We are all born with the desire to live and increase in knowledge as we do so. It is apparent at an early age what our strengths and weaknesses are - but they do not necessarily coincide with the dreams we have for our futures.
To be certain, our knowledge of what happens to us in the future is shaky at best. But when we come to the point where we focus our energy on what we feel to be the right course of action for our lives, we fall into one of two categories: God’s way, or our way. God has no problem with our dreams - He wants us to dream big. He more than anyone knows the power of what large dreams entail. As humans, however, we often have a hard time believing in situations and people who might be standing our way to what we perceive as happiness. Then what?
"A man’s heart plans his course, but Yahweh directs his steps." - Proverbs 16:9
There is no guarantee to our happiness in this lifetime, and the ups and downs we experience are a given. A God-given dream is one where no matter what we do, it keeps coming to the surface. Through prayer, the dream becomes an urgent matter to attend to. Without that relationship with God, the result is an empty life filled with questions about whether or not what we are doing is right for us. We struggle through choice after bad choice, wondering if we’ll ever find relief. That’s not to say that people who follow God’s will for their lives aren’t plagued with obstacles. Because every step of the way, Satan is there to see if at any point we will lose hope of the dreams God instilled in us, and he rejoices when we start to lose faith. Why do you think it’s so easy to start something, but harder to hold up to the pressure? It’s because that test of character must involve seeing just how strong our faith is, and how determined we are to press on, in order to finally succeed. It doesn’t mean that we’ll be around to see the overall results of our achievements, however. We are each called to do something for God’s purposes. There is always the bigger picture in mind that we are not privvy to. Our goal is to keep going anyway.
Sadly, God’s way is not often our first choice, even as believers. It tends to be a last-resort option when all our efforts fail. Our need for control and our pride blinds us from seeing our actions for what they really are - human reactions to situations. Unfortunately we can’t change the fact that we’re human. But we can change how we view ourselves and the world. It involves being plugged in to God’s word, having a committed relationship with Him, and praying about our steps in any given situation. We ought to be slow to speak and slow to anger, to avoid rash conversations and impulsive decisions we’ll later regret. We need to be watchful of our activities we engage in, remembering that we are someone else’s mentor and role model. We have to fill our minds with thoughts of "What Would Jesus Do?" if we profess to be Christians. When what is in our hearts is mirrored in what God plans for us - that is the very moment we are fulfilling the destiny for our lives.
