DISCOVERING GOD'S DREAM FOR YOU

Last week we talked about how God builds our faith. We said that God is primarily interested in developing character, and He uses a faith building program to do that in our lives. We said there are 6 phases in God's program, and they are:

DREAM - God gives us a dream to accomplish something ambitious.
DECISION - we decide to pursue the dream. DELAY- sometimes we encounter delays.
DIFFICULTY - sometimes we encounter problems.
DEAD ENDS - sometimes the problems seem impossible.
DELIVERANCE - God always solves the problems.

In this blog we are going to take a closer look at the first phase, which is DREAM. Dreams are ideas, goals, ambitions, or visions, and they always come from God. God uses dreams to direct us, shape us, define us and establish our place in His eternal plans. God's dreams always stretch us, because growth only happens when we are striving. God wants to give dreams to everybody - both great and small. Actually I've come to the conclusion that when it comes to dreams there is no such thing as great people. There are only ordinary people who are committed to great dreams. And great dreams come from God.

When we pursue God's dreams, He always makes us greater than we could ever be any other way. God's dreams give us purpose. People without dreams often feel like they're just existing. Have you ever felt that way? Kind of drifting aimlessly? People in this situation frequently ask questions like "Why am I here? - "What am I supposed to do?" - "What's the purpose of life?" And on and on. Without purpose we drift around. It's only when we discover why God made us, and what He wants us to do with us, that life makes any sense. When we become congruent with God, we have the highest value and significance we could ever have. Take a look at Jeremiah 29:11.

"For I know the plans I have for you,' says the Lord, plans to prosper you, not harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future" Jeremiah 29:11

God's plans for us are really His dreams for us. The two terms are actually synonymous, and the passage says God's dreams are personal. Notice He calls them "plans for YOU". These are specific plans, they are always positive. They give us a hope and a future. So how good is that? This is a verse worthy of memorizing and spending time meditating on it. Alright, as we pursue this subject, we are going to use an acrostic. We will use the word DREAM. We will use each letter of the word to guide our discussion.

So let's start with the first letter which is the letter "D". D stands for DISTRACTIONS must be eliminated. Since dreams come from God, it's important to eliminate any distractions that take our focus off of Him. Distractions are the main reason why people miss the will of God. And knowing God's will is essential to living an effective life.So how can we find out God's will? Well, Romans 12:2 gives us some insight on how to do that.

"Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect." Romans 12:2

The behavior and customs of the world are the distractions I was just talking about.They prevent us from finding out the will of God.A good example is the pursuit of what is called the "American Dream".The "American Dream" advocates:buying the biggest house, buying the best clothes, driving the best cars, going on the best vacations, accumulating as many possessions as possible. The "American Dream" is completely materialistic, and today it usually takes the combined incomes of the husband and wife to make it work.That's a huge distraction, because it's all-consuming. "I have to keep up with the Jones." "I need bigger and better toys to feel good about myself"."My status is determined by the size of my bank account." That's just one example of the behaviors and customs of the world.There are many others we could look at, but they all based on same hedonistic philosophy."If it feels good do it."Look out for number one."Winning is everything."I have to be better than you". That's how the world thinks... The Bible says don't think like this - don't think like the world.Instead the Bible says think like God thinks. And the way we do that is by studying the Scriptures. The Scriptures contain God's thoughts - not all of them of course - but the ones God wants us to know.And when we study them - we begin to think like Him - and we come to know His will. Romans 12:2 says God's will is good and pleasing and perfect.Perfect in the Greek language means it fits me - it's just what I have been created to be. And we must eliminate anything that gets in the way of finding that out. Take a look at Hebrews 12:1.

"Let us strip off anything that slows us down or holds us back. Let us run with patience the particular race that God has set before us." Hebrews 12:1

God has a specific life course for us to run, and nobody else can run it.But if we get distracted by the behavior and customs of the world, we're going to end up running the wrong race. We end up running the rat race, and that's not God's race. Well, I'm going to stop here. Next week we will pick up and talk about the rest of the acrostic, DREAM. Until then have a blessed week............…. 

Pastor Bob Reinhart
bob@riverrecoverychurch.com