Week 31 - #Prepare “Dream”

“Are You A Dreamer?"

Ephesians 3:20: "Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us,"

Psalm 37:4-5: “Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.

Jeremiah 29:11-13: "For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart."

I am a firm believer that dreams can come true. And when they do, they are usually linked to an individual’s purpose and passion.

DADs…what do you dream about?

Unfortunately, in our world today, being considered a “dreamer" carries a negative connotation along with it. Being a dreamer gets a bad rap. Maybe because the dreamer’s dream, quite often becomes just that a dream that quickly fades away, left on a shelf with no pursuit.

I think the lack of follow through in our dreaming lies in the fact that in reality many of our dreams or ideas are not truly desires of our heart.

Zig Ziglar used to say, "to achieve a goal you must first have a dream" but determining which dreams truly matter takes some preparation and is a process.

He suggested that you make a list of all your dreams, as many as you can possibly think of, and then write them down on paper in one column, then leave it to “percolate" for 24 to 48 hours. A follow up step is to come back to it, and in the right column, write down why you want to "be, do or achieve" each specific dream. Ziglar says, if you can’t verbalize the “why” it is just a dream not worth seeking, and you are to then to eliminate it, and scratch it off.

Another reason, we fail to follow through with our dreams, can be because we don’t see our own value or ability to achieve it, so we don’t even try. In Ephesians 3:20: We are reminded that God created us and we are not to sell ourselves short. Paul wrote in his letter to the church, "Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us.”

DADs, in so many ways, and in so many circumstances we get in our own way of our dreaming, stifling our own creativity, imagination, and innovation. And when we stifle ourselves, we are not the best version of us to give to others. One of my all time favorite quotes is from the writer Ralph Waldo Emerson, who wrote, “what lies behind us and what lies before us, pales in comparison, to what lies within us.”

Dreams are so important, as long as we use them as a springboard into action. Action that spurs others on as well. Possibly even changing a generation.

DADs, if you choose to dream. And I hope you do...
if others call you a dreamer…and I hope they will...
remember the well cited scripture Jeremiah 29:11, "For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

If you have a dream…and its "eternal" versus "external"…and you have been discerning its truth, then do as it says in

Psalm 37:4-5, to “take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.”

DADs…clear out the clutter…know you are His son…and keep dreaming the dreams driving you to action!

To God be the glory!

DADs “get in the game”…

Today is game day…and so is every day…

God gives you! So…C’mon Men Suit Up!

**Today we prepare to “Dream.” Next week we will consider how critical it is to prepare to “Create."

Note: *For this new year of 2021, the combination of my age (understanding my own fragile mortality), this current and ongoing global pandemic, and most recently the personal loss I’ve experienced of one of my students, has amplified the need to land on one word...#Prepare.

In this "pursuit to prepare" I am determined to dedicate the 52 weeks of 2021 blogging every Week about one aspect of preparation God lays on my heart.

As mentioned in week 1, the word “prepare” means “to establish, fix, or apply.” It conveys the idea of deliberate effort over a prolonged period of time.