It was always my tendency for much of my life, to put me in the center of my little agenda my life. But, when I do that, life becomes about the pursuit of my dreams. Isn't it interesting all the language we have around that? "Follow your dreams." Or, "I’m living the dream."
And, all we want to do is…Grow up in a dream home life…With dream parents….Get into my dream school…So that one day I can have my dream job….And, I can afford to drive my dream car… And that will help me attract my dream spouse…which I did! Then we can live in our dream house….and have some dream kids. We can go off on our dream vacation to get away from those dream kids. We can have a dream 401K…So that one day we can live in our dream retirement. Then I will die and have a dream funeral… Get laid out in my dream casket….buried in a dream plot of dirt. …Because if I follow my dreams, that's where it always ends up.
What happens is, if I'm doing this and God is PART of my life, then God's job becomes to me… to fulfill MY dream! And, if it's not happening…If I don't get my dream job…Or my dream car…Or the dream spouse…Or the dream house….Then it's God's fault! And, I start getting mad at God because He hasn't fulfilled my dreams.
The invitation of the Bible is NOT to quit dreaming. Dreaming goes way deep in the human heart. The invitation in the Bible is to quit making God the magic genie who is supposed to fulfill my dreams. The invitation in the Bible is to resign from the center of MY life, letting go of my little dreams, and to hook my life to a much bigger and better dream … the dream of God.
Let me tell you a little bit about the dream of God. There is a great word for God's dream. It is the word “shalom.” The word usually gets translated “peace,” but it's way bigger than that. “Shalom” is where things are just the way God created them to be. I believe much of our lives is lived in the pain of the gap between the way things ARE and the way things were created to be. But, in the middle of all the despair, I know that God is reconciling all things unto Himself. Shalom is coming! It is coming because God will have it so!
Shalom always begins in prayer. "Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Your name, YOUR kingdom come, YOUR will be done on earth as it is in heaven." That's shalom! God, use me…. God, use me."
Now Heavenly Father in this moment we just ask Your Spirit to speak to us with open hands and open hearts. God, help us to die to small and petty dreams, and offer our little lives into Your dream for this world and for these people You love. However it is You want to call people into a life of being a blessing for Your world,…You call us right now. We say YES to You. We lay our lives before You,
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