Dare To Dream Again

Dare to Dream Again!

Imagine with me for a moment. A cool crisp night. The sky is clear and a myriad of stars are twinkling back at you.

There you stand. Just you and God. You think back for a moment to some times you had with God in your devotions. You remember when God promised you that your family would be all that God created them to be. There would be health, prosperity, and your descendants would be a blessed generation.

Then you come back to the reality of today. Your kids are still struggling. They

Don’t do what you tell them to do. Your marriage isn’t what it ought to be. Your life is still in the same shambles that it was before that time you did your devotions with God.

Well you have just entered that life of Abraham. It was years earlier that God had promised an 80 year old Abraham that he would be the Father of Nations, yet there was still no son. He wasn’t getting any younger and neither was his wife Sarah. They just kept getting older actually. They were the only couple who would have a baby and have to worry about diapers for the baby and for themselves.

I can imagine an old Abraham standing outside, gazing at the stars waving his fist in the air and saying, Lord is this really going to happen? Lord when I heard I would have a family, was that really you? I believe it was You. But what happened? Why don’t I have a son yet? Lord You promised! You promised!” And faith would build in the heart of Abraham as he continued to dream for the promise that God had for him.

“Then the LORD brought Abram outside beneath the night sky and told him, "Look up into the heavens and count the stars if you can. Your descendants will be like that-too many to count!" Genesis 15:5

How often do we fail to dream for God? How often does God want tot develop something within us, but we fail to achieve it, because we fail to dream for it?

God wants His people to be dreamers. He wants us to dream big dreams for Him and for what He can do in our lives. But there are some things we need to know about God given dreams.

God given dreams will…

Glorify God and help people – God given dreams are not about me. They do not demand credit or my name in the spotlight. God given dreams ultimately do something to draw people closer to God.

Requires me to develop my character and competence in order to be fulfilled. Simply put, just because I have a dream, does not mean that I am mature enough to accomplish it yet. It takes growth, counsel, evaluation, and adjustments along the way. God given dreams will require me to develop my character, my competence, and my commitment to Him. For instance, if God has put the dream of being a professional football player into this child, He will put a seed of professional football player into this little boy. That seed needs to be watered, nurtured, cared for, and worked on in order to come to fruition. That’s what God does. He puts dreams in us in seed form.

They require me to begin with what I already have. The principle is this. Be faithful in the little. God given dreams are not about what someone else will give me, it is about how faithful I am in utilizing what God has put before me.

What God given dreams do you have for the Kingdom of God? Dream. Dream big for Jesus. We need to be people who will dream big dreams for God and be willing to pay the price for change.

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There seems to be times in life when we are most receptive to change.

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First, when we hurt so much that we are forced to change. Jesus tells about this type of individual in Luke 15. The parable of the prodigal son illustrates that sometimes, it is only when we are looking up from the depths of the pigpen, do we truly see a need for change and make the commitment to do it.

Do you know that if you ever do a study on miracles in the bible or in life, it always begins with a problem? Let me encourage you this morning. IF you have problems, you are never closer to a miracle. There is bad news though. The bad news is that usually, our hurt needs to be great enough to create a desire to change.

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Second, people are inclined to change when they become bored and restless. Everyone experiences this at some point or another in life. A wife who senses that when the children are in school, she finds new things to get involved in or endeavors to take on. A husband whose job plateaus on his job and he begins to lose interest in his work. A dissatisfaction can be healthy when it urges us to begin to dream dreams for God.