Dreams Cost Money
By Daniel Hoover
When our kids were younger, some of their favorite tv characters were Dora the Explorer and Diego (her cousin). Dora & Diego wereconstantly in the pursuit of some hidden treasure, only to be messed up by Swiper. Swiper was their nemesis. He always messed up their treasure hunt. “Swiper, no swiping!”
As a Pastor, so many times, I have people come in for counseling with one question on their mind, “How do I know God’s will for my life? Often it’s for a given situation, and sometimes it’s for life direction. We’ve probably all had this question, especially when there’s a difficult decision at hand. Not much different than Dora & Diego, we pursue finding God’s will in much the same way. We treat it like a treasure hunt. But what if we make the wrong decision or misread the map?
We feel like God will be mad at us and possibly punish us. It can be incredibly aggravating! However, this mindset isn’t the understanding we get from Scripture. The Bible never gives us the idea that finding God’s will is a treasure hunt.
In our recent podcast episode with Joseph Sangl, he said, “Delight yourself in the Lord and do whatever you want.” Yes! This is the answer we’re looking for. Instead of looking for God’s will, let’s simply pursue God with reckless abandon. Psalm 37:4 tells us to, “Delight yourself in
the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart.” This literally means that when you are walking with God, He will put desires in your heart that pleases Him. In 1 Corinthians, Paul lets us know that if we have the Spirit of the Lord within us, and we actively delight ourselves in Him, then we have the mind of Christ. When we walk with Him and weigh our actions and thoughts against His word, and Godly counsel, we can trust that God will direct our dreams. What do we do next? Run towards them!
Once God writes dreams on your heart, you are responsible for aligning your resources in a way that makes them happen. Joseph Sangl said, “You want a table and chairs. God provides the tree. The table is in the tree, but you have to build it.” That takes hard work and dedication. We tend to envy other people’s success, but we aren’t willing to emulate their work ethic! Too often, the Swiper that is our nemesis when it comes to God’s will is our own indecisiveness or ability to do the hard thing.
Too often, we don’t dream because we don’t think we’ll ever be able to fund the dream. What if we could dream, then set financial goals to make our dreams a reality? Too many people abandon their goals and dreams simply because the financial cost seems too high. In the book 20/20 Money: Gaining Clarity for your Financial Future, Sangl says, “Are we supposed to do what millions of other people have done and just toss away our dreams because it costs too much? May it never be! Instead, lean into the challenge and choose to think differently about money.”
Pick up Joseph Sangl’s book, 20/20 Money: Gaining Clarity for your Financial Future, for more insights into how you can fund the dreams God has put in your heart.
