What dreams, ideals or desires are you pursuing? Are they the ones you have mapped out for yourself or have they been sought from God’s feet?
When we follow our own dreams they may be great but short lived and usually at the cost of something or someone. When we lay down our own dreams and surrender to God’s plans, it may not always be easy, but it is well designed to be for our good and not to our detriment.
We all make our own plans, but the truth is that God is the one that determines our lives. The Bible is full of warnings when we follow our own minds instead of following His plan for us. We might find ourselves on a path we were never meant to be on. We might lose people we were never meant to lose. We might give up what was meant to always be a part of us.
In the Bible we read the story about Abraham and Sarah where God promised them a child, Isaac. It seemed impossible during the stage of life they were in and their patience ran out so instead of waiting for their Isaac, they made their own plans and through Sarah’s maidservant, Ishmael was born. Instead of waiting for their child of promise from God’s hands, they turned to their own efforts and a child of bondage was born. This resulted in conflict, unnecessary heartache, division and pains that were never intended by God. Even though they made their own plans, it did not stop God’s plan from happening.
Ishmael, the son of the slave girl, was a child of the natural realm. But Isaac, the son of the freewoman, was born supernaturally by the Spirit—a child of the promise of God! And just as the son of the natural world at that time harassed the son born of the power of the Holy Spirit, so it is today. (Galatians 4:23, 29 TPT)
When Isaac was born, he fulfilled every word of God’s promise and an entire lineage followed that ended up giving us life through Jesus Christ. However, Ishmael harassed Isaac and brought about many difficulties. In the same way our own preconceived dreams of bondage could bring along lots of baggage and difficulties we were never intended to endure.
So my question to you today is, are you giving birth to a child (dream) of promise and life that you sought from God, or are you giving birth to your own dreams of bondage as you are not prepared to wait for God’s plans to materialise in your life?
If you find yourself in that space where you may have been a little impatient to seek and submit to God’s will and instead pursue your own desires, it is never too late to surrender to the life God planned for you. May today be that first step to a life of God.
Maretha Retief