I’m pretty much retired now, so I don’t have bosses asking me to write up goals or people asking me to do things that would interfere with my goals 😀. So, maybe my answer should be “seldom”.

Spiritually, it happens all the time. If your goal is to live for God, you’ll get the unspiritual side of yourself (sometimes referred to as the “flesh” in the New Testament), ungodly people, or the devil and his demons trying to distract you. Some people might dismiss all this. But, maybe even an atheist might think in terms of others or even parts of themselves being a bad influence that prevents them from achieving their goals to live according to principles.

Anyway, Scripture mentions the fact that we struggle against the world, the flesh, and the devil.

The World

We are to love the people of the world in the way that God loves the world. But in another sense, the world (including we ourselves by nature) is hostile to God, and God is hostile to the world because of sin. So, that’s the sense that John and James speaks of in the following verses – that is, a world that dismisses God and wallows in sin:

1 John 2:15
¹⁵ Don’t love the world or the things that are in the world. If anyone loves the world, the Father’s love isn’t in him.

James 4
⁴ You adulterers and adulteresses, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

Here, interestingly, James is speaking of bad behaviour within the church itself, not outside the church. They are creating a worldly culture that’s putting God out of the picture. So when James hears about their behaviour, he sees that there is little to distinguish them from similar behaviour that he sees in the pagan world.

He wants them to be holy, to be separate from the world’s hedonistic and war-like ways. Bad company corrupts good character. Again, even atheistic parents might worry if their children were getting involved with the wrong crowd. But there’s also God’s common grace. In all sorts of ways, God ensures that the world isn’t as bad as it could be. You can see some good in all societies, even if they have little interest in the true God.

We like to think that Christianity has had a good influence on the world, even among those who aren’t believers. But at times, missionaries discovered tribes who clearly displayed what we term “Christian” values without ever hearing about Christ. They learned through natural means that good behaviour simply makes sense. And even today, you get nations who have a strong Christian heritage, even if nominal or superficial, going to war with each other. So again, when we speak of the “world” in the bad sense, we should see it as aspects of communities, Christian and otherwise, that cherish values that are contrary to God’s word. To put it simply, don’t allow yourself to come under bad influences from other people or groups of people.

Romans 12:1-2
Therefore I urge you, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service. ² Don’t be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what is the good, well-pleasing, and perfect will of God.

The Flesh

Even if we kept away from everyone and committed our lives totally to Christ, we would still be subjected to temptation from within. There have been those who believed that they were fully sanctified and didn’t need to worry about temptation anymore. We should aspire to be like that, but we’re fools if we think that we’ve achieved it before we get to heaven.

Galatians 5:16-21
¹⁶ But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you won’t fulfill the lust of the flesh. ¹⁷ For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, that you may not do the things that you desire. ¹⁸ But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. ¹⁹ Now the deeds of the flesh are obvious, which are: adultery, sexual immorality, uncleanness, lustfulness, ²⁰ idolatry, sorcery, hatred, strife, jealousies, outbursts of anger, rivalries, divisions, heresies, ²¹ envy, murders, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these; of which I forewarn you, even as I also forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit God’s Kingdom.

All those evil things should be past tense, but so much of the New Testament speaks to Christians and encourages them to fight the evil within. Yet, we should in some senses think of it as part of the past because now we aspire to be like our heavenly selves:

Ephesians 2:4-5
2 You were made alive when you were dead in transgressions and sins, ² in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the children of disobedience. ³ We also all once lived among them in the lusts of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. ⁴ But God, being rich in mercy, for his great love with which he loved us, ⁵ even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—

The Devil

Because of medieval and modern depictions, people sometimes see the devil as a legendary character. And of course, the Bible itself does include much symbolic language depicting him as a serpent, dragon, and so on. But the devil is a real being. People don’t have too much difficulty anticipating the possibility of life on other planets in the universe. Why shouldn’t beings exist outside the universe? Where is the evidence? The evidence is in Scripture. It might not convince everyone, but it convinces me. Jesus didn’t dismiss him as an ancient Jewish legend. The devil tempted Jesus himself, and the New Testament is full of warnings about the devil and his demons (evil angel).

Here are a few verses about our encounters with the devil:

1 Peter 5:8
⁸ Be sober and self-controlled. Be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, walks around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.

Ephesians 6:11-12
¹¹ Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. ¹² For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world’s rulers of the darkness of this age, and against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.

So, I’m inspired by the Apostle Paul and his goals:

Philippians 3:12-14
¹² Not that I have already obtained, or am already made perfect; but I press on, that I may take hold of that for which also I was taken hold of by Christ Jesus. ¹³ Brothers, I don’t regard myself as yet having taken hold, but one thing I do: forgetting the things which are behind and stretching forward to the things which are before, ¹⁴ I press on toward the goal for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

2 Corinthians 9-10
⁹ Therefore also we make it our aim, whether at home or absent, to be well pleasing to him. ¹⁰ For we must all be revealed before the judgment seat of Christ that each one may receive the things in the body according to what he has done, whether good or bad.

But whether I’m fighting the evil within, the pressures from the world, or Satan Himself, I must not rely on my own strength. I remember a vivid illustration that a lady shared in a meeting back in the Autumn of 1980. Suppose you’re in a room and Satan is breaking down the door. And Jesus is gently knocking at another door at the other end of the room. Do you go and fight Satan or do you let Jesus into the room? Maybe it’s a bit of both, but I wouldn’t want to fight anything without Jesus by my side.