God Sized Goals

By Jack Broomell
One of the exciting things that happened for me this week was youth started back up! Granted it was an online meeting, it was still great to start getting back into the swing of things. It will always be refreshing to see how eager many of them are to learn about their faith and how to apply it to their lives. In the theme of New Year we started to talk about goals and what their expectations for their future might be. I really enjoyed the lesson and it is easy to apply to myself, instead of goals of grades or college it can be about career and health. Yet these are only the baseline goals, the simple ones we all think of for New Years. I wanted to go deeper and ask the question: how is God setting goals for us?
I leaned into the Old Testament for this and looked at Nehemiah 1:1-2:5. The background of this is that 140 years before this, Jerusalem was conquered and they destroyed the city. So the only thing Nehemiah has ever known is Jerusalem being in destruction and the walls being torn down. Yet how he responds and starts this goal in three steps is something we all can apply to our lives.

• His goal began with difficulty. Nehemiah didn’t set this goal because he felt social pressure to or he needed to come up with something just to have a New Year’s resolution. He set it because he saw a problem that needed to be solved and maybe he could help. When he identified the problem, he grieved and wept, this wasn’t a hobby for him. It was something that came with a deep burden
• His goal began with prayer. When he wept about Jerusalem, he also fasted and prayed. He knew that this goal was not something he was able to do alone, he realized that this was bigger than himself. Before he made a single move, he prayed and asked for wisdom, guidance and help. Then he continued his prayer for months.
• His goal began with God’s help. Nehemiah then stood up from his prayer and fasting determined to attempt a series of tasks that he could not do alone. He knew his own wisdom and experience was not going to be enough to guarantee success. The size of this goal forced him to put all of his faith in God.

So as we set any goals in our life, let us mirror the example that Nehemiah set before us. What are the goals we have been making? Are they selfish? Do they get us anywhere? Are we trying to improve the lives around us? We all agree that this world needs to hear God’s Word and know His love, but how can we set goals to do that if we are investing in just ourselves? Let us start our goals with difficulty and heartache, lets us start them with prayer, and let us always start them with turning to God to lead the way and use us how he sees fit.