Children dream—a lot. They imagine impossible scenarios because they let themselves. Parents let them watch movies and read books with fairies, superheroes and far-away worlds. When they play, their reality is a world with their closest neighborhood or school friends as characters from media, or just an imaginative game of cops and robbers.
This is where dreaming stops. Because when you become an adult, you start to construct you’re life.
There’s nothing wrong with building your life—setting goals in your personal life for the next year or making a five-year plan for your career. But hopefully, it doesn’t become just that—a construct, rather than your dream.
That night God appeared to Solomon and said to him, “Ask for whatever you want me to give you”(2 Chronicles 1:7).
…therefore wisdom and knowledge will be given to you. And I will also give you wealth, possessions and honor, such as no king who was before you ever had and none after you will have (2 Chronicles 1:12).
Solomon wanted the ability to lead the people God appointed him because it was a dream realized in God. It was a prayer and hope that aligned with the likeness of God, so He allowed it to happen.
When I was a child, I wanted to be a professional singer, teacher and photographer, all at the same time. Obviously, those things didn’t happen. Not because I wasn’t able to fulfill them, but because my desires grew in other areas, and those were the areas I wanted to focus on. God knows what dreams He has for us, but to express those dreams to Him and act them out takes a deeper sense of faith—that no matter what He is for us, not against us. Dreaming is for adults too.
How do we share our dreams with God?
- Prayer—it opens up the door to share with God. Opening up a conversation with Him will allow you to sort out which dreams are truly embedded in who you are and what God has for you, and which ones are temporary fluxes.
- Write your dreams down—it doesn’t matter how big or small, if they are personal, work-related, spiritual, for the world, etc. Write them all down and don’t categorize them. Start with 20 things, and write them down as you think of them.
- More Prayer—talk it out with God. He knows the greatest strategies and is the ultimate dreamer.
Prayer is not only reserved for the restoration of things, but the creation and expression of dreams realized in Him.
And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort (2 Corinthians 1:7).
