Did you know if you don't have one of these you will most certainly die? No, it isn't one of your vital organs, but rather a thing. Well, it's really a mind thing or maybe even a heart thing, but if you don't have this thing, you will most certainly die. And having more than one will help you to really live, but they will also stretch you and cause you to grow. What is it that you must have? You know that find out, you will have to read on!
A GOAL!
If you don't have a goal you will die! You will shrivel up and cease to exist in a short amount of time. Ah, but you respond that you don't set goals and you are quite alive, thank you very much. Yet there is not an absence of goals in your life if you don't actively set goals. You are so prone to goals that you set them and don't even realize it.
You see, if you don't have a goal for tomorrow, then your goal will be to make tomorrow like today or like last Tuesday. If you don't have an income goal, then your goal is to have the same income you had last year. if you don't have a ministry goal, then your goal is to replicate the ministry you did this year, even if that was zero ministry. God so established you to chase goals, that you will set them even if they are negative, neutral or allowing for a slight change of what you previously had or did.
Your goal to go to work is to follow the same path as always. Your goal for your relationships is to maintain those you have and not make any new ones. If your goal is not to make any new friends, you will achieve that goal. That's how powerful goals are!
ALONG COMES GOD
When the Lord comes into your life, He desires to breathe into your goal-setting capabilities by freeing you from the hindrances that keep you focusing on the same goals day after day and year after year. Those things, like fear, small thinking and unbelief limit you and me, just like they did the disciples who walked with Jesus. One day Jesus turned to his disciples after teaching a long crowd for many hours:
As evening approached, the disciples came to him and said, "This is a remote place, and it's already getting late. Send the crowds away, so they can go to the villages and buy themselves some food." Jesus replied, "They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.""We have here only five loaves of bread and two fish," they answered. "Bring them here to me," he said. And he directed the people to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people. They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. The number of those who ate was about five thousand men, besides women and children (Matthew 14:15-21).
The disciples did not think they had enough to set a goal to feed the people. They did not focus on the possibilities or the power of God. They focused on what they had, or rather did not have, and they were ready to send the people home, just as they had always done. Jesus confronted their small and limited thinking and showed them what they could do partnering with Him.
What are your goals? Are they simply to keep your life the same? If they are, I know that is exactly what is happening. Are you ready to set some new goals, goals that will create a new tomorrow today? If you are, then go back and review your values you wrote out a few weeks and ago and ask, "Where do you I want to be in this or that area in the next year? What would I like to do? What do I feel God would want me to do?" When you answer those questions, then set some goals to go back to school, increase your income, write that book or improve your relationship with your family.
Goals are essential to life. That is how God created you to function. You are already doing a good job, even if your goal is to achieve nothing! Now all you need to do is branch out and set some desirable end results and watch the same power that has been holding you back be used to launch you forward. Have a great week!
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Five hundred dollars came in today for Operation Chicken Coop and some other donations came in this past week for the Sophia Fund and Deborah Foundation. Thank You, Lord! Pictured to the right are some of the children at the Upako Center who are impacted by your generosity (that is a classroom they are in; some of them even sleep there.)
If the Monday Memo has been a blessing to you this year, please consider a token of appreciation that will help HIV/AIDS orphans and widows in Kenya as we approach this holiday season. Read how you can do something significant for them here and here. Thank you!
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