The Power of a Dream - Part 1

Everyone has a dream. Our dreams may be modest or substantial, they may seem attainable, or look and feel downright impossible. I believe that God gives us dreams so that we have something to look forward to, something to hold on to when our circumstances scream “No way!” The power of a dream is incalculable.

A seed is a a tiny, hard little nugget. It doesn't look like much at all. Yet every seed has within it the DNA, if you will, the very imprint of the plant from which it came. A seed cannot help but reproduce and bring forth what is inside of it. When properly planted, watered and cared for, it will sprout, grow, and produce. A dream is a seed of God’s promise deep in our hearts.

Perhaps the dream God has already deposited in your heart seems an agonizingly remote possibility. However, if our dream-seed falls onto good, believing soil within our hearts, and if we faithfully nourish it, our dreams will grow into reality.

So, how, exactly, do we nourish a dream? Habakkuk 2:2 tells us, “And the Lord answered me, and said, write the vision, and engrave it so plainly upon tablets that everyone who passes may be able to read it easily and quickly as he hastens by.”

To engrave means to make a permanent mark. In other words, we keep the dream alive in our hearts. We don’t allow time or circumstances to fade our dream away to nothing.

We further nourish our dream by remembering the essential role of prayer in bringing it to life. Psalm 37:5 says to “Commit your way to the Lord – roll and repose each care of your load on Him; trust, lean on, rely on and be confident also in Him, and He will bring it to pass.” As we pray, we partner with God in watering and cultivating the seed. When we pray, we place our tender dream into God's faithful and protective hands.


Next, we can thank God ahead of time for what He’s doing, even when it seems like nothing is happening. Romans 4:17 says that God is the One “…Who gives life to the dead and speaks of the non-existent things He has foretold and promised as if they already existed.” When our dreams have not yet materialized, (and face it - some seeds take forever to sprout) God, who is the author and finisher of our faith as well as our dreams, has the ability to bring them forth - and to keep us sane and peaceful as we wait.

And possessing a dream is a process. Join me next week when I'll post The Power of a Dream Part 2.


5 comments:

Kelly said...

THanks for sharing. I'm looking forward to next week!

Anonymous said...

Hi, Julie. I received your email. You are my first official blog friend! I LOVED this post as it really captivated my heart and thoughts. I have not even allowed myself to dream for a very long time so I am praying to the Lord to awaken the dreams that have been hidden in my heart. You are so inspiring! I am just blessed to be introduced to you.

Your new sister in Christ,
Heather

Anonymous said...

I have a list of dreams in the back of my journal and before I wrote them down I quoted Matt. 21:22: "If you believe, you will receive what you ask for in prayer." The next line was thanks. I should re-read that list and start crossing some stuff off. :)

Sonya Lee Thompson said...

This was so precious to my heart today. God has given me a dream, a vision for a new ministry and I am finding encouragement everywhere I go. Like here, and on Saturday Starr wrote about dreams from the Lord, as well.

I love when God just encourages us over and over, lovingly nurturing in us that thing that He started.

I can't wait to read part 2. I've printed out part 1 to just ponder.

Thank You for allowing God to use you in writing this.

Kay Martin said...

Grea work on the power of God's dreams to His children. Loved this post.

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