Grace for the Race

Ever wonder why some in the body of Christ seem to stop moving forward while others just keep going and going, regardless of the circumstances they are facing?  They move onward and upward, not only when the road is easy and their burden light, but also when the road is rocky and their burden is weighty.  The key to understanding the difference between the two is found in the following maxim:

The degree of forward movement you experience in life will always be

in direct proportion to the placement of your hope!

When your hope is in Jesus there is no obstacle too great to overcome . . . no mountain too high . . . no valley too low . . . no river too wide.  However, when you build your hope on anything smaller than Jesus, obstacles and opposition can and will overwhelm you and cause you to stop moving onward.

Be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart, all who hope in the Lord.  (Psalm 31:24)

Hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.  (Romans 5:5)

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.  (Romans 15:13)

The only hope that will never disappoint is Jesus.  If your hope is in your physical abilities, one day they will abandon you.  If your hope is in your intellect, one day it will disappoint you.  If your hope is in your money, one day it will sprout wings and fly off to the sky (Proverbs 23:5).  If your hope is in another person, one day he or she will let you down.  Your physical abilities are not capable of carrying your hope.  Your intellect is not capable of carrying your hope.  Your money is not capable of carrying your hope.  Your relationships are not capable of carrying your hope.  When your reason for continuing onward into the life God is calling you to live is built on anything other than Jesus, eventually the foundation will crack and the walls will come crashing down.

All horizontal hope disappoints.  It was designed by God to do just that.  Only vertical hope can keep you going when you would rather not.  Adam and Eve learned this lesson the hard way, as did many men and women in the Bible.  Because everything on this side of the grave is damaged by the brokenness of the fall, everything you hope in other than Jesus is broken . . . and broken things are designed to disappoint.

If this finds you in a place where you are struggling to move onward, take some time to check what you have placed your hope in.  Are you hoping for your spouse to get romantic?  Are you hoping for your job to get fulfilling?  Are you hoping for your station in life to get better?  Stop hoping in anything that is smaller than Jesus.  Sure, in the short run the promise of these false gods can be powerful and pleasing.  But in the end, they leave you wanting; they simply cannot deliver on their promises.

When your hope is in the God of hope, you can even have hope in a seemingly hopeless situation.  When your hope is in the God of hope, there is nothing that can stand in the way of your onward progress.  Your safety is in the hands of Omnipotence . . . your security is in the hands of Omnipresence . . . your success is in the hands of Omniscience!

No weapon that is fashioned against you shall succeed, and you shall refute every tongue that rises against you in judgment.  This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord and their vindication from me, declares the Lord.  (Isaiah 54:17)

The only place to find the kind of hope you need to keep moving forward is found in the One who died for you, so that you could live for Him.  Onward Christian; onward, for He is with you every step of the way!

This is the Gospel.  This is grace for your race.  NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!

The Gospel is the good news of the birth, sinless life, sacrificial death, glorious resurrection, and triumphant ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Jesus Christ took our place on the cross, received God’s judgment and wrath, and paid our sin debt fully and completely, placing us under the banner of His finished work.  When this truth is accepted by faith, the person believing it is saved.  But the Gospel doesn’t end there.  The Gospel is not only the truth that unbelievers need to believe to be saved; the Gospel is the truth that Christians need to believe in order to experience being saved daily.  The Gospel is the gift that keeps on giving!

Far too many in the church today see the Gospel only as the door leading into the Christian life.  They correctly see the Gospel as necessary in the life of the unbelieving sinner in order to get them saved; but they fail to recognize the need for the Gospel in the life of the believing sinner in order to get them sanctified.  The Gospel is not only the door leading into the life of faith, it is the floor upon which that life is to be built.  The good news of the Gospel not only saves the unbeliever from the penalty of sin (justification), it saves the believer from the power of sin (sanctification).  The Gospel is the gift that keeps on giving!

Those who only see the Gospel as the means of salvation inevitably look to their good works as the evidence of their continued right standing before God.  They are forever running on the performance treadmill, trying to gain God’s favor and blessing (and trying to avoid His displeasure) by their own spiritual sweat.  But this is not for you!

My observation of Christendom is that most of us tend to base our personal relationship with God on our performance instead of on His grace.  If we’ve performed well—whatever “well” is in our opinion—then we expect God to bless us.  If we haven’t done so well, our expectations are reduced accordingly.  In this sense, we live by works rather than by grace.  We are saved by grace, but we are living by the “sweat” of our own performance.

