students of jesus

Each time I head down the gravel lane to my house I’m filled with thanks. Quite literally—each time. In 1995 we moved to Kentucky after five very frustrating years in a big city, and I never thought we’d own a home again. I was content to live in a rented small-town house that fit our needs.

But my wife had a dream. She had a vision of living in our own home on farmland that had been in the family for generations. It’s not an exaggeration to say that her vision and faith took us from a rented house in town and transported us to a legacy home in the country. Now, daily—for the last 15 years—I thank God for his kindness and my wife’s dreams each time I return home. Reality grew from the dream, and the efforts of the woman who dreamed.

This kind of dreaming, the vision of Godly possibilities and the conviction that God is with you, is the stuff of thanksgiving and praise. And yet it is a dangerous truth: the very source of inspiration can become a source of deep disillusionment if these dreams do not come to pass. Our dreams push us forward by helping us imagine a world that differs from the way things are. Such vision is the gift of God. We should be very careful not to throw away God-given hope. Some people (Abraham, for example) held fast his God-given dreams beyond all reasonable measure, and he is forever known as the father of faith.

We reach an age where our dreams become memories: either memories of what has come to pass or memories of the dreams we never pursued. No one ever dreams of becoming insignificant, but sometimes we stop dreaming. Today’s devotion leads us to this: sometimes we give thanks by refusing to discard our God-given dreams.

Ask Yourself: What has God promised?

Live Into It: Take time—all the time you need—to answer the question above. I think you’ll discover he has spoken more than you remember. It’s Saturday. Slow down. Take a little time with Hebrews 10: 32-39 and 2 Peter 1: 3-4.

“Father, I pray that what you have begun, you will provide in me the grace to continue.”