Accountability And Goal Setting
We all know the familiar verse in Galatians 6:7—Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap (ESV). The agrarian image of a farmer sowing and then reaping the crop is the perfect analogy for the discipline that every Christian must acquire if they want to be part of the end-times Spiritual Greatest Generation. There’s nothing glorious about planting seeds; it’s hard, routine, even boring work that requires great faith, since the harvest is typically far in the future. There are many obstacles: disease, insects, drought, storms, to name a few, plus ever changing market prices. The farmer must plow, plant, fertilize, protect, and wait patiently for that great day when all that hard work gets rewarded.
Any of this sounding familiar? Well done, good and faithful farmer?
No Body/body can reap a harvest without the discipline of self-control. DISCIPLINE is the Achilles heel of almost every Christian I know (remember what I said about divinely placed weaknesses?). Our lives are utterly shaped by the presence and/or absence of discipline. I can’t stop looking at porn. I can’t keep the weight off. I went to the gym for a month and then gave up. Why can’t I hear my spouse, instead of talking over her/him? Alcohol is destroying my life. Will I ever get out of debt? Why don’t I ever witness to anyone?…
Or imagine the opposite, if establishing a life-changing habit was as easy as saying the words. Wow, I am running a marathon tomorrow. I saved $50,000 this year. I will never cheat on my spouse again. I love getting up every morning at 5 a.m. for time with God. I can’t believe I just preached a sermon to 5,000 people. Here I am in Cambodia running a home for victims of sexual trafficking. Remember your homework from Week One—dreaming about the new you?
Discipline is nothing more than the ability to consistently remove bad habits and practice healthy habits via the art of setting and achieving goals. Read that sentence again. Say the word habit out loud. Go ahead. HABIT. Anyone can learn to break and keep habits—trust me, I am a HABIT expert. Break or keep a habit consistently for 2-3 months, and you are 80% there.
Now say the words goal-setting out loud. GOAL-SETTING. Good, you’re doing great. You already set and keep goals every hour of the day. Think about it. I need to pick up the kids at school. I have to finish that paper for Biology class. I need to sell 5 tractors today. I need to get to the gym. It isn’t that you and I don’t know how to set and keep goals; the issue is that most of us never transfer the ability we already possess to our spiritual walk!
I often counsel very successful men: lawyers, judges, doctors, CEO’s. One guy I counseled was responsible for a billion dollars worth of merchandise. These guys are smarter than me and more disciplined. They work harder and certainly make a lot more money. But almost to a man, they had never transferred their marketplace skills to their own spiritual growth. Trust me, brothers and sisters, this isn’t rocket science. If you can successfully manage a billion dollars in goods, you can set a goal and never masturbate again! Or for that matter, if you can graduate from college, raise kids, keep a job, brush your teeth every morning…
Indeed, the art of habit-forming and goal-setting is so important, we’ll spend an entire chapter on developing your Purity Plan in Basic Training! Stage 1: Operation Purity.
Your Brother in the Battle,
Timothy
Let Pureheart help you. Contact Us Today!
Excerpt taken from Pureheart Ministry’s Basic Training! Stage 1: Operation Purity
Copyright ©2023 Timothy Davis