Friday Finds – Big Dreams

I am so excited to write this post today because God has been so miraculous in answering dreams and dreaming even bigger dreams for me than I could have for myself.   Last week, Friday Finds looked around the web at posts I had found on marriage.  Today’s Friday Finds include excerpts of what I have read recently on dreaming big dreams and trusting God to do big things.

First, I have to include what two dear friends shared with me this week from Jesus Calling.  It’s not a blog post, but it is certainly still a “find”:

My plan for your life is unfolding before you.   Sometimes the road you are traveling seems blocked, or it opens up so painfully slowly that you must hold yourself back.  Then, when time is right, the way before you suddenly clears – through no effort of your own.  What you have longed for and worked for I present to you freely, as pure gift.  You feel awed by the ease with which I operate in the world, and you glimpse My Power and My Glory.  Do not fear your weakness, for it is the stage on which My power and Glory perform most brilliantly.  As you persevere along the path I have prepared for you, depending on My strength to sustain you, expect to see miracles – and you will.  Miracles are not always visible to the naked eye, but those who live by faith can see them clearly.  Living by faith, rather than sight, enables you to see My Glory.

Wow!  Can you just drink that in?  When the time is right.  Through no effort of your own.  I soaked that message in like a parched tree.

I also LOVE what Holley Gerth is writing right now on dreaming God-sized dreams.  I have had the great fortune of being selected as one of her “dream team members” for 2013. She has an incredible eBook and an “old school” book coming out focusing us on stepping in faith toward our dreams.  I love what she wrote a couple of weeks ago when she was asked how do you know when it’s time to move on to the next thing God has for you.  Her exit strategy, in response, was, “What matters most isn’t where you are or where you’re going, it’s where God is moving in your life. Because where he’s going, that’s where you want to be too.”  So true and such an important reminder.

Another post I loved this week came from Jon Acuff.  I love everything he writes, but this felt spot on when he talked about how we move from our dreams into a place where we let people judge us, and our dreams.  Then he urges us NOT to do it, “Let’s not walk away from our dreams for a minute, a second even, to be judged by people who aren’t singing themselves.”

In Rick Warren’s How God Builds Your Faith – Dreams, he suggests that “The first thing God does to build your faith is give you a dream. When God wants to work in your life, He’ll always gives you a dream—about yourself, about what He wants you to do, about how He’s going to use your life to impact the world.”  But, as Holley reminds us in a post she wrote for inCourage about God-sized dream disclaimers, you will NEVER figure what God is doing.  For a control freak like me, that can be a little unnerving.  But what she says reminds me that His dreams are so much better than mine, so I just need to hang on for the ride: I’m the kind of girl who likes to have a strategy. Put it in a mission statement, powerpoint, or at least a well-thought out conversation….And I tend to ask God for both of those things. Ladies, He does not cooperate.  When it comes to God-sized Dreams, you might get the next step. You might catch a glimpse of the vision. You might know where you think you’re going. But then….Our big, mysterious God shows up and you realize you don’t have a clue. His ways are beyond figuring out. This doesn’t mean you’re missing something, doing it wrong, or are wrong the path. It just means He’s God and we’re not. That’s the best and hardest part all wrapped into one.

I leave you with the best of the Friday Finds, scripture that I have discovered along my dreaming journey recently:

Isaiah 65:24 -Before they call I will answer; while they are still speaking I will hear.

Psalm 37:7 – Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him and he will do this….Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him;

Exodus 14:13 – Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today…The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.

I Samuel 12: 16 – Now then, stand still and see this great thing the Lord is about to do before your eyes!