The other day I posted about a vision / dream I had for my church, today in my devotional was an article titled, “Are You Dreaming?” I thought it was far too coincidental!! Let me share it with you.
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Ephesians 2:8-10
What are your dreams for the future? You have some, right? Your dreams are about what matters most to you. Ask yourself, If I could see God do anything with my life, what would it be?
You could be saying, “Well, I don’t have any dreams like that.” I think you do. Take another minute and reflect. Sometimes we don’t focus on our dreams because we’re fearful they won’t come true.
Put those objections aside and let God give you a vision for your life – something big. Something only He could orchestrate. Ephesians 2:10 explains God’s purpose for your life as: You “are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works.”
So let’s dream a little: Does that something great God has prepared for you to do relate to your career? Does it involve what happens in your home with your spouse and/or kids? Is it about you being part of what God is doing at your church? Maybe God has His sights set beyond all that. Maybe He’s thinking globally!
Of course in all this dreaming remember you can do nothing great for God by yourself. It’s nothing short of incredible to think Almighty God would stoop to work through broken and imperfect vessels like us in the first place, not to mention doing something big for His own glory. But that’s always been His strategy. Amazing!
Determine to spend some time thinking about and asking God to show you what big dream He has for you to accomplish this year and in years to come. Fight the urge to rationalize all the reasons why it can’t happen. (I’m too young/too old. This is too big of a dream. I’m not able.) Pour out your prayers in your journal or talk with a trusted friend about how you would love for God to use you.
Believe that God orders the pieces of your life to make you a fruitful part of His plan. In this moment, things may not be exactly as you would hope them to be but gain strength from the promise of Philippians 1:6 that God continues a work in your life that He fully intends to finish.
Hey there Shash!
You are a such a character!
Last chance, girl!
I’m beggin’! May I please, please straighten up your blog for you?!! It is so helter-skelter! You love to blog, so you should have a place of beauty! It is a very pretty blog but the work is not complete on it so the beauty is being lost.
Wow! If I were a preacher, I could build a whole sermon around this!
Listen, you don’t even have to send me your username and password!
1. Just go to your Dashboard.
2. Click on “Layout”.
3. Click on “Edit HTML”.
4. Click on “Download Full Template”.
5. Select “Save to Disk” and click “OK”. (Just make sure you know where it is being “saved” on your desktop — usually the computer will save all downloads in the same place)
6. Open an email and address it to me: allenbloggermail at gmail dot com
7. Write me a little note saying you intended to do this LONG ago but you’ve been SO busy (I can word it for you if you like! I’m so very well in practise myself at writing those kinda notes!!!)
8. Attach the downloaded template file to the email
9. Click on “SEND”
See … in less than 10 little steps your crooked little bloggie can be made all better! I can fix up the template and send it back to you by email with instructions how to delete the old and paste in the new. If that’s too scarey, just send me your secret words — you can change them when I’m done!
In addition to straightening it, I would like to pull in your margins a teensy bit so the type isn’t right at the edge. Also, I’d like to make the type just a smidge bigger and, because you tend to type quite a bit in a post, I’d draw the space between the lines of type in closer. That way you’ll be able to type away to your heart’s content without it seeming like it is an extra long post.
Let’s see … if this was a sermon I think I should end it with something like “I will not always strive with you forever!” 🙂
Hey Shash…well, it goes to show you my frame of mind – I didn’t even notice your blog was crooked!! Maybe I’m walking around on a bit of a tilt – I’ll have to straighten up.
And as for the dream thing – good post! Just think what we could do for the Kingdom’s sake, if we stop being bound by what our eyes see, what the world tells us, and what we tell ourselves – and start letting the dreams of God that He has planted within us, take root and bear fruit!
wouldn’t you know that at the womens retreat I went to they spoke of dreams that God gives too!?
I don’t think your blog is crooked either!
I am holding on tight to the dream we had when moving here, and have to fight for that dream to become a reality!
It’s a little off kilter. Look at the black thingys at the corners of the different sections, they don’t line up. That’s what Carol-Ann is talking about. 🙂
Hey girls,
Obviously none of you browse the internet with Firefox. The gal who designed this blog did an excellent job. It is beautiful! But it is not compatible at all with the Firefox Browser which many, many bloggers use and it does appear to have problems even in Internet Explorer.
Shash is such a consistent blogger she deserves to have a blog that looks its beautiful best no matter what browser swoops in on it!
And since I love to tinker with stuff, she’s allowed me the privilege, after much begging and pleading, to tweak it’s caricature!
Cheers to all!
Carol-Ann
If we will but believe the dream that God gives us, we will see it grow and become complete. I realize that dreams and visions are different from one another, but they are also similar. With that in mind, I will just take a little liberty and say this; without a dream a people will perish. We have nothing to reach for without a dream.
I agree with you sista, I think it’s a dangerous place to find yourself in when you stop dreaming. I believe dreams are hope and it is an integral part of our life.