It is hard to believe it is 2025. I remember in elementary school drawing pictures of what we thought life would look like in the year 2000, and here we are a quarter of a century after that. As we move into the new year, most of us have been thinking about New Year’s resolutions or setting goals for the new year. I am not personally a “resolutions” kind of guy. I do like setting goals and working to achieve those goals. I typically have some longer range goals, and I set goals for the year and work toward those. The goals for the year are broken down into monthly goals and activities. Some of the goals I achieve and some I do not. Life happens and discipline does not. But, despite not achieving all of my goals, I still make progress in every area where I set goals.
There is some basic groundwork that has to be done before setting effective goals. I tend to set goals based on what I want to accomplish throughout the year. But, what am I accomplishing with those goals? What if I accomplish every goal I set? Will it truly make a difference in my life or the people around me? Maybe. But the foundational question is not “what do I want to do this year,” but “who do I want to be.” Not just for this year, but in the years to come.
I watch the commercials on TV about “stop hate.” But why? Yes, I agree that there is a lot of hate in our world and it needs to end, but telling people to stop hating is not the answer. Why stop hating? Many of the same people promoting the “stop hate” campaign and other similar campaigns are the same people who speak out against Christian ideals. There is no moral foundation. Why is it bad to hate? It just is. But why? Everyone knows it is bad to hate. But why?
When you build anything, there has to be a plan. Building without a plan can lead to a lot of delays, changes, and potentially an unsafe structure. Building a life without a plan will also lead to delays in becoming the person we want to be, stress, and potential problems in our lives. Once we have a basic plan, we start with the foundation. Without a solid foundation, nothing we build will stand.
As I look to set goals for this year and years to come, what foundation am I building on? What structure am I trying to build? When building our lives, too often we start with the interior decorator and making sure everything will look good, and build the structure around how we want things to look. As styles and fashions change and new ways of thinking come along, the entire structure changes to fit the new decorations. We change the structure and the decorations while the weak foundation begins to crumble around us.
The more I read the Bible and observe people around me, I keep coming back to Matthew 6:33. This seems to be the foundation on which we need to build our lives.
Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.
When I look around at our world and listen to conversations around me, all of the problems seem to come back to this one thing. When we seek to build our kingdom first, when my focus is on getting what I want or things being done the way I want them done (even though my way is clearly the best way) it starts to cause problems, stress, and anxiety. The answer to “don’t hate” is to “seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.” The answer to a stressful life is to seek first the kingdom of God. The answer to a happy marriage is to seek first the kingdom of God. The answer to financial problems is to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.
The foundation on which we need to build our lives is Matthew 6:33, to “seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.” The blueprint to use to build our lives is the Bible. This is the answer. It is simple, but not easy. By nature, we want to build our own kingdom. I want things to be done the way I think they should be done and everyone else is wrong. I want financial success. I want to have lots of nice stuff. I want to drive a nice car and live in a nice house. While there is nothing wrong with having nice stuff, the question needs to be, “Why?” Do I think having the right car/house/wardrobe/whatever will draw attention to me and build my kingdom? Will all the stuff help me “fit in” with everyone else? Money and things are not evil, but they tend to bring out our inner character. When my focus is on seeking first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, nothing else matters.
So… as I look to finalize my goals for the year, my priority is my spiritual health. I trust God to provide everything else I need. I also have goals to achieve improved physical health and financial health, but my priority is my spiritual health. For too many years I have focused on other priorities. I have continued to grow my spiritual health, but it has not been my first priority. As I schedule my week, my Bible study and prayer time tends to get relegated to whatever time is left and study time often becomes reading time which becomes a quick prayer time which sometimes becomes “I don’t have time.” I make my list of everything I want to do this year and toward the end of the list I think “I should probably add ‘Read the Bible more’ on this list somewhere.”
When we set goals, the first question is, “What am I building?” When our focus is on seeking first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, everything else will take care of itself. Yes, there is work to be done, but the priority needs to be building our relationship with God. Our world looks nothing like those pictures I drew in elementary school and my life is not where I thought it would be, but I am further along the path than I was last year, thanks to God.
What are your goals for the year? How are you strengthening your foundation this year?
