Men, Make God's Dreams for Your Life Come True

Men, Make God's Dreams for Your Life Come True

Whitney Hopler

It's natural to want to be and do something great, since God has
wired you to pursue a significant life. Those dreams stirring in your
soul can come true if you embrace God's plans with passion.

Here's how you can make God's dreams for your life come true:

Ask God to help you see clearly. Don't let your own
agenda or other people's expectations cloud your vision of what God
wants your life to be like. Instead, choose to let God decide what's
best for you, since He -- your Creator -- knows you better than you
know yourself. Realize that God's ultimate dream for you is to become
more like Jesus. Understand that God wants to use your current reality
(not the fantasy of how you wish your life would be) to move you toward
His dreams for you. Expect Him to use your struggles to accomplish good
purposes. Rather than running from reality, let God bring glory through
it. Exchange your own limited vision for God's unlimited, much more
powerful vision. Instead of fighting God's process of making His
ultimate dream for you come true -- transforming you more into Jesus'
image -- accept the discomfort, conflict, loss, and pain involved.
Trust that going through anything God deems necessary is worth it,
because He is accomplishing good purposes in your life that can't be
accomplished any other way. Constantly stretch the borders of your
growth by praying regularly for God to continue changing you. Surrender
every area of your life to God and eagerly anticipate how He will help
you grow as a result.

Pay attention to what you're leaking. Realize that
your character qualities leak out into the lives of the people around
you -- for better or for worse. Strive to leak less sin and selfishness
that stinks and leak more holiness instead. Know that God wants you to
be visibly identified with Jesus in a way that brings Him glory,
pouring out hope into the lives of people with whom you interact. Be
faithful to God's call to represent Jesus, even when others reject the
Gospel. Be available for God to use you in any situation, and depend on
the Holy Spirit to help you live out your faith with integrity. Study
Jesus' life to imitate how He interacts with people. Invite God to
refine every part of your character, holding nothing back from His work
in your life.

Be humble. Know that God has declared that you are
important to Him, and He has approved your mission, so you're free to
be humble. Understand that you have nothing to prove. Ask God to help
you be content with yourself, to desire recognition only from Him, to
trust Him with your station in life, to refrain from threatening
others, to be at ease with the weak, to be easy for people to embrace,
to not feel any need to get credit from others, and to refrain from
competition with others. Strive for influence without ego. In conflict,
choose reconciliation instead of retaliation. Pass up power for
yourself in order to increase God's influence. Submit to God's plans
versus presuming them. Freely notice others. Empty yourself instead of
holding onto a sense of self-entitlement. Be willing to humbly obey
God's purposes. Wait for God to honor your efforts in His time rather
than trying to force results yourself. Be willing to exchange: comfort
for discomfort, flattery for faithfulness, status for service,
harshness for graciousness, titles for treasures in heaven, and safety
for suffering. Don't forget how important God and other people are, and
keep your sense of your own importance in perspective. Learn all you
can from Jesus. Focus on Him more than on yourself. Reach out to others
in service as God leads you, humbly sharing God's love.

Serve others. Instead of seeking to have others
serve you, seek to serve them. Realize that power and prestige aren't
what make you a truly great man; what distinguishes you is your
willingness to serve. Remember that when Jesus came to Earth, he didn't
choose to be served, but to serve. Ask God to help you reach out beyond
your family and friends to strangers who are different from you and
even make you uncomfortable. Don't place any borders around the scope
of your service; be open to following God's leading anywhere. Every
day, try to make decisions that help you serve others rather than just
yourself.

Make sacrifices. Be willing to give up whatever you
need to in order to become more like Jesus. Understand that if you're
willing to sacrifice now for God, you'll experience the joy of your
reward later. Expect that God will honor your faithfulness in His time
and in His way. Know that every one of these sacrifices you make for
God is an opportunity to bring Him glory: an attitude, a behavior, a
response, a comfort, a right to strike back, a feeling, an impulse, a
chance to control, a grab for power, a portion of your time, a pattern
of your old life, a financial bonus, a freedom, a way of doing
something, or a golden opportunity. Trust that God's glory is more
important than anything you give up for Him.

Don't run from suffering. Recognize that suffering
can build your character in powerful ways, and that God often uses the
suffering you go through to accomplish good purposes in your life. When
suffering comes your way, accept it and ask God to help you endure it
for the cause of something greater than yourself. Pursue Christlikeness
over comfort. Ask yourself honestly how much you're willing to endure
for Jesus in your times of pain, or whether you tend to seek your own
safety. Trust in God's ultimate control of all that He allows to happen
to you, and know that through your suffering, you will grow as a person
and become united to Jesus.

