Dreams Continued

Boy this is a great chapter. I'd like to share a little more from Wide Awake by Erwin McManus. It starts with the story of Joseph. He tells his jealous older brothers of the dreams he has had. One was that wheat bowed down to him which made them resent him even more. Another was that the sun, moon, and eleven stars bowed down to him. That really made them angry. But those were the dreams God gave Joseph. Enter Erwin:

"God gives God-sized dreams to people with God-shaped hearts. I think Joseph made a terrible mistake telling his brothers. His immaturity created a relational divide and provoked huge jealousy. But that doesn't discount that God was the one giving Joseph the dream. Part of the way God works in us is he begins to give us dreams of the lives we could live or the people we could become if we would trust him and live courageously. While his brothers despised Joseph and did everything they could to destroy his dreams, we find in his story the reminder that once you have a dream from God and refuse to relinquish it, that dream is going to come to pass no matter what opposition you face.

Sometimes the life God dreams
for us takes a lifetime to come to pass.
Great lives that are born out of great dreams
often come through great sacrifice and great suffering.

Our dreams, the ones God places inside us, are a foretaste of our destiny. God will never sacrifice who you are for what you can accomplish.

The way you begin to live out your God-given dreams is to become the person God desires you to be.

There's more to you than you know. There's more available to you than you can imagine. There's an extraordinary life awaiting you if you would trust me.

You cannot even begin to live the dream God has for you until you stop caring about only yourself."

Don't you just love that? Erwin has such a way with communicating the heart of God to us, smack dab between the eyes. Love the challenge, love the confirmation. Blessings to you this star-spangled 4th of July!