Goal setting is something we often hear in our lives. From health goals to career goals, fitness goals and personal development. While goal setting is important, I believe it’s even more important that we ensure we are keeping God at the center of all we do including our goals.

When setting new goals, it’s important to ensure we are bringing ourselves back to God. No goal can be truly complete without God in our plans. In fact, none of our plans are truly ours. So going into a new month and closing out the 3rd quarter of 2022, I want to share how you can create faith-fueled goals.

1. Seek God Above All Else – First and foremost, we should put God at the center of all we plan and do. When setting goals, think about how your goals start with God or why God would want you to achieve this goal. Pray and ask Him to show you the goals He wants you to set.  Too often, we make our own goals and ask God to bless them rather than asking Him to give us clarity on the goals He has for us.  It’s also important to ask God to block any goal that is not aligned with His will for your life. Matthew 6:33 “Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don’t worry about missing out. You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met.”

2. Ask God For Help – We aren’t meant to stumble through life or tackle it on our own. Strength is mentioned 360 times in the Bible and for good reason. No matter how strong we think we are the reality is we need God because our flesh is weak and it’s easy to get caught up in worldly agendas and messages. The strength we have is not our own, it ultimately comes from God. Go to Him in prayer and ask Him to guide your path and help you stay committed to your goals.

Matthew 19:26 “But Jesus looked at them and said to them, ‘With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

3. Put In The Work – Yes we are called to rely on God and seek His help but we also must be willing to put in the work. Many Christians fall into the trap of inactivity. Many ask God for help and then sit around waiting for God to deliver the results. If you are praying for God to help you lose weight but aren’t taking an active role in eating healthier and exercising it’s highly unlikely you will wake up one morning with a transformed body. Asking God for help doesn’t remove our responsibility. Proverbs 14:23 “Hard work always pays off; mere talk puts no bread on the table.”

4. Be Diligent About Your Goal Setting – If we want abundance we have to be diligent. Diligence means having or showing care in one’s work or duties. Don’t be too hasty or quick to set your goals and intentions. Take your time to think and pray about how God can use you to make an impact.

Proverbs 21:5 The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance, but everyone who is hasty comes only to poverty.

5. Transform and Renew Your Mindset – This is where I believe most struggle and fail at reaching their goals. For example, choosing progress over perfection, viewing food as nourishment instead of hopping around from one fad diet to the next, celebrating what our bodies can do vs. what it can’t, seeing a healthier lifestyle as a lifelong commitment and not false expectations of immediate gratification. Romans 12:2 “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.”

I pray you will think deeply on this and these scriptures so you can not only set goals God’s way but also achieve them!