091407

September 14, 2007

Unfulfilled Dreams and Desires: God's Way to Glory

by Shana Schutte

Have you been holding on to the hope of something for so long that you sometimes wish your desire would die so you could be put out of your misery? After all, unfulfilled desires and hope can feel so much like heartbreak. If you're like me, you've wrestled with a desire or two so long that your heart has felt worn out from waiting.

Which brings me to ask some pointed questions...

Does God sometimes intentionally take us past the point of hoping for what we want most? Press us into a corner? Bring us to a place of desperation where we wonder if we can keep trusting Him? It almost seems cruel, but does He stand by and watch the hearts of those He loves melt in a puddle of tears while they let their dreams die?

The answer is a painful, yes. Sometimes God brings us to the end of ourselves, just like He did Joseph, Hannah, Abraham, Moses--and even Jesus.

But why would God, who is powerful and loving, not allow us to realize our dreams--or make us wait so long for them to come to pass? There are numerous reasons but one that I find encouraging is that sometimes God's way of moving us to trust Him more, and thereby ultimately grant us greater peace, is to make us acutely aware of a lack in our lives and our inability to fix it by human strategy; prowess, wisdom or intellect. Otherwise, we'll always fall back on our own self-sufficiency to see our dreams fulfilled.

When God backs us into the corner of unfulfilled desires, it's His chance to show that there is no way out except through Him. If He does not bring us to this point of desperation, we won't fully experience His power when He finally delivers the answer--however it may come. Our desperation is the stage God sets for Himself to walk out on to perform miracles. Without it, He'd never get the glory and our faith wouldn't grow, and therefore, we wouldn't experience unfettered joy.

If this describes you, what should you do in the mean time while you're waiting for Him to answer your prayer? I wish the answer was easy, but it's not. It requires faith. Cry out like the Psalmists. Let your tears fall. Tell Him all about your fear, anxieties, frustration and heartbreak (I Peter 5:7). Let Him bear your burden (Matthew 11:28). Then, choose to continue to trust He has your best interest in mind until the answer comes, no matter how long it takes.

"Write the vision and make it plain on tablets, that he may run who reads it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time; but at the end it will speak, and it will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry. Behold the proud, His soul is not upright in him, but the just shall live by his faith." Habbakuk 2:2-4 (NKJV).

"Hope deferred makes the heart sick, But when the desire comes, it is a tree of life." Proverbs 13:12 (NKJV)

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