Moreover, we are always challenging ourselves and one another to “try harder.”  We seem to believe success in the Christian life (however we define success) is basically up to us: our commitment, our discipline, and our zeal, with some help from God along the way.  We give lip service to the attitude of the apostle Paul, “But by the grace of God I am what I am” (1 Corinthians 15:10), but our unspoken motto is, “God helps those who help themselves.”

The realization that my daily relationship with God is based on the infinite merit of Christ instead of on my own performance is a very freeing and joyous experience.  —  Jerry Bridges, Transforming Grace

The gift that keeps on giving—the Gospel—is the only way to living a life of freedom and joy.  And that is because we live in the truth and knowledge of the finished work of Jesus.  When Jesus said, “It is finished!” He meant what He said!  Each day we need to be reminded of this transforming and liberating power.  We are not accepted because of our behavior; we are accepted because of His behavior, and for those who truly understand just how prone we are to wander, that is good news that keeps on giving!

This is the Gospel.  This is grace for your race.  NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!

You might think from the title that today’s blog would discuss diet and exercise.  Many of you know my history as a coach and fitness trainer; but as much as I still stress sound nutrition and appropriate exercise, my focus today is quite different. I want to examine the heart and the role it plays in healthy living for the disciple of Christ.

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love.  But the greatest of these is love.  (1 Corinthians 13:13)

When Jesus was asked about the greatest commandment, He took his audience to a place called love: love for God and love for others (Mark 12:28-31).  The sign of healthy living for the Christian is not rooted in diet and exercise.  The apostle Paul acknowledged that “Bodily training is of some value,” but, as the passage above explains, vibrant Christian living is rooted in love, and that love must start within our family of faith.

Without true Christians loving one another, Christ says the world cannot be expected to listen, even when we give proper answers.  Let us be careful, indeed, to spend a lifetime studying to give honest answers.  For years the orthodox, evangelical church has done this very poorly.  So it is well to spend time learning to answer the questions of men who are about us.  But after we have done our best to communicate to a lost world, still we must never forget that the final apologetic which Jesus gives is the observable love of true Christians for true Christians.  — Francis Schaffer, The Great Evangelical Disaster 

What Schaeffer called “the final apologetic” seems more like the forgotten or “absent” apologetic in the church today.  Sometimes we seem to believe it is more important to be right than to be loving.  At other times we act as if it is more valuable to get our way than to lay our lives down for others.  We fuss about the music . . . we fight about which ministry gets highlighted . . . we hyperventilate about the person standing up in front of us raising his or her hands in worship.  This is unhealthy living for members of the Body of Christ, and it gives the watching world ample excuse to stop looking, quit listening, and walk away.

We make God attractive to the watching world when we demonstrate the selfless love of Christ—a love that is not only unconditional, but sacrificial.  It was the pattern of our Prince to love sacrificially, regardless of the cost or circumstance.  He received those who were outcasts from society.  He talked with those who were shunned by society.  He traveled with those who were the low-class of society.  His love was observable and offered to a fallen, broken, and hurting world as the final apologetic.

What would those who know you best say about your observable love?  How attractive do you make your God?  Are you reflecting the love of Christ to those you come in contact with—starting with your family of faith?  Make no mistake; we are diseased to the degree that we fail to love, regardless of cost or circumstance.  Your level of healthy living will always be in direct proportion to the level of love you have for God and all others.

This is the Gospel.  This is grace for your race.  NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!

If you took a moment to reflect on all that you have been asking God for in your times of prayer and meditation, what would that list look like?  Now . . . if you were restricted to ask only one thing of God, what would that one thing be?

One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple.  (Psalm 27:2)

It’s one thing to make your “one thing” to dwell in the house of the Lord when the sun is shining, the sky is blue and the clouds are fleecy.  It’s another thing altogether for David to have asked this in the middle of the storm he was facing.  Under attack, David didn’t ask for victory or vindication, rescue or retribution.  No, David asked for the one thing he was created for, the one thing we were all created for: to be in the house of the Lord and to gaze upon His unparalleled and unprecedented beauty, majesty, and glory.  This is the divine design of every image bearer of God.

So . . . what is your one thing today?  What one thing will bring you the happiness, satisfaction, or contentment you crave?

