Manifesting goals through vision boards by professing Christians is quite popular. Vision board parties are widespread within Christian women’s groups and churches. Writing goals and planning for them is also exciting. But the question is, should Christians use vision boards to accomplish goals?
I want to be clear that I am all for putting goals in writing and having a plan to accomplish them. A faith-filled and hopeful outlook about life is essential to the Christian walk. Additionally, prioritizing the best use of the time and space God placed us in is superior, as the days are evil (Eph 5:16, James 4:14). Nonetheless, the problem comes about when our goals don’t align with God’s will and purposes. We must evaluate the methods and paths we partake in to bring about the vision.
GOD’S GOAL
In the prior post, Christians and Vision Boards – the Hidden Dangers, I uncovered how the majority of goals we make or post to a board exclude God. New age practices weave through the modern church, and they dumb down the authority of God’s truth. The god of self is usually the focus instead of dying to self and fully surrendering to God’s plan.
God wants to conform you into the image of His Son Jesus Christ through sanctification.
I encourage you to read, Christians and Vision Boards – the Hidden Dangers article first to get the proper context before reading this one. That teaching sheds light on new age practices and how witches use vision boards.
GOALS AND ACHIEVEMENT BOOKS
As a professing Christian, I read my Bible quite a bit back in the day. I documented and meditated on my favorite scriptures and passages to keep me on track. I never shunned the Bible or fell away from the faith, but reaching my goals was serious business.
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Many of the self-help books I read mentioned scriptures. The Power of Positive Thinking by Norman Vincent Peale, was one of them, so I concluded that I was on the right path towards success. I believed God put me here to go after my goals and dreams. I acted strongly in this goal-setting path to success. I wanted to become financially successful to share my wealth and for people who did not know God to notice Him—so I thought.
Motivational, success, and business books helped me so much in my younger years, but they drew me away from Christ and His actual teachings of wealth. Let me explain. I enjoyed learning about success, success strategies, and successful people more than I sought after God.
DO NOT LOVE THE WORLD
So should Christians use vision boards in goal setting? Please be careful with your goal setting and if you use a vision board, make sure it is Christ-centered. There is no need for me to use a vision board for anything. Maybe if I’m building something (a physical structure such as a house, community center, restaurant, production facility, salon, or retail space), that might be sufficient. However, this vision board is for architecture, blueprints, and interior planning. Secondly, family photo collages, healthy eating or fitness, and other kinds of creative related professions use boards to draw ideas and concepts together.
2 John 2:15-17 NKJV says, Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. 17 And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.
This passage of John seeks to focus your attention on Christ. If there is an unhealthy focus on worldly success and wants of human nature, you need to examine yourself to see if you are in Christ. What are you storing away eternally? It’s detrimental for the Believer to work for eternal rewards stored up in heaven because everything here is passing away.
SUCCESS IS IN GOD
We are to store up God’s Word in our heart, obey it, and then we will have success. After Moses died, Joshua resumed where he left off. He led the Israelites into the Promise Land. His vision board and personal goal-setting had no place here because of the great responsibility for God’s chosen people. Failure was inevitable if Joshua followed his secret plan.
Joshua 1:7-9 NIV says, “Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. 8 Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. 9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”
Why are we to focus on what God wants us to focus on? Because we work for Him. We are co-working with His agenda for His assignment. We are His church, children of God and the ambassadors for Christ.
SEEK AFTER GOD
When considering goals, ask the questions:
- Is this my idea, or is it God’s idea?
- Will this idea or goal bring glory to God?
- Will this plan help others to know God more?
- Although this path seems right, is this the route God wants me to go?
Remember to seek after Kingdom things and His righteousness.
Make goals soulful, but make sure to seek God’s heart about them. I encourage you to check out my testimony here on YouTube because I share much of how my drive for success created room for many failures, and I would be grateful if you could avoid them.
Check out my testimony:
MY GOAL AND VISION BOARD
I only made about 3 vision boards in my life and accomplished some of the goals. There were tons of tears, failures, and periods of depression in my voyage towards achievement. It took years for some things to come to fruition, and I viewed my wins as being on track with God’s plan.
I got the home, published, and distributed the magazine (that didn’t glorify God), the car, the bank account, the marriage, and other things I set out for—but they were short-lived.
To accomplish more significant goals and get the life you want will cost you something. Big goals are tough to achieve. That’s why most people give up.
Adding the exercises of visualizing and extensive planning to your demanding day will cost you. People go after their dreams because they are not interested in sacrificing themselves wholly to Christ for His purposes. The church and the prosperity movement have failed us with the gospel’s truth in this area.
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GOD AND GOALS
For a believer, God is your goal!
A thriving black businesswoman who started God and Goals is heavily into manifesting. She’s heavily into teaching people to manifest their goals through new age practices, but she professes Christianity. She ran a Facebook ad to teach other Christian women her formula for success. And yesssssss you guessed it, she has tons of followers.
Matthew 16:24-26 NIV says, Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 25 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. 26 What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?
This passage shows the contrast between following after Christ or going your path. When you are bent on your desires, you choose to deny Jesus and select yourself. Sadly, when we do this, we are not gaining anything of actual value, only the illusion of wealth. You are exposing your heart and your authentic desires.
Remember, what you do with this life will be judged for eternity.
When you desire to save your life (focus on your vision and desires), you place self above the will of God. Self is tied to pride and turns into an idol. I want you to know there is no real success unless it involves walking out the path God carved out for you.
PROPER CONTEXT
Since my goals were out of context, I didn’t keep up with my vision board stint for too long. God eventually stripped me of everything I obtained on that vision board. He humbled me while delivering me from the bondage of self ambition and preparing me for the work of ministry.
Jesus didn’t save us from a life of eternal fire and separation from Him so that we can do our own thing!
Christ paid a high ransom to redeem us from eternal death. Nothing we can offer is sufficient to pay for sin—nothing. God created us for good works. His objectives are what matters above any and everything. Some of my goals were approved and aligned with God’s will, but many of them were not.
My goals didn’t’ start to align to His will more until I lost everything and learned to read, study, and understand the Word in its proper framework. Knowledge without the right perspective and biblical understanding is dangerous to the Christian. Studying the Word without proper context allows you to isolate a scripture and make the Bible say whatever you want.
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GOD BLESSES GOALS
I do not want to discourage you from writing goals, just as I don’t want to prevent you from prayer. God gave us dreams and desires for a reason. When you elevate spiritually and grow closer in relationship with Him, your yearnings will start aligning with His. The people we study about in the Bible followed the call of God.
- Genesis 6:22 NIV says, Noah did everything just as God commanded him. (Genesis 6-8)
- God blessed Abraham for obeying Him (Genesis 26:5 NKJV says because Abraham obeyed My voice and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws.)
- Moses was obedient to God’s will and humble (Numbers 12:3 NKJV says, Now the man Moses was very humble, more than all men who were on the face of the earth.)
- Jesus’ disciples surrendered everything Matthew 19:27 NKJV,” Peter and the disciples left everything to follow Jesus.
- The apostle Paul never turned back to his former life before encountering Jesus’ saving power. He followed God’s vision for him to pen most of the New Testament letters.
Soulful, there is no surrender without humility.
CONCLUSION
Write out your goals to gather your thoughts. But, make sure you present these goals to God to confirm they are according to His will.
Soul Actions
Pray for God to show you His will.
Do everything to the glory of God.
Help others seek the truth of scripture in goal setting and vision boards.
I am passionate about you setting goals in God’s way and I appreciate you reading this post. Please make sure you check out the Dream Big Goal Setting Guide right here.
