God has fantastic plans for you in 2020. But He doesn’t write them in a letter and send them in the mail! He plants His purposes for your life in your heart in seed form. These seeds are dreams and desires.
Dreams and desires motivate us to pursue our purpose. They fuel hope and they help us to fulfill our God-given destiny. To get the best of 2020, you need to keep hope alive on the inside.
IS IT FROM GOD?
The enemy wants to divert us from our purpose so he loves to make us doubt that our dreams are from the Lord. We wonder if they have just come from our own imaginations. As a result, we shy away.
Psalm 37:4 says, “Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.” This is true at 2 levels. When we prioritize His kingdom, He will add these things to us. However that’s not where it ends.
This verse also says that when we delight in the Lord, He will plant the right desires on the inside of us. That can help you work out if your dream is from God. When you are in His presence, does the desire grow or go? Dreams that won’t go away are probably part of God’s plan for your life.
DORMANT DREAMS
As I was praying, I heard the Lord say, “It’s time to dust off the dormant dreams of your life.” God wants you to go back to those forgotten desires and start to believe again.
There enemy is always trying to extinguish our desires. Here are 3 ways he tries:
- DISAPPOINTMENT – perhaps you believed that it would all have happened by now? You had your hopes fixed on God fulfilling His promises at a certain time and in a particular way. When that didn’t happen, you felt crushed.
- DELAY – maybe you are weary of waiting. You have trusted and believed, you have carried on in faith for what feels like far too long and you are fed up of waiting. The dream that once inspired now hurts. How long will I have to wait?
- DISDAIN – it could be that you shared your dreams with people that didn’t like your vision. Maybe they mocked you or doubted your ability. Perhaps you stepped out in faith and got hurt.
When stuff happens that dampens our desires, all too often we distance ourselves from the dream. Hope deferred makes the heart sick (Pr 13:12). We feel discouraged or disappointed so we relegate the dream to the dumpster. Thank God that Abraham and Joseph kept hope alive even when circumstances looked hopeless.
I believe it’s time to go back to your God-given desires. If you got hurt or felt let down, pour out your heart in prayer before the Lord. Then go back to your dreams and start to trust again. Remember, your job is believing and obeying. His responsibility is to make it happen.
PLEASE HELP ME!
Please share in the comments box or by email any topics that you would like me to write about in 2020. Also, what were your favorite of my blogs in 2019? Thank you so much for taking the time to respond! It means a lot to me.
Finally, if you want to kick start your year, I encourage you to read 30 Day Detox for your Soul. And make sure you come to the next REFRESH event near you: your future depends on you keeping your heart restored and refreshed.
Thanks Pastor Jo.
This really resonates with me and I’m encouraged greatly.
Topic to write on: “when you have to deal with a situation that looks similar to a previous one – it had been uncomfortable – what should our mindset be and what is the best way to handle it.
The Blogs have been encouraging and I don’t have a favourite one – just thankful to God for their impact on my life.
Thank you so much for your feedback, and yes I will write a blog on those lines. I think you probably need to hear about how to be free from the fear of history repeating itself…
Dear Pastor Jo,
Thank you for your labour of love in sharing these blogs each week. I don’t have a favourite blog, some have gripped my heart more than others, but I think that’s been determined by where I’ve been spiritually/ emotionally.
Would it be possible to write something about how to deal with hardness of heart?
Love and blessings
I’m so glad that my blogs help Thank you for sharing. Absolutely, that’s a great topic thank you.
This is amazing! Love love love it! Really resonated with me. Love Sylvie <3
So glad!
Thank you for the encouraging word to keep seeking to fulfill my purpose despite discouragement, rejection, and doubt.
I’m so glad it helped
Thank you for the encouragement to keep seeking to fulfill my purpose despite discouragement, rejection, and doubt.
Dear Pastor Jo
Thank you for your insightful blogs. They have been really useful. Today’s blog has resonated with me. Worry and fear might be useful topics for further blogs as this is something I struggle with from time to time. .
Absolutely Dulcie, thank you for your suggestions!
Me too. X
Hello PJ. Thank you for the weekly blogs. I don’t have a specific one….all of them has helped me in some way, if it meant I had to change my perspective on certain things or I had to deal with the matters of my heart. It would be wonderful if you can touch on the dangers of living life through the eyes of children (young and grown). I have been having conversations with individuals who are currently doing this and I see how it’s affecting their mentally and emotionally state.
I’m so glad to hear that and Thank you so much for your suggestions.
Dear P. Jo, As always, and as mentioned by a few people already, your blogs are relevant to all of us and resonate at different levels depending on where we are at a particular time/on our life journey. Your current one is spot-on again for me and I’d already been thinking about reviving a long-given-up dream or two as I look forward to this new year and decade…so it is just the encouragement I needed to stay on course and stay hopeful. Thank you and best wishes to you and yours for 2020…keep doing what you are doing.
Topics for 2020: 1) dealing with procrastination – searching our hearts as to why; 2) acceptance and gratitude; 3)what about people dealing with groups/individuals carrying “hate”, or when someone is cut off from family (when they were the victim and family is in denial and even if forgiveness is attempted, reconciliation is not possible – as the other parties are not ready – a bit long, sorry – hope it makes sense.
That’s wonderful feedback thank you, I am grateful to God. And also thank you for your suggestions!
Hi Pastor Jo,
Im confident that most believers can relate with your insight on this blog. Personally, I can relate especially because we are serving a God who makes things beautiful at His time not at our time. The process of waiting can be gruesome especially for New Christians. But over the years I’ve leant to truly appreciate the disappointments, the delays and the disdain. God teaches us a lot of valuable things during this time that help us to handle the breakthroughs with more caution and wisdom in the future.
Lots of Love from Lumka, South Africa.