What is Your Goal in Life?

Yesterday I translated for a new church, and the pastor asked a very interesting question. He said that many Christians just live their life with no direction, no goals, and no plans. As a result they are no effective in their walk with Jesus. Only rare souls are reached, very few are discipled, and so on. I really thought a lot about that, because even in ministry there are many missionaries who don't really have a goal. They have the right hearts. They want to preach the Gospel and be on fire for our King, but if you really ask them what it is what they want to do there are very few straight answers.

Most missionaries in my generation are like I once was, wandering from one country to the next for a few months without ever really settling down to touch a single nation. If you ask most missionaries what they are called to, the answer you will get quite often is, "I am called to the nations!" Which sounds rather epic, but the problem is that unless their ministry is to be evangelists or apostles they are most likely wandering with no real purpose. That may sound harsh, but that was my life and ministry for my first years of ministry. It took harsh words for the Holy Spirit and more experienced missionaries to finally convince me that being "Called to the nations" was not this heroic and special, epic calling, but it was in fact just a testament that I actually had no idea what I was doing and had no real purpose.

I am grateful to the Lord that he showed me these things, and I hope that younger missionaries will take these words without offense. However if one were to be completely honest, the only reason we once wandered from one place to the other was because we really didn't know what we were supposed to be doing in the first place.

Without vision, we perish, and so those of us without one often fill ourselves with smaller visions that fulfill temporarily. This keeps us going, but it is a grave and ineffective mistake.

So grab hold of a vision for your life, stay away from small temporary things that have no real effect on anything. Paul said in Hebrews 12:1 "let us lay aside every weight..." a lack of vision is a large weight to carry, it weights on the heart and on the mind. If you don't have a vision, a goal, take some time to pray and fast and seek God. I once heard an older missionary say that what you dreamed of as a child (Baby Christian as well) is most likely similar to what you are called to do with your life. When I was a child I dreamed of preaching the Gospel in places that no other man had gone, in villages deep in the jungle. I have made it to the jungle, and to the villages, but I'm still looking for one here that hasn't ever heard the Gospel. I'm getting close now, I know! Let us seek the King and find out vision, and then lay down everything we can get it. Let us light ourselves with the fire of God through prayer and burn for Him.