• In your singleness, is your “one thing” marriage?
• In your marriage, is your “one thing” the thing your spouse needs to change?
• In your parenting, is your “one thing” successful children?
• In your profession, is your “one thing” advancement?
• In your social circle, is your “one thing” approval?
• In your self-image, is your “one thing” the body you had at 20?
• In your religion, is your “one thing” what you are doing . . . or what Jesus has done?

The list could go on and on.  How easy it is to take Jesus off the throne of our lives and put something or someone infinitely smaller than Him on it!  Sure, the promise of that “one thing”—if we were only to get it—is powerful, but in the end, it is never able to deliver.  Divided affections lead to distraction, disappointment, and ultimately defeat for the child of God.  It is only the grace of the Gospel that can cause our every affection to be rooted in one affection, and His name is Jesus Christ.  And make no mistake; if Jesus is not your one thing, Jesus is not your Lord.  Your functional lord is whatever your one thing happens to be at the time. And anything smaller than Jesus shrinks the size of your life down to the size of your life, a size far too small for the committed Christian!

In the heart of every believer there is a war raging for control of our lives as the “one thing” we desire more than any other thing.  In the middle of a season of great struggle David cried out for one thing—and that one thing was God.  Whether we are in the middle of raging storm winds or a season of great success, may the grace of the Gospel empower us to do just that.

This is the Gospel.  This is grace for your race.  NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!

Have you ever thought about the difficulty of remaining faithful in fullness?  Many of us are far more likely to remain steadfast in the storms of life than in our successes.  How easy it is, while riding the crest of the wave of success, to forget who sent the wave and placed us safely on top of it!  Charles Spurgeon profoundly underscored this truth:

The Christian far oftener disgraces his profession in prosperity than in adversity.  It is a dangerous thing to be prosperous.  The crucible of adversity is a less severe trial to the Christian than the fining-pot of prosperity.  Oh, what leanness of soul and neglect of spiritual things have been brought on through the very mercies and bounties of God!

How sad to be doing well in life and forget the Well from which we have been given the privilege to drink!  But this is not for you . . . and the apostle Paul provides some great insight for us all.

I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound.  In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need.  (Philippians 4:12)

How instructive to read about the life of Paul, who knew how to be just as faithful in fullness as he was in emptiness.  Most of us have a tendency to believe it easy to walk by faith when we are walking in fullness.  But this is not necessarily true!  God is well aware of the sinful proclivity of our hearts and warned the people of Israel:

When the Lord your God brings you into the land that he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you—with great and good cities that you did not build, and houses full of all good things that you did not fill, and cisterns that you did not dig, and vineyards and olive trees that you did not plant—and when you eat and are full, then take care lest you forget the Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. (Deuteronomy 6:10-12)

Fullness often makes us forgetful.  We forget the Giver of the gift.  We forget the grace of the gift.  We forget the goal of the gift.  Spurgeon said, “Satisfied with earth, we are content to do without heaven.”  God in His grace gives us good gifts for the goal of blessing others and advancing the cause of His kingdom, not to relax our focus and forget our Redeemer. 

Paul knew how to be faithful “in any and every circumstance” because he never lost sight of the reason for his fullness.  He knew that what he had he had been given was because of God’s grace, not his own goodness.  He never forgot that the more he had, the more he was in debt to the One who had given it to him.  So, with a heart filled with gratitude, Paul progressed further up and further into his calling, regardless of the circumstance he found himself in . . . even to the point of being faithful in his fullness. 

This is the Gospel.  This is grace for your race.  NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!

Have you ever wondered why we have a Leap Year?  I don’t often get to date a blog entry February 29.  It only happens every four years.  This year is a leap year; it consists of 366 days, as opposed to a common year of 365 days.  Leap years are needed to keep our calendar in alignment with the Earth’s revolutions around the sun.  It takes the Earth approximately 365.242199 days (a tropical year) to circle once around the Sun.  If we didn’t add a day on February 29 every 4 years, we would lose almost six hours off our calendar every year.  After only 100 years, our calendar would be off by approximately 24 days!

OK, perhaps the reason for leap year was not the most pressing thing on your agenda for today. But let me use leap year to make this point: with an extra day given to us this year, let us pause and think about all our days and just how precious each and every one of them truly is. 

