When God whispers a dream for your life, make no mistake: The journey to it will be hard.
A God-inspired dream is an unquenchable fire that smolders in our hearts. Some refer to it as a “Calling” a divine prompting that settles deep within our soul. It is the very essence of who we were created to be.
Do you have such a dream? Do you have a “nagging of the spirit” that will not go away?
Like being homesick for a place that you have yet to call home,
a God-inspired dream is the vision of something that is not … but longs to be.
We cannot escape such a vision; it returns to us again and again. Sometimes the longing is so intense that we wish it would go away like a painful hunger.
In every great Bible story, God’s chosen one comes to a place where it looks like he will never reach his goal. The obstacles are too great to overcome and the giant is too powerful to beat. It’s the time when all seems lost. The road is too hard and too long.
This is the exactly time when many quit … but if we press on,
it is often the point where our story makes a dramatic turn.
It is here, in the face of odds too great to overcome, that we finally understand that only God can move the mountains in our way. When we come to the end of ourselves– our schemes, strategies, talents, and human ingenuities– and finally understand that it is not enough to achieve our goal.
Here we discover that it is God and only GOD Who has the power to hold back the waters that keep us from our dream.
The question is, are you willing to stay the course?
Are you willing to trust God when your dream seems lost?
Last fall, as I prepared for an online study about finding God’s promised land for our lives, the circumstances of my own life became such that I had to lay that dream down. Entirely. And it was painful to say the least.
How bizarre to begin an online study about crossing through a painful, dry wilderness to the point of crossing over into a Promised Land— the realization of a God-given dream—only to find myself suddenly and unexpectedly miles away from reaching it? There was only one thing I could do, and that was lay my dream on the altar. I believe that if God wanted it to be, He would resurrect it when the time was right.
As I held out my open hands and gave that dream to God, I found the peace that I had been missing. I don’t want a dream that God isn’t weaving into existence. I don’t want to make it happen. I only want it if God breathes it to life.
We don’t win our dreams by wresting with God (as Jacob did in Genesis 32), but by surrendering. When I surrendered, God gave blessings, peace and joy that I did not expect.
I held out my broken dreams to God and asked that He take them. I even went so far as to ask him to take away the longing for it, too, but He would not. So here I am.
I am miles and miles from the place I envision, and yet the vision remains. When it has hurt too much, when I seem to be walking farther and farther away from my dream, I have chosen to pray these simple words:
“I trust you, Father.”
I know I could wrestle for this dream for all of my life. I could whine and complain and be angry and bitter because it is not yet my own. But instead, I am choosing to find great joy in the journey. Each day, there is some small hint of that dream will come to pass one day. Little reminders that I may, in fact, be nearer to it than I know.
And you? Do you have a dream that you cannot let go? What comes to your mind when you are alone and quiet and God speaks in the quietness of your heart?
Learn to know and listen to His voice, my friend. Not the shrieking of our selfish desires, but the gentle stirring of the voice of God. His ways are not our own, but through Scripture, we can learn to recognize it. His call always is selfless … and it always glorifies God.
I know this: I am on a journey, and the journey is… wonderful.
Even today, I am blessed by it.
A Promise for You:
I will lead the blind by a way they did not know; I will guide them on paths they have not known. I will turn darkness to light in front of them and rough places into level ground. This is what I will do for them, and I will not forsake them.
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great story, totally confirmation on what I am experiencing. Thank you for putting it on paper for me. Never alone, always an answer and insight away.
Hi, Marjo! It’s cool how God leads us on similar journeys, don’t you think? Have a blessed day!
Wow, Kelly! “I am miles and miles from the place I envision, and yet the vision remains.” That one phrase is hauntingly brilliant! There is so much good stuff in this post, I could keep chewing on it for days. It is a great comfort when a dream is deferred to remember that the journey can be enjoyable and that because we trust, we don’t have to worry about a timeline. We cannot miss OUR boat, it will arrive, right on time. Have a POWERFUL week, friend.
Oh, Allegra, you are so right! It will arrive, right on time. One of the blessings that I have had recently is getting to know you, an amazing, incredible, and POWERFUL woman! Expecting big things from you!
Just found this post, my email had sent it to spam and I didn’t know it existed until I went looking for something else today. I needed it today. Today is my first day of being laid off from a job that was an answer to many months of prayer. Thank you for you words that remind me that God is still there and He has a plan that is better than I could ever imagine.