This morning I awakened early and, as I was preparing coffee, I found myself singing Cinderella’s “A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes.” The first line is, “A dream is a wish your heart makes, when you’re fast asleep.” It gave me pause…
What is your first thought in the morning? Is it of something you’re dreading or something you’re anticipating with joy? Did you ever wonder why your subconscious dreams a certain thing? Personally, I’m learning that the more I give a worry or a concern to my Heavenly Father and ask Him to help me with it, the more I awaken filled with contentment and peace. It seems that the process of releasing my cares to the only One who has all the answers, frees me. God’s Word says to cast all our cares on Him (God) because He cares for us! ( 1 Peter 5:7)
Do you believe that God has your best interests at heart or do you see the circumstances of your life as something that God created to teach you a lesson? If that’s the case, you probably blame God for all the circumstances in your life, good and bad, and mistrust Him at every turn!
James 1:13-17 says, “Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am tempted by God’; for God cannot be tempted by evil, not does He Himself tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires… When desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death. Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.” In other words… the “stuff” in your life is “stuff” for which you may thank yourself! Oh, you may have been tempted, just as surely as Adam and Eve, but it is at this point that we must understand that God gave man the ability to choose.
Some of you may be thinking, “I don’t believe that! God has the last word in everything that happens. He’s the God of the impossible, so He can do whatever He wants! He can keep me from ever having to have a bad day! The choice is not up to me, it’s up to God!”
Let’s go back to the beginning of our recorded Scriptures. In Genesis we read that He planted a Tree in the Garden of Eden and told Adam, “Of every tree of the Garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
(Interesting that “day” in the Hebrew means “heat” [[… as in “the heat of the moment”…?]] and “die” in the Hebrew means “die, kill, destroy.” The “serpent” definitely knew what he was doing… but that’s a whole other post.)
Adam and Eve were able to make a choice… and they made the wrong one! God gave them some very sound advice and He shared the consequences of a bad choice… it was death. Even if they had never seen “death,” they could have asked God what it was! No excuses!!!
We’re also reminded in Scripture that God cannot lie! (Titus 1:2) He gave Adam and Eve the Truth. We do have evidence, however, of the original “deceiver,” God’s greatest enemy, showing up to begin the work of deception as early as Genesis 3. “Hath God said…?” has been a favorite of His ever since!
His whole purpose is to get us to doubt the only complete Truth that exists… God and His Word! God and His Word are One. Hebrews 4:12 reminds us that God’s Word is, “… living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword…” His Word is alive and has power, as does He! If we doubt God’s Word, we doubt Him. Do we really want to do that?
Now that we’ve established that our “stuff” begins and ends with us, we must take responsibility for what we do with each and every circumstance. Even though we constantly bump into someone else’s “stuff,” we have the choice to blame that someone and live in un-forgiveness, or forgive them and be set free to move on in all of God’s goodness! When we choose the latter, His dreams, His desires become reality in our lives, not because of our goodness, but because of God’s Grace and Jesus’ redemptive work!!!
As we stay in His will… with Him… we begin to experience His presence and blessing in ways that we’ve not experienced before. After all, once we’ve been adopted into His family, we become His children and become heir to all that belongs to Him. Pretty amazing, huh?
The last line of that beautiful song, sung by a fictional orphan who was abused by her wicked step-mother and step-sisters, and who could have given up long before that lovely morning, says, ” No matter how your heart is grieving, if you keep on believing, the dreams that you wish will come true!” We must believe! We must continue to dream!
One important addition! God is the Source of everything and without God and His Son, there would be nothing! (John 1:1-3) So don’t get caught up in thinking that the universe, or a fairy godmother, brings you anything.
Like the Psalmist, we must say, “I would have lost heart, unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait on the Lord; be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart; wait, I say, on the Lord!” (Psalm 27:13,14)
So as you think about your life this New Year’s Eve, think about all you’ve been taught and begin to ask yourself how to come into line with all that God has for you! And as you hum Cinderella’s beautiful song, ask, “Is this a childhood fantasy or truth veiled in a children’s song…?” After all, if God knew each of us while we were in our mother’s womb, we may have known Him. If so, is that the reason children are so full of faith and trust when they are born… why nothing that they are told seems unbelievable to them? Just a thought….
So, my friends, you have been given permission to be the decision-maker of your own life! I pray that you make wise choices, because each choice is up to you…