O Lord, make me know my end and what is the measure of my days; let me know how fleeting I am!  Behold, you have made my days a few handbreadths, and my lifetime is as nothing before you.  Surely all mankind stands as a mere breath!  (Psalm 39:4-5)

So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom. (Psalm 90:12)

One of the best things that can happen to us today is to be reminded that every day is a gift from God.  The past is gone.  The future is promised to no one (on this side of the grave).  All we have is right now . . . this day.  And that is why it is called the present.  Today is a gift from God, and our gift back to God is the way we go about investing this day.

So . . . what are you going to do with your extra day?  Perhaps you have been putting off sharing Jesus with someone who doesn’t know Him.  Maybe you have been planning to write a thank you note to someone special and haven’t gotten around to it.  Possibly there is someone who is in need of your forgiveness and today is the day you ask God to give you the grace to do that.  Perhaps there is someone from whom you need to ask forgiveness and today is the day to ask God for the courage and the humility to do that. Is there anything you have been putting off doing until tomorrow that you can do today?

If the extra day this year gets us thinking about how we are using all our days, it’s a very good thing!  The Bible speaks about the difference between the wise and the foolish.  It is only the wise who understand the brevity of life and make it their goal to invest their days in ways that bring glory to God by advancing the cause of His kingdom, right here and right now.  There really is no time to put off till tomorrow what God is calling us to do today!

Let us all pause today and ask God to penetrate our hearts with this truth: may this “extra” day remind us of that final day!  Because only God knows when that final day will come, let us invest wisely each precious, unrepeatable day that He has given to us along the way.

This is the Gospel.  This is grace for your race.  NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!

Have you met many Christians who mistakenly believe they have “arrived” in this life?  When they complete the education that most only dream about getting?  When they get the job promotion and that corner office that goes with it?  When that special someone says “Yes” to their marriage proposal?  When they are approved for the mortgage on a bigger and better home?  When the car they drive drives their friends mad with envy?  When the social circle they run in runs the city they live in?  When the ministry they lead leads the other ministries in the number of people showing up?  Yet on this side of the grave, the one thing the Christian never does is arrive.  To be sure, there is only one place where we will finally arrive, and it won’t happen until we get to the other side of the grave, when we will forever be in the unveiled presence of Jesus.  Is this the arrival you are anticipating?  Is this the arrival you are hoping for . . . groaning for?

When we live in a state of anticipating our arrival on the other side of the grave, we are living in the light of eternity.  Everything we do is measured against what will bring the most value and glory to the Kingdom of God, as we live like pilgrims who are just passing through on our way to the celestial city.  As the apostle Paul says to the Philippians, our citizenship is in heaven, not here on earth.  So as we live in anticipation of that eternal glory, we pour ourselves out for the expansion of God’s big kingdom here and now, not the expansion of our own little kingdom.    

The devil would like nothing more than to convince you that you have indeed arrived.  He has done it to countless individuals in the church.  They profess Jesus as Lord, and yet put the stuff of this life on the throne of their lives.  The devil even attempted to do the very same thing to Jesus! Our Lord’s response gives us the model for resisting the things of this world that would convince us we have arrived.

The devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.  And he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.”  Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, “‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’”  Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him.  (Matthew 4:8-11)

The devil tried to get Jesus to think He had arrived, but Jesus would have none of it.  He knew what He was here to do and He would not allow anything to get in His way.  With every attempt the devil made to get Jesus to think He had arrived, Jesus quoted Scripture.  It’s important to understand that Jesus never told us to forsake everything in this life for what is to come in the next.  The blessings and pleasure of this life are some of God’s good gifts to us.  Education, professions, relationships, houses, and even cars are all good gifts given by our gracious God.  However, these good gifts become bad gifts when we make them ultimate gifts.  When we think we have arrived because of any good gifts we have been given, we have arrived at the wrong destination.

You were bought with a price; do not become bondservants of men. (1 Corinthians 7:23)

As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy.  (1 Timothy 6:17)

Do not love the world or the things in the world.  If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.  (1 John 2:15)

These are just a few of many verses that help the disciple of Christ sharpen his or her focus on what it means to have arrived.  Short of Christ Himself, perhaps the most powerful example of a man who had truly arrived at the right destination was Paul, who declared in Philippians 3 that all the accomplishments from his life before Christ—his power, his prestige, his prominence in the community—were no more than rubbish, compared to “the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.” In the same passage, Paul went to proclaim that he was “forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead,” in order to “press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”

I pray that these verses will serve to encourage you in your journey to the celestial city and your walk with Christ every step of the way, remembering that arrival happens not in this life, but in the next.

