Five Days of Goal Setting–Day 1–Spiritual Goals

Last year was a fantastic year spiritually for me. God gifted me greatly during 2016 in ways that I would have never thought imaginable. So many breakthroughs in so many areas and boldness to do things that I never thought I would do. I want all of those things plus more to continue in 2017. I know that God is there for me, but I must be willing to do what He says and walk in the power that He has given me. To do that I have to continue to grow. Here are some of the goals that I have for myself spiritually to keep myself open for God to continue to challenge me, use me, and grow me and my family.
Personal Goals:

• Read through the Bible two times in the next year. Well, at least finish what I began on November 1 and then read it through one more time if not more, Last year I was able to complete the one year Bible that I had begun the year before. Then I read another version of the Bible in five months. So, I know that I can do it. I try not to just read through the Bible, though. I also want to pray and meditate over what I am reading. I grew so much! I want that again.
• Continue with a concentrated prayer time. I have always prayed, but I never really had a concentrated, down on my knees, prayer time. When I began to do that last year it was fantastic. God spoke in so many ways and did wondrous things in mine and my families life. I longed for more fellowship with the Lord and often I would have three or four prayer times a day. I have begun to get a little lax on that and I don’t like it! I want to remain in close communion with the Lord.
• Begin a more concentrated in depth Bible study again. Probably a Precept Bible Study. I have done, many, many Precept studies and love them. I haven’t done one in about two years and I really miss doing them. I don’t know how that will fit in with my daily Bible reading time but I know it will.

One note: I know that some of you may be wondering how in the world I had any other time in my day if I was reading and praying so much. Well, as you have probably heard before, God works in mysterious ways. When I was reading my Bible and praying at least two or three times a day, I seemed to get so much more done. More done around the house. More done in ministry. More done with my family. It was amazing!
Family Goals:

• Begin to have a family Bible and prayer time. We do that somewhat, but we need to do it on a more consistent basis. We often pray together in the car and at other times, but we don’t really have a set time to sit down as a family and have a prayer and Bible time. With the addition of our foster sons, I especially want to do that. I want all of my sons, biological and foster, to experience the joys of having a personal time with God. I feel that beginning to do that as a family will hopefully encourage them to have a prayer time on their own.
• Continue having a special prayer time with my wife. Sarah and I do have prayer times together regularly, but, again, it isn’t an everyday thing. I want that special time to be every day. The bonding that we have during that special time is awesome. God has used our prayer times so much this past year. I needs to continue into 2017 but even more!

Well, those are my spiritual goals for 2017. They go very closely hand in hand with my ministry goals. I know that some of you may have goals for your family that include helping others and missions but, since we are full time missionaries, that is really our life. Not that I don’t have goals for myself and my family in the ministry area, but I will talk about those when I talk about ministry goals.

I am going to have to adjust the days, now, since I was going to put Spiritual Goals and Ministry Goals on the same day, but I’m afraid this post will be too long. So, I’m not sure what tomorrow will bring yet. However, you can always click on the banner below to get to the introductory post for this series where you will find links all of the posts in this series as they are completed.

I pray that this inspires you to make some spiritual goals for you family this year. I was going to include a linky for you to add your posts to each day and still might. Until then, please feel free to include links to your goal setting blog posts or just talk about your goals in the comment section.

Until tomorrow!

Tim

I’ve joined a “Round Up”

What’s a Round Up? Well, it’s where a bunch of bloggers share posts centered around a specific theme. This particular round up is from the Homeschool Review Crew and the theme is 2017 Goals! Just click on the banner below and it will take you to all of the great posts that have been added. The post above is one of the posts that I’ve entered. Stop by to check out the other two posts that I also I linked up.