Faith and Excitement For the Future

Wow. I sit here and think about all that God is doing and it's amazing. He has turned my world topsy-turvy in the best possible way, and I am learning to trust His plans for my life and to have faith and excitement for the future in the process. 


Faith and excitement for the future. It is vital. I'm going to be straight up honest. The first eighteen years of my life were hell. They served their purpose for sure, like The Rocket Summer says "I wouldn't know just how sweet this is if at first I had not gone through bitter times, through bitter places..." I went through illnesses that the doctors told me would kill me before I turned twenty, I grew up in the midst of abuse and cruelty, and a lot more that I won't go into. BUT. God truly makes beauty out of ashes. He saved my life, turned me around, and I have spent the last six years loving Him and living an amazing life. 


God has been showing me something recently. Given my past, somewhere along the way, in the midst of the hurts, the pains, the disappointments, I became scared to dream. I listened to the lies of fear and was distrustful of the future, because everything about my current circumstances screamed to me that life was terrible and that I better be prepared to deal with another catastrophe in the future. That is such a dangerous mindset. Maybe you've fallen into a monotonous existence, scared to dream big for the future because of circumstances that broke you down. Find the strength to pick yourself up, and with God, take the risk to dream big. Massive. Huge. Dream the dream that He gave you, the dream that only He can make possible.


So, I am in the process of listening to God and of having Him teach me how to dream again. He's teaching me how to trust Him and how to rest in Him while He lays the future out before me in His timing. What He does for me, He can do for you. He is no respecter of persons! How cool is that?! You don't need to read a million self help books on how to be successful or to find your dream or whatever...I just started out with lots of prayer. I would literally sit there and say "Okay God, I have NO idea what I'm doing. I don't really have any stellar role models that I've grown up with to show me what it means to  walk into the dreams You planted in their hearts...I am starting from scratch, and I know You're guiding me. And thanks a million times over for that. I choose to trust You, I choose to love You, I choose to focus on You, and I know that all else will come together in Your time." And within a few hours, I stumbled across a book that I bought for $1, called "Knit Together" by Debbie Macomber...I just found it sitting in a bin at OfficeMax and felt led to buy it. I mean, a $23 book for $1. Yes. And that was no coincidence! God has used that book to reveal some great insights. 


So get excited for the future! I serve a God Who works on an unfathomably massive scale - Who desires only good for me and you. He wants us to be optimistic and look into the future with wide open eyes, ready to serve, ready to bless others, ready to walk with Him and walk into the fulfilling life He has planned for each of us. He's got your back, you just have to LET Him have your back. Quit fighting it.


The second part to this: The most successful people, the people who absolutely changed the world, were the same people that everyone initially thought were crazy. God gave us our dreams, and our dreams should be so massive that they absolutely require Him to bring them to fruition. Thus, be careful who you discuss your dreams with. I've been laughed at by family members and have consequently learned to guard the dream. Now, I pray over my dreams - I pray that the Lord protect them and that His will be done over my will. 


So you might get called crazy, you might get laughed at. Take it as motivation. See it as a green light - if you encounter opposition or resistance, it's probably an indicator that you're a potential world changer, a person capable of impacting the world with God. Don't let anyone or anything get in the way of God has planned for your life. If He planted the dream in your heart, step on the accelerator with Him and don't let up, no matter what circumstances or people say. 


"No turning back, I've made up my mind, I'm giving all of my life this time. Your love makes it worth it all. All to You I surrender, everything, every part of me, all my dreams and all of me. I trust You God, I trust You..."