When we dare to dream, God who ‘calls things that are not as though they were’ is at work within us. But there’s a third dream killer we must overcome: settling for average. God says that He has work for each of us to do. The Bible says: ‘ For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do’ (Ephesians 2:10 NIV). A God-given dream will stretch us; we can’t reach for it and remain safely in our comfort zone at the same time. It might be easier to avoid stress, fear, risks, and failure, but we won’t end up fulfilled in life. In Philippians, Paul says: ‘I can do all this through him who gives me strength’ (4:13 NIV). And we can say the same too. The things outside of our comfort zone may seem impossible, but we can do them when we rely on God’s strength and His equipping. When our life becomes mundane and mediocre we need to be questioning why it’s ended up like that. We need to be asking ourselves whether we’ve avoided working towards our God-given dream. Or asking whether we’ve ever really asked God to give us a dream, because stepping out and doing something out of the ordinary for His kingdom seems like too big a task for us and we’d rather just do our own thing. So if we feel that our lives are closer to average than we would like, we need to do more dreaming. Nothing will help us live a more adventurous, fulfilling, and purposeful life like a God-inspired dream.

What Now?

If you’re feeling anxious about stepping out of your comfort zone for God, write out Philippians 4:13 and stick it somewhere where you’ll read it often.