Are You Ready to Know How To Follow God’s Plan to Crush Your Goals This Year?

Are you ready to crush your goals but do it in God’s way? If you answered YES then welcome to the club. As a Christian, I used to believe that by pursuing my goals, I would counteract God’s plan and what He might have for me. It’s not true! Scripture encourages us to follow and chase, pursue and focus on our goals to achieve success.  The key isn’t the success, the key is Who gets credit and what success makes us into.

Consider these passages from the Bible:

Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” 

1 Chronicles 4:10 “Jabez cried out to the God of Israel, ‘Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my territory! Let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain.’ And God granted his request.”

The Promise of God

In Jeremiah, God tells us there is a wonderful and amazing plan. Where did God plant this plan? In our heart! It will come from a combination of our gifts, experiences, dreams, and opportunities. God has given us the desire to succeed and manifest His work, His advance of the kingdom in this world.

The question is, “How do I find God’s plan?”

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Are You Ready to discover what God can do through and in you? Crush your goals with these strategies:

1. Answer this: what is your passion? What makes you talk fast, or stay up at night or lose yourself in research or conversation? This passion holds the dreams which God has planted. Step one is to follow your passion, even when it doesn’t make sense.
   
2. Are you pushing it away? Is there something niggling in the back of your mind you’re trying to avoid? Bring it to the forefront. Look at it clearly and soberly. There may be something God is calling you towards in contrast to what your natural will desires. Be brave and look at it.
   
3. The “What then?” question. Ask yourself, “Once I achieve this goal, what then would I want?” Keep asking “what then” over and over until you discover the fuzzy dreams buried inside.
   

Are You Ready to Trust in God’s Promise?

Usually, for me, God’s plans don’t come in a download all at once, they are like a magnet, pulling me towards it. I wonder if I saw a whole chapter if I wouldn’t get scared and stop moving. There are usually plotlines I only understand when I look back instead of ahead. God doesn’t seem to write with straight lines. The path may meander about, especially when I interject my own will. God then re-writes the path and we’re off again.

The key is trusting God has everything in hand.  

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The Prayer of Jabez

Once we know the direction, even if it’s only the first step or two, it’s time to let God know we’re ready. Your will is my will, Lord. 

Consider these ideas found in the story of Jabez:

1. Jabez asked God to “bless me and enlarge my territory.”  We can ask God to:
   
   • Bless us with the wisdom, knowledge, and resources needed to accomplish His plan.
     
   • Bless our business/project/dream, so it expands according and to the extent it is God’s will.
     
2. Then Jabez requested, “Let your hand be with me…”
   
   • We can ask God to guide, direct, and inspire us, telling Him we’ll listen to Him through prayer.
     
3. Lastly, Jabez asked, “… keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain.”
   
   • We can ask for God’s protection in every area of life and implied in this request is a promise, our actions will be according to His word.
     

When we walk in the center of God’s plan and His will, there is peace. This peace promises if things are going better than we imagined, or not at all how we hoped, God is and will always be with us. This is the spiritual confidence needed to press on and crush your goals this year!