Press On Toward Your God-Given Dream

If God’s called you to do something, then don’t give up. EVER! Even when life gets hard. Even when it seems like the goal is impossible or will take fifty years to accomplish. Don’t ever give up. I want to encourage you to press on, and I want to do this through sharing how God encouraged me to press on this last week.

Discern Your Motivation

Before we get too far, I want to encourage you to go back to the root. If God is calling you, then don’t let anything stop you from following him. However, you might be wondering “Well, I’m not sure anymore if God called me in the first place.” If this is you, check out my post God’s Calling or Your Own Desire?

Sometimes you may need to give up on your dreams. But, if God is calling you, don’t you dare deprive the world of this great and impossible dream God’s instilled in your heart.

This is something I have to do often. I love writing, and I love being in front of people. A very selfish side of me wants to be famous, so is this what’s prompting me to be an established fiction author?

I’ve loved writing for a long time, but it wasn’t until four years ago when God spoke to me very clearly. He gave me the vision to use fiction to inspire and wake up the American church so that more might live wild and true Christian lives. The end goal is to use my fiction to inspire more people to go and be missionaries so that the unreached people of the world might hear the gospel.

So, check your heart. Is this a dream you have, or is it a dream God gave to you?

My Eye-Opening Experience

Now, that you know whether or not God’s truly called you, let’s focus on the dreams you know he’s called you to. How can you press on?

This just happened with me. I’ve been pursuing this dream for over four years, and I’ve been writing for over ten years. Still, not one agent or publisher has accepted my book. I was feeling discouraged in my writing, so I prayed to God and asked him to encourage me. And he spoke.

The words he spoke deep into my heart went something like this: “Yes, Philip, I haven’t yet fulfilled this dream of being published, but look at all your other dreams that I fulfilled? After all your longing and urgent prayers, I’ve led you to your beautiful wife. Years after all your sad and lonely moments spent away from your family and home in Denver, I’ve given you this time near your family. After watching that last townhouse you wanted to buy fall through your fingers, now you are under contract with a much better option. I’ve given you a wonderful ministry that you love, feel accepted and supported in, and a ministry you can grow through.

“Philip, I haven’t yet fulfilled this calling and dream I’ve given you of publication because there’s still more growth that I need to do in you. It’s not yet time for your books to be known. But don’t think I’ve abandoned you. Don’t think I’ve forgotten you or no longer care about you. That’s why I’ve given you all these other dreams: to encourage you onward in this big unrealized goal.”

Press On

Though God spoke to me through my heart, I believe he’s speaking now to you through what he told me. If you are certain this dream of yours is given by God, then press on. Open your eyes and look around at all the other incredible things he’s blessed you with. God is moving in your life.

Praise him for all that he’s doing. Don’t be like the Israelites who grumbled and complained in the desert days after God did the impossible and brought them up out of Egypt.

Focus on what God has already done, and use that like rocket fuel to propel your faith and to launch you toward this impossible dream.

God is incredible. Don’t limit him.

God is so good. Don’t leave him.

God is at work. Don’t doubt him.

It’s time to step out and live wilder.

 

 

If you need more encouragement to press on, check out my blog Stay Strong Through Seasons of Uncertainty.

If you need more encouragement to believe God cares for you, check out my last blog: A Message To Your Aching Heart.