Listen to Your Heart

We're learning how kick aside insecurities during my series, Confident in God's Hands. I believe that to be truly confident, we must follow God's leading for our lives. When we listen to our hearts, we find more successful outcomes than if we follow paths that the world believes we should.

Your money or your life!
All my life, I have wanted to be a writer. At times, it doesn't pay well. Truthfully, it often pays nothing, other than the satisfaction of knowing that I've crafted something beautiful.

Whenever I allow money woes to take precedence over the dream God has planted in my heart, I hit a wall. My efforts end in frustration, and they frequently cost me more time, money, and aggravation than they're worth.

On the other hand, when I'm in agreement with God's plans for my life, things just seem to fall into place. For instance, I've been asking God to help me figure out how to market, manage, and pay for the distribution of my upcoming novel. Out of the blue, a very old friend offered to handle the distribution of the book at no cost to me!

Usually, our worries about making a living by following our heart's desire are based on our lack of trust in God. When we let anxieties hold us back from our dreams, our confidence takes a hit. Why? Because confidence can only grow with successes. Every time we set aside our dreams, we're setting ourselves up to feel like losers, because we never arrive where we know we should be.

If God has given us a job to do, surely he'll provide what we need along the way! We must trust him to make our dreams come true, and in the process, our confidence will grow.

Go back to Start
When playing board games, we frequently land on a space that directs us to go back to the place where we started. We usually see this as a setback, but when it comes to following our dreams and gaining confidence along the way, returning to our beginnings can put us on the fast-track to success.

King Solomon had a dream of ruling God's people. When God asked Solomon what blessing he might give him, Solomon asked for wisdom and knowledge to lead God's people.

God said to Solomon, "Since this is your heart's desire and you have not asked for wealth, riches or honor, nor for the death of your enemies, and since you have not asked for a long life but for wisdom and knowledge to govern my people over whom I have made you king, therefore wisdom and knowledge will be given you. And I will also give you wealth, riches and honor, such as no king who was before you ever had and none after you will have." (2 Chronicles 1:11-12 NIV)

We can see from the passage above that God showers his people with blessings when they follow their heart's desire. Blessings beyond our wildest dreams usually follow when we take our focus off of money and put it back on God's plan for us. Solomon became the wealthiest, most highly respected man of all time, because his dream honored God.

If we return to the beginning of our dreams, can we say that God put them in our hearts? Or have we been wishing for something outside of his will for us? We must choose wisely, as Solomon did, when asking God to bless our efforts. If we don't seem to be making any headway, perhaps it's time to go back and start over. Maybe we need to examine our heart's desire and make sure that God planted it there in the first place.

Today's Challenge
What has always been your heart's desire? If you haven't achieved it, take time today to pray about it. Ask God to show you whether or not that dream was his or something the world told you to do. If you feel certain that your dream and God's plans are in alignment, follow that path to success and greater confidence. If you determine that you're on the wrong path, ask God to send you back to start over on a dream that will honor him.