Whether practicing with bow and arrow, rifle/gun or simply trying to dunk into a hoop, before hitting a target of any kind, one must do a few things.  #1) View your target (see where they are in proximity to where you are located), #2) get whatever your tool is lined up with where you will strike the target and #3) try to hit the target. Professional athletes are very familiar with doing this and spend hours in the gym or on a field preparing for “game day” when they get to show their audience what they can do.

These same actions can be applied to attaining goals in your Christian walk.  According to Philippians 3:14 we are to “press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”  So, we pray and read the Word to strengthen our spiritual being, then select a personal goal that we want to achieve and see where we are starting and where we perceive and hope we will be ending.  Next we set up our lives and make choices that will propel us in the direction that we want to be going – that is closer to the end result or target.  Finally, we begin the sometimes difficult work of releasing our energy and our faith to accomplish the goal that we have set.

During this journey we will often encounter “bumps in the road” that may make us lose our focus, our aim and falter, but like the Donnie McClurkin song states, “we fall down and get up - for a saint is just a sinner who fell down and got up.”

Ready yourselves, aim at the goal you have set for yourselves then strive toward it and remember that Philippians 4:13 says that you can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth you!

Blessings!