Our Dreams and God’s Desires

Think for a moment about the different dreams you’ve carried through your life. What kind of family did you imagine? What career did you picture? What friendships, home, or adventures filled your hopes for the future? Why do we dream the dreams that we do?

If you’re anything like me, many of your dreams have stayed just that—dreams. And often, our dreams rise out of our expectations about what will make us happy. We assume that certain milestones or accomplishments will finally give us the life we want. Yet very few of us ever achieve the exact life we once imagined.

On one hand, that’s not entirely a bad thing. The life we pictured when we were younger was often shaped by unrealistic expectations. If many of those dreams had come true, they might have led us into situations we were not ready for. I can’t imagine living the lifestyle of a sports star or rock star—surrounded by pressures and temptations that could easily pull my heart away from God. And what if I had married the first person I ever had a crush on? Reality rarely matches our adolescent fantasies.

As we mature, we recognize that life is better, safer, and more meaningful when some of our early dreams remain unfulfilled.

But then there are other dreams—dreams we believe are essential to our happiness. The single person may be convinced that marriage is the key to a full life, while the married person might quietly wish for the freedom of singleness. Others believe that a certain job, achievement, or possession is the missing piece that will complete them. And when these dreams do not materialize—or worse, when something cherished is taken away—our world feels as if it has collapsed.

In those moments, we cry out: “God, don’t You care about my happiness? I thought You loved me!” And very often, the response we hear is silence. We pray and pray, and heaven seems unmoved.

But Scripture insists that God does care. Peter writes:

“Therefore, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, so that at the proper time he may exalt you. Cast all your cares on him, because he cares for you.”

—1 Peter 5:6–7

So we face a tension: If God cares for us, why doesn’t He help us achieve the life of our dreams? Why does He allow disappointment, delay, or loss?

I am convinced the problem is not with God. The problem is with our dreams.

God’s purposes for us are far larger, deeper, and more eternal than our pursuit of earthly happiness. What we want from life and what God desires for our lives are often two very different things.

We dream of being served; God desires that we serve.

We dream of sudden wealth; God desires that we become generous.

We dream of recognition; God desires the quiet faithfulness that only He sees.

To discover the life God has for us, our dreams often must break. Not to crush us, but to awaken us. When our dreams collapse, they create the space for God’s desires to take root.

Until that happens, we will always invest more effort into chasing happiness than pursuing holiness. Yet holiness—not happiness—is God’s ultimate desire for us. James reminds us:

“Consider it pure joy… whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance. Let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing.”

—James 1:2–4

Trials and disappointments shape us into the people God created us to be. They force our gaze upward. They draw us away from illusions and toward reality. They teach us endurance, maturity, and trust.

When we cling tightly to our dreams, we become blind to the better life God desires for us. So sometimes, in His mercy, God lets our dreams shatter—not to harm us, but to free us. Because if we never adjust our focus, we will settle for a life far smaller than the one He intends.

Holiness, purpose, and Christlikeness are found not in the life we dream up, but in the life God is forming within us.

Paul’s Ponderings is a blog dedicated to reflecting on Scripture and encouraging believers to live out their faith with love and purpose.

When the Church Prays

Acts 4:23–31

What do you do when the pressure comes?

That question reveals far more about us than we often realize. Pressure exposes instincts. It shows where we turn first, what we trust most, and how we understand the mission God has given us. Acts 4 offers us a glimpse into the instincts of the early church—and in doing so, it gently confronts many of our own assumptions about prayer, power, and faithfulness.

The story of the church began with remarkable momentum. On the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit was poured out, the apostles preached Christ with boldness, and three thousand people pledged their allegiance to King Jesus through baptism. These believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, to fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer. Luke even tells us that they enjoyed the goodwill of the people.

But goodwill is a fragile thing.

By Acts 3, the tone changes. Peter and John go to the temple, heal a man crippled from birth, and proclaim Jesus as the risen Messiah. Instead of celebration, they are arrested, interrogated, and threatened by religious authorities. They are commanded never to speak in the name of Jesus again. The church moves quickly from favor to friction. Faithfulness becomes costly.

So how does the church respond when obedience brings opposition?

Acts 4 shows us that prayer is not something the church does after exhausting all other options. Prayer is what the church does when it knows that only God can carry the mission forward.

The first thing we see is that a united church turns to God. When Peter and John are released, they don’t go off on their own to recover. They return to their people. They report what happened, and the church responds—not with a strategy meeting, not with damage control, not with a debate about risk—but with prayer. Together, they lift their voices to God.

This detail matters. Luke emphasizes that they prayed together. This was not the pastor praying alone while everyone else listened. This was the whole church turning to God as one body. They recognized that they were under spiritual attack, but they did not panic. Prayer reminded them who they belonged to and why they existed. It was an act of surrender, trust, and unity.

