This is part 1 of a 5-part series. View the entire series here.
“But forget all that—it is nothing compared to what I am going to do. For I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness. I will create rivers in the dry wasteland.” – Isaiah 43:18-19 NLT
Maybe you’ve been holding off on a dream for a long time. Maybe there’s something you feel God is calling you to do, somewhere He’s calling you to go, something He’s calling you to start. But for whatever reason—fear, busyness, lack of motivation—you’ve never gotten around to taking the first step to make the dream a reality.
Or maybe you’ve stopped dreaming altogether. Maybe you’ve convinced yourself you’re not worthy of having dreams. You’ve been shot down one too many times and you’ve started believing you don’t deserve to dream—and even if you did deserve it, you wouldn’t have what it takes to see those dreams through.
Dreams are good. They’re beautiful. Life-giving. They keep hope and faith flourishing. They may even offer manifold blessings to others.
God wants us to dream.
And as we move into a new year, it’s time to dream again.
Forget What’s Behind
I love what God says through Isaiah in this verse. Forget all that. God wanted to draw the Israelites’ attention away from the sins of their past. Yes, they had turned away from Him, and yes, their hard-heartedness had lasting and painful consequences. They were exiled for decades from the land God had promised them.
But He was about to do something new. He was about to release them from exile and bring them back to their homeland, and He didn’t want them so stuck in their past failures that they were unable to see the blessings He was about to pour out on them.
Dream Big—But Give it to Him
First and foremost, the most important thing we can do with a dream (and, for that matter, anything we’re carrying) is lay it at the feet of Jesus. Even if it’s a good dream, even if it’s something He wants for us, we still have to surrender it to Him. We have to put Him first in everything and never lose sight of the truth: He is the ultimate dream. Presence and fullness of life with Jesus is the dream. If we have nothing else but Him, we have everything. So in everything, always, we have to let Him lead.
It may not be easy, but He’ll be with you, just like He was with the Israelites. Even after turning back to God and leaving Babylon, they still had to face miles and miles of wilderness. But they were able to move forward with confidence because God was with them. I will make a pathway through the wilderness, God promised. I will create rivers in the dry wasteland.
It’s Never Too Late to Start Dreaming
So forget what’s behind you. Let go of all the mistakes you’ve made, all the ways you’ve failed, all the time you think you’ve wasted. God is able to redeem all of it. If you let Him, He’ll show you all the ways He’s been moving in your life, even when you’ve been too busy or too discouraged or too focused on your own plans to notice.
It’s not too late. God has wonderful plans for your future. He orders all your steps, and He’s with you through each one—but He still requires you to take the step. It may be a step of faith. You may not see a clear path ahead. You may have no idea how things are going to play out. That’s okay. You don’t need to. You just need to trust that the One who goes before you will light the way. Lay everything at His feet, grab onto His hand, and follow Him. Have the courage to dream again.
Commit your actions to the Lord, and your plans will succeed. – Proverbs 16:3 NLT
