SMART Goals are Specific // Matthew 20:32

Happy New Year and welcome to 2024! What are your hopes, plans, and dreams for this next trip around the sun?

This week we are going to consider setting goals as opposed to making resolutions. I want to consider SMART goals and align them with God’s word. SMART is an acrostic where the S stands for specific.

Matthew 20:32 gives us a great example of how God wants us to be specific in our requests of Him. This is the story of when Jesus healed two blind men. They cried out to the Lord for help when He asked, “What do you want me to do for you?” Jesus knew what they wanted, but He wanted them to articulate it…not for His sake, but theirs. This is true for all of us! All too often we make our prayers generic, lacking specificity. Friends, unspecific prayers can lack power. Think about that. Why do you think God wants us to be specific? I think we can settle on two basic reasons: (1) it helps us express our faith, and (2) helps us know when/how God answers.

What kind of specific goal can you set for 2024? Make it a prayer, a statement of faith. Then, look for God’s answer. If you aren’t specific, you might just miss the answer, or mistake it for coincidence.