Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. -Hebrews 10:23 (NKJV)
Has God put a dream in your heart? It could be anything: ministry, a child, a family.
Do you find it easy to surrender other parts of your life, but not your dreams? I admit that I’ve been guilty of that. I was afraid that if I surrendered my dreams, then they might not come to pass.
In other words, I wasn’t being obedient. I was hanging on to self!
Oh…boy. Well. Where to start with that?
The larger Christian walk is all about surrendering in faith to a loving God who will take care of our every need, and hears every cry of His children. He created all things, and is greater than all things. So why not trust Him with the very dreams He gave you?
Two dreams given to Abram
In the book of Genesis, God gave the old and childless Abram the dream of having a son. Not only that, but God would make him the father of many nations, and as many children as there were stars in the sky!
And God can certainly make a way where there clearly is no way in our minds.
Dream 1: A child
On the way to Abram’s son being born, Abram and Sarai make some pretty serious goofs while trying to “help” God reach the promised dream: Abram gets Sarai’s servant, Hagar, pregnant with Ishmael, and much drama ensued. Nevertheless, He who promised is faithful, and God dubs Abram Abraham (father of nations) and Sarai is dubbed Sarah…and yet, they still have no child!
One year later, Isaac (he who laughs) is born to Sarah, as God promised. (Of course!)
Dream 2: A father of nations and countless children
God tests Abraham on the way to fulfilling the second dream by asking him to surrender the fruit of the first dream: to sacrifice Isaac to Him! Abraham doesn’t even blink, but obediently prepares and takes Isaac to the designated place to sacrifice him. Abraham binds Isaac, lays him on the altar, and raises his knife to kill him.
But God is faithful, and through an angel, tells Abraham to stop, and continues with His promise to fulfill the second dream. And here we are, Abraham’s distant descendants, reading about it!
Just trust
Before God brought these dreams to pass, this happened:
As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him. -Genesis 15:12 (NIV)
Dark precedes the dawn of a new day.
The dreams He gives us move and inspire us to follow Him with ever greater faith. And to entrust Him with those dreams, through obedient surrender, is to acknowledge that we do not control our destinies, but that He does…and that the sower of the dreams in our hearts will bring those seeds to fruition if only we will let Him!
This excellent Our Daily Bread devotional talks about this:
Have you given your dreams to God—both the fulfilled ones and the unfulfilled? It’s the only way to ensure that our dreams are under His hand, and that they don’t become gods themselves. As He did with Abraham, God may well give your dreams back to you or give them back in a new form.
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