By Megan Blansit
Founder of The Beautiful Movement - a youth ministry for high school girls. For more information, visit The Beautiful Movement’s Facebook page, where I post the time, place, and activity for each month
Do I have any big dreamers reading this today? Perhaps you want to be a doctor, a mother, write a book, and the list could go on and on! These are all great dreams and there is absolutely nothing wrong with having dreams. I think where we mess up as Christians is “erasing” those dreams from our heart if they aren’t accomplished in the time frame that we think they should come true in.
Before writing this I was flipping through my old journals and was in awe at the goodness of God and how his hand has been in my life every step of the way. There are things I dreamt (wrote) about in my journals four years ago that I am just now seeing come to fruition… and that’s okay! I think it is important to remember that just because we may give up on things doesn’t mean that God does. Time does not intimidate God; he is never late.
I would assume a lot of you laid out some dreams that you want to pursue in 2016. I want to pose the question- Are you making new dreams this year because you gave up on the ones you made last year? I would beg you to pick your old dreams back up and cling to them with expectancy. God wants the absolute best for you friend and wants nothing more than to give you your hearts desires. In order to have these hearts desires, we have one job, “Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart” (Psalms 37:4).
Lets think about a garden for a second. One cannot simply plant a few seeds and then vegetables magically appear the next day or even hours later. There is a process, right? Weeds have got to be pulled, the seeds need to be watered, and so on. Sometimes, before God can give us one of our biggest blessings our heart must be “pruned.” He may need to remove some pain, fear, insecurities, anger, or even some distractions (people). This pruning may be a painful process but it will be worth it! Sure, some of God’s blessings can happen in an instant but some things take a process. Friend, I beg you not to grow weary in the process.
When you pray for something, expect it to happen! Speak positivity over your life. Believe for the impossible; it’s fun. One of my favorite preachers (Steven Furtick) said in his book, Sun Stand Still, “If you’re not daring to believe God for the impossible, you may be sleeping through some of the best parts of your life.” He goes on to say, “ If you want to experience God’s blessings, audacious faith is not optional.” I also love this quote, “Our God is not intimidated by long-shot prayers.”
Think about the audacious faith Joshua had when he prayed, “O sun, stand still over Gibeon, O moon, over the Valley of Aijalon” (Joshua 10:12). Joshua wanted more daylight so that they would have a chance to defeat the Amorites. According to scripture, God gave Joshua what he asked for… “”the sun stopped in the middle of the sky and delayed going down about a full day.” That’s pretty incredible! I wonder how the story would have ended if Joshua did not pray such a bold prayer. I also wonder how many dreams we are missing out on being fulfilled because we lack the audacity to believe/ask God.
In closing, I challenge you to reevaluate your prayers and your dreams. We serve a big God who loves big, audacious prayers. Don’t ever be intimated to believe God for miracles. Just because something doesn’t happen on your time frame does not mean it will not come to pass. I am reminded of the song, “On Time God.” The lyrics are, “He may not come when you want him, but he will be there right on time; He’s an on time God, yes he is.” Pick up an old dream, pray bold prayers, and lastly have patience, friend.
