Give God the chance to show how He works. Then, keep moving forward, asking God to continue to direct your steps, light the path, and give you the desires of your heart.
Have you ever wanted something so badly that when it’s finally within reach, you don’t believe you’ll actually receive it? It’s a peculiar phenomenon how the idea of our dreams coming true and the doubt that they actually will exist in the same space.
Contrary to what you may have been told, doubt, in and of itself, is not a sin. Doubt is a feeling, a voice from the enemy that says, “That goal you’ve worked so hard to achieve—it probably isn’t going to happen; that prodigal you’ve been praying for—he probably won’t come home; that marriage you’ve been trying to fix—it probably will never be whole again.”
I often struggle to believe that my dreams will come true. I have a deep-seated fear that this thing I’ve worked so hard for and have longed for will be yanked from my fingertips at the last minute. As a protection mechanism, I keep myself from getting my hopes up or even planning out all the details. This prevents the inevitable disappointment when my fears come true.
If you’ve allowed doubt to keep you from accessing your desires and chasing your dreams, know this—you are not alone. Doubt comes from fear, and we cannot allow fear to prevent us from following the desires God has placed on our hearts.
Doubt is a real feeling and is not to be ignored, yet, it is also not to be acted upon.
This fall, I decided to do something new with the calling I’ve felt in my heart. For the last few years, I’ve been writing, but I felt God was calling me to do more, to step out of my comfort zone, away from the computer and written word. So I decided to pursue a life-coaching certification. The program consisted of nine weeks of training remotely and concluded with a two-day, in-person retreat in Charleston, South Carolina.
I wanted to go, made all the plans to go, and had no reason to believe that I wouldn't get to go; yet a few days prior to the trip, I started to experience doubt that I wouldn’t be able to go. I couldn’t shake the feeling that something out of my control would interfere with my plans. Would it be an emergency at work or with my family? Would a storm hit, preventing me from flying? After all, anything was possible.
It’s tempting to get inside our heads and let those voices of doubt lead us astray and away from God’s voice. The fears that we hold when we start to give heed to the voice of doubt are ones of failure, disappointment, and hopelessness. Even when we try our very best to believe, we know we have little control over the future, no matter how hard we pray or how positive our thoughts are. This makes doubt feel all the more real.
As my pastor said, “Faith is not a superpower that can manipulate reality.” But neither is our doubt. Your confidence or fear of what will happen does not change destiny. The road still leads where the road leads, and honestly, we don’t always know the final destination until we’ve arrived. That’s where faith steps in and tells doubt to step aside.
I choose to believe that if God places a dream inside of me, He will bring it to fruition. If He leads me down a path, and I do my best to walk in His righteousness, to live in the light of His truth, giving all glory to Him, I believe He will give me my heart’s desires (Psalm 37:4).
Sometimes to reassure myself, I repeat a phrase I’m sure we’ve all said at one time or another: “God didn’t bring me this far to only bring me this far.” However, the more I think about it, I prefer an alternative, but similar, phrase: “God didn’t bring me this far to leave me here.” (Deuteronomy 31:6)
He did bring me this far, and He has a plan for me; however, I must accept that His plan may not look like the one I had in mind. That’s the place where doubt and faith collide. So when I find myself faced with doubt, I remember these four truths:
1. God plants dreams in my heart.
2. God wants me to have a plan.
3. God’s plan is the best plan.
4. God wants me to release my desires to Him.
1. God Plants Dreams in My Heart
God plants seeds of desire, or dreams, in our hearts. If you seek after Him in all that you do, it’s safe to assume that your dreams are from God. Even still, it can be scary to chase after our dreams, especially when we’ve failed in the past, whether due to our own mistakes or circumstances out of our control.
It’s important to recognize and acknowledge the dream. Perhaps you are like me and struggle in this area since we can’t see the end result. I have a hard time with big vision. For a long time, I couldn’t envision a three-year plan, let alone a one-month plan. Life is full of so many variables and things that could go wrong. Sadly, my solution was to not let myself dream.
I buried the dreams that God placed in my heart, much like the servant in the “Parable of the Talents” who buried the talent his master had entrusted to him (Matthew 25:14-30). I realized, though, that I don't want to be like that servant. I don’t want God to ask me what I did with the dream he gave me, yet have nothing to show for myself. I have to water and nurture the dreams if they are going to grow to live a fruitful life, and if I want to hear my master say, “Well done, my good and faithful servant.”
