Hey friend,

I think most of us have dreams. We just don’t always call them that. Maybe it’s something you’ve quietly hoped God might do through your life, something you’ve imagined for your family, or something you’ve felt called to pursue but haven’t quite known how to begin. The problem is that when God puts something in our hearts that is bigger than us, our first response is often to look at ourselves and think, There’s no way I could do that. And honestly, that might be exactly the point.

That’s where I think Joseph’s story becomes so interesting. Joseph was seventeen years old when God gave him a dream about his future. He didn’t have the position, influence, experience, or resources to make that dream happen. In fact, almost everything that happened next seemed to move him further away from it. He was thrown into a pit, sold into slavery, falsely accused, and eventually forgotten in prison. If Joseph had judged the dream by his circumstances, he probably would have assumed he had misunderstood God.

But the dream was never dependent on Joseph having everything figured out. God was the One who gave it to him.

Mark Batterson has a line I’ve always loved: “Show me the size of your dream, and I’ll show you the size of your God.” There’s something powerful about that idea. A God-sized dream will almost always be bigger than our ability to accomplish it on our own. That’s part of what makes it a dream worth pursuing. If we can accomplish everything with our own resources, wisdom, connections, and strength, we may not need much faith at all.

Of course, that doesn’t mean every idea we have is automatically from God. We need Scripture, prayer, wisdom, and the counsel of people we trust to help us discern what God is actually putting in our hearts. But I also wonder if some of us have become so afraid of disappointment that we’ve stopped dreaming altogether. We’ve learned to keep our expectations low because low expectations feel safer. If we never dream too big, we never have to experience the possibility of failure.

But faith doesn’t always feel safe.

Sometimes faith looks like believing God could use your life in ways you never imagined. Sometimes it means taking a step toward something before you know exactly how it’s going to work. Sometimes it means holding onto a promise when your circumstances seem to contradict it.

Joseph didn’t know about the pit when he received the dream. He didn’t know about the prison. He didn’t know about the palace. He simply knew that God had shown him something, and eventually he would have to learn how to trust God with the journey between the dream and its fulfillment.

I think that’s important for us to remember because we often want God to give us the entire plan before we take the first step. We want to know how the dream will happen, when it will happen, who will be involved, what it will cost, and how everything will work out. But God rarely gives us that kind of clarity. More often, He gives us enough light for the next step and asks us to trust Him with the steps after that.

Maybe there’s something God has been putting on your heart that you’ve been too afraid to take seriously. Maybe you’ve talked yourself out of it because you don’t have the resources, the experience, or the right circumstances. Maybe you’ve decided that it’s too late, you’re not qualified, or someone else could do it better.

I want to encourage you this week: don’t be afraid to dream again.

Dreaming doesn’t mean assuming everything you imagine will happen exactly the way you picture it. It means being willing to believe that God may want to do something through your life that is bigger than what you could accomplish on your own. It means bringing those dreams before God and asking Him to shape them, refine them, and lead you.

And then take the next step.

You may not see the whole path. Joseph didn’t. You may not understand why certain things are happening along the way. Joseph certainly didn’t. But you can trust the God who sees what you cannot.

Because sometimes faith begins with a dream that is bigger than you.

And maybe that’s exactly where God wants it to begin.

Weekly Resources

Just a Small Jar of Olive Oil Elisha | Week 3 What do you do when what you have doesn’t feel like enough? In this message from our Elisha series, we discover what God can do with a little faith, a small jar of oil, and a willingness to give Him what we have. Available on Youtube

University of Toledo Athletes Turned Their Football Facility Into a Baptism Night. 400 People Showed Up and 60 Got Saved. RELEVANT Magazine - relevantmagazine.com Read Here

So this week, I’m asking myself a simple question: What has God put in my heart that I’ve been too afraid to dream about?

Maybe that’s a question worth sitting with for a while.

Don’t be afraid to dream. Bring your dreams to God, hold them with open hands, and trust Him with whatever comes next. The dream may not unfold the way you expect, but the God who gave you the dream is faithful enough to lead you through the journey.

Our dreams may be bigger than our ability, but they will never be bigger than our God.

Praying,
Ryan