Where do dreams go? Part II

There’s a verse in the Bible that I think I can safely say, every Christian loves.  I know this because we quote it all the time.  It comes up a lot, especially when someone’s going through a difficult time or has a decision to make.  In fact, we quote it at people all the time.  (Don’t you love when someone quotes Scripture at you instead of to you?)  What is this magic passage?  Well, I’ll tell you.  It’s actually two verses: Ephesians 3:20-21.

Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever. Amen.

Great verse, right?  God can do anything we ask Him to do.  Now those are words I want to cling to, don’t you?

I want to focus on two parts of this passage today in our continuing discussion on dreams and plans.  The first is this: God is a dreamer.  You think your child comes up with some wild ideas?  That’s nothing compared to what God comes up with!  This verse tells us that no matter what we dream up, no matter how big or good or how many people we think it will help, God can make it bigger, better and more far-reaching than our minds even have the capacity to grasp.  God is huge!  His imagination eclipses ours by light years.  I mean, have you seen some of the creatures living in the deepest oceans?  (Go do a Google search for images of deep sea creatures…wow!!  Or better yet, find a copy of Planet Earth.)

The second thing I get from this passage is that everything God does, everything He allows us to do, every idea He plants in our heads is for one purpose: His glory.  Everything we do in His name points back to Him – the Dreamer of every dream.  To HIM be the glory!

After pondering these two points for a while, I landed on another, far less cuddly truth: satan is a dreamkiller.  He lives to discourage us, to preoccupy us and to distract us.  And if none of those work, he’ll try to plant seeds of pride in our hearts.  Whenever we feel God calling us to do something for Him, satan will try each of these tactics in an effort to keep us from fulfilling the destiny God intended for us before we were born – and to keep us from bringing glory to God.

So while we’re quick to quote Paul’s words that God is able to do more than we can ask or imagine, we need to be aware that satan is out there plotting ways to thwart us in our dreams.  And while Ephesians tells us that we work in God’s power, that doesn’t mean we won’t occasionally fall into one of his traps.  We need to constantly be reminded that it is God who plants the dream.  It is God who provides the power to fulfill it.  And it is God who deserves all the glory.  

What is your dream?  How do you want God to use you?  Do you need encouragement to move ahead with a dream?

 

Where do dreams go?

This weekend I went home to celebrate Mother’s Day with my parents.  On Thursday, I had a list of things I needed to do: clean, pack, write, etc.  By 1:00, instead of making any progress on my list, I’d done two things that weren’t even on it.  Granted, in hindsight, they needed to be done too, but they weren’t knocking anything off my to-do list.  Who hasn’t had a day like that?

It occurred to me, as I checked my iPod again to see if it was done charging, that we all have agendas for our lives.  We have goals and plans.  But so often, we get distracted by other things we think we “need” to do that, while good and productive, do nothing to advance us toward those goals we’ve set. 

The Bible warns us against getting too caught up in our own plans and reminds us that God’s got some things planned for us that may or may not be what we have in mind (James 4:13-15 again, and of course, Jeremiah 29:11).  I don’t think for a second that God doesn’t want us to have plans and goals for our future.  He gave us the capacity to dream.  I think He likes it when we think about our futures (as long as we don’t get too set in our own plans that we don’t leave room for His leading).  Jesus said that He came so that we would full, abundant lives (John 10:10) and part of having a full life involves thinking ahead, hoping, planning and dreaming.

But just like we can get caught up in our own visions for the future, we can also get distracted and never quite get around to doing the things we always thought we would do – or the things God has for us to do.  Psalm 139:16 tells us that God knew exactly when we would be born and He knows exactly when we will die.  He also knows every day in between those two events and He has things He wants us to do with them.  But like poor Martha, we can get so distracted with things that are good and productive, that we either miss God’s leading, or we continually wander off to take care of more pressing matters to the detriment of full obedience.  Are we missing an opportunity God has given us to be a blessing to someone else because we’re in such a rush to get to the store and get home to make dinner that we didn’t see their need?  Did we fail to speak His words of encouragement to someone because we were too busy running to the next thing on Sunday morning?  We need to be on the look out, not only for God, but for the distractions, and preoccupations that satan throws in our way.  (More on that tomorrow…)

What’s your tendency?  Do you get distracted from or preoccupied with your dreams?