steps to Be Sure I’m Pursuing Goals God’s Way
Do you ever question the dreams you have or the goals you’re pursuing? Do you wonder if they’re really part of God’s plan or if you just think you’re supposed to do them? Do you get weary as you go through the motions? Do you wish you knew that you were working in your calling?
Whether it’s the New Year or you’re setting quarterly or monthly goals, your ultimate mission as a Christian is to do all things for the glory of God including setting goals and achieving them. These are the 4 Effective Steps to Be Sure I’m Pursuing Goals God’s Way.
It’s possible to go your entire life as a Christian practicing the advice you get from self-help books, working hard, achieving audacious goals, making lots of money, and being successful according to the world’s standards.
But it’s important to remember that we don’t live for our own desires but with kingdom purpose. So how do you ensure your goals are aligned to the will of God?
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Do you know that God wants you to be successful?
As we get into this today, I want to encourage you with a powerful message. God wants you to live, dream, and have aspirations while the enemy doesn’t!
John 10:10 (NIV) says, ” The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”
God purchased your life for you, he doesn’t want you to just go through the motions of life. He doesn’t want you to feel like you’re just existing. That’s not living!
Let’s take this a little deeper. Romans 8:11 says the spirit of God lives inside of us as believers. Think about that for a moment.
When my pastor shared that scripture the other day, I took a step back and thought about it, and he posed the question, “Do I live like I know that?” That’s a powerful question, isn’t it? If the spirit of God lives in me, am I living like I know that?
Dreaming and having big goals is a God-given blessing! He wants us to dream and have a purpose. He wants to use us to build the kingdom even larger! God wants to resurrect a dream that’s been squashed in your life.
Proverbs 29:18 (ESV) says, “Where there is no prophetic vision the people cast off restraint.” Having a dream, and having a vision is a good thing!
The Bible has stories of God helping people do different things that were big and changed the course of their lives and those of people around them.
We see Joseph, a young dreamer taken into slavery, falsely accused and imprisoned, and then rising to become the Governor of Egypt. Then there’s David, a shepherd boy who became a king, and Esther a young Jewish girl chosen to become a queen.
God’s plan for our lives is bigger than we know. We just need to seek Him and trust Him above all else.
Pursuing Goals God’s Way vs Our Way
So what does doing dreams our way look like? You set goals led by your emotions, it’s all up to you to make it happen, you need to be in control, you’re self-reliant, and manipulate things to get your way.
At the end of the day, you’re anxious and feel overwhelmed. These are all things I don’t want in my life, how about you?
What does it look like when we live out God’s dream and pursue goals in God’s way? You’ll have the peace of God that passes all understanding, you’ll have clarity, you won’t be relying on yourself, you’ll feel grounded, and you’ll surrender to the path the Lord has you on rather than trying to go your own way.
When God leads, you’ll allow things to happen rather than try to make things happen. You’ll experience freedom and incredible personal growth when you follow God’s way and don’t try to do things with your own strength.
Interested in diving deeper? Watch this free masterclass to help you get a jump start on your goals: 3 Pillars To Setting And Crushing Goals In A Stress-Less, No Hustle Way
4 Effective Steps to Be Sure I’m Pursuing Goals God’s Way
God can do far more than anything we ask for or think of. His dreams are always way bigger and better than our own. And, ultimately, his dream for our lives will be accomplished by our cooperation with God, not by our own efforts. God wants our cooperation!
So how do we do this? How do we determine the dreams we have are God-given? How do we know that we’re on the right track? There are 4 steps to know that you’re Pursuing Goals in God’s way and not in your own way (the 4 Gs).
Pursuing Goals God’s Way: Give in
The first step you need to take is to surrender your life to God, like truly surrender, all aspects. Work, family, business, dreams, goals, fun activities. Giving it all to Him. That means surrendering the small decisions and big decisions to Him in prayer.
It means even your goal setting is surrendered to the Lord Jesus Christ. He leads you to the kind of goals you should set. Whether they are spiritual goals, financial, career, business, family, or social goals set them according to God’s will.
