Saturday, January 5, 2008

Keep That Dream Alive

by Donna L. Watkins

© Donna L. Watkins - Rose
The beginning of a new year always inspires me. It brings up all the dreams I may have buried away in the file marked "Later." Dreams and visions do have their own time schedule. Think of a rosebud. It's small and not very detailed, but as the rose begins to bloom into God's vision for it, we see a beauty and smell an aroma that is heavenly.

Sometimes we bury them away because we don't believe they'll ever come true. We don't believe that would be possible. Really, it's all about not believing in ourselves.

If God is in your dreams, they'll be sure to seem impossible, because He wants to make your dreams come true by increasing your faith and with His help. If you're looking for practical and reality in dreams, it's not there. That's why they're called dreams.

There are some that don't allow themselves to dream. In younger years they had a dream and the whole situation didn't go the way they wanted it to, so they've decided in one way or another not to allow any more dreams in their life. But life without dreams ... well, I like the way one devotional put it:

"Without a dream and the determination to fulfill it, life is reduced to bleak black and wimpy white, a diet too bland to get anybody out of bed in the morning. So go after the quest that fuels your fire. Keep your dream alive."

Your dreams couldn't be any more impossible than Mary's when she was told she would have a child. What was her reaction to this "heavenly visit" of a vision in Luke? First she asked how it could be. She was thinking in earthly and personal terms. That's where our minds go when we try to imagine how we're going to make the dream come true.

The angel told her that "the power of the Most High would overshadow her" and her response was. "Be it unto me according to thy word." Notice it has nothing to do with what she can accomplish. She accepted the challenge and set her heart into alignment with God. She would do what she could do and let God do what He would do.

Too often we look at dreams in the natural and with a box of what we are capable of accomplishing. If we can easily see how something is to come about, it's not a dream. It's just another project within our grasp.

Don't live life without a dream.

Do you remember what else the Scripture says about Mary? After Jesus was born the shepherds came and said some incredible things, and Luke 2:19 tells us that "Mary treasured these things and pondered them in her heart." Do we treasure things that God tells us through others and ponder them? Are we encouraged by those who inspire us to keep the dream alive? Or do we scoff at these "impossible things" because we have so little faith?

It takes courage to absorb the wonder of dreams and visions. We have to step outside ourselves and our own abilities and focus on the words, "Be it unto me according to they word." We must take our mind off of what we can do and get it on the unfathomable realm of what God can do through us.

Consider these words I read and logged away:

"Without courage you're not living, you're hiding! Courage is not the absence of fear, it's the conquest of it."

Courage keeps us moving forward and it exercises our faith so it will grow into what is needed for these dreams and visions to become reality. The Promised Land was a dream for those who had been in slavery, but they didn't exercise their courage or faith. They only saw giants. Joshua and Caleb saw God's ability to keep His Word.

We must get our eyes off of the natural and put our heart and soul into another realm of possibility. Rather than the disbelief of Zechariah, when he was told Elizabeth would have a child in her old age, we must respond to God with, "Show me your plan, O Lord!" Dreams come true one step at a time. People are doing it. Why should it seem to strange to us?

When we say yes to God, He imparts what we lack to be able to get the dream from the realm of a vision into the real world. Like Joseph we may have a long road to the fruition of our vision, but what a legacy and heritage we leave behind for those we love and for the unknown multitudes of those we do not even know.

If you've tucked your dreams neatly away in the bottom corner of a deep chest within your soul, go and dig them out. Bring them into the light (write them down) and seek the Lord if it's in agreement with His will. If your heart burns with passion for this. If this dream could turn your bleak black and wimpy white days into a Joseph coat of many colors.

Bringing your dream to life will bring you and those around you to new life. There is no excuse or reason big enough to let go of what your heart desires. God puts those things within us so we can love life and love others. Without passion we have no love to give and that's where the devil would like to keep us. The greatest commandment is to love. It all begins with a dream!

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© 2000-2007 Donna L. Watkins - This article was reprinted with permission. Visit the author's website, TheNatureInUs.com for more articles and free email subscription. Link URL: http://www.TheNatureInUs.com

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