DON’T GIVE UP | Ryan Romeo
Many times in life fear masquerades as humility. This is especially the case when pursuing God-given dreams in your life.
I have seen this pervasive belief among christians that God doesn’t care about your dreams. The philosophy—and ultimately theology—says that God has different dreams for you than you do and what he is asking for is for you and I to “lay down our dreams” for him. Sacrifice them on the alter for his glory.
Now, on it’s surface this seems right. I mean, Jesus himself prayed, “Not my will but yours be done” when facing the cross. We can also all agree that the pursuit of God’s will above our own is crucial, so there are times when God redirects us to a new path. And we have to be people that say yes to Jesus no matter the calling.
But… I’m talking about your dreams that have consistently stuck in your journey with Jesus. God-given dreams that keep you up at night. The dreams you can’t help but talk about with all your friends and family. The dreams that feel audacious and insurmountable yet you can’t seem to put them down. The dreams that you seem instinctively hard-wired for.
These dreams are different. These dreams are to be pursued not sacrificed.
Now, let’s state the obvious, if your dream involves pride, taking advantage of others—or really any sin in general—you need to stop reading. This blog isn’t for you.
But, if this is something you have prayed about often and is a dream seeped the desire to glorify God with your gifts, than you need to hear this.
Jesus is the dream-giver. He wired you to be passionate about the things you are passionate about. He didn’t do this on accident. He didn’t make a mistake when he wired you. Your dreams matter to God.
Look at the life of David or Noah or Joseph—really take your pick of biblical characters with audacious visions or callings—and you will see a God who is more committed to dreams than we are. And the God who gives the dream is committed and faithful to seeing it through.
So when we “lay our dreams down” for God, we need to ask whether we are doing this because we know it’s sinful or because we are afraid. Like I said, fear often masquerades as humility. If you have laid your dreams down because of fear, then the fruit will be a diminishment and repressing of the gifts and callings of God in your life. Fear based sacrifice of your dream isn’t, spiritual. It isn’t humble. Its burying your calling because of your fear of man or your fear of circumstances.
But God never does that. He never asks you to hide your gifts. He never invests in his children in a way that doesn’t yield fruit. He invested gifts into you, so that you will put them on display for his glory.
Past this, we need to remember that dreams, visions and callings actually are investments. I wrote about that in more detail here but suffice to say, Jesus cares about how you invest your giftings into the kingdom. He doesn’t want you fearfully burying them.
Take some time today. Pray about your dreams. Are there things God is asking of you to pick back up? Remember who your Dad is and take a step of faith toward your dreams today.
Ryan Romeo is an artist, worship leader, writer and speaker. He has a deep passion for the church and all things creative. He currently works at his local church, Living Streams and is the Creative Director and cofounder of OUTCRY Tour. He lives in Phoenix, AZ with his wife Blake and their children Toby, Adyn & Mae.