This is the question that was posed to me today via a podcast from New Community Church. Tim Blaber is speaking about having a Childlike Faith which is out of Romans, and he talks about what are we dreaming for.
It is something that caught my mind, and again took hold of my already spaced out brain.
What are we dreaming for, what am I dreaming for? WOW! It is so easy for me to get older year on year, and stop dreaming. I remember times of thinking about all the amazing things that could happen in my life, all the thigns that I could get up to. When I met my wife, it was full of dreams, visions and aspirations. You can so quickly get used to life, going from day to day, waking up, going to work, coming home, eating diner, doing whatever you usually do on that day, then going to bed.
Life can sometimes grab hold of you, wrap around your body the arms of familiarity and tunnel visionedness, and hold tightly squeezing all hope of things being different, big, vast, full of the possible impossible, hope, success, newness, risk, no fear, DREAMS!
It is great when you get a wake up call again that gives you a chance to forget about the day to day and instead focus on what I guess is the defination of faith "The assurance of things hoped for, the certainty of things not seen".
We really can do anything. Do you remember this? I so often forget about that. I remember the other things rather than this, infact I remember everything else exept for this. I thing about that bills that need to be paid, the career that needs to be built, the commitments to all the above, plus church life. Before I know it I'm actually in a place where life is living me. I'm not living life.
LIFE IS LIVING ME...........I'M NOT LIVING LIFE
Well thats a good thought for me to leave this on, and get back to work! I want to make sure that I'm living my life, or more importantly God directing my life, holding the rains, building my faith, reminding me constantly that there is more. There is always more. It is so easy to forget that there is a world of possibilities ahead of us. We could go to a different country, we could move to a different area, we could get involved in planting a new church, we could get out of our comfort zones and pray for someone, we could go to a hospital and speak to people about Jesus, we could, heaven forbid, actually turn to our left of right, and speak to a colleague about what Jesus has done in our lives, or even a family member.
We could get actually involved in our local church...............Who would have thought ?!?
There are so many different things for us to do, from being on a welcome team, serving tea / coffee, playing an instrument, working with kids, youth, students, starting something new that meets a need in our community, speaking to new people, setting up chairs, whatever it may be. Let us make sure that we are involved in the community that we call church.
There is an old song that my uncle used to sing before my Christian days called "We are the army of God". Can you believe that we actually are the army of God! People have said that we are his hands and feet in this world. Does God have full use of his arms and feet? Please be used, please don't wait to be asked, just find somewhere to get involved!
What does this have to do with dreaming? Tis a good question, however it is easy to answer. We can dream as one person on their own, or we can dream as a group of people! When you hear other peoples dreams, it helps us to dream. When we share our dreams with others, it not only encourages us, it encourages them to. You never know, you may even find someone with a similar dream, and where you have been thinking that you will never be able to achieve this on your own, you are now 2 or 3 or more.
Ok one last thing that I'm thinking about is prayer and reading the bible. The more I pray, the more I understand how big God is, the more I read the bible, the more I understand how big God is. The more I understand how big God is, the more I realise that he can do anything he wants to do. The more I understand that God can do anything, the more I realise that he uses people to do these things. The more I realise that he uses people to do things for him, the more I realise that HE COULD USE ME!! The more I realise that he could use me, the more I dream!
Let us understand who God is
Let us understand that He can do anything
Let us believe that he wants to use us
Let us take God at his word and believe him
Let us be a people of faith realising like a child that when he says xyz he will do xyz.
Have you ever tested telling children things? I love chatting to kids, and pretending to wrestle with them. I have a friend from my cell group who I would guess is 5ish (I'm not very good with ages!) I always let him win, whether its an arm wrestle or a play fight. I then feel his biceps and say "WOW you are so strong, I'll never be able to beat you!" His reply is always fantastic "I really am strong arn't I. I've got really big muscles"
Why do I share this story? Childlike faith. It is all that we are asked to do. Listen to God, listen to what he says can happen, and simply believe it! Train yourself to belive in it! When you hear yourself doubting tell yourself off, and tell yourself "I WILL BELIEVE!!!"
todays rant over............
