Goals Part Four: Relationship With God

As we come to the fourth goal, if you recall I had four areas that I wanted to begin to make goals for  in  life, these four areas were chosen because I felt that these were the four most important parts of my life.  For you these may not be, but I would encourage you to think about it and try to come up with four areas’ you think are important and begin setting goals and keeping track of them.  As I was saying this fourth one I took a long hard look at how I could make goals for it, how does one measure their relationship with God?  I pondered this and prayed about it, I realized that my relationship with God trickles down to every aspect of my life.  I was thinking about this as we began to study Charles Spurgeon’s book, The Power Of Prayer In A Believer’s Life.  I bring this up because as I was reading the book Spurgeon talks about  John 15:1-17, This piece of scripture talks about how Christ is the vine and we are branches.  I have read, listened to, even preached on this verse who knows how many times.  But as I read it here and as Spurgeon talked about it, it took on a whole new outlook for me.  I think it was when I read this part, “take care that you abide in Christ when you are being pruned.  A brother says ‘since I became a Christian, I have had more troubles than ever.  Men ridicule me, the devil tempts me, and my business affairs have gone wrong.’”  As I thought about this it struck me that we are always being pruned, we are always growing and as we grow we must be careful.  Careful to protect our faith, to abide in Christ, what does it look like if we are abiding in Christ?  John 15:5 Christ says; “Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.”  Notice the part where he says “apart from me you can do nothing?”  That is an important part right there it says a lot.  If we are going to abide in Christ that means that we are always growing in Christ. When we stop growing then we have allowed ourselves to be separated from Him.  He is the vine, it is through Him we are nourished, and through His love that we grow to love others we once hated. Through His forgiveness that we are able to forgive those who wronged us.

What does all this have to with goals?  A lot, as I thought and pondered on this piece of scripture I realized that I need to make it my goal to truly abide in Christ, to focus on His words, on the bible, and prayer.  To allow myself to take off my self-pride, self-justice, stop doing things to make me look better.  The thing about when we realize that Christ is the vine we realize that we are able to gain so much more if we allow Him to guide and direct our lives. When we realize that we are the branches we allow God to begin to prune and cut away at the things that need cut out of our lives.  It can be a painful process and I am sure at times it will be but my goal is to allow Christ to become vine and for me to be the branch.  

Are We Supposed To Look For Happiness In Life

Over the weekend I went to a wedding, it was like most wedding I have attended or had the pleasure to be a part of, beautiful.  It was a joyful occasion and as always the bride was beaming with happiness.  As I listened the toast and words of wisdom handed out, I couldn’t help but notice how many times it was mentioned that they made each other happy, don’t worry I am not about to say how that is a bad thing.  I’m glad to hear that they make each other happy, but it made me think about being happy is that something we should strive for in life.  I have always come under fire for my thoughts on being happy I’m just going to put that out there so you understand I may say something you disagree with and I am ok with that.  I have never been of the belief that being happy is all that important, I have moments in life where I am happy, I have moments where I am not happy.  But I have never felt that I need to go out of my way to be happy.  I have found that the statement “do whatever makes you happy” somewhat of a dangers statement to make to someone.  We don’t really know what makes someone happy, maybe its sitting on the couch watching football, or maybe it going out to a fight club, if that is the case they can’t tell you.  We all know that the first rule of fight is you can’t talk about it. 

I have always thought of being happy more of an emotion more than anything it is a set of circumstances that makes one happy.   The problem is people want to be happy all the time, this is unrealistic it just isn’t going to happen.  Some will say doesn’t God want you to be happy? I could answer this with a simple yes or no but that would not do either of us any good.  Let’s think about this for just a second, we live in a broken world.  What I mean by broken is that we live in a world that was created without sin and then sin was brought into this world and broke it.  Because of sin we have murder, lies, hurtful words, death, you get the picture.  The question of if God wants us to be happy is not important for us in the world we live in.  Why? Because in a broken world their only fleeting moments of happiness, but we can find joy in God’s word.  In John 15:9-12 we read; “I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love. When you obey me, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father and remain in his love. I have told you this so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow! I command you to love each other in the same way that I love you.”  You may be saying wait a second isn’t joy and happiness the same thing?  No they are not, have you ever said to someone “you have no idea how joy I am to see you”?   No because joy is not happy you cannot replace the one for the other. 

I believe that we need to strive for joy in our lives not happiness, again I have nothing against being happy.  But joy is something that is stronger the happiness, with joy comes hope.   Joy is much deeper than circumstances, it stays with us during the tough times and the happy times.  If we are to live our lives here on earth, which we are, we don’t have choice, then we are never going to really find happiness, but we are going to be able to find joy that is deep and pierces our hearts.  As I said in the beginning you may not agree with me on this and that is okay with me.  I don’t always agree with everything I read, but I hope that this is challenging you in how you think about happiness and joy. 

