Unbelief is a robber of grace. It diminishes our ability to hope and destroys our creativity to dream. It is the opposite of the affirming promises found in God’s Word. We can see the enmity that it places on the promises His Word affirms clearly, like a weapon of the enemy to steal, kill and destroy what Christ came to give.

I have come that you may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance, till it overflows.
John 10:10 (AMP)

Unbelief is a deterrent of purpose. It distracts us from the path we were meant to walk on. It steals and destroys and weakens faith till it is inactive. And not only faith is diminished by the arrows of doubt, but dreams wither and die in the adversity it seems to shadow over our lives.

If we have faith, if we believe God, He will show up…He will reward our diligence.

Hebrews 11 talks about faithful dreamers who were prompted and urged and provoked to big faith. A Hall of Fame recounting those who chose brave faith in spite of what they did not see…dreamers who dared to dream dreams. Right in the middle of this narration is a conjunction of sorts, a phrase that joins the beginning to the end, the origin to the goal, the idea to the dream. It’s a reminder to each of us, who choose to dream with God on this journey, that belief is rewarded not so much with our hope but with God instead.

But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
Hebrews 11:6 (NKJV)

There is a dreamer who wasn’t mentioned by name in this chapter, but her story rivals those summarized there. A recounting of those who did something extraordinary things out of ordinary faith all because they made the choice to seek first the One Who is the original mover of every dream.

Hannah is one of my heroes in the book of women who believed God for something bigger than herself. She had a simple dream that took mountain-moving faith to see fulfilled. Her narrative tells us who she was identified as, Elkanah’s wife; what was lacking in her life, children; and what she did, she prayed.

What strikes me about this first chapter of Samuel is not that Hannah felt unloved but rather unpurposed. She knew she was loved and favored by her husband, but it wasn’t enough. In her distressed and bitter state, she prayed to the Lord to fulfill a dream…to fill her soul with the resurrection of a broken and unmet goal. She went to the altar of grace and poured her dreams out of her soul into His hands in an action of surrender and trust.

What Hannah didn’t know, which is similar to each of us now, is that the fullness of the unrealized dream could never come to fruition until the timing of His fullness was met within her.

With a prayer of desperation and vow of faith, Hannah sought the only One Who could meet her need. She begged for a remembering, a resurrecting and redeeming of the hope that had been deferred by time and lack and loss. In one act of faith, a surrendering of herself back to the Lord Who planted the spark within.

As Hannah went to the temple to pray, she knelt low to surrender her dreams, she asked to be remembered, she poured out her soul in faith.

She went for a miracle and she left with God.

Click To Tweet

Hannah went seeking provision for her deepest hurt and found the God Who supplies provision for her every need. Surrendering all she held in her heart: dreams, goals, wishes and bitterness, envy, hurt, she let go of the disease of unbelief. In her weariness, she asked for grace and was met by peace. Her countenance was changed in a way that was both felt and seen. It was in that moment, where she decided to surrender it all in search of the ONE Who fills us as nothing on this earth can, that she found the miracle she seeking.

Like Hannah, when we surrender all we have and all that we are on the altar of His grace, we will find that the One Who fills us is also preparing us for the dreams He has encrypted into the very fabric of our souls.

Right in the middle of every dreamers story is a pause, a waiting space of holy hope which has the power to impregnate a faith seed so powerful that it will change us completely.

She came to the throne of grace to receive well-timed help in her time of need. She came believing that He is Who He said He was. Not only did He resurrect her broken faith, rerouting her unbelief and changing the course of her destiny in the narrative of her story, He redeemed every broken dream, fulfilled her surrendered goals, and filled her with a seed of promise that would define her.

Praying that you will find your way to the altar of grace today, to surrender all that is in your heart to the One Who is waiting to fill you with all He has prepared for you.

Shared by: Dawn Boyer