This is the Gospel.  This is grace for your race.  NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!

Did you ever think about God having an eternal eraser with your name on it?  It’s true!  Just a cursory glance through the Scriptures shows us God using His eraser time and time again in the lives of some pretty messed up saints . . . saints like you and me.  God erased the deceptions of Jacob.  God erased the doubts of Thomas.  God erased the denials of Peter.  God is in the business of erasing a past littered with broken promises and shattered dreams and unfulfilled potential, and He is in the habit of doing it over and over again. 

Moses knew this quite well.  He lived a privileged life in Egypt; at age forty he sought to bring about a “good thing” (the deliverance of God’s people), but in the “wrong way” (in his own strength through murder).  You see, Moses believed his powerful, privileged position in the court of Pharaoh would propel him to the position of deliverer of his people.  He was wrong, tragically wrong, and this would have been the end of the story, if not for God’s eternal eraser.   

After his failed attempt to free his people, Moses fled Egypt and headed off into obscurity, tending sheep on the back side of the Midian wilderness. For the next forty years, Moses undoubtedly many times about what could have been, believing he had completely blown the one chance he had to serve his God and bless God’s people.

Satan delights in convincing the saints that they have blown their “one chance” of serving God and blessing God’s people.  The devil wants Christians defeated, believing they have missed their opportunity of being used by God.  Our adversary loves to discourage disciples by convincing them they are disqualified for service in God’s kingdom.  He convinces some that they are too bad; others that they are too poor; still others that they are too old.  Satan keeps running into one problem, though: God always gets the last word! 

After Moses messed up, God sent him on his wilderness experience for forty years.  All this time, God was preparing Moses for fruitful service: to go back into Egypt to deliver God’s people (a good thing), but this time to do it in God’s strength and according to God’s plan (the right way).  God did not discard Moses and dump him on to the ashes of apparent defeat.  Instead, He drove Moses into the desert for a season of preparation and training for future service.  You know the rest of the story.

Moses was 120 years old when he died. His eye was undimmed, and his vigor unabated . . . And there has not arisen a prophet since in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face, none like him for all the signs and the wonders that the Lord sent him to do in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land, and for all the mighty power and all the great deeds of terror that Moses did in the sight of all Israel.  (Deuteronomy 34:7, 10-12)

So, what about you?  What will be the rest of your story?  Are there any places in your life right now where you have lost all hope?  At the office?  In your marriage?  With your children?  In your ministry of service?  We all must remember that our past never determines our future.  Jacob’s life of deception did not determine his future.  Thomas’s doubts did not determine his future.  Peter’s denials of Jesus did not determine his future.  God determines our future, and He begins by first erasing our past.

When we cry out to God for forgiveness, He not only forgives us, He forgets what He is forgiving.  “For I will forgive their iniquity,” He declares, “and I will remember their sin no more” (Jeremiah 31:34).  We must do the same if we are going to get on with the perfect plan God has for imperfect people in advancing the cause of His kingdom.  Your hope, your motivation, your drive to continue pressing into the call God has placed in your life will only be as big as the One you are trusting in.  Moses learned not to trust in himself.  Have we learned this too? 

Remember what the psalmist said: “Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord” (Psalm 27:14).  God is not finished with you, and He won’t be until He brings you into glory. 

This is the Gospel.  This is grace for your race.  NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!

Today we are going to take a brief look at a statement from Jesus that seems absolutely crazy; nevertheless, yet it is infallibly true. 

Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.  Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake.  Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.  (Matthew 5:10-12)

When we think about being blessed of God we generally don’t think about the blessing of persecution.  In fact, it seems just a little bit crazy doesn’t it?  But Truth, for whom it is impossible to speak untruth (Hebrews 6:18), said it is true: we are blessed when we are persecuted for righteousness.

We think about the blessing of financial prosperity.  We think about the blessing of good health.  We think about the blessing of obedient children.  We think about the blessing of faithful friends.  But when was the last time you considered yourself blessed to be in the middle of persecution?  The Bible makes it clear that those persecuted for the Prince of Peace are indeed a blessed people who should rejoice and be exceedingly glad.

