For close to 30 years I've met most Monday mornings with five other men in an accountability group. We've studied the Bible together, prayed together, cried together. These men love God and they love me. For decades we called ourselves an accountability group. But lately I've thought of them more as my personal board of directors.
Every year each of us prepares a list of goals for that year which we sense God asking us to do, or be. There are also some personal goals that just seem wise for us to accomplish. We set goals in six areas of our lives.
Spiritual
Our Wives
Our Children & Grandchildren
Vocation & Finance
Friends & Extended Family
Mental & Physical
During the year, several times a year each of us spend an hour reviewing our goals with our group. When it's my turn they ask me questions, I ask them questions and I try to honestly tell them if I've achieved that goal, or why I didn't. This process has been incredibly important to my spiritual and personal growth.
Years ago, born out of my experience I wrote a guide entitled, Accountability Groups & Partners, describing how you form and organize a group of your own. You can find it on my website. Just click the STORE link.
However, this year we were challenged by one of the men in our group to do a "Daily Devotional by Rick Warren." Rick wrote the book, The Purpose Driven Life. In one of his devotionals he asks this of our goals, "Why do we want it? Is the achievement of it mostly for God's glory, or the good of his kingdom, or for your glory and comfort?" Ouch!
"So whether you eat, or drink, or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God." -I Corinthians 10:31
While I've thought about those kinds of questions often, his reminder triggered a close examination of all my goals and activities. Is this goal for my glory and comfort, or for his glory and the comfort of others? I'm still working through the "Why" of my own goals and examining everything I'm engaged in and measuring it against that question.
So I'd challenge you to ask the Holy Spirit to help you examine the real motives for your goals, your achievements, your relationships, and your prayers. Do you even have written goals for your life and if so, to whom are you accountable regularly besides God for achieving them? If you do have goals are they to get what you want, or what God wants? God knows the answer already. Do you?