Children of Light & Chasing the Dream

Matthew 5:14-16 KJV

¹⁴ Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. ¹⁵ Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. ¹⁶ Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

When I graduated from high school, my mother put Matthew 5:16 on my yearbook encouragement and that verse has always stayed with me.  Looking back on the gift of my parents in my life, my Heavenly Father has constantly reminded me that His Love remains in every single situation and circumstance of our lives.

Our Heavenly Father had a plan from the very beginning for each and everyone of us.  That is made especially clear when you read Genesis 3:14-15 after Adam and Eve were deceived by the serpent and:

¹⁴ And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life: ¹⁵ And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

I don’t know about you, but recently I have been experiencing some heavy spiritual warfare.  When you become a Christian, that essentially puts a spiritual target on your back.  However, whenever you are fighting through the struggles of being a Christian, please read 1 Peter 4.  A copy of that entire chapter is on the wall next to my bed.  When I can, I read it before I go out into the world to be reminded that I am to BE A LIGHT, to NOT GROW WEARY IN DOING GOOD, and BECOME A SLAVE TO RIGHTEOUSNESS, which is your identity in Christ (Romans 6).

Lastly, I wish to encourage each of you to think about what your dream is & what you believe your God-given purpose is in life.  If you could pick one dream/purpose that you could accomplish in the your lifetime, what would it be?  Do you want to get clean drinking water to everyone in the world?  Do you want to end human trafficking in your lifetime?  Do you want to bring the Gospel to a place where it has never been shared before?  Whatever it is, seek Christ Jesus first.  There is a book out there called “Chase the Lion: Stepping Confidently into the Unknown” that I recently ordered and I plan on reading because it is all about discovering your dream and chasing it.  One thing that I was recently told in my Thursday Bible study group was this, “If your dream doesn’t scare you, it isn’t big enough.”  Thus, I would charge each of you to dream big, to the point where your dream is scary & seems impossible.  Dream beyond the point where you could do something on your own outside of seeking God’s help and seek out fulfilling a dream in your life that can only be accomplished with God’s help.  Remember, NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE with GOD (Matthew 19:26).

This is my prayer for you this day and every day.  I pray that you would realize your dream that can only be accomplished with God’s help, and then CHASE IT!