When God Changes Your Dreams
“‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.'” (Jeremiah 29:11, ESV)
I remember applying for college and thinking that I would major in business because I was told it’s a degree you can use in pretty much any career. In my dream, I would go on to get a master’s degree. Maybe even a doctorate, if I was feeling fancy.
That all changed when I found out that I couldn’t afford to go to a major university. My parents made too much money to qualify for financial aid, and I didn’t want to take out a student loan that I’d be paying off for the rest of my life.
As a straight-A student, it was embarrassing to me that I had to apply at a local community college because that was all I could afford to do back then.
As I submitted my paperwork, my family received a letter from my future community college, and in this letter they described their new Television Production program. My eyes lit up.
In my senior year of high school, part of my curriculum was learning multimedia programs and producing visual content for the campus. I applied to the college program, loved every year of it and would you believe God paid all of my tuition!
I never thought in a million years that I would be able to make a career in the entertainment industry, but to this day it’s how my husband and I make a living.
“The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.” (Proverbs 16:9, ESV)
I say all of this to make a point that sometimes it feels like everything is falling apart when, in actuality, everything is falling into place.
I thought my grades made me. I figured my attention to detail, memory and quick mind would make me a great candidate to become a future CEO of someone else’s company. I had no idea that through the arts I would meet my husband, birth a ministry and reach fulfillment in God’s plan for my career.
Here are some things to remember when the walls start crumbling around you. It’s important to mention that this applies as long as you are in God’s will. That’s the only way He can guide you to the dream He has for you.
When it’s all falling apart:
- Sometimes God will close doors in order to reposition you. If you feel like no matter what you do, you face a substantial amount of opposition as you pursue your dream, this may be Him redirecting you. We can sometimes confuse this with the enemy, but I’ve witnessed on multiple occasions that what I was fighting for was no longer good for me.
- The Lord may be setting a new foundation. Let’s say you had an amazing business going, and you recently began drawing close to God. All of a sudden, the very people you trusted to build it with you go silent or you find out they’ve been dishonest about a few things. God needs a clean slate to work from in order to save you from the future headaches you would have endured had you done things your own way.
- God may want to make sure you know He’s in control. Something we humans tend to do is take all of the credit for how far we’ve come. I promise, if you give control over to God, He will make it very clear that you will only have true success by submitting to Him.
“Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.” (Proverbs 3:5-6, ESV)
How it’s really coming together:
- God’s timeline is not the same as ours. It’s amazing how quickly progress happens when you’re following the Lord. A sure sign that you are in line with His dream for you is that it may seem like everything is falling into place and you’re getting opportunities and promotions left and right. This is very different from the back-breaking labor of pursuing what others tell you to or doing things based on popularity or financial success.
- You begin to enjoy the hard work it takes. I love my career, but I promise you it’s not for everyone. It may seem sometimes that your friend has such an easy life because she’s smiling through it all. Yet if you were to swap lives with her, you might realize that what gets her out of bed in the morning would make you feel like you need a nap.
- God sees the future. I know, it’s a “Duh!” kind of statement, but when you’re in the middle of “God, what are you doing? Do you even see me?”, be comforted that He knows how everything plays out and soon you will be amazed that “Wow, if I hadn’t gone through that, I wouldn’t have gotten here.”
“’For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’ declares the LORD. ‘For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.’” (Isaiah 55:8-9, ESV)
What about you? Do you have any testimonies of how God changed your dreams? We’d love to hear about them!
This article appeared originally on lamourinchrist.com.
