"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future" Jer. 29:11
What territory has God put in your heart to take?
Why did God answer Jabez' prayer? What can we learn from him?
- Jabez was more honorable than his brothers. He had integrity.
- Jabez refused to be defined by his name (Pain). Are you defined by what others say about you?
- Jabez came boldly before the Lord with his request. As a son or daughter of God, we can do likewise.
- Jabez prayed that the Lord would bless him so that he would bless others.
- Jabez refused to let his past define him and prayed an audacious prayer. Maybe we should do likewise?
Have You asked God to help You reach the dreams that He has planted inside You?
Faith is like a muscle: it can be strengthened. It can be weak or it can be strong, depending on how much you use it.
How does God build your faith? He uses a very predictable pattern that , if you understand it, you can cooperate with him in developing greater faith. It's like when the father, seeking help from Jesus for his son, said, "Have pity on us and help us, if you possibly can!" (Mark 9:22 TEV)
Jesus replied, "What do you mean, 'If I can'? . . . Anything is possible if a person believes." (Mark 9:23 NLT)
The first thing God does to build your faith is give you a dream. When God wants to work in your life, he'll always gives you a dream—about yourself, about what he wants you to do, about how he's going to use your life to impact the world.
There are many examples in the Bible of this.
- God gave Noah the dream of building an ark.
- God gave Abraham the dream of being the father of a great nation.
- God gave Joseph the dream of being a leader that would save his people.
- God gave Nehemiah the dream of building the wall around Jerusalem.
How do you know when a dream is from God or when it's just something you've thought up yourself? The Bible tells us that God, "by his mighty power at work within us is able to do far more than we would ever dare to ask or even dream of—infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, or hopes." (Ephesians 3:20 LB)
In other words, if a dream comes from God, it will be so big in your life that you can't do it on your own. If you could do it on your own, you wouldn't need faith. And if you don't have faith you're not pleasing God, because the Bible says whatever is not of faith is sin. (Roman 14:23)
God starts to build your faith by giving you a dream. He may be speaking to you now, but you just don't recognize it for what it is. That dream you have—the idea, the concept —that thing you've been thinking about doing that would be of real benefit to other people, where do you think that idea came from?
God will never tell you to do something that contradicts his truth. In other words, he won't give you a dream of leaving your family and kids and moving to Hollywood to be a movie star. If you've got that dream, then you can know it is not from God.
God starts with a dream as he works within your life to build faith.
Rick Warren
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