Anna Tran
Hands up if you have a big dream. Maybe it is for a great job, or a big house, or a great car? Maybe it is to have a wonderful community of people around you or even to get married and have kids one day?
We all have different desires in our hearts for different things. Some of them are godly desires and others are things that we want for different reasons.
Sometimes it can feel very overwhelming when you look at your life and at the life that you want and the gap between the two is like a chasm.
‘How on earth am I supported to get from here… to there?’ is the question that you may be asking yourself and God.
Here are three things that you can consider in those moments:
- Is this desire from God?
If you are a believer and have given your life to Jesus, then the things that govern our lives can no longer be based on ‘what we want’ and ‘what we think is best for us’. We have made Jesus our Lord and survivor which means that He now has final say on how we live our lives and make our decisions. The best part is that He knows what is the best for us, and His way of life leads to our flourishing.
It may be the first time that you have ever surrendered your desires to God and that is okay. It starts with a simple prayer: ‘God, I surrender my dreams to you. Will you make your desires my desires?’
Psalms 37:4 tells us to ‘Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart’.
This verse is realised as we delight in the Lord; His desires become our desires. So spend time with Him, delight yourself in Him and let His desires become yours.
- What has God put into your hands in this season?
Luke 16:10 says, ‘Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.’
This means that we need to be faithful with whatever we have in our hands in this moment. We can’t be thinking, ‘If I have this… then I can do that…’ or ‘when X, Y, and Z are in place, then I can do A, B, and C’. No, God is looking for those who will be faithful with the little that they have, those who are trustworthy in using what they have been given.
How we faithfully invest, take care of, and work with the little we have will greatly impact the more that God wants to give to you.
Have a read of the parables of the talents. God is very serious about the ways that we invest our money, time, and talents. So serious that there are actual eternal consequences.
Get to work…
Now that God has shown you what his desires are and you have identified what you have in front of you to work with. It is time to start doing the work.
It takes courage to start working on the things you believe God has given you to do. I think this is why when tasked with building the first ever temple for God, King David said to his son, King Solomn, ‘Be strong and courageous and do the work.’ (1 Chronicles 28:20).
You just need to start, even if you start small.
Remember that this work is now not just your dream, but you have now partnered with God and His dream for your life. You are now doing God’s work.
So ‘Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.’ Colossians 3:23-24
