If you want God to use you in great ways this year, you’ll need focus. The more focused you are in 2016, the more effective you’ll be — and the more God will use you.
There’s awesome power in a focused life. Diffused light doesn’t have much of an effect on what it touches. But when you focus light — like the sun’s light through a magnifying glass — you can light a piece of paper or grass on fire. If you can focus it even more, it becomes a laser. A laser can cut through steel and destroy cancer.
The same is true with your life. If your 2016 is directionless, you’ll just drift through without impacting much. But if you focus your year on a few key goals, then you can make a powerful impact on the world for God.
The Bible says, “Good planning and hard work lead to prosperity, but hasty shortcuts lead to poverty” (Proverbs 21:5 NLT, second edition).
One of the great examples of focus in the Bible is the story in Genesis 24. Abraham was getting old, and his son still hadn’t married. God had promised Abraham that through his own family he would create a great nation through Abraham, which God did. But Abraham’s son, Isaac, still didn’t have any kids. He wasn’t even married yet. So Abraham gave his servant, Eliazar, a goal of finding a wife for his son. Abraham told his servant, “Don’t get a wife from the Canaanite girls who live around here. Go back to my country, to the land of my relatives, and there get a wife for my son Isaac.”
Like all good goals, Eliazar’s was clear. He knew he needed to find Isaac a wife, and he knew exactly what kind of wife to look for. He needed to find a wife from Abraham’s homeland. You’ll never reach a vague goal because you’ll never know if you’ve completed it. Eliazar didn’t have that problem.
For example, if your goal for 2016 is to be a better parent, that’s vague. Even if you make the goal to spend more time with your children this year, you’ll never really know if you’ve completed the goal.
But if you commit to spending an hour every Tuesday evening with your children, that’s specific. You’ll know whether or not you’ve completed it. Those kinds of goals can change your life.
So what specific goal will you set for yourself in 2016?
Talk It Over
How do specific goals empower you to complete them?
What specific goals do you want to set for yourself?
With whom can you share your goals for encouragement and accountability?
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