The little cricket of our childhood Disney adventures sang, “When
you wish upon a star, makes no difference who you are…” I spent much of my
childhood just like other kids, wishing upon stars. I do remember even as a little girl praying
after every wish, “Dear Jesus, please make it so.”
I still have dreams and wishes. I still have hopes and
plans. I still look for the silver lining and the first star of the night. But
wishing isn’t enough. People wish all
the time – that they had fame, fortune, favor, etc. A wish is a very comfy sofa. You can lounge
there forever. It takes nothing to
lounge and the rewards are nowhere to be found.
But faith is a treadmill. It’s work! It runs on and on. It
takes you where you can’t be on your own. It will make you feel much better,
but it will cost you. Faith is the substance of things hoped for. It’s the
evidence of things not seen. Why would anyone run on a treadmill if they didn’t
expect results? No, they’d recline on
the sofa and dream their life away. Faith
jumps up and demands action. Faith gets the blood pumping and the heart
pounding. Faith responds to faith. So as we build on faith we find we have more
faith!
Unlike the cricket who sings to us to wish on a star, the
Lord shows us how to increase our faith. He gives us His precious promises so
that when we pray we know we are heard.
Our own wishes, hopes and dreams can fail us, disappoint us and leave us
seeking for more, but God’s will never leaves us hanging. As we hop on the treadmill of the Word and
learn it and put it into practice, we find we become stronger and stronger in
the faith. We can spend our entire lives
trying to fulfill our own dreams, make our own wishes come true and still fall
short of contentment, joy and peace. But once we make God’s goals our goals and
let Him infuse our dreams with His will we find the greatest fulfillment in
Him.
Oh beloved, you may be sitting in a heap, looking at your
dashed hopes and unfulfilled wishes. God knows that you had great hope for your
life, your family, your spouse, your job…
You’ve tried to make it all happen, yet people, places and things
disappoint you over and over. You haven’t
been feeling fulfilled in such a long time that you may be thinking of chunking
your wishes out the door and giving up.
Don’t despair! God is with you. He promises to stay by your side and to
make all things new. He will either exchange your dreams for His and give you a
fresh start or He will refine your dreams that are from Him and make them come
to pass!
He can be trusted! Why? Because He loves you! His Word can
be taken in and lived out! Why? Because He is God! Let Him have your wishes,
put away the stars and let Him have your heart, your mind and your soul and
rejoice as your faith treadmill does its work just the way He plans for you!
Philippians 2:13 for it is God who is at work in you, both
to will and to work for His good pleasure.
Romans 8:27 and He who searches the hearts knows what the
mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the
will of God.
Isaiah 55:9 For just as the heavens are higher than the
earth, so My ways are higher than your ways and My thoughts higher than your
thoughts.
Romans 10:17 So faith comes by hearing
[what is told], and what is heard comes by the preaching [of the message that
came from the lips] of Christ (the Messiah Himself). ( AMP )
Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ; and it is
no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in
the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up
for me.
