When It Comes to Your Goals, Be Specific
By Rick Warren
“Swear by the LORD, the God of heaven and earth, that you will not allow my son to marry one of these local Canaanite women. Go instead to my homeland, to my relatives, and find a wife there for my son Isaac.” Genesis 24:3-4 (NLT)
Eleazar’s example is a roadmap for how to succeed in reaching your goals.
In Genesis 24, you can find nine steps to success in the story of Abraham, Isaac, Eleazar, and Rebekah. In the last devotional, we looked at the first of those steps: Determine your present position.
The second step in getting where you want to be is to describe exactly what you want.
Vague goals are never accomplished. When you are specific, you figure out not only what you want but also what you don’t want.
Abraham was very specific in the task he set before Eleazar. Genesis 24:3-4 says, “Swear by the LORD, the God of heaven and earth, that you will not allow my son to marry one of these local Canaanite women. Go instead to my homeland, to my relatives, and find a wife there for my son Isaac” (NLT).
Do you have a dream for your life? Ask yourself: What do I want to be or do or have? Why do I want it?
Don’t ask how. We’re always so concerned about the how. How am I going to do it? How am I going to pay for it? How am I going to find the time?
In life, never confuse the decision-making phase with the problem-solving phase. Most people try to solve all the problems before they set their goal. Bad idea. If you try to solve every problem first, you’ll never move forward.
God says you need to ask why first, not how.
Knowing what is not enough. You can set all kinds of goals, but if you don’t know the why, you’re never going to achieve them. The why keeps you from giving up when times get tough. It’s when you know the why that God shows you how.
During my time as pastor of Saddleback Church, we set enormous goals for our church in every decade. And every time we set those goals, we had no idea how we were going to accomplish them. But that was okay, because God showed us how as we moved forward, once we knew why we were doing it. And he was always faithful to help us succeed.
Ask God to help you clarify what you want to be or do or have in life. Then take the time to figure out why you want it. And be specific.
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This devotional © 2018 by Rick Warren. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
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