SteemChurch: God can resurrect your dreams: Ana's story
Biblical text: I Samuel 1
Dreams ... how exciting it is to talk about our deepest longings!
In general, everyone dreams of something: having a profession, buying a house for their family, becoming a great athlete, working in a prestigious company, anyway.
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There are those who have already achieved their dreams and say they feel fulfilled. God granted them the opportunity to get where they wanted; but on the other hand there are other people whose dreams seem to have died. What possibilities do they have now?
Humanly very few or no, since the human being is full of limitations.
But God can resurrect your dreams!
In these Bible studies we will see a story in which a woman went from seeing how God not only resurrected her dreams, but gave her more than she expected.
I. Ana's dream: to have a child
For women of Biblical times, having children was the consummation of their personal fulfillment. Fertility was the greatest blessing they could have. In the opposite case, being infertile was considered a curse that caused a deep personal disappointment, a tremendous void and a sense of uselessness and frustration unbearable.
A. The reality of Ana: sterility. I Samuel 1: 5.
The picture for Ana was the worst: she could not have children. Her sterility had almost condemned her to live without being a woman.
B. Your human possibilities: none
If today with all the technological and scientific advances, making someone sterile can be fertile is a very complicated (if not impossible) work imagine in that time!
At that time everything was very rustic, the medical knowledge was supremely primitive, extremely scarce and absolutely useless for Ana's case.
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C. The voice of its surroundings: mockery and resignation. I Samuel 1: 6-8.
These verses say that Penina mocked Ana for not being able to have children, irritated her and ridiculed her for being sterile. This saddened Ana a lot and aggravated the feeling of frustration inside her. For her part, Elcana, her husband, the only thing that occurred to her to console her was practically asking her to resign herself and not grieve any more.
II. Ana's hope: God
Ana believed in God. His scenario was the worst possible in human terms, but he had so much faith that he did not let his desires be buried and he went to seek God with all his heart.
A. He went to seek the presence of God. I Samuel 1: 9-10.
Ana got up and went to the temple to pray. This tells us that Ana drew strength from where she did not have to go to seek God's help. There, he poured out his heart in front of him and wept and wept until perhaps his eyes dried up. It is before God that we must leave our whole being, not in front of other humans or in the grave where the remains of our dreams lie.
B. He put his trust in him. I Samuel 1: 15.
The act of unburdening the heart before God as Ana did is what you and I should do. Let's not put our requests, our dreams and desires into the hands of those who can do little or nothing.
C. He made a promise to God. I Samuel 1: 11.
It is interesting that Hannah made a promise to God if he answered her prayer. That dream fulfilled by Ana was going to be to glorify God. Are you going to glorify God with your dreams too?
III. God's answer: fulfill his dream
A. God remembered Ana. I Samuel 1:19.
The passage says that God remembered Ana. That prayer of her definitively went up to heaven and was not alien to the ear of God. This is a sign that God does not throw out our prayers.
B. God made his dream come true. I Samuel 1:20.
It should be noted that from verse 19 to 20 there must be at least 9 months since the conception and subsequent birth of Ana's son is recorded. This detail tells us about waiting, about patience. The conception was a gigantic step, but the birth was the consummation of that dream.
God fulfilled Ana's dream!
IV. Ana's promise: fulfilled.
A. He dedicated his son to the service of God. I Samuel 1: 28.
This first chapter has a very happy ending. Ana did not forget what she promised God and dedicated her son to him. When God answers your prayer and grants you to make your dreams come true, glorify him with what he gives you, do not turn away from him, draw closer to God and serve him with that gift you received.
B. She was grateful. I Samuel 2: 1 - 10.
These ten verses are known as the song of Ana and record a praise to God and an acknowledgment of his power. When God answers our prayers, let's praise Him!
C. God went beyond their expectations. I Samuel 2: 21.
God thinks very differently. Perhaps Ana believed that she could be calm because her dream had already been fulfilled and no more. Maybe he thought that God had already answered him and he had to settle for that. But no, God is an extremely generous God and besides his first son Samuel, he had five more!
God rewarded his trust in him, his promise, the fulfillment of that promise and exceeded his expectations.
conclusion
Christian messages are full of hope and show us that God can resurrect our dreams! Ana's story is inspiring and full of situations with which we can identify. Put your dreams in God's hands, those that you think are already broken, dead and without possibilities, and he will do the impossible.
But do not forget that everything must be to glorify him, do not turn away from him or be ungrateful when you receive your answer. Serve God with the gifts he gives you and believe, that if you believe you will see the glory of God (John 11: 40).
"And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, the same one who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you." The life that consumes all death lives in us. The same God who raised Jesus from the dead lives in us. That is why God restores everything that difficulties, fear and unbelief left in oblivion. Everything that sin destroyed in our past, God resurrects it to new life. The Lord straightens the crooked roads and opens every closed door. Every dream that was once in our hearts, and every gift that we receive by grace, is rekindled now, because God does not want the end of good things, but the beginning of better things. Amen!.
Proverbs 29, Verse 18; Where there is no revelation, where there's no prophetic insight or direction, the people perish. Or literally, people miss opportunities that come into their life, because they haven't got prophetic insight, or revelation from God, or a sense of God given purpose and direction. Every person has some kind of thing in their heart. Now you may not know what the dream is God put in your heart. It may be locked up because of various restrictions in your heart, fears, insecurities, doubts, wrong beliefs. All kinds of things can lock up the dreams, but I can tell you now, that God has put something in your heart for you to accomplish that has eternal benefit. It's very clear in Ephesians 2:10. It says we are His workmanship, created in Christ for good works, which God prepared before we were even born to walk in them.
So every person here, God's put something in your heart that you need to accomplish with your life. No one wants to end up their life and we've done nothing with it, or we've filled our life with trivia, so the dream you have or vision is your future. If you have no dream you're drifting like a boat in a storm with no kind of rudder, so all of us need to have a dream, or have some kind of focus and direction and be able to articulate it and be moving our life consciously towards it. Now you can have all kinds of dreams of course, and you can dream of a great cruise on a ship. I dream about that a bit, I like those kinds of things, so dream on a ship. You could have a cruise, or you might be dreaming about a new job and that would be nice, get a promotion and do something better, a bigger wage. You might be dreaming of setting up a business, so everyone's got some kinds of things and if you will keep your dream in focus and work, gradually your dream will come about, because what you hold in your heart, you'll move your life towards.
Nice read. I leave an upvote for this article thumbsup
Great post @jenniferbrito.
Whatever we desire to have or become, as far as it is consistent with the promises of God in His Word, God will always resurrect and give life it, and make it a reality in our lives, when put our trust in Him.
Thanks for sharing!
Kind regards.
It is time to fulfill what you always dreamed, it is time to begin to forge that dream that one day God put in your heart, with your will and your support you will be able to achieve what until today was unattainable, you know why ?, because God He does wonderful things with those who are willing to be used freely by Him.