Introduction
Are you unfocused, unmotivated, or lost in life? Maybe your frustrated that your work is not producing results you care about. I’ve been there, we all have. As we head into the new year we once again set up new years resolutions, simultaneously aspiring us to greater heights and repenting of our previous shortcomings. We are finite people, we all fail and we all miss the mark that God has spoken into our lives.
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God
– Romans 3:23 (NIV)
The new question is what we can do about it? what does the bible say when we fall short? The first step is to aim again.
12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
– Philippians 3: 12- 14 (NIV)
Aim True
Aim simply directs your focus. this is crucial to everything we do and ever have a hope of doing. If you don’t have aim, you don’t have focus. without focus you will fall short of everything God has planned for you. Then you will focus on nothing, or worse everything. Sin is nothing more than unsingle-mindedness and not keeping your focus on God.
Aiming is simply setting a goal. At the mention of a goal, I’m sure most of you recoiled in horror and pain and I can’t blame you for that. Setting a goal is painful. If we don’t have a goal we can simply wander aimlessly and avoid the feeling of failure. If we set a goal we also define the criteria for failure. So living without a goal is infinitely easier. It’s a lie, if you fail to aim at a goal you will fail all the time, you just wont know it, until it’s too late.
Amotivation and failing could both be caused by misplaced focus. If you don’t aim at the right target you will miss every shot you take. If you aim at to many targets, you will struggle to hit even one of them. Maybe your afraid to take aim at any target, because you could miss. That only leads you to never hit any targets.
Aim High
Now that we know we need goals and we need aim, what do we aim at? Let me give you a picture, if you lived the next year following God’s plan for your life. If you were single minded and completely focused on being the best version of yourself that you could be. If you pour all your energy into achieving the results that would matter in your life. What would your limitations be? Nothing!
So why do we live that way? We set small goals and we limit ourselves as a result. We can’t grow and be better when we set small goals, because we hit the imaginary ceiling we ourselves created. That’s why our goal and aim should be heavenward. If we aim at God, we could live our whole lives without hitting a ceiling. We need to dream big, because our God is big. Take hold of the promised land!
“I bargained with Life for a penny,
And Life would pay no more,
However I begged at evening
When I counted my scanty store.
For Life is a just employer,
He gives you what you ask,
But once you have set the wages,
Why, you must bear the task.
I worked for a menial’s hire,
Only to learn, dismayed,
That any wage I had asked of Life,
Life would have willingly paid.”
– Jessie B. Rittenhouse
Where To Begin
Dream big and aim high is by definition lofty goals. How in the world can we apply that practically day to day? Your aim is heavenward, but saying that todays focus is to jump all the way to heaven is as unmotivating as it is impossible!
He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.
– Genesis 28:12 (NIV)
This verse stets up the theological concept we call: Jacob’s ladder. Imagine a ladder leading up to heaven. That is our ultimate goal and should be our greatest focus. But, we don’t have to jump heavenward in a single bound, we start with taking the first step on the ladder.
For great is your love, reaching to the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the skies.
– Psalms 57:10 (NIV)
The potential God has given you is infinite, but you need to break it down into smaller steps and focus on taking the first one. Every day ask yourself, what step could I take today to reach for heaven? What focus will bring the biggest results that matter to me and to God? What is the one thing that would make attaining your dream easier? Focus on the one thing today, and reach for it with everything you have in you. And when you reach for heaven, heaven reaches back.
You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.
– Jeremiah 29:13 (NIV)
Conclusion (The Joy in The Journey)
Everyday, focus on one thing. The most important thing. Climbing on that step everyday, will give you endless motivation and single-minded focus. The sense of fulfillment in attaining your life’s purpose. However, don’t get to comfortable standing on a single step. Each step on a ladder is just suppose to steady you for long enough to reach the next step. Plan the goals you want. For your life, the next year, today. Ask and you shall receive. Aim high and then, even when you miss, you course will be heavenward.
No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.
– Hebrews 12:11 (NIV)
John
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