Season: 10 Episode: 150
Listen to episode 146 in Spanish:
Summary:
It’s the start of a new year and everyone is setting goals and new year’s resolutions. How can you make sure you set the right goals and accomplish them? In this episode we talk about how to set goals according to the way God created us: mind, body, and soul. You will be encouraged to plan for the obstacles that can get in the way of accomplishing your goals, and why you cannot set your goals based on what others are doing. This episode will help you start the new year strong and keep God first as you set goals and accomplish them.
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Hey guys! Welcome back to another episode of the Her Faith Inspires podcast where we take cultural issues and tackle them with biblical truth. I’m excited for this first solo episode of the new year. I am excited about the episodes that are coming out this month and next week Melissa Dougherty is on the show to discuss New Thought and her new book Happy Lies. I also want to talk about botox, fillers and who defines what is beautiful. That is coming up soon.
Summit Ministries
Before we get into today’s episode, I have an exciting opportunity for those of you who have a child the age of 16-22. Summit Ministries with Dr. Jeff Myers is an excellent opportunity for young people to get immersive teaching from excellent apologists on cultural topics such as homosexuality, abortion, God’s existence, and a whole gamut of topics. My son, Wyatt, went to Summit in the summer of 2023 and he loved it. He brought home a notebook full of information from amazing apologists and he talks about Summit and his experience often.
Wyatt struggled with doubt at 15 and he began to question some of the things he was raised to believe. He said he needed to know that God exists for himself and he needed answer to questions. Our family dove into apologetics and our confidence grew so when Summit came along, Wyatt just wanted to know more. So if you have a student and you want them to go to Summit, I have a code you can use to get $200 off and if you register early you also get an additional $200 off tuition, so that is quite the savings. This is an investment you won’t regret making.
My motto as a mom and teacher is that I will give you the truth and if you walk away (God forbid) it won’t be because I didn’t tell you or do my part to invest in your life in ways that lead you to the Lord. So check this out at summit.org/Shanda to register for this 12 day camp. It is the best summer camp I’ve seen and your child will come home with tools and resources to refer back to for the rest of their lives from some of the best apologists in the world.
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Alright, so today we’re talking about goal setting and seeking God in 2025. We’re going to discuss:
- How to set goals and achieve them.
- Some of my goals for this year.
- What the Bible says about where to invest your time
How to set goals and achieve them.
Everyone seems to be making goals and resolutions right now, Christian and non, but shouldn’t we first ask, “What am I pursuing and why?” That’s something that’s been on my mind lately. Why do I want to do this? Because every time you say yes to something or commit to something, you are saying no to everything else. And since we are finite, we have limits to what we can accomplish, how many books we can read, how much weight we can lift. Right? And since we’re limited, we don’t have capacity for everything which means we should be selective about what we do give our time and attention to.
I love Matthew 6:33 that says, “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be given unto you.” What are “all these things?” They are the necessities of life. Jesus is reassuring us not to worry about the necessities of life because is our provider and we are valuable to God. So in every goal we make it should be on the foundation of seeking Christ first.
So again, what are you pursuing?
When I make that question personal: Am I pursuing God? It’s convicting. To pursue means to follow. You go after it. And right now many of us are going after our goals. And thats not bad, so don’t get me wrong. But no matter what you’re doing, are you pursuing God? So let that be where we begin today and keep Matthew 6:33 at the forefront of our minds this year to help us get off to a strong start.
I intentionally put this episode at the second week of January because most resolutions fail before the end of January I’m not one to make resolutions. I set goals because you attack a goal differently than you attack a resolution. With a resolution you resolve to stop doing something and usually people make this commitment on January first. There is not much planning to what I’ve seen so if you don’t plan, you fail. Every goal, without a plan, will likely fail because planning is the preparation to succeed. I can’t emphasize that enough. Setting goals is easy. Planning to achieve them takes thought and intentionality.
How many goals should you set? This is different for everyone but I usually look at Matthew 22:37 where Jesus tells us to love the Lord with all my heart, soul, mind (and some translations say strength). So it’s the mind, body, and soul components of the person. So I make goals in accordance with these three aspects of my life: God (soul), mind (intellectual), body (physical).
Setting goals takes a few things:
- Realistic (What can you do and what can’t you do. Assess your situation: little kids, newly married, work full time).
- Plan: What do you need to be successful? When will you schedule the time to accomplish this? How will you track progress toward your goal?
- Consistency: How much time will it take? When will you show up? What could hinder you?
- Get rid of hindrances. You have to plan to eliminate obstacles.
Here are some verses from Proverbs on goals:
Prov 16:3, “Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and he will establish your plans.”
Prov 19:21, “Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the LORD’s purpose that prevails.”
We can make plans after consulting the Lord but we have to leave room for Him to lead us. He is sovereign.
Prov 3:5-6, “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.”
Before you make your plans, consult the Lord. He will give you guidance.
Some of my goals for this year:
This year my goals are a little different. I decided to get up at 5:00am every morning to write in my prayer journal because the day seems to get away from me and I have a hard time focusing on seeking the Lord and it’s really important to me to seek God first.
Once I finish praying, I go straight to writing and researching, which gives me about an hour or so for this. I always get dressed and ready for the day first thing in the morning.
My physical goals is still the same as always – eat healthy and more strict and workout at least 4 times a day. That is pretty much a habit for me now. But I’m also trying to focus on a more natural look. I have a hard time with aging (which I’ll talk about on another episode soon), so I have to change my mindset because aging is inevitable. This is also a focus for this year.
