I believe these dreams are in fact, promises of God and we need only following his leading and wait on his timing.
Sounds downright easy, doesn’t it? It’s that last part though that gets most of us.
When my sister was in her middle twenties, she had never really had a boyfriend and was starting to get panicky about all the dreams she had for a husband, home and kids. She was beginning to doubt she'd ever have those things. She actually said to me, maybe I'm just not meant to have those things. Maybe god doesn’t want those for me.
I told her it was my belief that if she wanted them that badly, if they were a part of her heart and soul, that was something god put there and he doesn't give us a dream without giving us the answer for it.
I still believe that today.
My sister didn't take what I said to heart though and soon after that conversation she married a man who abused and controlled her life for nearly two decades to follow. A man who in essence took every single dream she had about being a wife and mother, and tore them to shreds. She married him because quite frankly, she doubted she'd ever have another chance and she decided to make things happen in her timing, in a way that made sense to her.
My sister's story is not uncommon, in fact there is a bible story very similar to what she did, the story of Abraham and Sarah.
- Wikipedia's version.
- From the bible.org
Abraham and Sarah were told they were going to have a child. God sent angels to tell them directly that Sarah would give birth to a son and from that son would grow a mighty nation.
Sarah of course laughed because she was literally too old to have children and there would be no way someone who'd never become pregnant in all the years of their marriage would be able to wrap their mind around becoming pregnant now all of a sudden, but god promised them.
The promises of god are a very big deal and I believe we all have promises from god, as I said before, we call them dreams.
My sister's dream of a man and a home and children, those were promises from god.
My dream of writing success, and travel, and great passionate love, those are promises from god.
They are not to be taken lightly. They are to be treasured, believed in and nurtured until the appointed time when those dreams come to fruition, and make no mistake, there is an appointed time!
Have I got you thinking at all about your dreams?
Are you wondering if they could possibly be a promise from god?
I think one of the things that trips us up at times is that we confuse a goal with a dream, but there is a big difference between those two things. In essence, a goal is something you desire, most likely for very good reasons, but it’s not a promise from god. Those live in your soul in an entirely different way.
A goal is something you've stumble upon that seems like a good idea, or even a necessity, losing ten pounds, a vacation to the south of France, running a marathon. Oftentimes a goal is something you use to achieve your dreams. You dream of opening your own storefront, your goals may be to check out real estate, make a business plan, take a business course at the community college.
Goals can be good and important, but should never be confused with dreams.
That is a promise from god.
Going back to Abraham and Sarah, and to a lesser degree, my sister, When we take our dreams that god has given us, and we give them back to him, meaning we say, you created this, you know the course and the timing, and we focus on obedience and patience, amazing things will happen in our lives. We will achieve those dreams and they will be bigger and so much more than we ever realized.
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. ~ Roman's 8:28
Abraham and Sarah finally did give birth to a son, Isaac, and they were very blessed and god fulfilled his promises through that child.
However... If you are familiar with the story, Abraham and Sarah got impatient and worried along the journey to the fulfillment of god's promise and they took matters into their own hands at one point. Sarah gave Abraham one of her servant girls to take as a mistress and have a child with and they did indeed have a child.
I'm sure in the moment, they all thought they were following god's plan and that this other child, Ishmael, was the promised one. It is easy to get confused and lost when we are waiting on god. We take what we were once so certain of and as time passes, we twist the meaning of the vision we had and try to make it fit into something that makes sense to our own minds.
My sister, I'm sure at the time, thought well finally god has brought me the man I should marry. Even though I'm certain she had doubts, she talked herself into that marriage. I remember her telling me at the time she knew this was the man god had brought into her life to be her husband.
We do this all the time, especially when god is taking longer to respond to us then we'd like.
As for Abraham and Sarah, sadly by taking matters into their own hands, by trying to make the way of god make sense to their minds, they caused sorrow and heartache for generations to come. God still fulfilled his promise, Isaac was born and was greatly blessed and grew into a great nation. However, Hagar and Ishmael suffered and the rivalry between the brothers is said to live on today in the trouble we see in the middle east.
My sister is finally taking steps to remove herself from her marriage and I believe there is still a wonderful man out there who will help her heal and who was created to love her to the depths of her soul. A man who will fulfill the promise god placed in her heart for a home and a family, but by taking matters into her own hands, she made it all so much more complicated and brought a great deal of pain down on herself and those who love her.
We all do this. We all make mistakes. We all get tired of waiting on God. If there's one thing we can pretty much be sure of, god's timing is NOT our timing.
That being said, I think what I'm beginning to learn is just how much more abundant and colorful our lives will be when we wait on him to bring fulfillment to his promises.
Take my move to Florida for instance.
I moved here in large part to be at Disney. I've been here six months now and yes I go to Disney often, but I have not yet been able to go inside the parks. I've yet to experience the full magic of anything other than the beauty of the resorts and as the holidays are rapidly approaching, my longing to get inside and experience the fullness of the beauty is killing me, but I cannot make this happen on my own.
Being here was a promise from god and he will fulfill that part at the appointed time and I will wait on it regardless of how I feel about it. Because you see, I've learned from both my own experiences and from watching those around me, when we force god's hand, when we push his timing into what we want, then what we get in return is a twisted lesser version of the promise we've been holding in our hearts. I don't ever again want that.
There's a man in my life right now as I'm sure most of you know. He's nine hundred miles away. Am I supposed to be with him? I'd bet my life on it. I've seen it. I've had visions of it. Every cell in my body says yes he's my heart... but the timing isn't right. He has things to do. I have things still to do.
Do I hate this?
YES!
Does it matter how I feel about it?
No.
I could wine and push and force our togetherness, but I believe in doing so, I'd break us. I'd break what we have and worse, I'd break our future. I'd pervert the promise god has brought me in this man and I'll end up with Ishmael rather than Isaac. I've made this mistake in the past. I won't make it again this time.
I believe I've been promised great love. I've taken a few chances at it and haven't seen it come together, yet, but I know it will. I believe I have a shot at this promise with him and for once, I'm not going to mess with this. I'm going to stay faithful and focused and wait on god's timing for this relationship to start bearing abundant fruit.
That being said, if Tony can't believe, or he sees an Ishmael he'd rather have, then that's his loss.It doesn't affect my promise, god will bring someone else to fulfill this promise. I know to the depths of my soul I was created for a great love affair and I will have it. It's just a matter of timing. ;-)
When we wait on god and his timing, the fruition of the promise is more than we ever realize possible. The colors are bright, the fruit is sweeter, the love is deeper, the joy is more abundant.
I will never again rush god's timing and grasp for something that may be mine, but simply isn't ready yet. I never again want the watered down, next best thing.
I want the fullness of god working in my life and from this day forth, I will never again settle for anything less. I want Isaac and I will wait until I can have Isaac. Period.
On Day Four of my 21 day challenge I believe I will experience God's faithfulness. I will not worry. I will not doubt. I will keep my trust in him, knowing that he will not fail me. When we trust in him like that, we open great power in our lives. I want that kind of power, I will trust with everything I am and walk in faith, believing God will reign true in the promises he's made to me. I will give birth to every promise God has put in my heart, from the great passionate love, to the success in my writing, to my ability to touch and change lives. I will see things things grow and thrive in my life, without doubt and I will become everything God created me to be. And to that I say Amen!
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