What Are You Aiming For?

Good morning! I hope you had a joyous Thanksgiving. For those of you foolish…I mean brave enough to have gone shopping on black Friday I hope you escaped with only minor injuries.

Today is the opening day of Buck season here in Pennsylvania. This is a religious experience in our area. Even the schools are closed today. The woods are filled with hunters looking to for that trophy buck. For these hunters, all of the preparation in the world will be meaningless if their aim is off.

Today I want to challenge you with this question: What are you aiming for? Today so many people are trying to get through life using a drive-by mentality. They spray and pray, hoping they will somehow hit the mark. We see this in the way people bounce from one religious practice to the next…one moral judgment to another with no foundations and no absolutes to guide them. My mentor often makes this statement: If you aim at nothing you will always hit it dead center.”

Life was never meant to be this way. God has a specific purpose for each and every one of us. Our lives are meant to move in step with His plans. The target is an intimate relationship with Him and a life that brings glory to His name. But look at what happens when our aim is off:

Hosea 7:16a (NLT)

They look everywhere except to heaven, to the Most High. They are like a crooked bow that always misses its target…

The only way to maintain proper aim is to keep your eye on the target. Think about the account of Peter walking on the water. He walked upon the waves until he took his eyes off of Jesus. When Peter began to notice the wind and the waves he lost sight of the real goal…Jesus himself.

There are many distractions today that can easily take your eyes off of the mark. We see this so vividly during the Christmas season. A celebration of the birth of Christ has now become a season for buying presents and moving retailers from the red into the black. Jesus is hardly mentioned and is just as easily replaced with “Happy Holidays.”

In the end we must realize that the mark God has intended us to strive for is intimacy with Him. Intimacy is found in Jesus Christ. If you’ve lost sight of the target, go back to the cross. Put your focus on the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Follow Him to the empty tomb, listen for His gentle knock at the door of your heart and hold tightly to His words:

Proverbs 8:17 (NLT)

"I love all who love me. Those who search for me will surely find me.

Until next Monday, may God’s richest blessings be yours this week.

Carl