My Paper Heart Is Yours

"When God is taking us to a place we've never been before, we envision that it's going to be better than where we are. And ultimately, that's true. But often we have to go through a wilderness to get there...

...God has a purpose for the wilderness, but it's hard to see it when we're in it. It can be frightening if we don't know what to expect. The most frightening thing about it is the thought that this may be our final destination...We need to be walking so close to the Lord that we hear His voice in the midst of any upheaval in our lives.....We must walk perfectly within the light God has given us, not running ahead, not lagging behind, not striving to go somewhere else...

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...When traveling in the wilderness, there is a good possibility that God will not reveal our final destination...it wouldn't be a walk of faith...full magnitude of what's ahead [would be] to much for us to comprehend...we may get in God's way by thinking to small, [or] become doubtful...God takes us through these wilderness times because He wants us to learn a walk of faith whereby we trust Him for every step. We recognize that the wilderness is a place where God calls us to forsake what's comfortable and move into the unknown so He can guide us where we need to go...

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...Embrace the wilderness and say, "I want to be with You, Lord, even if that means staying in the wilderness until You're ready to bring me out." As Moses said, "If Your Presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here" (Ex. 33:15). Once you are out of the wilderness, don't forget it. Remember and talk about the goodness God showed you there, and how He sustained you and how you trust He will continue to do so. It will strengthen your faith and the faith of those around you...

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...God wants us to dream. He puts dreams in our heart for His purposes. But in our dreaming, He doesn't want us to exclude Him. God's Word says we will perish if we don't have a vision, but the vision we have must be His...And He wants us to surrender all of them. That way He can tell us which of them are from Him and in line with His will...Even if the dream in your heart is from God, you still won't see it fulfilled until you give it to Him. The dream has to be realized His way...

...When God wants to make changes in our lives, and we're willing to let Him, He starts by cutting away all that is unnecessary. In this process, He strips from us everything that could hinder our future growth, in order to prepare us to bring forth good fruit. Our life may look barren during that time, but God is actually freeing us from anything that does not bring forth life...process of surrendering all to the Lord...God puts dreams in our heart to give us vision and inspiration and to guide us to the right path. That's why we have to make sure the dreams we have are not from our own flesh. The only way to be sure of that is to lay all of our dreams at His feet and let them die. And we must also die to them. The ones that are not from Him will be buried forever. The ones that are from Him will be given new life...
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...We don't want to be just wishful thinkers, always living in a dreamworld and never seeing anything of significance materialize. We don't want to be continually chasing after something God is not blessing. We want to live with confidence that our hopes, dreams, and expectations are based on God-given certainty that He is behind them. We want the hope that comes from God alone and is built on a foundation of His promises to us...This kind of hope is an anchor to the soul...
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...Even if you are certain God has given you a vision or dream for your future, He will still ask you to surrender it to Him so thoroughly that you will think it's as good as dead...
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...God doesn't want any part of you to be unsurrendered, not even the dreams He has put in your heart...dying to your dreams is difficult, but if you reach up and take your Heavenly Father's hand, He will shine His light on the situation and walk you through the process step by step."
~Stormie Omartain
"Just Enough Light for the Step I'm On"

"....if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance." Romans 8:25

L.s.R