The Chase ~ for a Dream

What dream do you have tucked deep within your heart? What do you long to do with the days you are given on this planet?

We all have a dream of doing something big, of making a difference, of changing the world.

Dreams are engrained within the human heart…and so is the desire to pursue them.

When my hubby and I made our way to the mission field, it wasn’t a random journey on the way to nowhere. We were chasing a dream to go global with the Gospel.

When I started The M.O.M. Initiative to equip and enable the church to make mentoring intentionally missional, it wasn’t a flippant attempt to find something to do. I was chasing a dream to reach the moms of this generation so that we could reach the heart of the next generation.

Catherine of Siena once said, “Be who God created you to be and you will set the world on fire.”

and William Carey once said, “Expect great things from God. Attempt great things for God.”

We were created to dream and to dream big.

But no matter how good or God-given our dreams are, if we chase them without chasing the One who gave them to us first, we will find ourselves empty handed and broken hearted.

Moses was a man who had a dream. 

He was to set his people free.

But have you ever wondered if the Exodus of God’s people from Egypt might have happened earlier had Moses sought His Father’s face before he killed the Egyptian soldier?

It was during a time when wickedness reigned and babies boys were being slaughtered. Jochebed gave birth to a son, and like any mother, she was desperate to save his life.

In an extreme act of faith, she placed her baby boy in a basket, tucked him in the reeds along the Nile River and waited in hopes that God would somehow intercede and save her son. 

No one knows for sure…we aren’t told in Scripture, but perhaps Jochebed hoped the momma-heart of the childless Princess would prevail over the political proclamation of death.

Jochebed’s daughter maneuvered her way to the Princess as she lifted the baby from the Nile. Offering the ideal breast-feeding provider, the wise little girl devised a plan that would enable her momma to continue raising the tiny tot that was already hers.

After years of holding her son close and pouring her life and her faith into his heart, Jochebed returned her boy to Pharaoh’s daughter.

The Princess named him Moses because his name means, to lift up. She had lifted him out of the water and was looking forward to day when she would be able to lift her adopted son to a position of power.

But as her boy became a man, his Jewish roots became more deeply rooted and he longed to see his people set free. 

Exodus 2:11-12 tells us,

“Many years later, when Moses had grown up, he went out to visit his own people, the Hebrews, and he saw how hard they were forced to work. During his visit, he saw an Egyptian beating one of his fellow Hebrews. After looking in all directions to make sure no one was watching, Moses killed the Egyptian and hid the body in the sand.”

Moses may have dreamed about how he could somehow set his people free…and it may have even been a dream God had tucked deep within his heart, but instead of first seeking the Father’s face, Moses set out to fulfill his dream on his own.

His knee-jerk reaction sent him fleeing into the wilderness where he would spend the next 40 years trying to forget that he was called for so much more than tending sheep.

But it was there, on the back side of the mountain, that He would find the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. It was there, at the foot of a burning bush, that God would confirm his call and define his dreams.

Yes. The dream Moses had to free his people was not only a God-given dream ~ it was to be his destiny. But before Moses was to chase his dreams, he should have first chased the One who had tucked that dream in his heart in the first place.

We all have been guilty of chasing a dream before pursing the One who placed it there.

But there is nothing promising about reaching a Promised Land without the power of God’s presence. It was a lesson Moses learned the hard way, but it was a lesson he definitely learned.

After crossing the Red Sea with the children of Israel, Moses said to God…

“If Your Presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here.” Exodus 33:15

We all chase after dreams. But the goal is not to see a dream come true, it is to chase hard after the God who gives us the dream.

Our service for God can never be a substitute for our relationship with God.

Moses chased after a dream, but in his own pursuits, he found God.

Don’t you love knowing that God will even let us make a mess of things and stray from all we know, yet He will reveal Himself to us in burning-bush-fashion to remind us that what we are looking for is only found in Him!

So, should you dream big dreams? ABSOLUTELY! Chase GOD and dream BIG! 🙂

What dream are you chasing today? Have you sought to fulfill the dream or are you seeking the One who tucked that thing in your heart in the first place?

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