Someone once said that the easiest thing in the world to do is to give up. I don’t know about you, but I believe there’s a lot of truth to this statement. 1Peter 1:7(NLT) states, “These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world.” The path to living the dream is sometimes very challenging, and this is an aspect of how God designed life to work. Anything worth having is going to require more of us. Our faith and desire for the blessing is most assuredly going to be tested. We will have to prove how much we want it, and we will also have to prove if we’re spiritually ready to receive it.
Being spiritually prepared to receive the desire of our hearts means that certain aspects of the example of Jesus Christ are anchored in our hearts and minds. There’s no way to get around this. Many people trick themselves into believing they can remain separate from Christ without serious consequence. They believe their lives will operate just fine without him, but this is not the truth. When a person believes this way, satan has blinded them from who Christ is. 2Corinthians 4:4(NLT) states, “Satan, who is the god of this world, has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe. They are unable to see the glorious light of the Good News. They don’t understand this message about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God.” Heavenly Father wants every person to come into the light of Christ so they can love through him.
Loving through Jesus Christ means that we’re on the path that God specifically sets before every individual. This is the path that leads us to all the good things He planned for us to do and have long ago. We will sometimes give up when it looks like that path isn’t leading us where we want to go fast enough. We forget or neglect the reality that the path of love is one that requires we read the map, which is God’s Word. It will also require us to totally surrender to the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the only one that can drive us where God wants us to go. Our destiny is in the Lord’s hands, and we must accept this if a life of love, strength, and power is our goal.
We should never give up on our dreams, not ever. Not even if every situation, circumstance, and condition tell us that we’re not going to be victorious. 2Corinthians 5:7 tells us to walk by faith and not by sight. Faith requires us to see from a higher perspective. We must see what God sees, and He always sees His perfection, love, and power causing things to work together for our good. He tells us this in Romans 8:28.
Heavenly Father isn’t slow to bring His promises to pass in our lives. We are slow to learn the lessons of love that He requires. In our lives, we’re ravenous for joy and happiness. We want things to happen on the double and the thought of sitting still can make us crazy. Therein lies the issue. Patience is one of God’s spiritual yummies and His kids must have it. We can’t move forward in our relationship with Him and others without learning and practicing patience. It’s enduring through tough situations. It’s dealing with delays without getting angry, and it’s waiting on God to solve problems because you know He is faithful to work things out.
Rather than giving up, we should be excited about how God can and will show us the many sides of His extraordinary love. Our prayer must be that He will continue to teach us how to increase our vision and walk by faith in a greater way. God’s love for us is beyond anything we could ever imagine. It is greater and higher than intelligence and knowledge, and His desire is that we comprehend the depth, length, height, and breadth of it. He wants us to know His love through Jesus Christ, and this means we must grow spiritually. We must surrender and continually be led by God’s Spirit, submitting to him every step of the way. As we yield to him, he will unveil the knowledge and strength that keeps us renewed. Our confidence must be in God to make our dreams a reality, and we must never give up on Him because He will never give up on us. ■
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.
“Don’t Give Up on Your Dream”, written for Crazynlove.com ©2021. All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord!