Faith Talk Friday: Daring to Dream

She is 75 years old. She is a fighter; a woman of God who has chosen to love the unlovely. Her name? Jan. I met her at a Church ladies night that we recently had.

The guest speaker, Pastor Francine Hunt's, message was called:

 

"You are a gift with gifts"

 

Francine said, "God puts a dream in our hearts and it is revealed in time".

 

Are there dreams you have but have put on the shelf?

Dreams that burn within you because you know that they are such a part of who you are and who you've been made to be?

Dreams that you would so desperately love to achieve but can't see any possible way to do it?

 

To have dreams is to have hopes and cherished aspirations.

 

She encouraged us to allow God to lead us into our dreams. 

To dare to dream. Dare meaning to step out and take a risk. To put fear where it belongs, behind us. To be sensitive to the heart of God. To say 'yes' every day to what He asks us to do. To be attentive to His voice, because when I am sensitive to His voice - it softens who I am.  

Part of going after our dreams is also to 'watch our language'. Not necessarily swearing (although that is not how we should speak), but watching what we say to and about ourselves. "I'm just not capable", "I'm too ugly", "I'm way too old for that now", "I just can't get past this point ..." If we are wanting to reach our dreams, then we can't be negative .

 

Sometimes our dreams are lived out in slightly different ways than what we first imagined.

Jan has been beaten, strangled, stolen from and verbally abused many times. As a little 3 year old girl growing up in the war, she lived her young life surrounded by uniformed men. She recalled these days with such a beautiful smile on her face, "We always had soldiers in our home. They would play their mouth organs, and their violins and organs and it was just wonderful!"

 

She went on to share how even at that young age she knew she wanted to be out as a nurse, helping the injured on the front-line and bringing them back to a place of safety. She re-realised this dream only when she was eighteen and this dream was lived out in a very different way than she originally thought it would be.

 

As she grew older she began to see the need to help heroine addicts and other drug addicts and to help alcoholics. And not just by going to them, but by having them in her home. Some of these people she still sees and has a lovely bond with even now, some thirty years on. She realised that she was in fact fulfilling the dream God gave her all those many years ago to help the sick and needy and nurse them to a safe place into a relationship with Jesus.

It's cost her dearly, this dream.

 

But through it all she looked me square in the eyes and said, "God still had lessons for me to learn. It has all been worth it and I am amazed by just how much He loves us!"

Tears welled up in this beautiful woman's eyes and she choked on her words of sincere praise. This is a woman who has lived out her dreams and experienced God powerfully in them. She inspired me.

 

She is moving towns as soon as her house sells. She's not familiar with this new town. She's not aware of why God is having her move there. She is just obeying His leading.

Oh to have such faith and such willing obedience.

 

To go after my dream, to go after your dream, with such a zeal and determination and persistence that nothing will stop us! Even if it comes at a high cost!

 

We can be women of influence in our homes, our communities in our churches by listening and obeying God when He leads us. We can achieve our dreams, even though they may to us seem hugely unachievable. If it's Gods dream in us, we can be sure He'll make it happen.

 

Don't give up on your dream, beautiful friend! Please just don't give up. This world needs you to do what God has made only you to do. Seek His face, ask Him for leading and direction if you need to, but just don't ever let your dreams stay on that shelf!

 

Remember: God puts a dream in our hearts and it is revealed in time.

 

 So long as breath remains in our lungs, untapped potential lies inside us, waiting to be released. The reason we are still alive is that we are carrying something inside us that this generation needs. That’s why we’re not yet in heaven. –Wayne Cordeiro.

 

Your dream is beating in your chest. Do you feel it? -Bruce Wilkenson.

 

 

Psalm 37:4 ESV     

Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.

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