A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes

Dreams are very interesting aren’t they? Let’s take a moment and focus on the dreams you have. Do you dream about having a great career one day that will allow you to achieve financial success? Do you dream about having a large family and a husband who sacrifices everything they have in order to provide for your household? Or do you dream about traveling the world and exploring places that you have never been to?

All these dreams are common and understandable. To tell you the honest truth, I have them too. I dream to be a professional journalist, to achieve financial success, to have a wonderful home filled with children, to marry the man of my dreams, and to see places I have never been to. Our culture is taught to dream about these things from a very young age and as you grow up you become confident in the idea that is what God has called us to do, yet I am almost certain that is not it anymore.

Oddly enough, I have been in a private study this week pertaining to my dreams and goals for my life. I have been reading this phenomenal book called “Greater” by Steven Furtick as well as ghostwriting for a project on dreams, AND trying to figure out how to maneuver about my dreams for my own life. So needless to say dreams are very much present in my life right now, as a matter of fact the subject surrounds me.

As I was reading the Greater book, I began journaling about my dreams in life. I listed them out began to pray about them and then took a break from the pages. I went about my day and then returned back to the same chapter just to read it again before I went to bed. What I read was how the Bible talks about three sources of evil- the world, the flesh, and the enemy. So I thought to myself, where exactly do each of my dreams derive from and as I looked at my list this is what I found.

My dreams of becoming a broadcast journalism most likely derive from the world as well as my dreams to achieve financial success. I also learned that other minor dreams I have can too be filtered into the three categories and honestly I had no idea to look at them that way up until I began reading this book.

So I immediately repented and asked God to give me a clean slate of focus as I arose the next morning because honestly if I am dreaming incorrectly then I want to definitely change my route. This is not to say that I can’t pursue broadcast journalism or aspire to have financial success, what it means is that those “dreams” I was having were probably just my heart telling me what it wants instead of having dreams as they were intended to be, which is to honor God in the process.

During my Bible study this morning, I explored 1 Kings 3 and what I came across was the huge wake up call to my clarity.

1 Kings 3:10-14 says “The Lord was happy that Solomon asked for wisdom. So God said to him, you did not ask for long life and riches for yourself. You did not ask for the death of your enemies. You asked for the wisdom to listen and make the right decisions. So I will give you what you asked for. I will make you wise and intelligent. I will make you wiser than anyone who ever lived or ever will be. And I will also give you what you did not ask for. You will have riches and honor all of your life. There will be no other king in the world as greater as you.

 And I will give you a long life if you follow me and obey my laws and commandments as your father did.

 These words my friends, are what shook me to the core during my Bible Study. I thought to myself, oh boy have I ever been gearing my dream energy in the wrong direction. Instead of dreaming for riches or better health, instead I need to turn my focus of dreams into how I can be a better Child of God. Dreams to have deeper wisdom and understanding, to be able to love others unconditionally, to walk flawlessly in life by refusing temptation, to obey His commandments as perfectly as I can, to have no fear, be courageous and bold. All of these things are what my dreams should have always been.

Those earthly things that we invest so much time and energy into is only going to last as far as our retirement ages and until we pass away. Yet these dreams that we as Christians should be having are what is going to travel with us to our eternal lives in Heaven.

So as I have stumbled upon this truth and continue to investigate and take myself on a deeper study through it, I become excited at the fact that I officially know where I am heading in life. That God should always come first in my walk and that the rest will work itself out, so my question for you is what are your dreams and how do they honor God? Are your dreams of Heaven or are they dreams of the world, flesh, or enemy? It’s really hard to see dreams as these things because no child wants to grow up and be disappointed because dreams don’t come true and this is why we as parents need to teach our children how to dream so that they won’t become disappointed.