Goals

O send out Your light and Your truth, let them lead me; 

Let them bring me to Your holy hill And to Your dwelling places. 

(Psalm 43:3 NASB)

A new year is instinctively a time to look back and also to look forward.  We look back at past accomplishments and are proud.  We look back at past disappointments and determine to do better.  If we are wise and honest, then we are thankful, knowing that for all of us we are doing far better than we deserve!

What are you thinking about as 2012 gets started?  What is your focus?  I believe all of us struggle to think less of ourselves and more of God.

Several months ago I was gripped by Psalm 43, and in particular verse 5.  What will shape my thinking and determine my goals?  I don't want to be led by my emotions, my self-determination, or my circumstances, but on something more reliable, more sure, something that has a greater chance of success.  His light, His truth, His presence must point the way.

What if I told you that there was a supremely impossible but glorious goal that was guaranteed to succeed?  For the believer in Jesus, there is.  Consider:

"Cease striving and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth." 

(Psalm 46:10 NASB)

For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified. 

(Romans 8:29-30 NASB)

For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. 

(Philippians 1:6 NASB)

He will be exalted.
He will make His children like His beloved son Jesus.


How committed to these goals are you?

In 2012 and beyond, may we measure all we do by the exaltation of Christ, and marvel at the myriad ways He does this in our lives and in the lives of those around us!

In His Grip,

Mark