I’ve never been a big goal setter. Some might say, “Well, there’s your problem, Dana,” and they might have a point. But if I were put on the spot and forced to give one goal, I would have an answer.
My reply would come from three sources: the Old Testament prophet Jeremiah, the apostle Paul, and Jesus Christ the Messiah. Jeremiah’s words actually come from God, who knows well the way we typically think. “This is what the Lord says: ‘Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength or the rich man boast of his riches, but let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness, justice, and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight,’ declares the Lord.” (Jeremiah 9:23-24)
When Paul prayed for the believers in Ephesus — men and women who had put their faith in Jesus and received the Holy Spirit — he said: “I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know Him better.” (Ephesians 1:17) And when Jesus prayed for all His disciples, He defined eternal life: “Now this is eternal life: that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent.” (John 17:3)
“To know God.” “To know Him better.” “To know Christ.” Are there any better goals?
“I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 3:10-14