9 Steps To Reach Your Goal

If you study Genesis 24 further, you’ll find that Eliezer prayed during his entire mission. In verse 12 he prays before he starts. In verse 15 he prays after he arrives in Nahor. And in verse 52 he prays in front of Rebekah’s family.

So my question to you today is this: Are you praying about your goals? Are you praying about your future? Are you praying about your dreams or are you just kind of keeping them to yourself?

Your prayers reveal a couple of things. First, they reveal how serious you are about your goals. If you don’t pray about them, you really don’t care about them that much. If you only pray about them once, they are not a desire, they are just a whim.

The other thing your prayers reveal is how much you are depending on God to reach your goals. If you never pray about your goals, never pray about your job, never pray about your finances, you are not depending on God in any of those areas. The more you depend on God, the more you’ll pray.

So determine your present position, decide what you want, find a promise from God to hold onto, claim it, and then ask God for help.

Step #5 -- Identify the barriers

The servant said to him, "What if the woman does not want to return with me to this land?" Genesis 24:5 (NCV)

Ask yourself, "Why haven’t I reached my goal already?" What are the barriers, obstacles, and road blocks in your way?

It may be a financial problem or a relational problem or an educational problem holding you back. For some people, it’s an emotional barrier. A lot of people sabotage their own success because they think they aren’t worthy of it. Whatever your barrier is, you need to identify it before you can move forward.

In Genesis 24, Eliezer had a number of barriers to his goal of finding a wife for Isaac. He had to figure out how to get to a country he’d never been to, then he had to find the right woman he’d never met. And then he had to convince her to go back with him to a country she’d never been to and marry a complete stranger. Oh, and he had to convince her parents to let her go! Most people would call that "mission impossible."

Step #6 -- Create a step-by-step plan

"May he give you the desire of your heart and make all your plans succeed." Psalm 20:4 (NIV)

In Genesis 24:12-14, we see that Eliezer designed a simple but well-thought plan to find Isaac’s wife. He took ten of Abraham’s camels with him, loaded with samples of the best of everything Abraham owned. He journeyed to Nahor and then made the camels kneel down outside the town beside a well.

Eliezer then prayed, "O Lord, God of my master, Abraham, please give me success on this mission. See, I am standing here beside this spring. This is my request. When a young woman comes to draw water, I will say to her, ’Please give me a little drink of water from your jug.’ If she says, ’Yes, have a drink, and I will draw water for your camels, too,’ let her be the one you have selected to be the wife of my master’s son." (Genesis 24:42-44 NLT)

Now this was a big deal because camels can drink a lot of water. So that meant the woman would have to draw 20, 30, maybe 40 buckets of water. That’s a serious commitment. And that’s the kind of woman Eliezer was looking for - a woman who was kind, generous, had a servant’s heart, was willing to help someone in need and would go the extra mile.