Their prayer also begins with the Sovereign Creator. Before they ask for anything, they worship. They address God as the Creator of heaven, earth, sea, and everything in them. This wasn’t a way of ignoring the problem—it was a way of seeing the problem rightly. Worship reorients our hearts. It reminds us that God is not fragile, local, or threatened. He is not reacting to events; He reigns over them.

As the NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible notes, this church had no political power, no cultural leverage, and no institutional authority—yet they prayed to the One who rules all creation. That truth still reshapes how we pray today.

Scripture also shapes their prayer. The church quotes Psalm 2, a messianic psalm that describes the nations raging against the Lord and His anointed King. Psalm 2 reminds God’s people that human rebellion is real—but never ultimate. God laughs at the arrogance of earthly power and establishes His kingdom anyway.

The church understood that Herod, Pilate, the Gentiles, and the religious leaders all played a role in opposing Jesus. Yet none of it fell outside God’s sovereign purposes. God did not cause their sin, but He used their rebellion to accomplish redemption. Prayer anchored the church in God’s sovereignty rather than their circumstances.

This is why Scripture must shape our prayers. When the days are evil, as Paul later writes, wisdom does not come from panic or control. It comes from being formed by God’s Word and guided by His Spirit.

The church’s prayer is also strikingly honest—and fearless. They do not pretend the danger isn’t real. They name the threats plainly. At the same time, they do not ask God to punish their enemies, remove all opposition, or make life easier. Faith doesn’t deny fear; it refuses to let fear rule. Prayer becomes the place where fear is voiced but not obeyed.

Then comes one of the most challenging parts of the passage: they pray for boldness, not safety. They do not ask for protection, comfort, influence, or success. They ask for faithfulness. They ask for courage to continue speaking the word of God. They ask God to confirm their witness through His power.

The NLT Life Application Study Bible observes that God may remove the problem—but more often He supplies courage instead. Boldness is not recklessness. It is obedience in the presence of fear. This reframes how we often pray for our churches. Our deepest need is not ease, growth, or stability. Our deepest need is faithfulness.

Finally, God responds. The place where they prayed was shaken—a sign of God’s presence, echoing moments like Mount Sinai and Isaiah’s call. They were filled with the Holy Spirit, not because He had left, but because they needed renewed empowerment. The mission did not change. The opposition did not disappear. But the people were changed. They spoke the word of God boldly.

The early church understood something we often forget: God’s work cannot be done in human strength. Churches can grow through plans, programs, and strategies—but discipleship, the heart of the church’s mission, only happens by God’s power. Prayer does not change the mission. It changes the people who carry it.

We pray not to earn God’s favor, but to align our hearts with His. We pray because we expect God to move.

Andrew Murray once wrote

“The more time you spend in God’s presence, making His thoughts and will your own, the stronger your faith will grow that God will use your prayers in the carrying out of His plan of redemption.”

That is what making disciples is all about—seeing God’s redemption at work in the world and joining that work through prayer.

Paul’s Ponderings is a blog dedicated to reflecting on Scripture and encouraging believers to live out their faith with love and purpose.

Sunday Prayer: A Living Sacrifice

Romans 12:1-2 (NLT)

And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.

Father God,

Because of Your mercy, we come to You with grateful hearts. You have given us life, forgiveness, and hope through Christ, and today we offer ourselves back to You. Take our bodies, our time, our words, and our choices, and make them a living and holy sacrifice—pleasing in Your sight and shaped by gratitude, not obligation. Teach us that true worship is not confined to a moment, but lived out in surrendered lives.

Lord, guard us from being shaped by the patterns of this world. Too often we drift without noticing—absorbing its values, its fears, and its priorities. Renew our minds by Your Spirit. Reorder our thinking, realign our loves, and reshape our desires so that we reflect the heart of Jesus rather than the culture around us.

As You transform us, help us discern Your will. Give us wisdom to recognize what is good, pleasing, and perfect in Your sight. Send us into this week as people who think differently, live faithfully, and worship You with all that we are. We offer ourselves to You again today.

Amen.

Paul’s Ponderings is a blog dedicated to reflecting on Scripture and encouraging believers to live out their faith with love and purpose.

Trusting God More Than Ourselves

“True surrender to God requires letting go of our own will and embracing His, trusting that His plan is better than ours. We need to trust Him more than we trust ourselves.”

Surrender is not a word we usually like. It feels like weakness, failure, or defeat. From childhood, we are taught to be strong, to stand our ground, and to fight for what we want. But the way of Jesus turns the world’s wisdom upside down. In God’s kingdom, surrender is not defeat—it’s freedom.

When Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, He faced the most difficult test of surrender anyone could imagine. He knew the cross was before Him, and He wrestled with the cost: “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will”(Matthew 26:39). In that moment, Jesus modeled what true surrender looks like—laying down His own will in order to fully embrace the Father’s.

