RESURRECTING OLD DREAMS

Mark & Nicki Pfeifer

In every leader’s life, there comes a time when the dream God gave seems distant – perhaps even impossible. The promise feels delayed, circumstances contradict it, and weariness threatens to drown out the voice of the Holy Spirit.

But Scripture is filled with reminders that we must not let go of hope. We must hold on to the dreams God has planted in our hearts, even when everything around us says it’s over.

Like Abraham and Sarah, we may not see a “great nation” in our lifetime, but we might just see the birth of a single child.  But generationally, our dreams will come to pass if we faint not!

"And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not."

-Galatians 6:9

I like the acronym, Having Optimism Past Everything.  Hope is faith applied to the future.  Don’t let your dreams die!  Dig them up and resurrect them and then set them before you like a guiding light.  It was Israel’s dream of a promised land that helped them navigate the wilderness.

Where there is not hope for the future, there is no motivation in the present.  If a person knows there is no hope to keep their house or automobile, they are less likely to keep up on repairs.  There’s no motivation to keep things working when you have concluded there is no future for it.

The same is true for dreams.  We must keep those overarching, gigantic dreams alive by maintaining a series of smaller dreams in the process.  Those smaller dreams are like steppingstones.  They don’t have to be miraculous.  Sometimes completing a TO DO list for the day or week can keep us encouraged long enough to see the bigger dreams comes to pass.

Hope is not wishful thinking.  it is the confident expectation of what God has promised, rooted in His character. Hebrews 10:23 exhorts us, “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.” God never plants a dream in us to tease or torment us. He gives vision so that we may walk by faith, not by sight, and learn to trust His timing and process.

Consider Joseph. At seventeen, he had a dream from God of leadership and influence. Yet instead of immediate promotion, he faced betrayal, slavery, and false imprisonment. For thirteen years, it looked like his dream would never come true. But Joseph held on. He remained faithful to God even in the dark seasons, and in time, the dream unfolded just as God had shown. The very people who doubted him bowed before him—not because Joseph forced the dream into being, but because he trusted the Dream-Giver.

Hope often lives longest in the waiting. Romans 8:24 reminds us, “Hope that is seen is not hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has?”  Delay doesn’t mean denial.  it is God’s workshop of preparation. Dreams are forged in the fires of endurance, character, and trust. Like a seed buried in soil, they take root in secret long before they bear visible fruit.

Giving up is the enemy of destiny. Many walk away just moments before breakthrough. But those who endure will see the goodness of the Lord. David declared, “I would have lost heart, unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living” (Psalm 27:13). Even Jesus, in the Garden of Gethsemane, clung to the vision of joy set before Him, enduring the cross because He saw the outcome (Hebrews 12:2).

If God gave you the dream, it still lives. It is not over.

No matter how long it has been…

No matter who walked away…

No matter what the report says..

…if God spoke it, He will perform it!

Our job is not to make it happen.  Our job is to believe, obey, and wait with expectation.

Hold on to the dream. Stir up your faith. Surround yourself with people who remind you of what God said. Write the vision again. Pray it through. Cry out to God…

…but don’t let go!

The dream is not dead. It’s in process. And He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion.