Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 3:00 — 4.1MB)
Program D-7174
What is your excuse for not asking God to give you a vision—a new beginning, a new passion for pursuing all he wants to do with you and through you? We’re looking at some of the common excuses we use that keep us from the abundant life Jesus wants to give us. Here’s one of those excuses:
I’ve made too many mistakes; there are too many ghosts in my past for me to do anything great for God.
If God only used people with good track records, there would be no one to use. God takes us where we are and tells us to put our past behind us and move forward to the good things he wants to do for us. Isaiah wrote: “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland” (Isaiah 43:18-19).
Other reasons and excuses exist for our lack of vision in our own personal lives, but none of them hold water. However, my guess is that one of the main reasons many of us do not have a vision of what God wants to do in us and through us is because we’ve never asked for a vision.
James wrote “You do not have, because you do not ask God” (James 4:2).
Jesus told us “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened” (Matthew 7:7-8).
How do we recognize God’s vision?
Are you willing to ask God for a vision? You say, “I’m not sure I would know one if I saw it!” Good question—how do we know God’s vision for us?
A vision from God will be born in love—love of God, love of the Lord Jesus, and love of others. It will exist because you love the Lord and you love other people, and you want to do something for the Lord and for other people. A God-vision will never be for the purpose of promoting you or your agenda. If will never be about you; it will always be about God.
A God-given vision will not depend upon your giftedness or your hard work or your promotional abilities, though your gifts will be used and you will work hard. But the success of your vision will be a God-thing that can only be explained by his power working in you. And it will always be in harmony with God’s Word.
I urge you to seriously consider whether you need to ask God to give you a vision, to help you step out by faith and realize the potential he has created in you, and the joy that comes when you walk by faith and not by sight.