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Not too long ago, a woman confided in me that her last relationship with a man had been several years ago, and she has been celibate for a very long, LONG, LONG time. She has single handedly raised her son into a wonderfully loving man, and he has only met his father once in his young life. This may seem sad to us, but the impact of an absent father doesn’t seem to have eclipsed her son’s shine at all; he’s doing beautifully and attributes his success to the sacrifices and diligence of a mother that is absolutely top notch in his book. His mother devoted most of her life to his care, has never been married, and gave her life to Christ when her son was still a toddler. She feels like she’s been dreaming of getting married her entire life, but nothing has come close to panning out. She’s gone on a few dates here and there, but there was something about the men she dated that didn’t connect with her at all. Now, she says she feels too old to hope anymore. She has lost that frenzied spark of jubilance that a woman has when she is sold out on the dream of finally snagging the ONE.
Talk about a slump, this is it. It’s the place where we’ve become so invested in the grind of motherhood and surviving life that we forget about our own personal dreams and aspirations. And to make matters more complex, we feel we lack entirely the know-how and resources to go about remotely making our dreams come true. Those of you that have been with us for a while know that SMS is all about the dream. You can’t really be your most spectacular, spiritual self unless you are convinced that the thing you desire most is on its way to you, and that when it gets to you it will be better than you ever imagined. God will exceed your expectations and do exceedingly, abundantly above anything you can ask or think.
Sisters, let me tell you, if you don’t treat yourself to the reality of God’s willingness and ability to bless you in a way that will knock your socks off, then you are truly missing out. I’ll never forget a time when I came across a sister that had heard me encourage women of God to strive to be extraordinary in their daily pursuits. Her reaction was one that I believed to be way beneath the privilege of Kingdom Kids. She said that she thought ‘extraordinary’ was too high a mark to reach, and was perplexed that I had encouraged others to seek it. There was nothing that I could have said to this sister at that particular time that would have helped her get out of her own way. I could only pray for her, that she would one day know the glorious God that we serve through Jesus Christ.
Romans 15:13 (NLT) is such a beautiful Word from Heavenly Father. It says, “I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.” Isn’t this magnificent?!!! The first piece of yummy goodness that this verse doles out is that God is the Source of all hope! Hallelujah! Hope is the ultimate dream lifter. It’s more than a feeling; it’s a knowing. You and I don’t have it within us to fill ourselves with hope. It comes from the Source.
The second thing that you and I can know is that God will fill us completely with joy and peace. We can spend our whole lives without truly knowing and believing that God will do this for us. We try to do it for ourselves on our own, but it doesn’t work out. You can search the world over; you can comb your every thought, motive, and intent, but you will not come up with a formula or equation that will equal joy and peace without the Lord. It’s just impossible.
Our responsibility and privilege is to trust God to bring about the manifestation of our desires. Jesus Christ said in Mark 11:23(KJV), “For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.” We’re to boldly speak our desires into existence, hold the vision of them steadfastly in our minds and hearts, without doubt, until they come to past. Instead of this, most of us play the game of take back. God intervenes with the positives of His Word, and we cancel them out with our refusal to believe in what we cannot see.
As sons and daughters of God, we should expect that opposition will come and try to steal the hope of God’s promises from us. The game of dodging darts while trying to keep our heads above water is real. It is designed to pack a wallop on our level of hopefulness, but that is why God tells us to constantly feed our minds and hearts a healthy dose of His Word, so that we are always standing strong in faith. We can’t let this negative, self-defeating stuff win. We can’t allow the enemy to swindle us out of the life we were meant to live.
Isaiah 40:31 (NKJV) tells us, “But those who wait on the LORD shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.” God is telling us what WILL happen when we wait upon Him. We WILL renew our strength. We WILL mount up, run, and not be weary—walk and not faint. Sometimes we tell ourselves the exact opposite of this, and we begin to act on what we feel rather than what God says. This is the carnal mind working against us.
Somehow, the dedicated mother I mentioned convinced herself that because of all the setbacks and time lapsed, that God was not going to bless her to be married. She had become so accustomed to this train of thought that she couldn’t imagine now developing a new one, one that wreaked of optimism and enthusiasm. “It just isnt’ in me anymore, she said.” There were many other thoughts and attitudes like these that caused her to relinquish her dream, but the bottom line is that she lost hope, and this is something we must never do.
It is one thing to say that God dreams a bigger dream for us than we do for ourselves, but it is entirely another to actually believe it. And it’s not just about the dream of getting married. The attitude and mindset of Romans 15:13 cuts way down to how we feel about ourselves—our lives; it’s how we embody the love that God has for us and how empowered we are because of His love. This verse says that God will fill you with joy and peace because you trust in Him! This means that joy and peace are the signature statements of trusting God. If you’re walking around feeling depleted, something is missing from your trust in the Almighty. But when you’re absolutely convinced that God will answer your prayer in a big way, you can’t help but to smile from the inside out.
Finally, this verse tells us that when our trust in God is active and lively, we will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit. Spiritual power is not mundane and ineffective. It is beyond extraordinary and dynamic, and we can have it in abundance. Many Christians don’t believe in the operation of the Holy Spirit, and because of their unbelief, they are not empowered to go beyond where they are today. God tells us exactly what the Spirit will do, he will cause us to be flooded with a hope that is on fire. Don’t you want to live this way? Know that it’s possible. Ask the Holy Spirit to flood you with God’s love, joy, peace, and power. He’ll keep you inspired to hope higher and dream brighter, and in the name of Jesus Christ, your dreams will come true. He did it for me, and I know He’ll do it for you! ■
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
“Hope, The Ultimate Dream Lifter” written by Reverend Fran Mack, edited by Kim Times, for Sundie Morning Sistas ©2016. All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord! SMS is dedicated to inspiring and encouraging Christian Women through the Word of God.
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