Apostle Paul shared a profound scripture in the New Testament and it’s the theme verse of my business:
“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”
Romans 12:2 ESV
We are very willing to surrender certain aspects of our life to God. You know, the parts that aren’t so much of a sacrifice. But it’s a little harder surrendering everything, isn’t it? Why? Because we feel like we lose control.
But God’s word assures us that it’s actually freeing when we let go of the steering wheel and let God direct us. We are called to obedience, and God is the one who will make a way.
We often shape our dreams by looking at other people rather than looking at God. We look at what other people are doing, and how they’re living, and we want that. We think that’s what we should be pursuing.
But we need to look to God for our own goals. When we give in to God, we can fully embrace the dreams He gives us, you won’t miss them, I promise. He directs you on the right path to take and leads you throughout the journey.
Sometimes we live someone else’s dreams for our lives. We feel the pressure to go a certain direction because it’s what our parents thought we should do, or maybe our friends told us we’d be good at that — or worse — our friends or family told us we wouldn’t be good at something we wanted to try and it steered us away from pursuing it.
When you give in to God, when you truly surrender your life to him, you will see God’s dream for your life unfold.
Get alone with God
Sometimes we just need to shut our mouths for a hot minute. Or better yet, shut off the noise around us.
This world is noisy! People tell us what we should think, how we should act, and how we should live — technology and social media entertain our every waking moment, we have information at our fingertips, and we never have to go with silence ever.
But silence is good. White space on a daily basis matters. It’s where you’ll truly hear from God and understand if what you’re about to do is the right or wrong thing. If you’re not quiet, if you never shut up, how is he supposed to get a word into you?!
Our Lord Jesus is the best example of this. When He woke up He would find time to be alone with God before He interacted with His disciples and the multitudes of people that followed Him.
Isaiah 55:3 (ESV) says, “incline your ear, and come to me; hear, that your soul may live.”
Pursuing Goals God’s Way means taking some time out, learning to just sit, be quiet, and be alone with the Lord. Tell him you’re coming to him with your ears wide open, awaiting what he has for you.
While you may not hear his audible voice it’s in these moments that your creativity will come alive, that you’ll gain little revelations or downloads from the Holy Spirit. It’s in these moments that he whispers to you your next right step or gives you a massive goal to pursue.
Find the right place and space and as you sit there quietly, write down what comes to mind. Be thoughtful about it all. And dig into the God’s word. Not just where you feel like going that day, but do it in a systematic way.
Read through a full book of the Bible so you can learn the context and really take it to heart. The word of God is important because it leads to spiritual growth and helps define your dreams.
How can we truly pursue goals in God’s way if we don’t relate with him? Any healthy relationship or friendship is born out of two-sided conversation — that means you talk but also listen to the other person.
We can’t have a relationship without the quiet, without tuning our ears to the Lord. Take that quiet space, pray, think, journal, and study the word. Start with 5 minutes and build it up from there. You don’t have to be perfect, you just need to be willing to do it.
His dream will become your dream. The Bible says God will give us the desires of our hearts, but this isn’t about getting what we want!
What happens is that the more we are in relation with him, God will replace our fleshly desires with his dreams for our lives. The desires that stir up when we’re surrendered to God will be from him, they will be a part of our purpose.
Grow with other positive dreamers
One of the best ways to give up on your dream too soon is to get around negative people (the negative Nancys). They will pull you down so fast you won’t know what hit you!
One of the best examples – crabs!
If you put one crab into a bucket, it will be more likely to be able to escape. But if you put just one other crab inside along with the first, the chances of escape are essentially eliminated.
Why?
Because if one crab tries to crawl out, the other will pull it right back down. This is the power of association!
By the way… I know this because, when visiting my aunt and uncle’s lake growing up, we used to catch them so they didn’t take over their beautiful beach area.
Just as crabs will pull each other back into captivity, negative people will squash your dream. They can be in real life or on social media. When you know you’ve given in to God and you’ve gotten alone with him, and you know the goals you’re working on are a part of the purpose he has for you, then you need to protect that.
