What happens when your fears come true before your dreams do?

I faced this question recently when the very reason I’d avoided obeying the Lord in pursuit of my dreams became a reality. Spread out before me, my big scary reason for reluctance made the truth plain.

There is no way around hurt and hardship in the pursuit of our ultimate dream- to glorify God.

Whether we’re joyfully skipping after Christ or cautiously tiptoeing as He coaxes us along, we will encounter stumbling blocks. We will face opposition. Many of our fears will come true.

These aren’t possibilities, they are certainties. Jesus warned us not to be surprised by trouble in this world. “Do not be afraid” is repeated all throughout Scripture because God knows we often have cause to be afraid.

Thank the Lord fears being realized don’t stop dreams from coming true.

Growing old, well past child-bearing years, couldn’t keep God from fulfilling the dream He gave Abraham and Sarah. Joseph being sold into slavery and then falsely accused and imprisoned didn’t prevent God from making true the dreams He gave Joseph in his youth. Christ’s crucifixion didn’t nullify the dreams God gave Mary 30 or so years earlier, when He told her she would bear a son who would be king and whose “nation will have no end.”

We so often wish to “undo” certain things we’ve said or done. Regret and wishing we could “go back” or that events turned out differently is commonplace.

But there is such joy and grace in the Lord’s design of time as forward-moving. What a treasure that so many things can’t be undone!

“It is finished” also means “it cannot be undone.”

Click To Tweet

When a bad day threatens that you aren’t lovable, it’s a blessing nothing can undo the words of love poured out by your people.

When fears are realized and your dreams seem like they’re teetering on the brink of destruction, nothing can undo the steps you’ve taken in obedience.

When you see no way around pain, you can walk right through it because God who is with you will deliver you safely. What He has secured will not be destroyed.

There is no retroactive ability to destroy what God has already built. What He calls finished cannot be undone. What He says He will complete cannot be left undone.

God’s Word cannot be chained. (2 Timothy 2:9)

Not one thing has failed of all the good things which the Lord spoke concerning you. (Joshua 23:14)

“Forever and ever amen” means today and tomorrow and every day after. The phrase follows prayer after prayer, affirmation after affirmation. We believe in a never-changing, all-knowing, all-powerful God. He’s got forever steadily up and running, and He knows how it all turns out.

As we pursue the dreams He gives us, we can know they aren’t possibilities, but certainties. They may not be what we thought they would be, but when our dreams come true they will be what God planned.

We can walk through fears coming true before our dreams ever do knowing the truth:

He who calls us is more than faithful- He is able. And He will.

Click To Tweet

For that I am humbled and grateful. How about you?

Shared by: Bethany McIlrath