My spiritual goal is seeking God first thing in the morning and studying the Bible – which I need to get more of a plan for which books I want to study this year. I am still thinking through that.
Intellectually, I am debating taking Nancy Pearcey’s online course of Toxic Masculinity or Hillsdale Colleges, C.S. Lewis on Christianity. I’m still deciding. I truly wish there were more hours in a day because it really is hard to devote time to everything I want to do.
Mary, Martha, and Monica
One of the things I was reflecting on the other day was the two examples we get with how we spend our time from the Bible. We have Mary and we have Martha. Let me read you that passage:
Luke 10:39-42 says, “38 As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. 39 She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. 40 But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”
41 “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, 42 but few things are needed—or indeed only one.[f] Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”
Two Types of Women
So we have two types of women and to be honest I think these two types of women (or even men can be this way) represent the struggle we have at different times. Sometimes I’m more like Martha and sometimes I’m more like Mary. But Mary, knowing there were things to do and people to serve – I mean, Jesus was a guest at their house – didn’t care. She understood the opportunity she had at that moment – to sit at Jesus’ feet and she chose the spiritual over the to-do list. She chose sitting and learning from Him over serving Him.
That’s a tough one because there are times when I know I need to sit at His feet but I also have to get the podcast scripted or the lesson written and those are also good things but they have their place and they don’t replace sitting at His feet. I’m sure Jesus ate that day but Jesus would rather have had Martha sit at His feet than provide Him a meal and He told her as much.
Martha on the other hand fretted over the to-do list.
She was distracted by the preparations. Have you ever sat down to read or pray and the distraction of the to-do list goes through your mind on replay? That was Martha. She was irritated with her sister and tattled on her to Jesus who really didn’t care. Martha was all tied up in knots and she shouldn’t have been. She was focused on the wrong thing. Jesus said, “Martha, Martha.” He said her name twice to get her attention because she was so distracted. Jesus said one thing is needed and it wasn’t the food. It was’t setting the table. And it wasn’t the dessert. It was sitting at His feet and she didn’t choose that.
When we make our plans, we can be overtaken by the list.
We can make that the focus but the focus should be Jesus and Him first and the Mary and Martha tug of war takes place in my own heart sometimes and there are times Martha pins Mary to the ground and she wins. And then there are times Mary wins and Jesus comes first but make no mistake – it’s a constant battle and I want to keep Jesus first.
And I was also thinking about, now hear me out because I know this isn’t in the Bible but if there was a third sister here, her name would probably be Monika and she would be the one who gives a rip about sitting at Jesus’ feet, and she could care less about the to-do list and she would be the time waster who scrolled social media, intending on only being there for 5 min just to catch up on the latest feed, and before you know it, 3 hours go by and she accomplished nothing. That’s the modern day Monika. That’s the struggle many women have today because they want to accomplish goals but waste time on social media. So there’s my take on Mary, Martha, and Monika.
And that brings me to the one thing that can get in the way of accomplishing goals and what the Bible says about this:
1. There is a benefit to getting up early and there is something to be said about productivity.
Psalm 5:3O Lord, in the morning you hear my voice; in the morning I prepare a sacrifice for you and watch.
Proverbs 6:9-11How long will you lie there, O sluggard? When will you arise from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, and poverty will come upon you like a robber, and want like an armed man.
There is a difference between needing sleep and loving sleep. Because we do need sleep. But do you love sleep?
Psalm 119:148My eyes are awake before the watches of the night, that I may meditate on your promise.
Don’t waste time. Time is more valuable than money because you can get more money but you cannot get more time. The Bible tells us to be careful with the time we have:
Ephesians 5:16-17Making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.
So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.
This verse reminds us to be mindful that our lives are not infinite. Our days are numbered and God knows them all. We have to remember that the time we have must be stewarded wisely.
This is why I made a faith planner.
The planner has the monthly view then a week by week view so you can plan ahead. I write out my to-do list on Sundays and I cross out the task once it’s completed.
The faith planner also has a monthly verse and sermon notes for every Sunday of the month. The reason I put sermon notes in the planner is because this is an interactive planner and it’s for you to be intentional about your focus on the Lord this year. Meditating on the word starts with being a student of the word and when you write things down you are much more likely to retain them. After each week there’s a reflection that makes you answer if you worked toward your goals this week, if you spent time with the Lord, and other questions that help you hold yourself accountable to your goals. You can get this planner at shandafulbright.cm/shop in digital download for $9.99, black and white for 19.99, or full color for 49.99.
Disclaimer:
There are times when people comment about my books that I read or things I do and ask, “How do you do all of that?”
*Seasons
*What do you have capacity for?
*Realistic – there is always time for growth. Do what’s most important right in front of you with intentionality.
Close:
Christians are productive. Jesus mentions this when he talks about bearing much fruit if we are attached to the vine. As long as we keep Christ first we will be productive. And that brings me to my last point – you produce what you consume. It’s the same as the physical. If we consume fat, sugar, and processed food regularly we will be sluggish and not have the energy we need to move through the day. If we consume social media, sleep more than we need to, and don’t consume the word and spending time with the Lord, we won’t effectively produce the spiritual things that will edify and build up others in our lives.
And if you have a down day or get behind, get back at it. Don’t give up and throw in the towel. Keep moving and accomplish your goals, even if it’s alter than you intended to.
I hope this episode encouraged you. Please leave a 5 star rating and review if you enjoy the show. If you have any questions for me, email me at shandafulbright.com and I’ll catch you on then next one.
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