OUR DREAMS IN LIFE?
JEREMIAH 29: 11/15 says that He has a plan for our life.
"For I know the thoughts and plans that I have for you, says the Lord, thoughts and plans for welfare and peace and not for evil, to give you hope in your final outcome."
Let us start with this idea and expand on it. When you interview people in their older years you will get mixed opinions. "Did you have a dream to do something in specific?" Like travel when you retire, or build a house in the woods and live a much quieter life. Maybe you even put money back and wrote your plan down about how to execute it. Some of those dreams start early in life. I remember hearing my parents talk about things they wanted to do. It was quite interesting to observe their surprise at how so many of them came true even before they were 60. So, in my mind I start forming career ideas and retirement ideas. I was told you get to 65 and you maximize your dream. You stop working every day and get in the RV and start traveling. You must see the world that you didn't get to while you were busy.
Today, however, when I listen to friends who had a dreams are seeing them change and or be totally rerouted. Some are angry, some are perplexed. "So my plan and dream wasn't God's?" "I thought He answered the desires of our heart if we delight in Him?" Psalm 34: 4 and 5. "And, while we're on the subject, my career goals and dreams didn't go the way I had planned either!" "What about that?"
This is a subject we could hash over for a very long time. In one of my small groups we are studying how to tell when we want to do something, or need to make a decision about something; is it us hearing the plan or does it line up with God's Word? Does it line up with God's character, does it line up with other messages we are hearing, or is it beyond our ability to do right now. Is God trying to talk to me and I am not listening? If we know He has a plan for us to bring us peace, hope and success, why aren't things going that way at all?
I am not the end all to having answers here, but this is just one woman's ideas and experiences.
Had my dream for having a "on the road" speaking and writing tour come true, I would have been sent home years ago or been put in the hospital miles from home. Since I was born with Tuberculosis that brought on all kinds of immune deficient diseases that I have incurred over all these years and culminated in the early 90's. It would have been a disaster. When I realized that things were never going to be as I had "dreamed", I asked the Lord for another plan, His plan, but one that have some of the things I felt so led to explore and do in my life time. Now when I look back on all that, I see that life can throw you curves. The dream was strong, those abilities still there, but God just channeled in a dialed back version. I couldn't have ever had the strength to do all I believed in doing. The neat thing here is, that I learned how to let Him re-channel that dream. We all do. Life happens, things we didn't plan on spilling over onto us. Taking care of a loved one. I could name hundreds of examples.
Pastor Stuart was explaining the beatitudes today and how being humble was such a part of learning about changes in our lives. Being flexible. Meek isn't weak. It is picking up your pieces and re-stacking them according to what you hear TRULY believe He honors those dreams by turning you down another road. Please don't be obsessed with your dream and vision. If you are - you will miss the road sign to another adventure. Life isn't always fair, that is true, but it is still your life and God formed you. He clearly formed you. Psalm 139. So He knows. He knew you would come down this road. Do it with a Joyful and Glad heart. He knows what He is doing. It could be better you know. How will you know if you don't try it.
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