DREAMING BIG


What builds significance in your life?

"Where there is no vision, the people perish..." Proverbs 29:18
(King James Version)

"If people can't see what God is doing, they stumble all over themselves; but when they attend to what He reveals, they are most blessed." (The Message)

So many meanings to the word dream: to think, imagine, have ideas. An internet search reveals over 200 millions sites related to that one word! People of renown have used the word to inspire and challenge: I have a dream' (Martin Luther King, Jr.); "Nothing happens without a dream" (Carl Sandburg); "Hold fast to dreams..." (Langston Hughes).

Of all people, followers of God should dream big because God is the reason for our dreaming. From the beginning of time it has been His plan that all people everywhere know of His great love. He used and continues to use men and women and His creation to tell the story, and the ultimate message became His very Son.

With God's goal in mind and His Holy Spirit to empower us, we can look at the needs of the world and dream about how God would want those needs met. When God challenged Moses to lead the people out of Egypt, He asked, "What is that in your hand?" God had a dream and was ready to use Moses in the fulfillment of the dream, even when what he had in his hand looked like a mere stick of wood.

We would do well to consistently look at what is in our "hands," consider God's vision for the world and then dream big about how He might use us. We must constantly encourage our children and grandchildren along these same lines. Involve them early in projects where they see how their seemingly small efforts contribute to the fulfillment of God's dream, projects such as making sandwiches for the homeless, meeting missionaries, going on short-term mission trips and living out God's vision of love with
those around them, especially towards the un-lovely.

When we open our eyes to God's dream "what God is doing" and then "attend to what He reveals" we will be blessed.

Father, I stand in awe of exactly how big your dream is. Then I am humbled by the understanding that you have chosen me to help accomplish that dream. Guide my imagination and my dreams so that they line up with yours.

Questions: What are some dreams that you have had about being used by God? Stop right now and think about what is in your "hand." What skills or talents do you possess that God could use in fulfilling His dream for the world?