2. God Wants Me to Have a Plan
God doesn't work with a non-existent plan. After He plants the seeds of desire in our hearts, we must make a plan and start moving forward. Whatever we do, we can’t just stand still and expect God to work. People who fail to plan just fail.
Proverbs 29:18 (MSG) says, “If people can’t see what God is doing, they stumble all over themselves; but when they attend to what he reveals, they are most blessed.”
When you feel the Holy Spirit nudging you, you must move in that direction if you expect God to guide you. “The steps of a man are established by the LORD” (Psalm 37:23). Once you take that first step, He will guide your next one. It’s like a beautiful, holy dance. One, two, one, two, three…
God has told many people to go, to do scary things, to do bigger-than-life things. When they listened and obeyed, God made the impossible possible. When God gives me a God-sized vision, I have decided to move forward in expectation rather than hide in fear.
3. God’s Plan Is the Best Plan
I always laugh when I read the verse, “We can make our own plans, but the Lord gives the right answer” (Proverbs 16:1 NLT). In other words, we make plans and God changes them. I quote my paraphrased version a lot when things don’t turn out how I thought they would. It helps me feel better.
It makes me wonder: what’s the point of making plans when God’s plan is the best plan anyway? Ephesians 3:20 (NIV) says: “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory…”
It’s almost as if God is saying, “Go ahead, dream as big of a dream as you can possibly imagine, and then watch me blow that dream out of the water.”
Every time something has been removed from my grasp, I can look back and see how God replaced it with something even better. So while I will continue to chase after my dreams, I will not cling to them too tightly. Instead, I will entrust the outcome to God.
4. God Wants Me to Release My Desires to Him
When the feelings of doubt become overwhelming, the best thing to do is pray, surrendering and releasing it all to God. As you do this, God will give you peace and comfort.
I’ve actually stopped saying the word “surrender” and started saying “release”. Both words carry a sense of letting go, but I love the picture “release” paints. I can imagine myself releasing my tight grip on what I want, and handing it off to God—arms outstretched, palms up.
Even when I feel that the future is uncertain, I have learned to release my desires and just watch God work. When we do this, we allow God to be glorified.
“So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me.” 2 Corinthians 12:9 (NLT)
When Jesus was arrested and crucified, I imagine the disciples’ confusion, fear, and doubt. Jesus tried to warn them, but they didn’t really get it. I wonder: did they think that following Jesus was all for nothing, just a big scam? Did they think about how they left their home, their families, and their livelihood to follow a mere mortal who was just full of himself, and now that he was dead they struggled to see what the point was?
They didn’t realize and understand what happened until three days later when Jesus rose from the dead and came back to life. Then they got it. Then it all made sense. It was so that God could be glorified, and so that we, humans, could see that absolutely nothing is impossible for God; and when we put our trust in God, all hope is never lost.
We only have to release our human expectations to God and let Him be the hero of our story.
As difficult as it is, release your expected outcome; let go of it, loosen your grip on what you want to happen, and instead, entrust all of it to God. Give God the chance to show how He works. Then, keep moving forward, asking God to continue to direct your steps, light the path, and give you the desires of your heart.
When it doesn’t end up going the way you wanted or hoped it would go, release that to Him, too. We can trust that the words in Romans 8:28 (NLT) are true: “And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.”
Photo Credit: ©GettyImages/Charday Penn
Jennifer Jabbour resides in the scenic San Diego countryside with her husband, adult son, and teen daughter, and their hilarious English Bulldog. Jennifer has a B.A. in Integrated Business Communications, and is a Go + Tell Gals licensed life coach. Jennifer hopes to use her calling of writing, coaching, and speaking to equip and empower women to clarify their vision and to boldly step forward in response to God's calling on their life, as well as educate and encourage others to experience the abundance of God's goodness when they seek Him first in all that they do. Jennifer is also a brown belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, a photographer, and an avid outdoors-woman. She loves camping, hiking, running, and playing the piano in her free time.
You can keep up with Jennifer on her website https://www.jenniferjabbour.