Now the persecution Jesus is speaking about is for righteousness, not for foolishness!  Many times we endure persecution simply for being foolish—making poor choices or bad decisions.  This is the result of being sinners, both by nature and habit.  In the passage above, Jesus is talking about those who are living sold-out lives for His sake and because of it, bring on persecution from those who know not the Christ and hate the things of God.  The world hates Jesus!  If you are following Him and witnessing for Him, persecution in many different forms should not only be expected, but welcomed. 

Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.  (Romans 5:3-5)

I remember hearing Dr. R. C. Sproul discuss Jesus’ words in Matthew’s gospel during a seminary class: “If you are not being persecuted for following Jesus by the watching world,” Dr. Sproul told us, “you might want to take a look at just how closely you are following Jesus.”  For those who are being persecuted for righteousness sake, understand that rejection is the natural response of those who have rejected Jesus; slander is the natural response of those who have slandered Jesus; reviling is the natural response of those who have reviled Jesus; false accusation is the natural response of those who have falsely accused Jesus.  If we are standing up for the Kingdom of God, the kingdom of this world will be standing up against us.

There are those who will do just about anything to avoid any kind of persecution.  They won’t even tell a neighbor about Jesus, for fear of rejection or being removed from the invitation list to social events.  But make no mistake; there is a special blessing that can only be found on the other side of persecution for righteousness sake.  The first blessing is to be identified with the suffering Servant and the kind of character that produces in us.  The incomparable Charles Spurgeon wrote, “Afflictions are often the black foils in which God doth set the jewels of His children’s graces, to make them shine the better.” The second blessing—our great reward in heaven—will be found on the other side of the grave.

Crazy . . . but true!

This is the Gospel.  This is grace for your race.  NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!

Sometimes we get so focused on our intended destinations in life, we forget who we are supposed to be following.  We set personal goals . . . professional goals . . . family goals.  Goal setting is not only good, it’s completely biblical!  Throughout Scripture we read of individuals who planned for the future, set goals, and worked toward accomplishing them—including Jesus. 

The key for the committed Christian is to set goals with God in view and to follow God with the goals in view.  Proverbs refers to the one who is not setting goals as a “sluggard” who cares not for the future.  In fact, this sluggard is instructed to pay close attention to the ant, which “prepares her food in the summer, and gathers her provision in the harvest” (Proverbs 6:8).  Goal setting is a good thing . . . just as long as we keep in view the One we are to be following.

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.  (James 4:13-17)

Surrendering to God and submitting to His will is the foundation upon which to set all of our goals, regardless of the area in life.  When we are following God, we can rest assured that we will get to the place He wants us to get to and in the best way possible.  That doesn’t necessarily mean the shortest way, or the easiest way, or the safest way!  God took the Israelites the long way, the tough way, and the risky way through the desert in order to bring them into the Promised Land.  And God knew exactly what He was doing the entire time.

When it comes to goal setting and making plans, we must remember that it is God who has the final say in the matter.  Peter learned this lesson well and often.  After a full night of fishing without catching any fish, it was time to clean the nets and go home.  At least, that was the goal Peter set.  Jesus had other plans, and He told the disciples to go out into the deep water and let down their nets (Luke 5:4).  You know the rest of the story: practically every fish in the lake swam straight into their nets!

After Jesus told His disciples that He was going to die for them, Peter rebuked Him (Matthew 16:22) with what he thought was a better plan for Jesus to accomplish his earthly mission.  Once again, Jesus got the last word and showed Peter and the whole world that God’s plans are always better than our plans.

And in Matthew 26 we find Peter saying to Jesus that “Even if I must die with you, I will not deny you.”  And yet Peter did just that—not once, but three times, just moments later.  Jesus, of course, had the last word when He told Peter that He had prayed for him, and that when Peter turned back to Jesus he was to feed His sheep—stronger and more prepared for the work of the Lord than he was before he denied Him.  

So what plans have you made?  What goals are you going after in life?  What have you resolved to do and not to do?  Remember: it’s not where you are going, but who you are following!  And when you are following God, you are sure to get to His intended destination.  It may not make sense to you, and it may be a whole lot harder than you thought it would be, but you can be assured that “He who began a good work in you will complete it” (Philippians 1:6), regardless of the cost or circumstance. 

This is the Gospel.  This is grace for your race.  NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!