Embrace the Adventure

Our souls long for adventure. We were made for adventure, but not just any adventure, we were created for God. Skydiving or bungee jumping can be fun, but nothing compares to the adventure of following God into the unknown. The moment we invite Jesus into our hearts our adventure begins. We get to wake up every morning excited about life and fully aware that each new day is a gift from God. We are still here, living and breathing, and that means God has work for us to do. That work might be talking to the old lady on the train who looks lonely. It might be praying for a friend who is sick, or it might be something really crazy like pursuing a big dream that God has put on your heart.

God has great plans for our lives, long before we were born God made great plans for my life and your life. Not a single day on this Earth is a day without purpose. If you aren’t feeling like your life is filled with excitement, joy and beauty right now, could it be that maybe you have chosen your own plan above God’s plan for your life? Sometimes we get stuck in life and never get to see God’s beautiful plan for our lives enfold, because we refuse to let God lead us. We are unwilling to give up control and trust God. It’s understandable that our natural inclination is toward trying to control everything in our lives rather than to follow Christ. Control gives us an illusion of safety, but in the end control tends to hold us back in life.

Following God into the unknown is neither safe nor easy, but this is where we will witness miracles and live with joy, peace and passion. Following God requires faith. Sometimes when we feel like our lives aren’t going anywhere we can be tempted to blame God. But God is not the one holding us back in life, our lack of faith is what’s holding us back. Without faith we will never choose to follow God into the unknown. Many times, when our lives end up looking like a depressing mess, it isn’t because God doesn’t care about us. We have simply settled for something so much less than God’s beautiful plan for our lives. We have chosen to give up hope. We think to ourselves: “This is as good as life will get for me, so why even try to aim for something better?”

I dare you to sit down and pray to God today about the impossible in your life. God likes it when we ask him for big things, dreams so big that it’s obvious to both us and God that without God this dream could never come true. What dream do you have in your life that you gave up on a long time ago because it seemed too big, too crazy or just plain impossible? Bring that dream to God today and watch him start to move mountains in your life. It won’t happen over night, it won’t be easy, it won’t happen according to your own schedule, but it will happen. We are God’s children and he wants good things for us. Dare to dream big and dare to ask God to make the impossible possible in your life.

If your dream is in alignment with The Bible, in other words you are not praying for something like: “God, please help me take revenge on that person who hurt me.” you can be sure that God will move on your behalf. God will fulfill your dream according to His perfect timing. When you have lived long enough to see him do just that, it strengthens your faith tremendously. You now have a hope and faith that doesn’t make any sense, you have hope in areas where other people would have given up long time ago. There’s a big difference between hearing about God performing miracles in other people’s lives and watching him do just that in your own life. Once you have seen God move mountains in your life (that you yourself could not remove) it will propel your faith to a whole other level.

Our faith isn’t something we just wake up with one day, our faith keeps growing as we get to watch God move in and through the circumstances of our own lives. It’s difficult, probably impossible, to have faith in a God who you have only heard about. Once you have seen God move the mountains that were holding you back your faith grows. How will you ever see God do something big in your life if you never ask him for it? Step one on our adventure with God is daring to ask him big questions. Dare to ask God to fulfill a big dream, not just the small stuff that you could accomplish easily without his interference. It’s the beginning of a new year, what better time is there to start dreaming some big dreams and to ask God to move on your behalf? Why live this life inside our comfort zones when we can choose to embrace the adventure that God has for us?

I have two huge dreams for 2018. Dreams that I know God is calling me to run towards this year. Some days I feel excited and passionate about pursuing these two dreams, other days I feel fearful and want to quit. Late at night these two dreams seem like a really bad idea. I get scared, I think I’m not the person for this job and that I will probably fail. But I know by now that God never calls us toward something that will break us. If God is for me, then who can be against me? If this is God’s plan for me, do I really want to give up on it because of fear? Yes, maybe…. No! Fine, I’ll do it! Pastor Lorie at my church has an expression for times like these; “Do it afraid!” she always says.