July 21, 2022
Daily Devotion:
"Dreaming Big Dreams for the Lord… "
2 Chronicles 6:8-9
Easy-to-Read Version
8 But the Lord said to my father, ‘David, it is good that you want to build a temple for my name, 9 but you cannot build the Temple. Your son will build the Temple for my name.
Have you ever had a wonderful, exciting dream that never came true? Some grand idea that seemed so perfect, but came to nothing? Why couldn't others catch the vision? And because it was intended for God's glory, why did he not give it his full, divine backing? Many a godly dreamer has been sorely disappointed. It doesn't mean that God was displeased with the vision. Perhaps God just had a different builder in mind. Or a different time and place. From what Solomon says about his father's dream, God was thrilled that David had it in his heart to build a temple. Yet for his own reasons, God had reserved that task for Solomon.
One wonders if Solomon didn't learn some valuable lessons from his father's experience. Solomon would later write a number of proverbs addressing this very issue. On one hand the wise king urges, “Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and your plans will succeed" (Proverbs 16:3). Yet that advice is tempered by the perspective that, “Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the LORD's purpose that prevails" (Proverbs 19:21). Between those bookends is the balanced truth that what plans we commit to God will succeed, unless God has a particular plan of his own. Indeed (as with David's design for the temple) one's "failed" dream might eventually become reality, right down to the last detail, only perhaps a lifetime later and by someone else. So here's to dreaming big dreams for the Lord!
The crucial question is: Do I have great dreams worthy of God's glory, even if I never see the trees that grow from the seeds I plant?
