Does setting goals preclude the providence of God?
Discussion question for January 15, 2010.
We have talked about the importance of following God’s plan and will. How much effort should we expend on making intentional plans for the future? How can you walk in the balance between scripting your life and following God’s script for your life? What determines your appropriate response to circumstances of either faith or surrender?
Here’s my summary of our discussion.
Of course setting goals does not overcome the providence of God. He is sovereign. But He does invite us to “ask, seek, and knock” which indicates that we take an active role in planning for our future. According to James 4, He gives good gifts when we ask with right motives. Also, Psalm 37:4-5 promises that if we commit our way to Him and trust in Him that He will give us the desires of our heart.
In goal setting I articulate my desires and hopes for the future. There is risk if those desires are at cross purposes with what God has in mind. I can trust that His good gifts always lead to closer relationship between myself and Him. If my goals are set on a worldly standard, then I could become disappointed. That disappointment can lead to dissatisfaction, first with my circumstances and then perhaps with God.
God cares about me and Him in the present tense. When my attention is focused there I am abiding with Him. He takes care of the past and future because the results of life are His realm.
Setting goals can be risky if I let myself stand as judge or (worse) allow the accuser to interpret the results. Failure. Lack. Unfulfilled. Harsh criticism can come from setting a goal and not achieving it – faith shaking stuff. But to ignore goal setting puts me on the path of the inert fool of Proverbs that won’t go out because “a lion may be in the street.”
The positive side of goal setting is that it articulates my deepest desires and changes who I see myself as. Setting a goal and acting to make it happen demonstrates who I am. If I am abiding, then any goal I set that is at cross purposes with God will quickly reveal itself as such. I can change – they’re written in pencil. This abiding helps me in the struggle outlined in Luke 16 – I can not serve both God and mammon. In other words, to the extent that my standards for judging success and failure are based on the world’s physical realm I am serving mammon. When I see things from God’s perspective, then I see Romans 8:28 in real life working all things out for good.