How to Train Your Crazy Dreams – Part 2 (Numbers 14)

Summary:

There’s a young woman named Rebekah. Rebekah has a dream. She’s had this dream for a long time now. She has finally gathered up the courage to go after it.

So she plans. She decides what she will do every day, every week, and every month to reach her goals. She gets up early in the morning. She splits her time wisely between her work on her dream and her everyday life. She gives herself time for self-care. She even promotes her personal brand on social media.

Rebekah keeps this diligence and hard work up. She keeps it up for years and years.

Fast forward to the end of Rebekah’s life. You ask her whether or not she achieved her dreams. Her eyes tell you what her lips cannot.

She failed.

Why?

Numbers 14 continues the story of a people called the Israelites. They have almost reached the Promised Land. They have been through sickness and hunger. They have escaped slavery and overcome trial after trial. But after hearing that nations filled with skilled warriors live in the land that God promised to them, they fall apart.

They blame Moses. They blame God. They weep. They rage. They threaten to kill Caleb and Joshua, two men from the committee that went to explore Canaan (verse 10). They basically throw one big tantrum.

It was a disaster. And God almost destroys them for it.

But Moses prays for them. And God forgives them. But their sin had consequences. God delays the dream by forty years.

If we fast forward now, will we see the Israelites fail or will we see them succeed?

A Dream Without Faith:

Everything started out so well. The Israelites were within sight of their crazy dream. They explored, seeing with their own eyes that God’s promises weren’t just dreams, they were real life. Even after they stumbled over obstacles and got mad at God, He forgave them.

So the Israelites recommitted themselves to their crazy dream. They understood that they had sinned! They were ready to work hard now! So they charged up to Canaan and attacked their enemies.

And failed.

Why?

When the Israelites went after their dream, they were bold. They were brave. But they were alone.

And we already know that dreams don’t come true like that, right?

Except that it happens all the time. Tons of people achieve their goals, and not an ounce of credit goes to God. Still, they get everything they dreamed of, and all on their own. They even make it look easy!

Here we get the other side of that narrative. You can fulfill your dreams alright, but without faith in God there will always be something missing.

You’ll almost be happy. It’ll be this close to what was possible. You’ll be just a few steps shy of your dream.

But it won’t be complete. It won’t satisfy you. It’ll feel like failure.

God never does anything halfway. He won’t change a small portion of our lives. He won’t fulfill our dreams and leave us with faulty faith and damaged hearts.

When God fulfills our dreams, He changes our lives. Inside and out.

But He’ll only do it if we let Him. And that takes faith.

Faith to face the obstacles with Him. Faith to say that He knows best at all times. Faith to change course when He asks it, even if it doesn’t seem right. Faith to wait when He says wait and go when He says go.

How do we train our crazy dreams? By surrendering our lives to God. By allowing Him to change us completely.

Because that is the only way we will ever succeed.

“I Am the key to everything you’re dreaming of.”

Really, though?

It seems kind of easy to have a nice time here, even if God is just a hobby and not our everything. Heck, it seems easy to have a good time if God is nothing to us!

But God keeps telling us it’s not true.

In the Bible, He reminds us.

When the consequences of our sins start to really sting, He reminds us.

When He touches our hearts in church or while reading the Bible or through nature or through a song, He’s reminding us–

You need Me.

We need Him.

We need Him to breathe. We need Him to hold down a job. We need Him to make friends. We need Him to realize our crazy dreams. We need Him to be happy.

So what’ll it be? Will we have Him? At the end of it all will we have failed on our own? Or will we have succeeded with Him?

What do you think? What does it look like to surrender our lives and our dreams to God? Comment below with your thoughts, and share this with someone!