When I was six years old, my foster mother asked what I wanted to be when I grew up. My response to her was that I wanted to be a writer for the New York Times. To this day, I have no idea how I even knew of the New York Times, but I’ve always dreamt of growing up and being a journalist. The act of writing was sort of an escape for me to leave my dire life circumstances, create stories, and short plays that took me all over the world. My younger sister and brother would beg to differ and felt quite tormented by my imagination; and their active roles as my unwilling participants in it. The thing is, I felt fearless and truly believed that I could be and do anything I wanted to be. Can you think of a time that you felt that way? I mean truly free to be whoever or whatever you wanted to be. The feeling of pure excitement and freedom that comes from being unrestricted by the expectations of others is truly priceless. Then, before you know it, this thing called life happens and you no longer feel as confident as you used to. You may have made the same mistake that Joseph made in Genesis 37:1-11. Joseph told his brothers of his dream and they became dream killers. Who are the dream killers in your life? Have you allowed fear and doubt to creep in and steal your joy?
In 2 Timothy 1:7, the scripture says, “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” So, then we must ask ourselves, “If God did not give us the spirit of fear, where did it come from?” The enemy is constantly trying to get us to doubt ourselves and doubt God. In Genesis 3:1, we see an example of that, “Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, “Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?” Satan was very conscious of what the Lord had said and by turning a God-given commandment into a question, he was able to cause Eve to doubt. Has God ever told you the vision He has for your life? If so, how did you respond? In fear or faith? If we have allowed other people or the enemy to cause us to doubt what God has told us, we will find ourselves in the same situation as Eve. We will not only find ourselves disobeying and doubting God. We will also influence others to do the same thing. Such occurred in Genesis 3:6, “And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.” The bible has many instances that speak to our being Christlike.
Romans 12:2 states, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing, and perfect will.” Although we want to live our dreams and desire to live a purpose-filled life, we must do it according to the will of God. We cannot find success as Christians if we are living outside of the will of God. The bible tells us in John 15:19, “If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.” We may feel pressured to conform to the ways of the world and behave in ways that are acceptable to the world. However, we have to remember that we’re instructed to live holy lives that honor and profess our belief in God.
God not only knows our dreams. He is also the one who has given them to us. It is His will that we live blessed and prosperous lives. However, that requires obedience and discipline on our part. We cannot allow fear and doubt to hinder us from receiving every blessing God has in store for us. In Jeremiah 29:11, the Lord declares, “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.”
One of the most significant things about this scripture is that God is thinking of us. He is not condemning us. He is speaking a blessing over our lives. So, we do not have to live a life that is riddled with fear and doubt any longer. We can dream again and allow the Holy Spirit to lead us to all the things that God is preparing for us. Because just as John 8:36 states, “So if the Son sets you free you will be free indeed.” These are powerful and encouraging words, and all we need to know to move from fear to faith.
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