During the past few months of my life I have been learning to fully rely on God for everything. This has definitely not been an easy thing to do and the spiritual battles that come with this type of trust are the worst I have ever experienced. I realized that I held dreams within my heart for not only myself but most importantly for my immediate family which I never did anything about. Sure, I would say things like, “One day I hope we live somewhere that…,” or either, “Later on in life, I want to…” but I would never pursue these things or even look into what it took to gain the things I desired. Maybe I expected God to just wake me up one morning with everything in place so that I wouldn’t have to go through any discomfort or stress. That sounds good, but really it isn’t because I wouldn’t appreciate my dreams when I received them if that’s the way I got them.
The Word of God says this about our dreams and desires in Psalm 37:4, “Take delight in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart.” Take a really long and deep look into what this scripture is telling you. Most people focus on the later part that says, “He will give you the desires of your heart” when in fact they miss the beginning and most pertinent part of the verse. It says that we must take delight in the Lord. This is a strong command that is so many times taken lightly. When you take delight in someone you are consumed, immersed, overtaken, and overcome with them. All you think about is that person and what they are doing, where they are going, and how they will affect your life. When we live like that and take true delight in the Lord, He will give us the desires of our hearts because our focus is now on doing His work and not self-indulgence or self-pleasure on our parts. When we ask for financial blessings it is so that not only our family can be provided for but that we can share it with other families who need to experience the true blessings of Jesus Christ! When we ask for healing in our bodies it becomes about what we can do for the Lord after we are healed and the awesome testimony we will share with anyone who will listen about how God healed us! When we ask for wisdom and success in our families and even our businesses it is not just so we can make the front page of the paper but that when we do win “Business of the Year” we can give all the credit to our Creator! Amen? Amen!
Okay, with that said, we have to do our part, too. We can’t just sit back and wait for God to just send us all our desires without working for them. God has given us a brain and a body to use for Him. He wants others to see us working toward our dreams even when the skeptics say things like, “She is crazy!” or “He will never achieve what he is setting out to do.” When the dream or desire has been accomplished through Christ Jesus those same skeptics will then begin to wonder about this God that you serve and just how powerful He is. Your life and work toward your dreams becomes the journey that becomes your testimony for the Lord’s goodness in your life. Now, be ready. This journey is hard and the devil will use anything and anyone to stop God’s will and plan for your life. At times, you will believe that you were stupid or silly to believe He could give you your dreams. At times, your closest friends and family will discourage you and tell you to quit. At times, you will cry out to God in pain wondering where He is in all the mess that is around you, but if you hold on and continue the fight, you will see miraculous things begin to flourish in your life. It may happen little by little, but it will begin to happen.
God will send you the materials you need. He will send you the finances you need when He sees you need them. He will place the right people in your path at exactly the right time. He will send you people who will encourage your heart along the way and never allow you to give up even on the darkest of dark days. When I tell you that God is your provider, I am not messing with you. I am dead serious. You may be thinking, well Jessica, how can you say all this to me? I can because I have lived it over the past few months and I am just now seeing my dreams begin to fall into place. I see why I had to break away from certain people or why I had to go through a very difficult season in my walk now that I am heading toward my dreams and the desires of my heart. I want the very same things for you and so does our Lord and Savior! He has great plans for you but you must believe it and claim it over your life. God never lies to you and in Jeremiah 29:11 He tells us, “I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Why on earth don’t we believe this when God declared it Himself? We don’t because we have been conditioned to believe what the world and people around us are saying. We become brainwashed, so to speak, and don’t believe we can accomplish our dreams. I am here to tell you that alone, you may never accomplish or see the desires of your heart come to pass, but with God you will. Stand strong and know that with God you have nothing to be afraid of.
By Jessica Daly | Published author and founder of My Daly Outreach Ministries | Website
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