4 Reasons for Setting Faithful Financial Goals (and Why We Don’t)

The first and most obvious reason for setting goals is that goals provide direction and purpose. They are finish lines. Have you ever seen a sprinter start down the track and stop and look for the finish line? Of course not! Sprinters know exactly where they are headed, and all of their efforts are directed toward the accomplishment of the goal. When we set goals, our choices for activity become purposeful with more potential of being God-directed. Otherwise, circumstances, other people, and feelings determine where we wind up.

Second, goals help us to crystallize our thinking. Judy and I often challenge each other with the statement, “If you aim at nothing, you will hit it every time.” When you set a goal, you tend to crystallize your thinking about what you really want to accomplish. This is why I believe that goals should be written, rather than merely thought or talked about.

Third, goals provide personal motivation. When I went to Indiana University in 1960, I had an objective: to have a good time. I accomplished that objective, but in the process I was asked a couple of times to leave school. My grade point average hovered around the failing level. When I came back to school, met my future wife, and began thinking about marriage, I also began thinking about career objectives. I set a goal to become a Certified Public Accountant (CPA). My grade point average went from failing to almost straight As, and I ultimately graduated from graduate school with honors.

After college, when I was interviewing for jobs, the interviewers often asked me what happened. The only thing I could tell them was that I finally had a goal. I had not changed personally, but the goal toward which I was moving had changed and so provided motivation in a better direction.

A faith goal is a statement of God’s will for me and all goals should be set with a mindset of asking what God’s will is for me. This is the fourth reason to set goals. Goals are all stated as future objectives, and only God knows the future. So when I set a goal, I have implicitly made a statement that says, “God willing, I believe I should achieve the following . . .” Otherwise, for a Christian, a goal is presumption.

If a goal is not set, there is no chance of failing to meet it.

Paul was probably one of the most goal-oriented men in the Bible. He said in Philippians 3:14 (NKJV): “I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” Paul knew why he was there and where he was going; his life was governed by his goal.

Almost anyone would say that goals are important. Why, then, don’t we set goals?

Four Barriers to Goal Setting

What, then, keeps us from setting financial goals?

1. Fear of failure

Many of us don’t set goals because we fear failure. This is the first barrier to goal setting. If a goal is not set, there is no chance of failing to meet it. This is no excuse for anyone not to set goals—especially for a Christian. In the mere act of becoming a Christian, one has admitted the inability to govern his or her life. However, the fear of failure is so dominant a part of our fallen nature that it, maybe more than any other motivation, governs our behavior and is a principal reason goals are not set.

2. Misunderstanding of time

The second barrier to setting goals is the false assumption that goal setting must take a great deal of time. A little book titled Tyranny of the Urgent by Charles E. Hummel has as its thesis that we leave the really important things undone by getting involved in urgent but trivial matters. We often treat goal setting like that. Even if it took a substantial amount of time, it would be worth setting aside the time. As a matter of fact, we spend much of our lives thinking about goals and objectives, but because we never write them down, we never move toward accomplishing them. In reality, the actual process of writing down goals takes only a few minutes. We are merely getting them out of our heads and onto paper.

3. Not sure of what goals to set

The third barrier to setting goals is a legitimate one—we don’t know what goals to set. This is especially true in the financial area because so much advice is being given, both good and bad, that we become confused. However, as Christians we are uniquely positioned to determine which goals to set, we can set them, and then we can develop a plan of action to achieve them.

We do not set goals because many of us do not know how to set goals.

I used to play golf in a very competitive environment with my partners and staff members in the CPA firm. On one occasion we were playing to a hole with an elevated green. We could actually “see” the hole from the fairway only by seeing the top of the flagstick indicating where the hole was. As our foursome finished the hole, one of us took the flagstick and stuck it in the soft ground on the edge of the green near a sand trap. Well, you can imagine what happened. The following foursome, not being able to see the hole, all placed their shots toward the flagstick, and ended up in the sand trap.

Like that foursome, you may have a good game plan for achieving a goal and take the right steps to achieve it, but if the goal is a wrong one or pointed in the wrong direction, then the results can be disastrous. It is vitally important to know what goals to set; otherwise, activity and decisions will be channeled toward the wrong objectives.

4. We don’t know how

Finally, we do not set goals because many of us do not know how to set goals. We do not have a goal-setting process, and as a result do not know how to begin setting goals. I will help you eliminate this fourth barrier to goal setting in the remainder of this chapter.

What Not to Do

Most people have some familiarity with setting personal and professional goals, or are at least familiar with resolutions. The process of faith goal setting is not, and should not be, much different. But, when we learn the process of how to set goals from a faith perspective, we need first to look at three things not to do. Isaiah 43:18 says, “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.” In setting a goal, first of all, we should not focus on the past. Focusing on the past tends to limit our thinking and emotions to our past experiences and our past failures. More importantly, focusing on the past leaves God out of the process. It is like saying, “Since I didn’t do what He wanted in the past, then my future is forever marked by past failure.” We’re all tempted with such self-defeating thoughts, but we need to recognize that they are not God’s truth about His grace or His plan for our future. Yes, we may deal with consequences from our past, but not with condemnation and guaranteed rejection or defeat because of it. Remember Paul’s words: “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us” (Ephesians 3:20). God is never limited by what has gone on in the past. He is able to do something beyond what we can even think or imagine.

In Luke 1:18 we read the question of Zechariah to the angel in the temple: “How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years.” Zechariah was focusing on his present resources, and that is the second thing we do not want to do in setting a goal. Focusing on our present resources is another way we limit God. The real question is, what are God’s resources? Recall again Ephesians 3:20: “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us.” My present resources do not limit what He can do. He has limitless resources.

The last thing not to do in setting goals relates to those who are married. I believe that a couple should never set a goal apart from or in disagreement with one another. Most women will become widows, and if a woman has not been involved in the goal-setting process, the consequences can be devastating for both the woman and for the family. God puts a man and woman together to build something new, not to put two competing individuals together so that one can force goals and objectives upon the other—or keep the other in the dark to assert independence. In the marriage relationship a couple can set goals that are unique to the couple, not to one of the individuals in the marriage. “Live in harmony with one another” (Romans 12:16). The reality is that committing goals to paper in a marriage relationship requires unity and agreement, which are threatening to many people.