The New Year always brings with it a renewed sense of ambition and motivation. It feels like a fresh start, a blank slate. We often set goals and challenge ourselves to take ground in new and uncharted areas.
By Tripp Prince, Wisdom Hunters
Whether it’s a goal of improved fitness, kicking a bad habit, healing a relational wound, or pursuing a new business venture, we all have something we’d like to achieve.
But we usually choose goals that feel achievable. They seem to be within reach, within our power to accomplish. These are good goals to set. But what about the goals in life that we desperately desire yet could never achieve on our own?
Thus says the Lord of hosts, ‘If it is [a]too difficult in the sight of the remnant of this people in those days, will it also be [b]too difficult in My sight?’ declares the Lord of hosts (Zechariah 8:6 NAS).
In the middle of the Old Testament story, the people of Israel deeply desired an impossible dream. They found themselves exiled in Babylon and longing for home, yet entirely helpless to do anything about their situation. Into the bleakness of this moment, Zechariah spoke words of hope and healing: What is surely impossible in your own strength is never impossible for the Lord.
Are there dreams that you’ve never allowed yourself to dream because they seem too far-fetched and impossible? Is there a healing of past wounds that you desire more than anything in the world, yet the wound has always felt too deep and wide, like a chasm that can never be crossed? Is there something that you want to do for God’s Kingdom that seems to combine your unique gifts and the particular needs of your community, yet you think, “surely it’s more than I can handle.”
To follow Jesus is to believe in impossible goals, to believe that he can do the impossible. It is a posture of humble dependence on the Lord, acknowledging our own weaknesses and limitations, yet daily celebrating his infinite strength and power. There are dreams that God has for his creation that he longs to bring into being, and he delights in inviting us to join him in that holy work.
God wants to accomplish wonderful things in you and through you. Allow yourself to dream big dreams with God this New Year, trusting and believing that he is able to bring them to life!
What dreams have you dropped because they’re too big? Is God asking you to pick them back up?
But Jesus looked at them and said, “For mortals it is impossible, but for God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26).
Prayer
Father, thank you that with you nothing is impossible. Help me to rest in that truth and give me the courage to join you in adventurous and exciting ways. Amen.
