Psalm 91:14-16; “Because he loves me,” says the Lord, “I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name. He will call upon me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him. With long life will I satisfy him and show him my salvation.” (NIV)
I am sure many of you, like myself, have set new goals for the New Year. All of these goals begin with a thought and then if we think about it for more than a moment, the thought becomes a vision or a dream and goals are simply dreams reduced to writing. Goals are achieved when you create a plan and execute the plan.
One of the reasons I developed my P.E.A.C.E acronym years ago was to create a simple formula for executing plans and in turn achieving goals. See “P.E.A.C.E.” September 1, 2008 Blog. The most critical step in achieving goals through the P.E.A.C.E. process is to continually ask God for His help with each aspect of it. He will help us with our Plan, Effort, Attitude, Community and Energy if we simply ask. Who gives us the ability to dream and envision? It is God and do you think he gives us this ability if he didn’t want our dreams to come true?
A few years ago I had just completed my first marathon and I had achieved my goal of breaking 4 hours and although I was completely wasted physically, I was feeling pretty good about my accomplishment. The first thing I did after the race was place a large “chaw” of tobacco in my mouth…I was celebrating my accomplishment. (I started chewing tobacco when I was 18 years old and 25 years later I was still chewing.)
As I slowly crept/crawled up the street to my car, I was congratulating other marathoners etc.. and all the time I had this big chaw of tobacco in my cheek. Then suddently a thought crossed my mind (most effective thoughts come from God) it was something like this…”how crazy is this, I just completed one of the most physical athletic tests known to man and I am celebrating by putting “dung” in my mouth and body and in turn taking years from my life?”
I remember how awkward I felt in that moment and decided it was time to quit…for good. Quitting was not the problem as I had “quit” hundreds of times in the past…staying quit was another issue. I’ve always said there are only two steps in breaking a bad habit and/or creating a new habit; Start and Continue. Most of us have no problem starting but it is the continue part that becomes quite difficult, if not impossible for many of us.
I got up the next morning and was already craving tobacco to go along with my coffee. But this time instead of giving into the craving I had a little talk with God and said “This sucks, I want to stay quit but I can’t, please give me one good reason to stay quit…then I heard God’s voice (I’ve only heard God’s voice a couple of times in my life)…He said “because you love me.” I was like, “wait God what does that mean?”
Then I sat and reflected and figured out what God was saying to me, and in a not so subtle way he said; “Jay you say you love me and you know your body is my temple, therefore you will stay quit simply because…you love me.” (An inference directly from God about being a hypocrite is a great way to get one’s attention.)
As I’ve mentioned before, a goal will not be achieved without a plan. My plan for achieving my new goal of staying quit from tobacco was plain and simple…I was going to seek God’s help early and often everyday…just like I had to do and still do with my drug and alcohol addiction.
From that point forward I placed my goal of staying quit in God’s hands one day at a time and eventually the cravings disappeared as well as the desire to ever use again. IT WAS NOT EASY BUT NOTHING WORTHWHILE IN LIFE IS EVER EASY! Staying quit certainly worked more effectively when I involved God. (I need to point out this was the first time I involved God in my desire to stop chewing tobacco…)
Are you having trouble “continuing” with a goal you started? Have you already broken a New Year’s resolution? Are you one of those people who see the dream, write it down, have good intentions, start to execute but fail to continue?
We have a God who tells us he will rescue, protect, answer, deliver and satisfy us…if we simply love him and acknowledge his name…see Psalm 91 above.
We have a God who wants us to achieve our dreams and goals and the best way to make that happen is to ask him through prayer, for the power to “continue” with the plan we have started.
He sent his son to reiterate what he said to David in Psalm 91 when Jesus is talking in the gospel of Mark; “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it and it will be yours.” (Mark 11:24 NIV)
So what are you waiting for? Start and Continue and pray, pray pray.
P.E.A.C.E.
Jay@EagleLaunch.com