Discover and do God's will. Know that it's crucial
to find out God's will and commit to following it when making
decisions. Let God's unconditional love for you give you the confidence
you need to be free of worrying about other people's acceptance or
approval. Ask God to give you the courage you need to pursue God's
priorities for your life with great focus. Cooperate with God to
fulfill His purposes in your life. Pray each day for the ability to do
less of your own will and more of God's will for you.

Experience the joy of being God's child. Embrace the special
connection you have to your heavenly Father as His beloved child. Be
assured that, through Jesus, God has adopted you into His family and
anointed your special relationship with Him. Regularly seek a special
revelation from God concerning your life. Be authentic with Him,
knowing that you can't hide anything from Him, and that He loves you
completely, scabs and all. Share private conversations with God through
prayer every day. Rather than seeking validation from other people,
live to please God alone and don't worry about other people's opinions.
Learn to trust your heavenly Father intuitively and implicitly.

Be compassionate. Understand that God wants you to
be strong and secure in Him so the compassion of Jesus could flow
freely through your life to those who need your touch. Acknowledge the
reality of the situations around you and work with it instead of
running away from it. Be willing to be undignified in order to meet the
needs of others. Don't give into apathy when you encounter other
people's pain. Instead, respond right away to urgent situations. Allow
yourself to see, feel, and act like Jesus in the face of pain instead
of dismissing needs. Ask God to help you become tender and fearless
when confronted with pain.

Dig down deep. Don't settle for superficial
relationships. Instead, learn how to discern people's deepest emotions
and concerns, and respond to them. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you know
what lies inside the heart of each person with whom you're relating --
hurts, fears, insecurities, sin, mixed motives, lust, wounds,
abandonment, shame, pride, loss, anger, etc. Ask people thoughtful,
caring questions to help reveal the issues behind their thoughts,
words, and behaviors. Learn how to recognize the differences between
appearances and reality, public images and private struggles, anger and
hurt, pride and fear, good and bad intentions, right and wrong agendas,
and healthy and unhealthy spiritual patterns. Pray regularly for the
ability to see yourself and other people more clearly.

Express God's grace. Know that while you may hate
sin, Jesus calls you to love sinners -- just as He does. Pray for the
courage you need to affirm people apart from their sin. Remember that
Jesus died for every person; ask Him to help you see each person you
encounter as someone He loves and wants to help. Let your gratitude for
how much grace God has given you motivate you to express grace to
others, even when you disagree with their attitudes or behaviors. Ask
God to help you overcome pride and engage other people without walls,
giving grace to them as freely as you have received it yourself.

Embrace reality. Avoid fantasies that deceive you
and accept reality as it is -- not as you would like it to be. Be
committed to the truth, even when it hurts. Invite Jesus to shine His
light over the dark places in your life -- morally, emotionally,
relationally, and spiritually -- and expose what you need to deal with
so you can grow into the person He wants you to become. Let truth guide
your actions. Speak the truth. Encourage others to face the truth.
Accept responsibility and evaluate your own shortcomings. Seek
constructive feedback from others and embrace consequences. Acknowledge
and deal with negative emotions instead of swallowing them. Make the
hard and better call in situations early. Grieve losses and hurts
rather than hiding from them. Don't blame others to cover for your
mistakes. Don't seek affirmation to compensate for insecurity. Speak up
with others, to them, and for them when the Holy Spirit leads you to do
so. Pray for the ability to seek life as it really is and to trust God
for how it will be.

Fight evil. Pray for the courage and strength you
need to fight spiritual battles. Remember that you can count on the
Holy Spirit to help you overcome evil with good. Be filled with the
Holy Spirit and memorize the truths of Scripture so you'll be prepared
to quickly and effectively resist Satan's attempts to tempt, distract,
or destroy you. Have the confidence that God will help you win every
time to engage in battle. Realize your place as God's beloved child.
Respect Satan's tactics and power to influence lives. Revere truth so
you can spot twisted manipulations of it. Respond decisively when you
encounter evil. Rely on the Holy Spirit for spiritual insight. Rest in
grace. Make choices for good over evil every day, such as by forgiving
someone who has hurt you instead of attacking him or her, saying no to
unhealthy appetites rather than feeding them, and encouraging people
instead of criticizing them.

Say "no" to temptation in order to say "yes" to God.
Realize that your time here on Earth is just a temporary layover on
your way to your final destination -- heaven. Keep heaven in mind when
you make decisions every day, doing your best to live in a way that
pleases God and will give you no regrets when you meet Him face to face
one day. Rely on the Holy Spirit's help to flee whatever temptation you
encounter.

Finish well. Let your exceptional destiny drive you
to continue to live faithfully until the end. Ask God to help you stay
committed to serving Him in all aspects of your life. Know that
discipline in your commitment to living out God's dream of
Christlikeness will far outweigh the regret of getting to the end of
your life and wishing you had. Ask God to remind you of your personal
mission, help you be consistent with your spiritual disciplines, keep
learning, manage your time well, and live to please God instead of
other people.

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