Most of us have experienced a time when our lives appear to be standing still. No matter how hard we work, it seems like every door is closed and no new ones are opening. Often that's because we have an image in our mind of what we want to be happening, and when we see that it isn't we think nothing is happening.
When we get into this rut, we get frustrated. It seems just nothing goes our way. During those times, we try to fill a void in our lives by making drastic decisions that we hope will affect our happiness, but just end up causing more devastation to ourselves. We are chasing seventh heaven, but don't know how to attain it. We have a vision of how we want our lives. How much money we want to make, where we will live, and which path to follow to stardom. But will that vision in your mind really bring you happiness if you sacrifice everything in it's path to get you there?
God wants us to dream. He puts dreams in our heart for His purpose. But in our dreaming, He doesn't want us to exclude Him. God's Word says we will perish if we don't have a vision, but the vision we have must be His. If we don't have a vision from Him, then we don't have a vision that will ever be realized.
God wants us to surrender our dreams because we can't be led by Him if we are chasing after a dream of our own making. And He wants us to surrender all of them. That way He can tell us which of them are from Him and in line with His will, and which of them are ours and born out of our will. If they are only our dreams and visions and not His, we will experience unfulfillment, anxiety, and strife in this area trying to make them happen. Even if the dream in your heart is from God, you still won't see it fulfilled until you give it to Him. The dream has to be realized His way.
Each Fall, our rosebushes get trimmed way back to nearly nothing. For about four months they look like crooked knobby sticks from which nothing could ever possibly grow again. But when spring comes, they blossom and bloom beautifully. First, they grow little buds. Then one by one, they open and burst into all shades of reds and pinks. Abundant, fragrant, breathtaking, life-giving flowers that we love to look at and admire. That's what God wants to do with us. But first has to come the pruning. First comes the barren sticks. He wants to rid us of all that is unnecessary in order to bring forth beauty.
God puts dreams in our hearts to give us vision and inspiration and to guide us to the right path. The only way to be sure that these dreams and visions are aligned with God's will, is to lay them at the cross. Completely surrender your dreams to God and let Him put to death what He wants to put to death, and resurrect what He wants to resurrect. The ones that are not from Him will be buried forever. The ones that are from Him will be given new life.
We don't want to be just wishful thinkers, always living in a dreamworld and never seeing anything of significance materialize. When we have our own eyes set on our own goals, we will end up giving up things in life that weren't intended to be tossed aside. These are people or things that God had specifically placed in our lives for a reason, yet we walked away from them. We don't want to be continually chasing after something God is not blessing. We want to live with confidence that our hopes, dreams, and expectations are based on God-given certainty that He is behind them. This kind of hope is an anchor for your soul. This brings true contentment.
Dying to your dreams is not fun. It's painful. Especially if our identity is wrapped up in them. But we have to do what God asks of us. And we must have a right attitude in the process or it's meaningless. The Bible says that if I "surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing". (1 Corinthians 13:3). Doing the right thing with a bad attitude does not work. If you are looking for relief, for something to change in your life or looking for happiness that you cannot seem to find, let me tell you this friend. The greatest breakthroughs in life always come after a time of surrendering everything to God. I know for me, God was always faithful in this area. I would always say, "God, I release everything to you and I freely give you permission to take out of my life what is not of You". I've also prayed this prayer for my children, my relatives, friends, work, possessions and aspirations. It's difficult to say those words and mean them, but when we do the rewards are great.
I find these verses in Ecclesiastes very fitting.
Ecclesiastes 1:3-11 New International Version (NIV)
3 What do people gain from all their labors at which they toil under the sun? 4 Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains forever. 5 The sun rises and the sun sets, and hurries back to where it rises. 6 The wind blows to the south and turns to the north; round and round it goes, ever returning on its course. 7 All streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full. To the place the streams come from, there they return again. 8 All things are wearisome, more than one can say. The eye never has enough of seeing, nor the ear its fill of hearing. 9 What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun. 10 Is there anything of which one can say, “Look! This is something new”? It was here already, long ago; it was here before our time. 11 No one remembers the former generations, and even those yet to come will not be remembered by those who follow them.
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