Setting Your Goals in 2025
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Do you have goals?
New Year’s is a time when many set goals for themselves. Sadly, 80% of people who set New Year’s resolutions will break those resolutions within the first 10 days of the new year.
Why do you think so many fail in their resolutions?
The truth is that they fail for two primary reasons:
- The goals are unachievable.
- They believe they can accomplish the goal on their own.
Many set very lofty goals. They will lose 50 pounds. They will work out at the gym for two hours every day. They will never consume sugar again. These are unrealistic goals that set the standard so high that there is no way that the goal will be achieved.
The other reason for failing is that a person expects that he or she will be able to accomplish the goal without any help. A person who expects to go to the gym and work out every day will need a workout partner to keep them motivated. That person will likely need many workout partners.
A person who wants to eat better will need the help of his or her spouse or other significant other. That is a tough goal to accomplish on your own.
Our God to the Rescue!
There is no doubt that your goals will fail if you do not consider these two pitfalls. You need to set reasonable, attainable goals, and you need the help of others.
Fortunately, Christians are blessed with the greatest help of all – God. God wants to assist you in accomplishing goals that will lead you to a better place in life.
There are some catches to this, however. The first is that your goal should be in alignment with what God wants for you in life. He wants you to be holy and to live a life that honors Him. So, your goals should be in alignment with that. It is perfectly acceptable to want to lose weight and be in better shape. A person who is healthier will live longer and be able to minister and represent God well.
However, if your reason for getting into shape is solely to attract more women so that you can have more sexual partners, God is not going to assist you. Your goals need to be aligned with what honors Him.
Psalm 37:4 tells us, “Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.” If you are delighting yourself in God’s ways and seeking after His righteousness, he is going to help you attain your goals. Those kinds of goals bring glory to God, and He wants to see you successful in attaining them.
Your goal should also be to not harm or injure others. Some have struggled with being bullied or picked on, so they set a goal of becoming massive in size so they can beat up any person who ever challenges them again. This is not a good goal either. It does not glorify God.
Goals Should Be Focused
Besides being God-oriented, your goals should also be focused. We have discussed this in previous lessons, but it is important to reiterate the idea. You should not set goals such as to be more patient, happier, courageous, self-disciplined, or wise. These sound like lofty goals, but they have no real meaning.
You want to set goals that are specific. If you want to be more patient, what is the situation where you need more patience? A good prayer could be something like, “Lord, Randy is really challenging my patience by constantly making statements he knows will upset me. I don’t want to be upset at Randy. Please give me patience to be able to understand that he is growing in his faith and needs my brotherly love to help him through this time.” This kind of prayer clearly defines exactly what you need God to do.
There are many benefits to this kind of prayer, but the most important of these is that it gives you an attainable goal and you will be able to see exactly how God moves. If I am just praying for patience, it is unlikely that I will see how God is moving. However, when I use a prayer like the one above, I can clearly see how God has assisted me in attaining that goal.
What Do You Want for Yourself?
Now that 2025 has begun, it is time to start considering the goals that you want for yourself. What are you looking for God to do?
We will talk about specific goals in a moment, but it is important to stress the point that you have learned previously. There is nothing wrong with asking God for things you want. For example, asking God for a job that pays $40,000 a year, that enables you to use your skills, and provides you with coworkers who could be your friends is perfectly acceptable. God wants good things for you as well.
So, do not feel like your goals only need to be centered on building a stronger relationship with Jesus. You should have goals like that. However, it is perfectly acceptable to have personal goals that you wish to attain as well.
Maybe you want to lose 35 pounds so you could feel better about how you look. Maybe you want to find the right woman in your life. Maybe your goal is to make more money this year. All of those are perfectly acceptable goals.
Your goals should be something you want to attain. That may seem obvious, but many religious people make it seem like it is a sin to ask for something you want. God wants you to have good things as well.
In Luke 11:10-13, Jesus is describing how God wants to bless you:
10 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. 11 What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; 12 or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 13 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
God wants to provide for your every need. He is a Father who wants to do good things for you and who wants to give you good “gifts.” So, it is perfectly acceptable to seek things that you really want for yourself and your family.
Let’s Set Some Goals for 2025
Many of you have never really set goals for yourself. You did not see a future for yourself, so you simply did not set goals. When you take that attitude, you are truly a rudderless ship, tossed about in all directions.
Truth be told, you already set goals when you take that kind of attitude. Sadly, your goals become nothing more than to last one more day. They are goals of desperation, which will lead to despair. They deprive you of hope.
This year, it is important that you start things off right. Set some goals that you want to attain and start to pray for them now. Like, right now!
What are goals you have for your relationship with God?
What are goals you have for your personal success?
What kind of man do you wish to be in 2025?
What are areas in your thoughts that you would like to see changed? What kind of self-talk would you like to see happen?
How would you like to feel about yourself this year?
What would you like others to be saying about you?
Bible Passages for the Week:
Monday – Habakkuk 2:2-3
Tuesday – Jeremiah 29:11
Wednesday – Philippians 4:8
Thursday – Matthew 6:33
Friday – Proverbs 19:21
Saturday – Pick a passage from Scripture that teaches you about setting goals.
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© 2025 Dr. Robert Pannier, Hope CDA, All Rights Reserved
