Four Goals For Every Believer

2 Timothy 4:7

I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:

As Paul approached the final years of his life, he looked back and said he had accomplished great things for God that enabled him to finish his course. In his final discourse with Timothy, he mentioned four things he had successfully accomplished in his life. These four things ought to be the goal of every believer.

These four goals have been part of my focus in my own life. I realize that if these four goals are accomplished, I will have lived a successful Christian life. Let me share these four goals with you that I want you to try to achieve.

First, endure afflictions. Paul says in verse 5, But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry. Hard times will come, but you must have the ability to endure them if you are going to live a successful Christian life. Nobody has ever lived a successful Christian life without having to endure hard times. Endurance means it won't be easy. It is not going to be easy to live the Christian life successfully, but you will never succeed in it if you don't have endurance. Endurance overcomes hard times. Endurance keeps going when you want to quit. Endurance faces obstacles and finds a way to overcome them. You must have endurance if you are to live the Christian life successfully.

Second, fight a good fight. The battles that we fight in the Christian life are from within and from without. Some win the battle from without, but they don't win the battle from within. Some win the battle within, but they lose the battle from without. Some never get beyond the battle because they quit when the battle comes. If you are going to live a successful Christian life, you must learn that you will have to fight battles. The battle for truth is never easy, and sometimes that battle is against family and friends, but if you will be able to say when you get old that you have fought a good fight, you must make your battle a good fight and give it everything that you have. Fighting a good fight is simply giving it your all as you serve the Lord.

Third, finish your course. There will be many opportunities that Satan will send your way to get you off the course that God has planned for your life, and you must be careful never to let these things pull you away from serving God. God made you for a specific purpose, and to live for any other purpose than for what God has made you for means that you will not finish your course. It does not matter if you lived the course that someone else has lived; it only matters if you have lived the course that God placed you on this earth to do. You need to find God's will for your life and finish it.

Fourth, keep the faith. Here is one of the hardest things many face: keeping the faith all the way to the end. To keep the faith means continuing to attempt great things by faith, but it also means not changing what you believe until the end. When the world around you changes, you must stand true to your faith, even if it means you must stand alone. Many have crumbled and changed their faith because it was not easy, but that is why you must finish your course, fight your battle, and endure afflictions. You will never keep the faith if you don't have endurance, give it your all, and stay focused on your course that God has for you.