Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Don’t give up your dreams

Don't give up your dreams

 

The car you drive has a large windshield, but only a relatively small rear view mirror. The implication is obvious: What happened in your past is not nearly as important as what is in your future. Where you are going is much more important than where you've been. If you stay focused on the past, you're liable to miss numerous excellent opportunities ahead. Don't let disappointment become the central theme of your life. Quit mourning over something you can't change. God wants to give you a new beginning, but you have to let go of the old before you'll ever see the new. Let that door close behind you and step through the door in front of you. Maybe you've allowed other people to convince you that you're never going to rise higher, that you will never see your dreams come to pass. Don't believe them. When Caleb was a young man, he and Joshua were part of an exploratory spy mission to determine the strength of the enemy before God's people moved into the land that God had promised them. Out of the twelve spies, only Caleb and Joshua presented a positive report to Moses. They were all too willing to settle for the second best, to dwell for the rest of their lives right where they were. Unfortunately, that group of negative thinkers never did make it into the Promised Land. They spent the next forty years spinning their wheels and wandering around aimlessly in a desert.  By then Caleb was 85 years old, but he hadn't given up on the dream God had placed in his heart. He told Joshua that he was still as strong as he was when the promise first came to him. Caleb went back to the same place and asked god for that mountain to live on. The mountain he claimed had five giants living on it. Surely, he could have found a place less fortified, more accessible, or more easily occupied. Although it is forty years later, he believed until he has seen that promise being fulfilled. That's the kind of attitude we need to have. We give up too easily. No, keep pressing forward, and keep believing. Keep yourself stirred up. You've got the gifts, the talents and the dreams. Don't allow complacency to keep you from seeing god's promises fulfilled in your life.