Broken dreams
"Why are you cast down, O my soul,
And why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise Him,
My salvation and my God." Psalm 42:5,11; 43:5
Broken dreams:
There are seasons in life when we hold tenaciously to what we consider to be the ideal. We wait for it, work for it, ask for it, even demand that our understanding of what is best come to pass. The danger in our pursuit can be that we make the ideal an idol and our understanding becomes a demand, rather than a request of God. When God doesn't deliver what we want when we want it we begin to wonder what's taking Him so long! Frustration becomes a temptation when things don't work out the way WE want them to.
Our desires can be for good things, godly things, but when those desires become more important to us than the One who gave them, we have a major problem. Often during these times of pursuing our ideal become times of not pursuing our relationship with God. We tend to rest on our laurels and current understanding. We figure that God will understand and come to help us in the meantime. How would you feel if your best friend went months without communicating with you and then ran to you merely for your help without a thought for you as a person? That's what we can do with God. That's how we can treat Him when we desire His gifts more than we desire Him.
It is amazing to me how graciously God responds to this, our treatment of Him, during these times. When we replace Him with His gifts, we become frustrated because those gifts won't deliver like He can. Those gifts will disappoint, fall short of meeting our needs, not be all that we want or need them to be. Instead of jumping down our throats telling us how wrong we are, God will sometimes allow us to have what we want so that we realize how futile it is to supplant Him with things that do not satisfy. If the dream is not His, He can also keep us from realizing the fruition of it. Or if the fulfillment is not best right now, He will hold it off until it is.
Because He knows that the dream will not satisfy like He can, He will eventually do the necessary to break our hold on it. This breaking can be very painful. Laying aside, putting to rest, handing over things that are so precious to us can be extremely painful and humbling, especially when those things are dreams that have had to die over and over again. When the object and the hopes and expectations connected to the object are allowed to linger, they wrap their cords around your heart and removing them feels like someone pulling things out by the roots. Your heart feels scathed and broken.
But this breaking, this removal of what is good, is necessary in order to replace it with what is best. Paul tells the Philippians to seek to approve what is excellent. The 'good' is the enemy of the 'best.' A friend once told me the story of a little girl who was given a necklace of imitation pearls. This necklace became her most treasured possession. There came a day when her Father asked her to give him the necklace. She didn't know how she could part with it, but she trusted her Father and handed to Him the thing she prized most. Her Father asked for the fake pearls in order that, unbeknownst to her, He could give her a string of real pearls - worth soo much more than the imitations. God will take away what is good in order to create space for what is best.
After the breaking, after the end of fighting for our dreams - our 'ideal' - and the submission of them to the Father, there is peace. When the war for what we want ceases, there is rest. There is a lightness of heart when the burden for making things happen in our own strength is removed. We don't have to fight for our best. We have One who does that for us!
"Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought,
but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches
hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according
to the will of God. And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good,
for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also
predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among
many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also
justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.
What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?
He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will he not also
with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge to God's elect?
It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died - more than that,
who was raised - who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall
separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation (pressure), or distress (tight or narrow places), or persecution , or famine, or nakedness, or danger or sword? As it is written, 'For your sake
we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.' No, in all these
things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us." Romans 8:26-37
"Cease striving, and know that I am God." Ps. 46:10
And why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise Him,
My salvation and my God." Psalm 42:5,11; 43:5
Broken dreams:
There are seasons in life when we hold tenaciously to what we consider to be the ideal. We wait for it, work for it, ask for it, even demand that our understanding of what is best come to pass. The danger in our pursuit can be that we make the ideal an idol and our understanding becomes a demand, rather than a request of God. When God doesn't deliver what we want when we want it we begin to wonder what's taking Him so long! Frustration becomes a temptation when things don't work out the way WE want them to.
Our desires can be for good things, godly things, but when those desires become more important to us than the One who gave them, we have a major problem. Often during these times of pursuing our ideal become times of not pursuing our relationship with God. We tend to rest on our laurels and current understanding. We figure that God will understand and come to help us in the meantime. How would you feel if your best friend went months without communicating with you and then ran to you merely for your help without a thought for you as a person? That's what we can do with God. That's how we can treat Him when we desire His gifts more than we desire Him.
It is amazing to me how graciously God responds to this, our treatment of Him, during these times. When we replace Him with His gifts, we become frustrated because those gifts won't deliver like He can. Those gifts will disappoint, fall short of meeting our needs, not be all that we want or need them to be. Instead of jumping down our throats telling us how wrong we are, God will sometimes allow us to have what we want so that we realize how futile it is to supplant Him with things that do not satisfy. If the dream is not His, He can also keep us from realizing the fruition of it. Or if the fulfillment is not best right now, He will hold it off until it is.
Because He knows that the dream will not satisfy like He can, He will eventually do the necessary to break our hold on it. This breaking can be very painful. Laying aside, putting to rest, handing over things that are so precious to us can be extremely painful and humbling, especially when those things are dreams that have had to die over and over again. When the object and the hopes and expectations connected to the object are allowed to linger, they wrap their cords around your heart and removing them feels like someone pulling things out by the roots. Your heart feels scathed and broken.
But this breaking, this removal of what is good, is necessary in order to replace it with what is best. Paul tells the Philippians to seek to approve what is excellent. The 'good' is the enemy of the 'best.' A friend once told me the story of a little girl who was given a necklace of imitation pearls. This necklace became her most treasured possession. There came a day when her Father asked her to give him the necklace. She didn't know how she could part with it, but she trusted her Father and handed to Him the thing she prized most. Her Father asked for the fake pearls in order that, unbeknownst to her, He could give her a string of real pearls - worth soo much more than the imitations. God will take away what is good in order to create space for what is best.
After the breaking, after the end of fighting for our dreams - our 'ideal' - and the submission of them to the Father, there is peace. When the war for what we want ceases, there is rest. There is a lightness of heart when the burden for making things happen in our own strength is removed. We don't have to fight for our best. We have One who does that for us!
"Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought,
but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches
hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according
to the will of God. And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good,
for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also
predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among
many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also
justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.
What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?
He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will he not also
with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge to God's elect?
It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died - more than that,
who was raised - who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall
separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation (pressure), or distress (tight or narrow places), or persecution , or famine, or nakedness, or danger or sword? As it is written, 'For your sake
we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.' No, in all these
things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us." Romans 8:26-37
"Cease striving, and know that I am God." Ps. 46:10
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