Are We Supposed To Look For Happiness In Life

Over the weekend I went to a wedding, it was like most wedding I have attended or had the pleasure to be a part of, beautiful.  It was a joyful occasion and as always the bride was beaming with happiness.  As I listened the toast and words of wisdom handed out, I couldn’t help but notice how many times it was mentioned that they made each other happy, don’t worry I am not about to say how that is a bad thing.  I’m glad to hear that they make each other happy, but it made me think about being happy is that something we should strive for in life.  I have always come under fire for my thoughts on being happy I’m just going to put that out there so you understand I may say something you disagree with and I am ok with that.  I have never been of the belief that being happy is all that important, I have moments in life where I am happy, I have moments where I am not happy.  But I have never felt that I need to go out of my way to be happy.  I have found that the statement “do whatever makes you happy” somewhat of a dangers statement to make to someone.  We don’t really know what makes someone happy, maybe its sitting on the couch watching football, or maybe it going out to a fight club, if that is the case they can’t tell you.  We all know that the first rule of fight is you can’t talk about it. 

I have always thought of being happy more of an emotion more than anything it is a set of circumstances that makes one happy.   The problem is people want to be happy all the time, this is unrealistic it just isn’t going to happen.  Some will say doesn’t God want you to be happy? I could answer this with a simple yes or no but that would not do either of us any good.  Let’s think about this for just a second, we live in a broken world.  What I mean by broken is that we live in a world that was created without sin and then sin was brought into this world and broke it.  Because of sin we have murder, lies, hurtful words, death, you get the picture.  The question of if God wants us to be happy is not important for us in the world we live in.  Why? Because in a broken world their only fleeting moments of happiness, but we can find joy in God’s word.  In John 15:9-12 we read; “I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love. When you obey me, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father and remain in his love. I have told you this so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow! I command you to love each other in the same way that I love you.”  You may be saying wait a second isn’t joy and happiness the same thing?  No they are not, have you ever said to someone “you have no idea how joy I am to see you”?   No because joy is not happy you cannot replace the one for the other. 

I believe that we need to strive for joy in our lives not happiness, again I have nothing against being happy.  But joy is something that is stronger the happiness, with joy comes hope.   Joy is much deeper than circumstances, it stays with us during the tough times and the happy times.  If we are to live our lives here on earth, which we are, we don’t have choice, then we are never going to really find happiness, but we are going to be able to find joy that is deep and pierces our hearts.  As I said in the beginning you may not agree with me on this and that is okay with me.  I don’t always agree with everything I read, but I hope that this is challenging you in how you think about happiness and joy. 

Goals Part Three: Job

As we continue in our discussions of Goals and I have used the four areas I felt a need to set up goals in my life.  Of course the four areas I set up may not necessarily be the same four areas you feel you need you need for your life.   The third area I feel is important is my Job or in my case jobs as I have two.  I feel it is important for those who follow God to work hard for whoever they work for.  One of the best things for us, not just as people but as the church, to do is to bring a good light on us is to work hard, and show respect to our co-workers and bosses.  Peter tells us this in 1^st Peter 2:18-25; “You who are slaves must accept the authority of your masters. Do whatever they tell you—not only if they are kind and reasonable, but even if they are harsh.  For God is pleased with you when, for the sake of your conscience, you patiently endure unfair treatment. Of course, you get no credit for being patient if you are beaten for doing wrong. But if you suffer for doing right and are patient beneath the blows, God is pleased with you.  This suffering is all part of what God has called you to. Christ, who suffered for you, is your example. Follow in his steps. He never sinned, and he never deceived anyone. He did not retaliate when he was insulted. When he suffered, he did not threaten to get even. He left his case in the hands of God, who always judges fairly. He personally carried away our sins in his own body on the cross so we can be dead to sin and live for what is right. You have been healed by his wounds! Once you were wandering like lost sheep. But now you have turned to your Shepherd, the Guardian of your souls.”  Replace slave with employee and master with employer and we see how this piece of scripture talks more directly to us than we thought it might. 

Peter encourages the people of God to work hard and bring glory to God through their work.  We must work to bring glory, not to us but to God.  So I have sat down and thought about this, what can I do to be a better worker.  I could go into detail and tell you what my plans are for my goals but instead I am going to talk about the importance of working hard and trying not to worry about what others do or get away with.  I realize that in every work place it is easy to look at what others are doing or not doing.  Saying hey way do they get away with that.  Yet I have learned that by doing this it doesn’t help us grow as a worker or as a person.  If we focus on our work and job at hand and worry about whether or not, we are truly working to our full potential we are going to improve ourselves.  Every so often I realize that I have begun to worry about what others are not doing and when that happens I never work to my full potential.  I come to realize that best place to be an example of Christ is at work, that I represent more than myself.  I represent Christ and His Church, I have to make sure that I am doing what I need to be doing at my job.  I should not be slacking or taking short cuts. I need to be working hard and when asked why I work so hard my answer should to bring glory to God. 

As I’m writing this I feel that there are many areas in which I can improve on in both my Jobs, I plan to do just that.  I plan to work hard, try my best to encourage others around me.  I want to be as Christ like as possible at work.  I understand work can be stressful and people don’t always do what we think they should. I realize that people get promoted by taking credit for work they didn’t do, but at the end of it all we must realize that we live in a broken world.  In this broken world we are going to come across all kinds of work problems and how we handle these problems are what is going to define us.  Are we going to be defined as, patient, kind, hardworking, encouragers, able to endure through tough times?  Or are we going to be, complainers, judgmental, and lazy?  We have choices in life, we can choose to work hard and bring glory to God, or we can choose to compare ourselves to others and just do enough.  Which will you choose?