Protect it from negative people. Don’t share it with them, even if they are close friends or family members.
They will try to tell you why it’s too hard or why you can’t do it, but guess what? But don’t be concerned about what they think.
If God calls you to something, even if they are ambitious goal, he will supply you with the faith and tools you need to pursue it. It’s actually a good thing if you have big dreams because it means you need Him all the more.
Most of the time he didn’t use those who already felt capable. He used those who had limiting beliefs, who didn’t feel adequate, who didn’t want to do it. It’s in our weaknesses that God shows up with his strength.
If you’ve been spending too much time with negative people you need a fresh start. Protecting your dream means not sharing it with negative Nancys, but it also means finding others who are positive, doing purposeful work, and who are going after their God-given dreams and getting in community with them.
When the going gets tough (because it will), we need the power of collaboration that brings support and encouragement to keep taking the next step forward.
Proverbs 27:17 (ESV) says, “Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another.”
It’s important to have people in your life who share the same core values as you do. Whether we’re pursuing financial, personal, career, or biblical goals, we need people we can lean on when the going gets tough.
It’s a key thing to have people who cheer for us when others are negative. We need a place where we can get feedback. We need to be that for others as well.
Christ Jesus is our greatest example. When he came to earth, he chose 12 disciples and for three short years in ministry, He worked with them, taught them, encouraged them, prayed with them, and shared deep and personal things with them.
Pursuing Goals God’s Way:Go
The last step in the process of pursuing a specific goal God’s way is to actually GO and get to work! You’ve got to be in motion for God to steer you. Just like you can’t steer a parked car, he can’t steer you without you moving.
Yes, there will be bumps along the way. Yes, you’ll face challenges and giants. No, it won’t be easy. No, you won’t have it all figured out right away.
But when you let God steer, he’ll guide you where you need to go, he’ll help you pivot when you need to, and he’ll tell you to keep going or to move to something else. He will direct you.
In the kingdom of God, we need to have both action and faith. We must believe that God will help us achieve our small and big dreams then go out and work. You may need to acquire a new skill, do a course, and meet people but the key thing is you are taking action.
James 2:17 (NIV) says “In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.”
Psalm 37:23 says He will direct your steps if you allow him by giving in to him, getting alone with him, growing with others who are positively working toward their dreams, and going, getting out there and doing the thing. You just need to take the steps, God will lead you to the next right step.
Pursuing goals God’s way is an active process, and you are an active participant.
Your assignment may change, you may transition along the way like getting a new job, and you may hit a goal and then be directed to another, but the calling, your calling, the God-given purpose He has placed on your life doesn’t change.
Don’t measure your dreams by your feelings. Don’t measure your faith by your feelings. Measure both of them by moving. God wants to do a work in you, he wants to use those desires stirring in your heart. Allow him to do it!
May these 4 Effective Steps to Be Sure I’m Pursuing Goals God’s Way inspire, guide, and empower you to achieve your dreams in a way that brings glory to God.
Remember to Give in to God, Get alone with God, Grow with others, and Go!
Pursue those God-given dreams with fervor. I want more than anything for you to stop just going through the motions of life. I want more than anything for you to stop feeling like you are just existing.
Come alive! Really truly learn what it means to live. Really truly begin living like you know the spirit of God is inside of you.
God is good. He is a God of the living. He is a God of impossible dreams.
In all things I pray, you just run YOUR race. I believe in you.
Goals Workshop (free resource)
Are you tired of quitting on yourself and your goals? Are you sick of the hustle culture and want a different strategy?
My simple Red Hot Goals Formula will help you create a personalized game plan that works for your capacity in different seasons.
You CAN work your goals into your lifestyle without sacrificing everything to achieve them.
In this free workshop, you’ll learn:
- The clarity you need to make your dream real to you without worrying about how it will all come together
- How to craft a simplified game plan that gets results in the season of life you’re in
- The secret sauce to taking action that works, even if you have limited time to make things happen
- PLUS: The #1 mistake people make when goal setting that causes them to quit too soon
If you are MORE than ready to finally take that desire inside your heart from conception to the finish line, this is for you!
