Writers 
Ask the Lord to Direct Your Goal Setting
The key for a Christian in goal setting is this: ask God to guide you as you set goals. Don’t put down things that you think would be fun to do, good to do, or even “spiritually righteous” to do. Ask God what He desires for you to do specifically, immediately, in the near future, and in the long run.
Begin any goal-setting session in prayer. Don’t do all the talking. Listen
carefully to what God may speak to your heart. Never underestimate what God wants to do for you, in you, or through you. Listen to what He brings to your mind and heart.
And then continue to mull over and pray about what the Lord seems to be leading you to establish as goals. Open your Bible and study particularly the passages that relate to the goals God seems to be nudging you to set. Spend some time contemplating the gifts and talents, and especially the spiritual gifts, that God has given you. Ask the Lord to give you a picture of how you are to use your talents and spiritual gifts and in which areas He desires for you to employ your gifts immediately.
Be especially concerned with what you set as a long-range goal. A longrange goal will tend to direct and guide a series of immediate and shortrange goals that are like steps toward accomplishing your long-range goal.
I wish to get very seriously about wanting to know what God wanted me to do.
There were times when I’d write down something but think, Well, now, that’s an egotistical thing to write down.
Through the years I’ve reviewed the list of goals more times than I can count. I have added a few things, but for the most part, that list remains intact. And I don’t mind telling you, with very few exceptions, I’m still working on each one of those goal statements! In a few cases, the things I had set as goals seemed to be accomplished fully.
A good long-range goal is likely to be one that you never reach fully and that expands over time the more you pursue it. It is likely to be a goal that is worthy of your pursuit all through your life. Rather than be accomplished, it may take on different expressions and characteristics over time.
Nevertheless, it is a goal that abides.
“But what,” you may ask, “if I write down a goal and it’s not of God?”
Before long, you will have an empty feeling about that goal. The more you pray about it, the less interested you likely will be. Scratch it off your list. If it truly is a goal from God, He will bring it to your mind and heart repeatedly. If it is not of God, you will think of it rarely and perhaps never again.
If you write down a goal and you then feel uneasy about it, restless in your spirit, troubled in your mind, questioning without answers, a nagging feeling in the pit of your stomach, go to God again and say, “Lord, have I heard You correctly on this matter, or is this just my own idea?” Listen closely to what the Lord says to you.
You are going to make mistakes in goal setting. Nobody is going to get the list right the first time. As you live out your lifetime goals, turning them into immediate and short-range goals, and living them out on a daily basis, you begin to discern which are godly goals and which are goals that fuel your lusts and fleshly desires.