Be all that you can be!

Dream Big. Be All That You Can Be. We’re inundated with constant challenges to pursue big dreams, to believe nothing can hold us back from accomplishing whatever our mind is set on. (Emphasis on what OUR mind is set on.)  If the desire is in our heart, then we must be able to reach our goal, to satisfy that desire, right?

I googled motivational phrases and these were a few I ran across:

“Believe in yourself! Have faith in your abilities! Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers you cannot be successful or happy.”–Norman Vincent Peale

“If you can imagine it, you can achieve it; if you can dream it, you can become it.”–William Arthur Ward

“The will to win, the desire to succeed, the urge to reach your full potential… these are the keys that will unlock the door to personal excellence.” -Confucius

“If you can dream it, you can do it.”-Walt Disney

Great ‘cheerleading’ phrases, but they miss the essential point.  I think it is so easy to get ahead of ourselves when facing all of this propaganda. We frequently hear how the Lord will give us the desires of our heart. Give us our dreams!  Almost as if He owes us! I find when I get caught up in that, my focus is on my dreams, on what I want.  At that point I’m not looking to the Lord to show me His plan for me. I’m looking to Him to put His stamp of approval on what I want. I’ve already decided what I ‘need’ for Him to make happen.. I just need Him to do his part. Not only is that extremely arrogant on my part…to think that I can come up with a better plan for my life than He can…but this thinking makes Him more of a genie, than my Lord and Savior! These quotes tend to put all of the responsibility and focus on ourselves and our own strength, not the Lord’s.

So what about those desires of our heart that he promises to fulfill in Proverbs 37:4?

Delight yourself in the Lord,

and He will give you the desires of your heart.

I think we forget the first part of the verse.  Delight yourself in the Lord, AND (then) He will give you the desires of your heart. If I am truly delighting in Him and pursuing Him in all my ways, might that mean that my desires will ultimately be different than what I think I need? When my heart is right with Him, my desire is to ultimately please Him and live for Him. His desires become my desires. As that hymn says….

Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
In the light of His glory and grace.

Lord, may I completely and freely delight in You, in all areas of my life, and may my desires be Your desires..

Psalm 37:4

Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.