Nurture Your Vision

We have been considering writing our visions and plans for the future, without which we are like feathers in the storms of life. However, as we make plans, we yet have to be flexible as to the way they will come to pass. Here, going back to God regularly for direction is necessary.

Years ago, I was in the boutique business, and was sure it would succeed, and when that venture failed, I felt like all the lights in my theatre went out. I felt beaten and downtrodden and, for many years I was afraid even to dream or ask God for anything. However, by hindsight, I can now see the causes for my failure.

What happens when our goals and plans grow cool or when we see shattered dreams and plans all around us? Our feelings become shattered too, but God can take our brokenness, heal our inner feelings and set us straight. He can reveal to us how the situation can be fixed or lead us to another dream which might even be better for us than what we had envisioned.

Truly, sometimes God is kind in not giving us what we ask for.

We need to understand that even with the best of intentions, not all goals and plans materialize in the way we would like them to. Some do not materialize at all, but there are four things we can do: (1) face our failure as it is, (2) examine it for what we can learn from it, (3) seize the spoils we can take from it, and (4) press on.

What happens when the vision is slow to materialize? Let not anyone intimidate you when your goals and plans for the future are slow in coming, saying: "Where is your God...?" If that vision is truly yours, and God is in it, it will come. Speaking through Habbakuk, God says: "For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it will tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry " (Habbakuk 2:3). The key here is waiting patiently.

We need to be sensitive to the way God works. Our timing is not God’s timing. And sometimes God uses our dreams and goals to test our faith, and if those dreams and visions are truly ours,at the end of our testing, the vision will surely show itself...as a rose fully unfolded, it will reveal itself.

Another thing of importance: sometimes, the dream and plans we profess to be ours are not really ours but somebody else’s that we are acting out for some reason. These are the dreams and plans that mostly fail. Therefore, when our plans are slow in materializing or giving us many challenges, we need to re-visit them, asking ourselves questions like these: "Are these plans realistic? Are they really mine and not something borrowed?"

And for success, we sometimes have to break up our goals and plans into parts and see what part we can begin right away. We need to ask ourselves: "What can I do today towards my overall plan?"

Nurture your vision by seeking God’s direction about it daily and by speaking positive words to it. Hold right attitudes about it. Then patiently watch as your vision unfolds.