When The Journey To Your Dream Is Taking Too Long

I hope you have a dream. I hope there is somewhere amazing you long to be or some important thing you wish to accomplish. We need that in this life. Dreaming is good for soul and spirit.

I believe God gives us all dreams. These dreams, promises, visions are often long in coming. Sometimes we find ourselves trudging through the muck to get there, but it’s always worth it. And always, God is asking us to trust Him in transit.

Several years ago, God gave me a dream. I met a man; we became friends. Shortly after, God said to me, “Will you wait for him? Will you wait until I’ve completed the work I’m doing in him? Will you wait until I’ve completed the work I’m doing in you?”

I replied, “Yes, Lord, I’ll wait.”

Four years later, we married.

The journey from the promise to the wedding was long and hard, filled with much joy and much heartbreak. God didn’t tell me how long I would wait. He didn’t mention the difficulties. He didn’t tell me I would have to give up the dream before I saw it realized. He only asked me to trust Him.

I learned a lot during that season. I did some things right, but many things I would do differently today. Isn’t hindsight a beautiful thing?

Wait for it. Your dream is about more than you. My future husband and I were each on our own journey of healing. God knew which areas of healing needed to be complete before we dove into marriage. We listened to God and waited, and we’ve never regretted that decision. If my dream had happened when my impatience thought it should, there would have been more heartbreak. I wasn’t ready. He wasn’t ready. We would have hurt each other and set the stage for failure.

Write the vision. I encourage you to journal through the waiting. Write the vision, ask God questions, hear His voice. This helped me tremendously! Even when the words I wrote were filled with frustration, journaling gave me perspective and allowed me to hear God more clearly about the situation.

Don’t doubt the dream. As the journey drug on, I doubted. I asked God more than once, “Did You change Your mind and forget to tell me?” Many times, it looked as if we were going in opposite directions, but in the end, we found each other. God is faithful and will finish what He births in you.

Guard your emotions. Too often during this time, I let my emotions speak louder than the promise God had given me. Fear, impatience, worry, confusion sometimes screamed at me. I could have avoided most of the emotional ups and downs and floated blissfully through the waiting had I just trusted God more than my emotions from the very beginning. Hebrews 4:12 says that the separation between soul (emotions) and spirit is completed by the Word of God. Choose wisely which side you want to be on.

Keep the dream in its proper place. Your dream is never more important than your relationship with God. I was sure of the promise God had given me. I wanted the dream, but I wanted God more. I told Him this over and over and was very intentional about keeping things in perspective. If the dream was to happen, it would be God’s doing, not me forcing an outcome I desired. If God wasn’t the One to accomplish it, I didn’t want it. Period.

God was faithful in preparing us for more than a marriage. He prepared us for a life together. We really are better together than we are apart. We bring out the best in each other. It’s clear to us daily that the time we spent waiting on the dream to happen made that dream so much better than we hoped it would be.

The dreams God gives us are never only about us. It’s never just about that one promise. God fills us up to be poured out. He brings us together for a greater purpose. He fulfills one promise so that dozens more can be realized. He always has a greater plan than what our heart wants in the moment.

This post is not about relationships. It’s about dreams … your dreams. Big or small, your dream is worth the wait, and the ups and downs God takes you through to get to your dream is invaluable. Trust Him in the journey. He loves you enough to impart a dream and to carry you through to its realization.