Give God your Dreams

Friday March 27, 2015

All of us have dreams for our lives - aspirations to do something great or become someone worthwhile. When shaped by the purposes of God, dreams guide us to meaningful living.

Abraham had a dream - two dreams, in fact - and both were God-given. Old and childless in a culture of large families, he dreamed of having a son (Genesis 11:30, 15:3). God promised that his dream would come true and added one more. Not only would Abraham have a son, he would have a nation (12:2, 15:5, 17:5). Two big dreams indeed!

And that´s one reason we find Genesis 22 so baffling. Isaac is born - the fulfilment of the first dream and a glimpse of the second (21:1-3) - and Abraham is called to sacrifice him! (22:2). God was asking to have back what He had given. Abraham was to give up both his fulfilled and unfulfilled dreams.

The preparation would have been agonising. Abraham gathered his son, servants and supplies, and walked for days to the sacrifice site where he laid what was most precious to him on the altar (vv. 3-9). And just as the knife was poised to plunge, God intervened and gave Abraham back his dreams (vv. 11-14). Abraham learned two important lessons that day : the true God is not like the gods around him who revelled in child sacrifice, and nothing - not even a God-given dream - comes before Him.

Have you given your dreams to God - both the fulfilled ones and the unfulfilled? It´s the only way to ensure that our dreams are under His hand, and that they don´t become gods themselves. As He did with Abraham, God may well give your dreams back to you or give them back in a new form.

But whatever He does with your dreams, you can be sure it will come accompanied by a blessing (vv. 15-18). - Sheridan Voysey

Read
Genesis 22:1-18
Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, "Abraham!"
"Here I am," he replied.
Then God said, "Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about."
Early the next morning Abraham got up and saddled his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about. On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. He said to his servants, "Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you."
Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together, Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, "Father?"
"Yes, my son?" Abraham replied.
"The fire and wood are here," Isaac said, "but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?"
Abraham answered, "God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son." And the two of them went on together.
When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. But the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, "Abraham! Abraham!"
"Here I am," he replied.
"Do not lay a hand on the boy," he said. "Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son."
Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called that place The Lord Will Provide. And to this day it is said, "On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided."
The angel of the Lord called to Abraham from heaven a second time and said, "I swear by myself, declares the Lord, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me."

Proverbs 16:9
In his heart a man plans his course, 
but the Lord determines his steps.

Psalm 105:19
till what he foretold came to pass, 
till the word of the Lord proved him true

Question to Ponder
What dream do you have for your life?
Have you offered it back to God?

**Article taken from ODJ (Our Daily Journey with God) March 2015 - May 2015 issue