Our Goals and God's Destinations

During discussion groups at church camp, one of the questions I wanted to ponder more deeply is how our goals are often different to God’s intended destinations.  As people living in this world, our goals relates to here and now—to what will be passing away.  We seek God’s guidance in decisions we make, not realising every trial and circumstance of life we wish could change can be used by God to change us.  We set our sights on making money, having a successful career or what we will do after retirement when God is working spiritually to make us wiser, reliant upon Him and quicker to obey His word every day.

For Christians, we know our home is in heaven.  Ultimately God will call us come to be with Jesus forever, and we will enjoy the presence of the LORD glorified free from sin, sorrow, pain and death.  One thing about goals we often make is they are quantifiable.  We work towards buying a house, earning a raise, or winning the competition.  So we save, exert ourselves and train hard, hoping to obtain our goal.  Our goals can also be arbitrary, limited by our perceived abilities or opportunities.  We imagine what we can accomplish and work for it, forgetting God routinely does what is impossible and unthinkable.

One theme we have discussed at camp is in Hebrews 12:1, that we ought to lay aside every weight and sin that easily ensnares us and run with endurance the race God has set before us.  The Christian walk is not followed by charting our own course but following Jesus closely, submitting to Him by faith and obedience.  We never know the circumstances God will allow in our lives or the scenery we will observe along the way, but we can know the end result of following Jesus is good and glorious.  The blessings and benefits we have in Christ are not just for heaven but for the journey as we pass as pilgrims through this life.  Though we can stubbornly have our goals in mind, God is faithful to bring us to His desired destinations by sanctifying us to be more like Him.

John 6:16-21 contains a wonderful picture of how receiving Jesus results in Him bringing us to His desired shore:  “Now when evening came, His disciples went down to the sea, ¹⁷ got into the boat, and went over the sea toward Capernaum. And it was already dark, and Jesus had not come to them. ¹⁸ Then the sea arose because a great wind was blowing. ¹⁹ So when they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and drawing near the boat; and they were afraid. ²⁰ But He said to them, “It is I; do not be afraid.” ²¹ Then they willingly received Him into the boat, and immediately the boat was at the land where they were going.”  Jesus had gone to a mountain by himself, and the disciples found themselves in the dark night rowing for miles against the wind.  Initially they were startled and afraid to see Jesus drawing near to them, but when they willingly received Him into the boat immediately the boat was at the land where they were going.

Willingly receiving Jesus changes everything.  In the case of His disciples, the difficulty of the task of rowing was overshadowed by the miraculous power of Christ to do immediately what they could never have done.  At the same time, the toil and trouble is not without purpose, for God is able to use the journey and process to build our faith, inspire our confidence in Him, and entrust ourselves to His guidance.  Those who fear God and heed His word will be greatly helped to go beyond reaching our goals and experience God’s miraculous power in and through our lives.  We can spend a great deal of energy trying to achieve our goals and labour to change the course of our lives rather than simply trusting and obeying Jesus today!