I dare you!

I remember going to a house of mirrors when I was a little girl and giggling at all the images that could be reflected from my body. We would race from one image of being a six foot tall giant, to another where we where as wide as we were tall! Even though what we saw was clearly physical it was still a distorted view of what reality was.

The dictionary describes image as, "the visual impression of something produced by a lens, mirror, etc.; a mental picture of something; idea; impression."

Today, the lens we view through can also distort reality either into something it is not or prevent us from dreaming of what could be. Our lens is shaped by past and present experiences, which will have a direct affect on how we perceive God and His ability to work in our lives.

There are many examples throughout the Bible of people seeing through distorted lenses. Two come to mind: one is found in Genesis 17:17; 18:11-12. Both Sarah and Abraham saw God’s promise of an heir through a distorted lens. They both laughed at God when He said they would bear a child at an age when most were becoming grandparents. Their laughter and disbelief did not change God’s plans or fulfillment of those plans.

The other is Mary who also saw through distorted lens when the angel proclaimed she would become pregnant and carry the Son of the Most high God—all through, not the normal process but rather an “overshadowing” of the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:28-35). Again, her inability to comprehend the process would not prevent God’s plan nor the fulfillment of that plan to be accomplished.

Both these events would become reality not through anything man could accomplish, but rather through a Power that could neither be manufactured nor prevented.

So what does this have to do with you and me today? What are your dreams…what do you dare hope for?

Paul, in reminiscing about Abraham’s age of bearing children, says, “…the God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were.” (Romans 4:17-18)

It is God’s power that is at work within us to fulfill the plan that only He has set into motion for our lives. That plan will include things that today may only seem like a dream but can become a reality when we steadfastly look through the lenses God sees through.

I dare you…no I double dare you to dream the “immeasurably more” today not focused on the “now” but looking through God’s lenses to what could be and then allowing God to accomplish it in His timing and through His power!!

“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us...... (Ephesians 3:20-21)”

Gentle awakening

Isa 50:4-5 “The Sovereign LORD has given me an instructed tongue, to know the word that sustains the weary. He wakens me morning by morning, wakens my ear to listen like one being taught. The Sovereign LORD has opened my ears, and I have not been rebellious; I have not drawn back.” (NIV)

Today before you begin your day and have all kinds of voices demanding your attention, realize that it was God that gently awakened you to listen to His voice today. No matter the ‘means’ of how you were awakened God wants to whisper His hope and His life into you today through His Word…it is worth taking the time for His instructions!