Living Forward

Dream and Pray

Nehemiah 1

“No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.”

Philippians 3:13-14

1. Dreams happen when you are wide-awake

   v2, “I asked them about how things were going …”

   v3, “They said to me, ‘Things are not going well…”

“Let us learn this lesson from Nehemiah; you never lighten the load unless first you have felt the pressure in your own soul. You are never used of God to bring blessing until God has opened your eyes and made you see things as they really are.”

2. Dreams flourish in prepared hearts

   v4, “When I heard this, I sat down and wept. In fact, for days I mourned, fasted and prayed…”

   v1b, “In late autumn, in the month of Kislev…”

   2:1. “Early the following spring in the month of Nisan…”

“The best dreams don’t start with us but instead are planted in us by God. If it is not rooted, it’s rotten.”

“We don’t die when our hearts stop beating. We die when our hearts stop skipping a beat in pursuit of our passions, when our hearts stop breaking for the things that break the heart of God.”

3. Dream Big—but start small

    2:2b-3, “Then I was terrified, but I replied…”

Allow your prayer to right-size your fears.

4. Dreams open the doorway to legacy.

   v2:4, “With a prayer to the God of heaven, I replied, ‘If it pleases the king…’”

Proverbs 21:1, “The king’s heart is like a stream of water directed by the Lord; he guides it wherever he pleases.”

“We always grow in the direction of our gaze. Always. And gazing at our problems only intensifies their effects. Our focus will always shape us, so scripture calls us to focus exclusively on HIM.”

Your 2022 Prayer—“Lord God, Jesus, if it pleases you, my king…”