The Stuff Dreams Are Made Of - Marnie Pohlmann

We all dream of changing the world to be a better place. Some dream of accomplishing change by raising children to be compassionate and kind. Others dream of working hard to achieve success, so they have the riches or the influence to change the world. Writers dream the words they put to paper will touch someone’s life and cause them to feel, see, or be better in the world they live in.

In my sleeping dreams are nightmares.
Dreams. My personal experience with dreams is that they mostly turn into nightmares. Those are not the kind of dreams we desire. Thankfully, dreams for our lives are not made of memories. Dreams for our lives are dependent on the choices we make each day.

The first choice that will lead to the best life dreams is to take the step of choosing God as your Saviour and Lord.

Psalm 37:4 teaches that if I delight in the Lord, He will give me the desires of my heart. I have not studied the original language of this verse, but I doubt it means God is like a genie-in-a-bottle and when we do what He approves of He will give us what we want. Our relationship with God is not based on what we do, what we do is based on our relationship with God; it is a gift because God loves us. I think this verse means God will give me the desires of my heart. Did you read that the way I hear it in my mind? The nuance is that God sets into my heart what I desire. God places His desires for me into my heart, so they become my desires for Him.

In my waking dreams are for the future.
Have you ever wondered why you dream of doing or being what you have claimed as your dream? I was young when I said I was going to be a writer. Even when I figured out writing would probably not provide for my physical needs, and it is not easy, still, when I grow up, I want to be a writer. I have often wondered why that has always been my dream.

Psalm 139:13 says God has knit us together in our mother’s womb. God chose our mother and father to knit us into one He knew we would be.

Ephesians 2:10 explains God prepared works for us to do for Him, so He not only knit us together physically, but He also planted the seeds of our personality. Then we were given life circumstances and experiences that would mold us into one who could do that work. Many people and times influence us, train us, and encourage us to develop into one who at some point chooses to be a child of God who will begin that work He has prepared for us. Our dream has developed because God knit it into our very soul.

Not all the growth to prepare for our dream, our calling, is easy or enjoyable. Sometimes the path may even feel like a nightmare.  Has God ever led you to do exactly what you do NOT want to do? How is that the desire of your heart? We can be sure it’s not the desire of our heart, it’s the desire of God’s heart. Still, we want to run from it. Jonah did just that - and ended up in the belly of a whale, miserable and whining until He agreed to do what God had prepared him to do. I relate to Jonah. What God calls us to can be hard!

In my ageing dreams are elusive.
Sometimes our dreams don’t seem clear. I often have more questions than answers when it comes to walking with God. I believe He has placed on me a calling to write. What am I called to write? Fiction? Magazine articles? Copy for advertisements? Poetry? Am I called to share it publicly, or just locally, for my friends and family, or maybe in the church bulletin? Am I supposed to pursue traditional publishing or figure out how to make an e-book? And then there is marketing. Speaking. Selling. Yuck! So ultimately, I’m back to “Do I have to?”

Time goes by so quickly I feel I should already have reached the pinnacle of my dream. Like Jonah, I make choices to do what I think I want rather than what God asks me to do. I take the whale-of-a-time path that will eventually, I know, lead right back to where I can choose to obey.

But in my faith my dreams are secure.
It is because God has given me the desire to write that I can dream of being a writer. It is because He has led me along the steep and rocky path that I have something to write about. And it is because I trust His training and His Spirit in me that I can be confident in all that being a writer means - even the parts I don’t like.

How do we make a dream come true? We know dreams don’t become reality until we make them goals then take practical steps toward the goals which will make the dream come true. Today is the day to reach for your dream. Head in that direction, one step at a time. As we follow the path God has laid out for us, the desire will grow. The skills will grow. The opportunities will grow.

And one day we will look back and see how God has led us to the mountaintop, the fulfillment of our dream. He has given us the desire of our heart and He will give us the desire of our heart.

Marnie Pohlmann dreams of being a writer when she grows up. In the meantime, she practices and learns and grows with God.
Phosphorescent

*photos courtesy of Pixabay.com CCO license.