Your Wildest Dreams

“No one to tell us ‘no’ or where to go or say we're only dreaming.”

Our God is the God of the impossible: "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible." (Matt 19:26)

The words God has spoken over you and the things He has promised in your life will neither fail nor come up empty: "For no word from God will ever fail." (Luke 1:37)

Our God is at work in ways that we will never know, doing things we could never think of, going beyond all we could dream of. He is good and powerful and loving beyond our wildest dreams:"Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us.." (Eph 3:20)

In light of these truths: 

Don’t let the world, or doubt, or hopelessness, or disappointment dim the dreams, the unspoken desires that God has put in your heart. 

Don’t let people talk you down from chasing the things, the mission God has for you. 

Don't let tiredness or failure cause you to let go of the hope that you have in Jesus. 

Don’t listen to the words that try and shape you and make you into anything less that what our Father has for you.

No one— not you, not your enemies, not the devil— can say no to the plans and dreams and the hand of God in your life. He's bigger and beyond even your wildest dreams. 

 

Soaring, Tumbling, Freewheeling

“I can open your eyes, take you wonder by wonder
Over, sideways and under on a magic carpet ride...
Soaring, tumbling, freewheeling through an endless diamond sky”

Life ain't simple. There are good days and bad days. Hopes crushed and dreams fulfilled (Prov 13:12). Friends made and friends lost. Plans made and plans unraveled. It's pretty complicated at best.

Sometimes even, life feels like a straight up washing machine, a big wave that keeps taking you out – like you’re tumbling round and round, not making progress and semi drowning – i.e. not a fun time.

This does not mean Jesus has bailed on you. He is still there in the washing machine; He is there through the storm. Sometimes it's just that over, sideways and under is part of his journey for you. In Matt 14:22 Jesus sends his disciples in a boat across the lake, full well knowing that they would be facing a storm on the way. The rough time was not outside of God's sovereign and perfect will for their lives.

So the question I ask myself today is: what am I going to do with the hard, topsy-turvy moments of my life? Am I going to let them sandpaper me more and more into God’s shape? Or am I going to drop my lip and hop off the carpet, thinking my way is better and easier? Will I choose to learn from my mistakes or will I shrug my shoulders to the correction and conviction and keep on making the same mistakes? Will I push into Jesus in the adversity, or will I push him away? Will I hold on tight through the rough patches, through the motion sickness and nausea, knowing that God’s beautiful will for my life will prevail (Jere 29:11, Prov 19:21), that he will complete what He has started in me (Phil 1:6), and that he is always in control (Romans 8:28)? 

Sometimes we will soar and sometimes we will tumble. Keep going. Keep fighting the good fight. Keep running with perseverance the race marked out for you. Sometimes you will freewheel and life will be effortless. Other times it will feel like you have to push through miles of chin deep mud. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God you will receive his promises (Heb 10:36). Fix your eyes on Jesus and push through.

The endless diamond sky of eternity with Jesus will be so absolutely worth it!

I Can't Go Back

“I'm like a shooting star, I've come so far
I can't go back to where I used to be”

Redemption and sanctification – what beautiful things! Things of moving forward, of advancing, of transformation to become more like Jesus.

Remember where you have come from, but don't go back there. Use your rearview mirror as a point of reference, but look forward to the new things God has for you. Don’t give even an inch of the ground taken back to the devil. Don’t give him a foothold in any shape or form (Eph 4:27).

I pray that the kingdom of heaven would continue to advance in us every day. Would we fight for our freedom and our purity. May we never back down!

I saw a quote where Khaleesi says: "I will not let those I have freed slip back into chains." How much more is that the heart of our God? Galatians 5:1 says "It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery." Jesus gave his precious life that we may be free -- let's live in that spacious place and not go back to where we used to be.

Don't Let Your Heart Decide

“Tell me, princess, now when did you last let your heart decide?”

Jeremiah 17:9 says, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?"

Don’t know about you, but I sure don’t want my life decided by something that is deceitful and desperately sick.

Our feelings are real, but they are also fickle. Some lyrics from the song Easy by Sarah Reeves come to mind: "Just because I'm feeling weak and feeling lonely doesn't make it true." Our hearts and our feelings endlessly mislead us and tell us things that aren't true. Our feelings tell us we are unloved, that we aren't good enough, that our satisfaction will be found in a new boy or toy or the most liked Instagram post. But that does not make it true.

And if having a deceitful heart isn't enough, in Proverbs 19:21 it says that many are the plans in a person's heart. So basically our hearts consist of many deceitful plans. Awesome.

But the Proverb doesn't end there. It carries on to say that it is the Lord's purpose that prevails. BUT THE LORD prevails. And the Lord is good. He has no deceit in him. His heart is fully for us and his plans are beautiful and exciting and good.

So instead of letting your feelings and your heart decide, let Jesus decide for you. Not in a creepy puppet/mindless zombie way, but in a beautiful, trusting of the Master Builder Architect Artist Creator of your life. He knows you perfectly, he sees your path perfectly, he loves you perfectly and he knows the end perfectly. I’d say he’s pretty darn qualified to make calls in your life.

Feelings are fickle and they will lead us astray. Instead, let us fix our eyes on Jesus (Hebrews 12:2). Let us trust in the Lord with all our hearts and he will lead us in making the best decisions that will make our paths straight (Prov 3:5-6).