God made you so that you would glorify him with your entire life. He gave you a mind to think like him; emotions, desires, and affections to long for and appreciate what he does; and a will to consciously choose those things that he would choose. Your thoughts, desires, affections, actions, and plans should be thoroughly Christ-like (see for example, 1 Cor 10:31; Col 3:17, 23; 1 Pet 4:11; Rev 4:11).

You don’t have to figure out on your own how exactly to glorify God with your life—he has told you in the Bible! If you’re not a Christian, God’s will for you right now is to glorify Him by repenting of your sin and self-righteousness and trust in Christ alone.

If you are a Christian, God’s will for you is to always be like Jesus Christ, regardless of your age or gender, roles or responsibilities (Rom 8:29). Growing more like Christ and less like this world doesn’t happen overnight—it is a lifetime effort! As you grow in your understanding of what is involved in living like Christ, setting specific goals can really help you with this.

A goal is an end or target that you work towards. Remember, everything you do should glorify God; you learn what glorifies God in the Bible; Christians glorify God by living thoroughly Christ-like lives; so every “goal” must aim toward being like Jesus Christ.

If you’re a member of Orwell Bible Church, our church covenant helpfully spells out the “basics” of what it means to be a Christian. Use this as a starting point to evaluate your life—if there are areas you know that growth and change are needed, set some goals to grow more like Christ in that area (see below for examples).

Always remember that you don’t have the strength and ability in yourself to grow more like Christ—rely on the Lord, continually ask him for help, and share some of your goals with other church members so they can encourage and pray for you.

Also remember that growing more like Christ doesn’t happen automatically—you must discipline yourself to “consider the members of your earthly body as dead” and to “put on” the various characteristics and qualities of Jesus Christ (Col 3:5–17). Remember what Jesus said—“If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me” (Luke 9:23).

Some Suggested Goals Based on OBC’s Church Covenant

1. Use our Daily Devotional every day to help with daily Bible reading and prayer
2. Pray and plan to share the gospel in some way with at least one person a week
3. Attend more weekly services regularly
4. Take your wife out on a “date” once a week
5. Have family devotions
6. Have your neighbors over for dinner or coffee
7. Help an elderly neighbor with something
8. Ask Pastor what to study to learn Christian doctrine better
9. Memorize passages from our doctrinal statement
10. Take weekly sermon notes and study/apply them on Sunday afternoons
11. Be at Lord’s Supper every month
12. Pray daily for fellow church members
13. Sit by a different church member every week during our fellowship lunch
14. Increase your giving
15. Memorize passages about the “tongue”
16. Study all the “one another” passages in the NT
17. “Touch” a church member once a week by a phone call, letter, email, or personal visit
18. Study every passage of our church covenant, writing down how each one teaches the point in the covenant