That’s the challenge we all face. We might not be staring at a cross, but we all carry desires, plans, and preferences that we cling to tightly. We tell ourselves we trust God, but when His direction cuts across our own, do we resist or release?

Why Letting Go Feels So Hard

The truth is, we tend to trust ourselves more than God. We think we know what’s best for our future, our families, our careers, our finances. We lean on our understanding because it feels safer and more familiar. Proverbs 3:5–6 tells us otherwise: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own understanding; in all your ways know Him, and He will make your paths straight.”

Letting go is hard because it requires faith. It requires admitting that our perspective is limited and that God sees what we cannot. Faith asks us to believe that His plan is not only bigger than ours but also better.

What Happens When We Trust Him More

When we surrender, we discover the peace that comes from knowing we are not in control. The burden of carrying the future lifts because it is safe in God’s hands. This doesn’t mean life will be easy. Jesus’ surrender led Him to the cross. But it also led to resurrection, victory, and eternal hope.

The same is true for us. God’s plan may lead us through valleys, but He will always lead us toward life. Surrender doesn’t guarantee comfort—it guarantees His presence and His purpose. And in the end, that is far greater than anything we could arrange on our own.

Living Out Surrender Daily

Surrender is not just a one-time decision; it’s a daily posture. Here are three ways we can practice trusting God more than ourselves:

1. Pray honestly. Bring your desires, fears, and plans before God. Then echo Jesus’ words: “Not my will, but Yours be done.”
2. Obey quickly. When you sense God leading you through His Word or His Spirit, don’t delay. Obedience is where trust becomes real.
3. Release outcomes. We can do what God asks of us, but the results belong to Him. True surrender means letting Him define success.

The Invitation

Surrender is not about giving up on life; it’s about giving our lives to the One who gave His life for us. It’s about trading the illusion of control for the reality of God’s care.

The question we each need to ask is this: Do I trust God more than I trust myself?

When we can answer “yes,” not just with our lips but with our lives, we step into the freedom and peace that only surrender can bring.

Marriage Was God’s Idea

“Marriage was his idea, after all. God created marriage, and put the desire in our hearts… the hopeful truth is that marriage is something God cares deeply about—including your marriage.”

— John and Stasi Eldredge, Love and War

We form all kinds of relationships in life—at work, in our neighborhoods, within the church, and among family and friends. Yet among all of them, marriage stands apart. It’s a relationship built on a promise, a covenant meant to anchor a home and nurture the next generation.

For Christians, marriage is more than romance or a practical partnership. It is a sacred covenant established by God Himself. Because marriage is His idea, it comes with His wisdom for how we were meant to live, flourish, and love. It is not simply the union of two people, but a reflection of God’s design for companionship, intimacy, and mutual support.

This is why the Eldredges’ reminder matters: “Marriage was his idea, after all.” 

When we lose sight of that, we risk treating marriage lightly, and the consequences ripple out into our families and communities. Marriage is part of the structure God built into creation for human thriving.

From the very beginning, Scripture shows us God’s heart: “It is not good for the man to be alone.” God designed men and women in His image, uniquely designed to complement one another. The longing for companionship isn’t an accident—it’s God-given. And marriage is one of the primary places where that longing finds its deepest expression. Through marriage families begin, communities grow, and lives are shaped. None of us were made to live life in isolation.

Even with all the complexities that relationships bring, this truth remains: marriage is a gift from God. Across cultures and throughout history, marriage has been honored as a sacred institution—not invented by society, but woven by God into the fabric of human life.

Malachi 2:16 (NLT) reminds us of the seriousness of this covenant:

“For I hate divorce!” says the Lord, the God of Israel.

“To divorce your wife is to overwhelm her with cruelty,”

says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.

“So guard your heart; do not be unfaithful to your wife.”

In Malachi’s day, men held nearly all the power in marriage. God’s words protected vulnerable wives and called husbands to cherish, not discard. While our culture today looks different, the call remains the same: love faithfully. Love may draw a husband and wife together, but faithfulness is what keeps them together.

Just as God’s covenant holds through His faithfulness, a Christian marriage thrives when husband and wife remain steadfast—both to one another and to God. When faithfulness falters, love cannot endure.

In an age of temporary connections and shifting values, God’s design for marriage offers something we desperately need: a place of safety, steadiness, and growth. In a world wrestling with loneliness, anxiety, and brokenness, healthy and faithful marriages shine with quiet strength.

Marriage was—and still is—God’s idea. When we honor it, nurture it, and commit to it, we join Him in His good design for the flourishing of our families, our churches, and our world.

Paul’s Ponderings is a blog dedicated to reflecting on Scripture and encouraging believers to live out their faith with love and purpose.