Turning God's dreams into reality

Dreams by their very nature are unrealistic. If you can remember any of your recent dreams they probably do not reflect real life. They often, in my experience, take a jumble of memories and recent experiences and mix them up into an interesting hotchpotch of events. If you are fortunate they may construct into a pleasant, even funny story and if not they may create a frightening nightmare.

I had an interesting dream last night. It involved a new photo album we had ordered from an online company and though it was full of our photos, one page was different in that instead of being just one photo it was a slideshow of photos as you might see on your computer. I was recounting the dream to my husband and commented on the absurdity of it when he remarked that it wasn’t completely foolish. He then outlined how it could become a reality. I was amazed.

It made me realise though that the dreams God gives us, though appearing unrealistic, are actually meant to become true. The great dreamer Joseph is a case in point. He was the 11^th son of Jacob, a fairly well to do shepherd but hardly born for the high life. He dreamt that he was out in the fields and his brothers’ sheaves of corn bowed down to his sheaf. He then dreamt that the sun, moon and eleven stars bowed to him, meaning his parents as well as his brothers. Unfortunately, being young and foolish he told his brothers and parents about his dreams and they were very unimpressed, so much so that Judah and the brothers had no difficulty selling Joseph to a travelling caravan of Midianites who took him off into a life of slavery and imprisonment in Egypt.

It was here though that he honed his dreaming and administrative skills so that when he was called upon to interpret Pharaoh’s dreams he was confidently able to bring the word of the Lord to Pharaoh and save not just the nation but also his family. His original dreams were fulfilled but over 20 years later. God gave Joseph his dreams, not so he could brag about them to his brothers but to encourage him to persevere through the hard preparation years into his destiny.

In all the difficult circumstances of betrayal, lies, misjudgements, false imprisonment and rejection Joseph never lost sight of God. He was Joseph’s focus though I am sure there were times when Joseph dismissed his dreams as the vain imaginings of a young man. But God was working out his plans even in the midst of all the disappointments so that when the time came Joseph was ready, prepared by the events of his life.

We are often encouraged not to let go of our God given dreams, to stir them into life and this is important but of greater importance is to focus on the Lord in the good times, the bad times and the downright awful times. There may be occasions when our dreams seem like the vain imaginings of another era but with our eyes firmly fixed on Jesus, we can ask him to prepare us for the fulfilment of our dreams.

Our God dreams are meant to be fulfilled. They are not meant to be the unrealistic ramblings of our sleeping minds. God’s dreams come true. They are there to inspire us to persevere in all the seasons of our lives but fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith (Hebrews 12: 2) we will see our dreams become reality.