01 Mar Are Christians allowed to set goals for success?

By: Ferdinand Haratua

“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on.”

Matthew 6:25

“The heart of man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps.”

Proverbs 16:9

Should Christians then, plan and set goals for success? The short answer is yes. The long answer is yes, but we must also ask the question, “Why do we want to achieve this goal and success?”

Yes, but we must also ask the question,

“Why do we want to achieve this goal and success?”

The mistake of many believers is we think that after we are born again we could have the same goal in life, only now we have Jesus to help us get there. If before we knew Jesus we wanted to be rich by our own strength and hard work, now we still want to be rich, but the difference is in how we are going to get it. We use Jesus as a tool to get what we want.

The Bible says,

 “do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.”

1 John 2:15-17

When we are born again, the reason behind all that we do is changed. To be born-again means we have exchanged our joy in self with Jesus; He is now the centre and the reason for all our desires. We all must find the reason behind our desires. Hopefully what we find as the ultimate reason behind everything we desires and do is for the glory of God alone.

Therefore, by all means, plan and set goals but make sure in everything we do, we do all for the glory of God.

“So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.”

1 Corinthians 10:31