Big Dreams

Psalm 37: 4

Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.

This certainly sounds like good news to me. You? And yet, I wonder. There seem to be many people who have not identified the desires of their heart. What is your dream? What do you want?

I remember when I was young that I didn’t go after everything I wanted. I kinda waited for things to come to me or for my parents to provide. There were definitely some things I would have liked to have done, adventuring types of things but I never told my parents. Those things were in my heart but not before my eyes. They were not where I could grasp them, so I didn’t pursue them. I regret that.

Life is different now. I understand my heavenly Father and that He wants to bless His kids. I now do with Him what I should have done more frequently with my parents. I tell Him what is in my heart. There is an important point buried in that statement though, because the thing I find I must do is to search my own heart.

Have you searched your heart lately? Do you know what is in there? Some call it soul searching. I find I need to spend time searching my heart. You know, you can go along believing you are pursuing your ambitions and yet when you slow down and search your heart find that your desires have changed.

Some people are going along without any dream at all! I don’t want to be that person, ever! To me, that isn’t living. It is existing. I do not believe our Lord gave us all these wonderful words to live by so we can just live day to day without a goal or ambition. I believe He wants to continue to fulfil our dreams until we step into the fulness of eternity where we will live our dreams fully.

This life is a dress rehearsal for the rest of eternity. We are authorized to dream big and to communicate those desires to the Father of fulfillment. I think about Ephesians 3: 20 where Paul described our Father, “who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us.” Paul teaches that our Father thinks bigger than we do and is able to fulfill dreams more grand than anything we have yet thought about or asked for. Come on! That is big! This verse would not exist if we were not supposed to have dreams and pursue them. It is part of God’s plan that we should take our heart’s desires to His throne room and give them to Him.

If you cannot, right this moment, say what your dream is, then take some time alone and search your heart. If all things are possible, and with God you know they are, then what do you want?

Here is my advice. Develop that deep desire. Communicate it to the Father and then Don’t Take Your Foot Off the Gas! Or, for the cyclists, Keep Pedaling. Don’t let age, failure, deadbeat relatives or anything steal your dream! Second, find someone who will agree with you. If you don’t have that person in your life, call me. You haven’t dreamed a dream big enough yet that I can’t agree with you! Let’s give Dad some fun things to work on. Let’s go big!

May your heart’s desires be fulfilled, in Jesus’ name.

It Ain’t Over Yet!

Genesis 37: 5

Then Joseph had a dream.

When God gives you a dream, you have to hold on to it with both fists. In truth, when God speaks to us, or shows us a dream or a vision, we expect to see it begin to unfold immediately. Why does he give us a vision of our future or a promise of prosperity and a good life without immediately putting the plan into action? I think the answer goes back to Jeremiah 29: 11, “For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for prosperity and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.”

The emphasis should be placed on the word, “hope.” Joseph had several dreams in which God communicated Joseph’s purpose. He saw himself being elevated above his brothers and even above his father. The dreams were clear and they encouraged and excited Joseph. You have had one of those dreams too, or a word from God. The very next thing that seems to happen is that you are flung down into a pit.

You know the story of Joseph. From the pit he went into slavery. However, the blessing was on him and he prospered his master. Although he found favor with his master, the next thing Joseph knows, he is in prison. From the pit, to slavery, to prison Joseph must have been wondering about the great promises from God. “Did God lie to me? Was He wrong? Have I done something wrong and frustrated the purpose of God in my life?” These are all the same questions we have asked when the vision from God looks nothing like our life.

The story of Joseph is good reading, but it is not in the Bible just to make a good Bible story. It is there to encourage us when our lives are in the pits. I am sure Joseph had his moments of doubt, but he hung onto the promise of God and believed despite his circumstances.

The facts don’t count. When we are in bondage, bowed down with the weight of life, we need to hold fast to the dream God has given us. There may be days of doubt, but we need to remind ourselves that God is not a man that He can lie. He will deliver us to the promised land. When you are feeling like life is the pits, and you wonder where God has gotten off to, remember Joseph. God fulfilled every dream and saved the nation of Israel through Joseph. He became the second most powerful man in Egypt behind Pharaoh. Not bad for a slave boy.

Don’t give up! The story isn’t over yet!