Recently, I set a goal to write 100 devotionals for PresbyCan Daily before the end of 2018, and this is #100.

I wrote my first devotional in 2000.

Over the years, I have truly appreciated the feedback that I have received from readers, as well as the spoken words of encouragement from members of my home church.

I have developed some online friendships as well, and I even met one of the other writers a few years ago when she was speaking at a meeting of a Christian Women's group near my home.

For several years, I kept in touch with one of the Daily readers, who told me that, when he first replied to one of the devotionals that I had written, he had been contemplating suicide until he read the devotional. He even wrote a couple of devotionals himself!

It's good to set goals. Goals give us something to strive for. They help us to make the most of the life that God has blessed us with. But we should always keep ourselves focused on God and His will for us, for He is the reason for our being. As the answer to the first question of the Westminster Shorter Catechism says, "Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him forever." Let us always strive to set goals that bring glory to God.

James 4:13-16 – Look here, you people who say, "Today or tomorrow we are going to such and such a town, stay there a year, and open up a profitable business." How do you know what is going to happen tomorrow? For the length of your lives is as uncertain as the morning fog — now you see it; soon it is gone. What you ought to say is, "If the Lord wants us to, we shall live and do this or that." Otherwise you will be bragging about your own plans, and such self-confidence never pleases God. (TLB)

Philippians 3:13-14 – Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus. (NRSV)

Here are some goals for us as Christians:

• to become more like Jesus
• to pursue righteousness
• to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength
• to love our neighbours as ourselves
• to use our God-given gifts to bring glory to God

Press on, stay focused on Jesus, and see what God wants to do through you.

Prayer: Holy God, who made the heavens, shaped the earth, and formed us in our mothers' wombs, we praise You and thank You that we can be used by You when we surrender our wills to Yours. We worship You. We put our trust in You. We will serve You all of our days. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.

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About the author:

Dee Renaud <dee.renaud@outlook.com>
Sauble Beach, Ontario, Canada
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