Welcome back to “Practical Faith!” We’ve been talking recently about dreaming with the Lord – giving yourself space and permission to ask God to help you envision your future with Him – and then asking Him to help you map out an achievable course for getting there.
But there’s an important distinction we need to make between having clear goals vs. having just good intentions.
So, for me, for instance, if I were to say, “I want to be more Christ-like.” That wouldn’t really be a vision of a clear goal. That would be an intention. And it’s a good intention. But it’s not going to get me very far – what I need is a path. I need to get myself onto a path that will lead me to the achieving of this dream.
So if your intention is to become more Christ-like – if that’s your dream – you can now start, with the Lord’s help, to come up with some simple, measurable, achievable steps that you can take to begin to become more like Jesus.
So you might say, “well, Jesus spent time with the poor, so I’m going to start spending 3 hours with the poor, once per month.” Or “Jesus said we should love our enemies, so I am going to start praying for my enemies for 3 minutes each day.” Well, now you would be putting yourself on the path for becoming like Jesus!
You have a vision for your future. You can see where you want to go. You’ve identified some simple, initial steps you can take in the right direction. And guess what? You are now a small step or 2 closer to realizing your dream of becoming more like Jesus!
Now, I have a dream: I want to be a better dad for my kids. ‘Be a better dad’ is an intention. It’s a good intention. But nothing’s gonna happen until I get myself onto an active path to becoming the better dad I want to be. See the difference?
If I hope and I wish to be a better dad, but then I don’t change anything in my schedule or my behavior towards my kids, then, my dream will never become reality.
All the hoping and wishing – and, even praying – in the world isn’t going to amount to anything if I don’t DO something about it.
You may have heard the saying, “God can’t steer a parked car.” Now, I have several theological problems with that statement, but there is some truth to the concept: if you want God to give you some direction in some area of life, He might be waiting on you to DO something. Stick your foot out into the best direction you can think of to step, and watch for the Lord to begin to light the path before you.
Proverbs 16:9 says, “The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps.”
And verse 3 of that same chapter says, “Commit your works unto the Lord, and your plans will be established.” In this context, we can see that when we make our plans with the Lord’s help and guidance, when we commit those plans back to Him, we can move forward in the plan, trusting in His sovereign guidance, oversight, and leadership.
And finally for today, Psalm 37:4 affirms this Biblical truth – it says, “Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart.”
The more deeply we love God, the more we will desire for ourselves what He already desires for us. And as we take steps in faith towards those God-given desires, we can trust Him to lead us, to “direct our steps.”
