Your Words Reveal Your Dreams
If you had to write down your dream for your life, what would you write? What sits on the other side of your “If only” statement?
How would you fill in the blank: “I would be happy if I could just have ________” or “If God would just give me ________”?
Maybe a better way to ask the question is this: What kind of God do you want God to be?
Even if we begin our spiritual relationship with God with pure intention, the power of sin, the selfishness of the heart, and the deceit of the enemy might lure us away. What started as holy, worshipful submission to Christ has the ability to morph into love for self and the hope that Jesus will meet our desires by signing the bottom of our wish list.
Is it possible that you are excited about following the King for the wrong reasons?
I’m concerned for many Christians, including myself, that what might move and motivate us is not first submission to God’s will and a burning desire for his glory but our own set of personal desires and dreams.
Could it be that we are most excited about the sovereignty of God because we see him as the most efficient delivery system for those dreams?
And what’s one of the best ways to discern this? By listening to our words.
You can tell what excites us when we fall into discouragement and grumble when God does not deliver the wish list we want. The lips that once praised now complain, and those that once encouraged now accuse. This struggle of our hearts will shape the communication of our lips.
In the Old Testament, the prophet Habakkuk debates with God as he watches the Chaldeans used by God to judge God’s people. Habakkuk is confused and dismayed because his plan would have looked much different!
He concludes the book by describing total decimation. There is nothing left—no plants, trees, or animals. Yet in the face of this devastated dream, Habakkuk rejoices.
If your dream crumbled, if there was nothing left, would you rise in the midst of your tears and say, “I am full of joy because the Lord is my life and my strength, and, gloriously, despite all of this loss and destruction, I still have him.”?
You can pursue your dream, or you can pursue the Lord’s dream for you. You can ask him to conform you to his image so that your life and your words would increasingly bring him praise.
Or you can wish that Christ would conform to the scope and focus of your dream.
Listen to the words on your lips and the words in your heart. It will quickly expose whose dream you are seeking and whose kingdom you are building.
Though the fig tree should not blossom,
nor fruit be on the vines,
the produce of the olive fail
and the fields yield no food,
the flock be cut off from the fold
and there be no herd in the stalls,
yet I will rejoice in the Lord;
I will take joy in the God of my salvation.
God, the Lord, is my strength;
he makes my feet like the deer’s;
he makes me tread on my high places.
(Habakkuk 3:17-19)
A Prayer for Today: God, would you please conform me to your image so that my life and my words would increasingly bring you praise? Would you cause the dreams of my fickle heart to bend toward your will and desire for me, and may I stand in a posture of humility and joy as I watch your plan for me unfold day by day? I need you to be my life and strength, because you are enough. Please remind me of that truth. In Jesus’ name, amen.
God bless,
Paul Tripp
Discussion Prompt for Children
• Do you have a wish list for what you want your life to look like when you are my age? Share a few things on that list with me.
• Do you think the list I had for myself has matched up with how my life is right now? What are the ways that you have seen God shape my story as a grown up?
• Who do you think knows better about what is best for you and me: God or us? Why does it matter that we allow our hearts to trust in God’s plan for us even when we don’t know what’s going on?
•How does complaining expose what’s really going on in our hearts?
Reflection Questions
1. If you were being honest, what kind of God would you want God to be? How has he not lived up to your expectations in the past? How did you react when your expectations weren’t met? Have there been times in your life when you were excited about following God for the wrong reasons (hoping to have your agenda met)?
2. What would you say motivates your desire to follow God right now? Would someone be able to easily evaluate your motivations for following God based on how you use your words? If so, how would you categorize those words: worshipful or full of complaints and discouragement?
3. If your dream crumbled and there was nothing left, would you be able to rise in the midst of your sorrow and say, “I am full of joy because the Lord is my life and my strength”? Consequently, would you say that you have been pursuing your personal dream or the dream the Lord has for you?
4. How have the words of your mouth exposed the reality of your heart lately (try to think of both positive and negative examples)?
5. Take some time right now and ask God to conform you to his image so that your life and your words would increasingly bring him praise.