Is God Delaying Your Dreams?

This article is a follow-up feature to "Why Is God Taking His Sweet Time?"

Does it seem like God is taking a long time to accomplish a dream in your life?

If so, you are not alone. Kristi felt that way, too.

A 38-year-old mom living in Georgia, Kristi is waiting for what she hopes God will accomplish in her life.

"I have always wanted to be a songwriter," she told me recently. "I wonder why God put a desire in me and then doesn't use me for that purpose." Kristi can look at other people in the world and complain that God did it in their life, but not hers. Yet she has chosen to trust.

"I am learning that just like David waited 22 years for his promise to be fulfilled (to be Israel's king), so must I wait and enjoy the journey instead of just wishing I was at my destination."

Kristi has learned to look at God's track record and realize He knows what He's doing. God's track record can be seen in the Bible - like a story in Genesis of Him taking 25 years to fulfill a promise to give Sarah, the wife of Abraham, a child -- or something He has waited to accomplish in your own life, yet you found His timing was far better than your own.

Kristi had to wait on God at one point in her life to have children. "We tried for three years to get pregnant with no luck and all my friends had children. I learned patience in a very real way and I really learned a lot about God's timing. I would like to believe that I offer hope to women who have or are going through the same thing. I now have beautiful twin boys and I thank God for the blessings He has bestowed on me every day."

Kristi still doesn't have her song-writing career, but realizes that if God had a good and perfect reason for waiting when it came to giving her children, He must have a good and perfect reason for waiting in this matter of her life, as well.

What are you waiting for God to accomplish in your life?

We often quote Psalms 37:4 as our "guarantee" that God is going to come through with granting our desires. After all, that verse says: "Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart." We want our desires and we want them now. But we need to look more closely at that verse and the one that follows. Could it be that God  is saying once we delight ourselves in Him, He will place in us certain desires that He will delight in granting? The verse that follows says: "Commit your way to the Lord, trust in him and he will do it" (verse 5). I believe God is saying "Delight yourself in Me and I will give you desires for what I desire, and then I'll gladly grant them."

I remember feeling desperate to get my first book published. But looking back now, I was focused on what I wanted to write, the way I wanted that book to look, and when I believed it should happen. God's dream for us is not really about us. It's about what He wants to accomplish through us. We become the messenger but the Message is still Himself. God wanted to take me through a few years of humbling me, changing my perspective, and getting me to the point where I laid down my desires and wanted His instead.

God's way and God's timing are always going to be so much better than ours because He is the God who is able to do "immeasurably more than all we can ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us" (Ephesians 3:20).

Will you trust the timing of the One who can do all things? Many times it's more important to God what we become in the process of trying to accomplish something than what we actually accomplish. It's ironic that while we get frustrated when we feel we can't accomplish a certain work, that's when God can accomplish His intended work in us.

So what can you do while you're hating the waiting?

1. Allow God into your plan. Proverbs 16:9 says "The mind of man plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps." God is ultimately going to do what He desires with your life, so when you willingly take your plans to Him you are surrendering and showing Him you're on board. Since you can't resist Him, join Him.

2. Accept what might look like "Plan B."  Sometimes God throws a wrench in the process. But often having to pick up with what you think is your "Plan B"  is really following God's "Plan A."  There are several times in my life when I became frustrated that my plan wasn't working and I had to resort to "Plan B." But, looking back now, it was through the "Plan Bs" that I met my husband, we had our first daughter, and my first book was eventually published.  Had I insisted on my timing in all those situations, I would've missed incredible blessings that God had intended for me. The inevitable "Plan B" is often  really God's "Plan A" for our lives. 

3. Anticipate the beauty of what God is doing.  In Psalms 40:1-3, King David sang about waiting patiently for the Lord. The result was that he was not only lifted out of his pit, set upon a rock, and given a firm place to stand, but God "put a new song" in his mouth. David anticipated that many would see and fear and "put their trust in the Lord"  as a result of his testimony of having to wait. God just may be waiting to bring about something in your life so that others will put their trust in Him as a result of your testimony of waiting. So don't fear the bigger and better reasons God has for doing things His way.

June 10, 2010

Cindi McMenamin is a national speaker and author of several books including Women on the Edge and When a Woman Discovers Her Dream.  For more on her books and ministry, see www.StrengthForTheSoul.com