Originally published Monday, 15 February 2016.
When did you stop dreaming? When did you give up your vision?
If I’m not dreaming, I’m not happy. These days, I spend a lot of time turning my face to the heavens smiling at the One who changes impossibilities to possibilities. I praise the God who writes my name on tasks the world says I’m unqualified to accomplish. I stand expectant while respecting His will and knowing it’s ultimately the best plan for my life.
Bottom line: If I can’t cast a vision I feel trapped.
Without a sense of vision I might as well die. I know it sounds dramatic, but I need vision to live an abundant life. In my younger years, it was as if there was a cap closing off the flow of vision. There were days I wasn’t sure I would ever dream again. I lived through five miscarriages and a stillborn daughter. I learned that sometimes dreams die. Literally.
I was twenty when I had my first miscarriage, and I liken it to Eve standing in the garden eating a bite of that irresistible fruit. Unlike Eve, I didn’t do anything to cause the eye-opening effect of seeing the harsh realities of a world filled with not only good but so much evil. However, ready or not, I was faced with the shocking fact that bad things happen to good, godly people, and I was no exception.
It took time for hope to rise high enough to unhinge the obstruction hindering my dreams. I had to learn to muster faith in a brand new way. Overtime, I took back my dreams. After all, they were mine and there was no way I was going to allow the enemy to rob me of my faith in the God who can do ALL things.
When my daughter Courtney was born still at thirty-five weeks, we prayed over her asking for a miracle. As we held her sweet yet lifeless body, we wanted nothing more than for her tiny lungs to fill with breath, begin crying, and stun the medical staff at the hospital. She didn’t. We told God it would be for His glory and tried to convince Him through tears that He should give us this miracle. He didn’t.
Sometimes when you believe in the God of miracles and then feel slighted when you don’t get the one you think you need most, it’s painful and your perception of this great, big God changes.
For a very long time, I allowed my problems to be bigger than my God – The God who created the universe, which includes a sun that shines from 92.96 million miles away and still burns the skin. How could I ever have believed His design was faulty? How could I ever have believed He was smaller than the mountains I faced?
I tell you all this about my life only to encourage you. Friend, you must stand firm on the foundation of faith in a God who knows all, sees all, and has a plan for all things! You must continue to cast a vision for your life even when it seems too hard to think beyond today.
You cannot allow pain from your past, or even present, to dictate the abundance of your future. You have a purpose here regardless of what this evil world, and the enemy trying desperately to rule it, throws your way. And better than that, you serve a God who created you, loves you, and wants a relationship with you. He breathes dreams deep down in your soul and those dreams and visions for your future have the power to restart your heart regardless of the attacks you face.
For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
-Romans 8:18
God wants to reveal Himself in you and through you! That scripture tells you how much worth you have! You are so valuable to the One who created you.
There is much that can be stolen in this life, but your faith in God is yours alone. No one can take it. Stake a claim to your dreams even in the face of adversity!
Don’t give up; cast your vision!
Love,
Jennifer
SHARE
