– By Lori Benka
I’ll never forget when I became pregnant with my second child. It took eight long years and it was a complete miracle. My husband and I were very excited because I was told I would never be able to have children again. I had endometriosis which caused me to lose one ovary and caused a growth and scarring on the only ovary I had left.
An ultrasound was performed immediately to rule out any tubal pregnancy. Everything looked perfect. A few months later, I began to have pain in my abdomen. I went to the doctors where they did another ultrasound only to find out there was no heartbeat detected. The baby had died in my womb. The doctor, who happened to be a Christian, told me to go home, wait one week, and pray. I was to return to the office the following Friday where another ultrasound would be performed and a plan would be created.
Just When I Thought My Dream was Dead
I can not begin to describe the different emotions running through my head. I felt hurt, anger, hopelessness, and fear. I found myself asking God more often then not why He was doing this to me. Why did He wait eight long years to give me another child only to take my baby away? Why were other people who seemed unfit to parent having babies but not me? What was wrong with me?
My emotions were becoming unstable and if I wasn’t careful, they were going to affect my relationship with the Lord. As I lay on the floor crying, I heard the voice of the Lord ask me this question: “If I take your baby, would you still love me?”
I felt as if I was just punched in the gut. I knew in that moment that I had to surrender my will and my dream back to God.
Friday came and I went back to the doctor’s office. I had a peace that God’s will was going to be done and regardless of the outcome, God would receive my praise. As a lay there anxiously awaiting for the babies movement, I heard a heartbeat and knew my baby was alive and well!
Your Dream Is not Dead
“Do not weep; she is not dead, but sleeping.”
How many of you feel like your dreams have died leaving you feeling lost and without direction? You may often feel like you are met with setback after setback.
If this is you, I believe God is wanting to tell you today your dreams are not dead, they are only sleeping. Don’t lose hope of the fact that if your dream is truly from God, He will bring it to fruition in HIs perfect timing.
The hardest thing for us to do is wait. We are a culture so accustomed to instant gratification that we assume God will work instantly in our lives as well. As a result, we become discouraged when He makes us wait a period of time before our God-given dream becomes a reality.
Just because you have to wait for a season, doesn’t mean God has abandoned His promise to you. If He planted something in your heart, He will bring it to pass when every condition around you is perfect and cultivated for you to succeed.
Dream like Joseph
Joseph is a good biblical example of someone who had a dream that seemed to be dead. If you remember, Joseph had a dream about his brothers bowing down to him. It says in Genesis 37:6-7:
“He said to them, “Hear this dream that I have dreamed: Behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and behold, my sheaf arose and stood upright. And behold, your sheaves gathered around it and bowed down to my sheaf.”
We know from the story that Joseph’s brothers became very jealous and sold him into slavery. It took many years before Joseph’s dream would manifest. He was a slave, imprisoned, and falsely accused.
In the natural realm things could not have looked any worse for Joseph. But in the spiritual realm, things were going exactly as planned. Joseph had to come to a point of complete brokenness and surrender to God. God knew what He had in store for Joseph and Joseph had to be ready for it.
You may feel like giving up on your dream because you to feel like a slave and imprisoned to hopelessness. But you need to remember that God is cultivating the ground so your dream can bloom and flourish without anything stunting its growth. Everything is going exactly as planned.
The Art of Surrender
Like Joseph, I had to surrender my dream of having a child over to God. When we come to a point of complete brokenness, something happens and God can work. As I died to myself and my dreams, Christ was risen within me.
The Cambridge Dictionary says that surrender is: to give something that is yours to someone else. In surrendering your dreams to God, you are essentially giving them back to Him. All of your hopes, and all of the dreams for your future are being placed back into God’s hands.
Many times God will test us in this area to see what means more to us. Are we more concerned about making our dreams come true, or are we surrendering them back to Him? Sometimes our dreams have to die so God can resurrect them and receive the glory. If your dream is God-given, it will come to pass.
James 4:10 says: “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.”
Stay humble before the Lord. Don’t get ahead of Him and try to do things yourself. Rest assured in His timing. For more on how to be still before God, you can read here.
Stir up Your Gifts
2 Timothy says: “Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you.”
I believe it is time for us to begin stirring up our dreams again. Don’t allow them to become dormant and die. Remember, even when you don’t see anything happening in the natural, it is happening in the spiritual. Begin to pray and ask God whether your dream is from Him or if it is something you dreamed up yourself. If it is from God, begin to ask Him to show you what your next steps should be. Now remember, you must surrender your dreams back to God first. When you have the go ahead from God, run in the direction He tells you.
Delay is never denial. Joseph had to wait 13 years before the manifestation of his dreams would become a reality. It would have been very easy for him to second guess his calling and give up on his God-given dream. But he held fast and kept pressing on because he knew without a shadow of a doubt God had a plan for his life.
Conclussion
This year, my miracle child is going to be twenty years old. I almost gave up on my dream to ever be able to get pregnant again. But as I surrendered my will and my dream back over to God, He did a work in my life. It was no longer about me, but about Him.
We can’t be led of God if we are chasing after dreams created out of self. Surrender isn’t always easy and it doesn’t always feel good but it must be done. There may be broken hallelujahs and tears streaming down our face as we die to our own desires and give our dreams back to God.
God loves you and has a good future in store for you. Your God-given dreams will come to pass in HIs timing. Don’t lose hope because your God-given dreams are not dead, they are only sleeping.
Find Joy In Today 
Leave a comment