There are millions of Sisters with a dream in their hearts and they’ve tried to go after it, but time and time again, their efforts were squashed. The disappointment of this can be paralyzing. It’s like quicksand, preventing us from moving forward or upward. Our pumpkins may not turn into gold carriages, but the dreams in our hearts are very definitely the vehicles that propel our movement forward. It takes courage, persistence, and faith to fuel them, but sadly, the dreams of many of our beautiful Sisters in Christ gave out of gas much too soon. They transitioned out of this life never having fulfilled their dreams. We must know beyond all uncertainty that this is not God’s desire for any of His children. He wants us to be successful, and He wants our dreams to come true.
Fear or sadness
The sting of disappointment causes one or both of two mindsets or attitudes, they are fear and sadness. We will come away from a disappointing experience with bruises that represent either or both. The thing that we must be diligent about is preventing the bruises from turning into permanent wounds. When this happens, often we become stuck, and I don’t have to tell you that some people become stuck and stay this way a lifetime. One of the reasons for this is a misconception about what it means to have faith. Many of us have been taught that having faith is all it takes, and we are guaranteed to get what we want every time. And not only this, we expect we’ll receive the results of our faith on our own timetable, but life will teach us that this isn’t so.
Life is a teaching reality. We’re here on this earth to learn whatever it is the Father wishes to teach us about walking in the example of Christ. Some of the most common lessons that God teaches are about endurance. When we fall down, we should get back up and go at it again. James 2:26(NKJV) cosigns this lesson by telling us, “For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.” Many of us dust ourselves off a bit, and get back up, but we don’t continue to pursue our dreams because we’re fearful. We’re afraid of getting disappointed again, so we don’t try with the vigor and confidence we had before.
Adding to the frustration of disappointment is the feeling that we’ve done all we know to do, and still didn’t see the results we expected. But here’s something reality forces us to consider, there are times when we think we’ve backed our faith sufficiently, but in truth, more of us is required. Upset and confused, it can feel as though God didn’t answer our prayers, or He has refused to help us. Neither of those are true. Our vision and faith capacity must be strengthened to the point that God deems appropriate. He’s not slack in anyway, and He will not allow our blessing to get away. He’s in the driver’s seat, and He’s taking us exactly where we need to go. We must trust this.
We shouldn’t become so exasperated by the process of preparation that we shut down and let ourselves give out of gas. We need to be careful that we don’t hinder what God is doing in, with, through, and by us. A “I want it now!” can empty our tanks very quickly. Also, we can veer awfully close to arrogance when we adopt a mindset of entitlement or deservedness. When something doesn’t go our way, we can get so into our feelings that an unspoken sadness overshadows the enthusiasm we once had. We feel stuck in a life that is not what we envisioned for ourselves. We have to shake this off, and instead of sinking further in disappointment, we must seek God even more.
Getting Unstuck
In Ephesians 4:23(NKJV), God tells us “be renewed in the spirit of your mind.” Another way of phasing this is to be renewed in the attitude of our minds. Attitude involves both our thoughts and feelings, and God commands that we renew them with His Word. He wants our thoughts to line up with the mind of Christ, because changing our thoughts to the way Jesus Christ thinks will cause us to become unstuck. When our thoughts change, our motivation changes. We will want to please God more than anything else, because this was on our Lord and Savior’s mind constantly. In John 8:29, Jesus said that the Father never leaves him because he always does what pleases God.
When pleasing God becomes the fuel in our tanks, confidence will radiate from our beings. We will no longer be fearful, because we know 2Timothy 1:7 tells us that God didn’t give us a spirit of fear; He gave us a Spirit of power, love, and self-control. This is an attitude shift that comes from renewing our minds—from disciplining ourselves to not be focused on disappointment, but to focus on the greatness of God’s promises, and His commitment to bless us.
Don’t go back
Believing for success is a change of mind and heart. It is sometimes challenging to kick it into high gear because the propensity for some of us is to revert back to the way in which we’ve always thought. We go back to self-sabotaging patterns of thinking poorly of ourselves, telling ourselves we’re not good enough, or that we’re deficient in some way. We get into a mode of operating where it’s more comfortable to put ourselves down or hold ourselves back than it is to change our thoughts. Again, we must shake this off. We’re to think the way God tells us to think and feel about ourselves. He says in Romans 8:37 that we can do all things through Jesus Christ who gives us strength, and Romans 8:31 says that if God is for us, who would dare be against us. He causes all things to work together for our good.
Success is not about being over-indulgent or greedy, it’s about never giving up on the dream that’s in your heart, because God has given it to you. The road does get tough, this is true, but He is with us, and He has promised to come to our aid. We must recognize that our desire to see our aspirations materialize is going to be tested by the enemy. Whether it’s marriage, financial stability, better health, or most importantly, a closer walk with God through the Lord Jesus Christ, it is our responsibility to prove how much we want to make these dreams a reality. We prove it by continuing to believe God for success and trusting that He is partnering with us every step of the way to make our dreams a reality.■
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
“Believing for Success”, written by Reverend Fran Mack, edited by Kim Times for Sundie Morning Sistas ©2019. All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord! SMS is dedicated to inspiring and encouraging Christian Women through the Word of God.