Is It My Dream or God’s Dream?

In Mark 8:35 it says, “If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will save it.” (NLT)

How do I know if I’m living for my dream or God’s dream?

We may only think we were created to get up, go to work, come home, watch TV, and go to bed, to make a little money, retire, and die. But really? Is that why God put us here?

If a dream is truly from God, it will somehow be connected to his church and his plan for the world. Why would God give me a self-centered dream, unconnected to what he wants to do in the world? He wants to use us for his dream. He wants to use us for his plan.

God is building a family, and he’s collecting family members from every nation, tribe, language, and people group. When everybody’s in the family that he knows will be in the family, it’s over. We’re going into phase two, which is eternity. That’s God’s big plan.

Right before Jesus went back to heaven after the resurrection, he gave the disciples a great dream. It’s called the Great Commission: “Go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:19-20 NLT).

The Great Commission is our commission. We’ve had 2,000 years of God building his family so that now there are 2.5 billion people in it. The church is almost as big as China and India combined. It’s bigger than anything else on this planet—because God created it. It’s the whole purpose of history.

And when God gives us a dream for our lives, it is somehow going to be connected to his overarching plan. It’s connected to the growth of his kingdom and his family until the day it’s completed and we all go to heaven.

Mark 8:35 says, “If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will save it” (NLT).

We weren’t put here on earth to live for ourselves. We need to ask God to give us his dream for our lives so that we can be part of the biggest, best, and most important story.

In summary, any insistence on saving my life for my own purpose will only cause me to lose it. Those who give their lives for his name sake and for the sake of the Good News will know what it means to really live. Jesus wants me to stop trying to control my destiny and to let him direct me. He asks me only to lose my self-centered determination to be in charge. Happiness comes from service. God designed me to be happiest when I am giving my life away. God wants me to become like him. It's all about love. To have a happy heart, I should practice service and generosity every day. Jesus came to serve and give. Those two actions will bring more happiness into my life more than anything else. They define what it means to follow Jesus. If I'm not serving and giving, then I'm not following. The more I give myself away, the more God will give and the more blessed and happier I'll be. Sacrifice and serving are two of the keys to lifelong happiness.  

To Know Your Purpose, Ask Your Creator

In Colossians 1:16 it says, “Everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him.” (MSG)

When I put my trust in Jesus Christ, I learn God’s purpose for my life.

Most people don’t know the purpose of their lives. They think they know what they want or what is best for them. But if someone hasn't surrendered to Christ, they can’t know why they were created and what they're here on earth for. And if we don’t know our purpose, we end up drifting through life. We get bounced around. We don’t control anything, really, because our circumstances end up controlling us.

No one wants to live like that.

There’s only one way to learn the purpose of our lives. We need to consult our Creator.

Sometimes people will say that if you want to know your purpose, look within. People do that every day—and it never works! We can’t tell what our purpose is because we didn’t create ourselves.

Only the Creator can tell you what you were created for. We will never, ever know the purpose of our lives until we believe in Jesus Christ, because he is our Creator. We will never know that we were made for more than this life until we commit our life to Jesus.

The Bible says, “Everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him” (Colossians 1:16 MSG).

Today so many people are confused about their identity and their purpose. They say, “I don’t know who I am, and I don’t know what I’m supposed to be doing with my life.” That’s because they’re looking in the wrong places. They’re not going to find their purpose in their career, their accomplishments, their relationships, or their possessions.

There is only one place to find our identity and purpose in life, and that’s through a relationship with our Creator, Jesus Christ.

“It’s in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for . . . part of the overall purpose he is working out in everything and everyone” (Ephesians 1:11 MSG).

So we are urged to get to know our Creator. He wants to show us how to make our lives count! 

New Day, New Opportunity to Fulfill My Mission

In 2 Peter 3:9 it says, “The Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent.”  (NLT)

God only uses imperfect, broken people. If God only used perfect people, nothing would get done because perfect people don’t exist!

If I’m willing to be used by God, he will use me. No matter what I’ve done in the past, my mission hasn’t changed.

Jonah was an ordinary guy who didn’t want to do what God told him to do. Yet God gave him another chance, and he eventually did what he’d been called to do. But even as he obeyed God, Jonah carried out his assignment with a bad attitude. Yet God still used him.

God gave Jonah a seven-word sermon: “In forty days Nineveh will be destroyed!” (Jonah 3:4 GNT). That simple message led to one of the largest spiritual revivals in history. A huge city humbly turned to God. It’s really a bigger miracle than getting Jonah out of the belly of a big fish.

God used this imperfect, reluctant prophet to lead an incredible revival.

God was patient with Jonah and never gave up on him. God won’t give up on me either.

The Bible says, “The Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent.” (2 Peter 3:9 NLT).

If I wake up tomorrow morning, it means God is giving me one more day—another opportunity—to fulfill my mission.

Expect God to use me. And he will.

God may have seemed slow to these believers as they faced persecution every day and longed to be delivered. But God is not slow; he just is not on our timetable. Jesus is waiting so that more sinners will repent and turn to him. I must not sit and wait for Christ to return, but I should realize that time is short and I have important work to do. I need to be ready to meet Christ anytime, even today; yet plan my course of service as though he may not return for many years.