4 Steps to Pursuing Dreams

Fill in the blank: More than anything else in this world, I want ______________.

One hundred people may give one hundred different answers.

I want to be married. I want to have children. I want to make a difference in this world. I want to feel safe. I want to be loved. I want a good relationship with my parents. I want close friends. I want financial security. I want to succeed in my career field. I want to serve God.

In truth, we could make a long list of our desires—one person may have one hundred answers to give! Sometimes we can beat ourselves up for having these desires. I often think life would be much easier and enjoyable if I did not desire to be married.

Yet, God gives us desires for a reason. If we did not desire financial security, we would not work. If we did not desire good relationships, we would not make necessary sacrifices to invest in those relationships. If we did not desire marriage, we would not pursue it and partner with someone else to serve God and raise children. If we did not desire to make a difference in the world, we would not serve others.

Solomon says in Proverbs 29:18, “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” If we did not have dreams and desires, we would have nothing to strive for. Dreams keep us spiritually, intellectually, and emotionally alive. They push us to grow.

Here are some things to consider as we contemplate our dreams and desires.

1. Ask God to align your desires with His desires. God says that when we delight in Him, He will give us the desires of our hearts (Psalm 37:4). But our hearts are wicked and deceitful (Jeremiah 17:9). How do we know that what we want is what God wants? Sometimes we don’t. In those times, we take those desires to God and say, “Lord, please align my desires with Your desires.”
2. Surrender your desires to the Lord. When we ask God to align our desires with His, we realize that we must release our dreams to God. Thousands of years ago, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah dreamed of God’s deliverance from a fiery furnace. They told King Nebuchadnezzar that God would deliver them from his hand. Yet they give this disclaimer: “But if not . . . we will not serve thy gods” (Daniel 3:18). These men recognized that God may not choose to deliver them. And they were willing to stay loyal to Jehovah even if it meant the death of their personal dreams, ambitions, and even life itself.
3. Take the next step in pursuing your dreams. What is the next step in pursuing the dream on your heart? Perhaps it means filling out a college or job application. It could involve saving money for a new venture. Maybe you need to hire a writing coach to help you write a book. Been there!¹ Whatever it is, take the first small step, and see what doors God opens.²
4. Trust God’s timing. Dreams rarely come true according to our personal timelines. Marriage is delayed so long it becomes a blurry fairytale. Children do not come as soon as expected, if at all. We do not get the next promotion at work. Writing and publishing a book takes years, and then it takes time for people to realize it exists. In our world of instant gratification, waiting for a vision to become reality is wearying. And yet, God does not see time the way we see time. What feels like forever in the moment is an insignificant dot on His eternal timeline. The same God who accurately set the distance between the sun and the earth is more than capable of setting the pace for our lives. It is our calling to trust Him and persevere.

Of all our desires and dreams, may knowing Christ always be our greatest desire. If we want our desires to align with God’s, we must know and understand His heart. Even the noblest desires to influence our corner of the world for Christ is not as noble as the desire to seek Christ. May our heart’s cry echo King David’s:

“One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to inquire in his temple.” (Psalm 27:4 {KJV})

When we pursue Christ, all other dreams come into focus. We see His beauty. We sense His love. We understand His vision. We dream of the day we will stand at His throne and worship Him in person. And when that dream is realized, we will find that God’s granting of the earthly desires of our hearts was just a taste of the joy and fulfillment found in our eternal relationship with our loving Creator and Redeemer.

Copyright © 2024 by Carmen Dillon. All rights reserved.

1. My writing coach is RJ Thesman. If you know God wants you to write and get a message out, I highly recommend reaching out to her! ↩︎
2. My favorite resource outlining steps to pursuing dreams is Holley Gerth’s You’re Made for a God-Sized Dream. ↩︎