Keep Your Dreams Alive

Keep Your Dreams Alive

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE

 “Where there is no vision, the people perish…”

(Proverbs 29:18, KJV)

TODAY’S WORD

Throughout life, we will always have forces opposing us to try to keep us from becoming all God’s created us to be. And many times, the adversities and unfair situations are set up by the enemy to try to discourage us and deceive us into giving up on our dreams. Today, you may feel like you’re at an empty place in life. Not much is going your way. You’ve been through difficulties and setbacks. But I believe God wants to restore you. He wants to encourage you, and pour out His spirit upon you. He wants to do a new thing in and through you. It doesn’t matter what’s happened in your past, God has something new for your future. I always say, when one dream dies, dream another dream.

Today, remember, God has placed so much inside of you. You have gifts, talents and abilities that no one else has. You may have had more than your share of unfair things happen. But it’s not how you start, it’s how you finish that matters. It’s time to shake off the past and shake off that discouragement. Let faith arise in your heart and keep your dreams alive!

PRAYER FOR TODAY

Father God, I know that You have chosen me for such a time as this. I may not understand everything that has happened in my past, but I choose to trust in You. I believe that You are working all things together for my good. Give me Your faith so that I can boldly pursue the dreams You have given me in Jesus’ Name, Amen.

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There Is Freedom in Transparency byJon Walker “Make this your common practice: Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you can live together whole and healed. The prayer of a person living right with God is something powerful to be reckoned with.” (James 5:16 MSG) Jesus came to save us from our sins. The last thing he wants is for us to hide them in the shadows. When we do that, we waste the grace he’s paid so dearly to provide. Our love for one another should create a safe place, where “we refuse to wear masks and play games. We don’t maneuver and manipulate behind the scenes. And we don’t twist God’s Word to suit ourselves. Rather, we keep everything we do and say out in the open, the whole truth on display, so that those who want to can see and judge for themselves in the presence of God” (2 Corinthians 4:2 MSG). Because of Jesus, we are free to be who God created us to be, and we are free to be ourselves in fellowship with one another. This freedom is what helps us help one another to grow into the fullness of Christ. When we refuse to be ourselves or when we refuse to allow others to be themselves — faults and all — we take God’s freedom from each other. The German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer says that God wants nothing to do with pious posing: “[God] wants to see you as you are, He wants to be gracious to you. You do not have to go on lying to yourself and [others], as if you were without sin; you can dare to be a sinner. Thank God for that; He loves the sinner but He hates sin.” Talk About It What do you think the apostle James means when he says, “Confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, so that you will be healed” (James 5:16a TEV)? James also says confession should be our common practice. What would a small group that had confession as a common practice look like?