How Your Dreams Can Change Your Life

What is controlling your life? If you're like a lot of Christians you might answer that question by saying, "God is controlling my life." As our pastor likes to point out, whenever a question is asked in Sunday School, most of the time you'll get the right answer if you say: God.

But the question really goes beyond that. Because when we look at what is controlling our lives we see that it is our desires, the dreams that we have, that motivate us and give us the drive to get up every morning and take action.

In Mark 5:24-34 we read the story of the woman who had suffered from bleeding for twelve years. It says that she had gone to many doctors, and spent all that she had, but that instead of getting better, she had gotten worse. But that day, in spite of the crowd that pressed around Jesus, she fought her way to Him and touched his clothes. The words she said to herself were, "If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed." (Mark 5:28)

For twelve years this woman had suffered but had never lost sight of her dream, the dream of being made whole. She had been willing to overcome any obstacle, and had tried everything she could think of, in order to be healed.

The Bible doesn't tell us how she heard about Jesus, or what she had to go through to be near Him that day, but one thing is clear, her dream, her desire to be healed, had controlled her life.

Proverbs 29:18 says, "Where there is no revelation (or vision), the people cast off restraint."

The vision that we have for our lives will create motivation, drive, and focus. It will give us the energy to persevere when the odds are against us, continue to work towards our dreams in spite of the setbacks and disappointments, and bring us to a place of wholehearted commitment to God.

The apostle Paul wrote that even though there were things in his life that needed to change, God's vision for his life had taken hold of him. He talked about forgetting his past and straining toward what was ahead of him. In Philippians 3:14-15 he says, "I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you."

As we pursue the dreams and desires that God has given us, we will change. When we allow God's vision for our lives to take hold of us and control our lives, we will put our mistakes behind us and continue to move forward toward our goals. As we do that, God will reveal every doubt and fear that we have, anything that is hindering us, and help us to overcome them so that we will reach our dreams.