Don't Settle!

Psalm 37:7, "Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him..." (NIV)

The other night I had a dream...one of those dreams where you wake up and feel heightened emotions, and you awake knowing it was significant.

I began this year, like every year, with a consecration to God, inviting Him to speak, reveal, and infuse His will in mine. The outcome??? Profoundly strange!

For some reason, I "feel" things more deeply. I experience floods of unexpected compassion for strangers. And, sense God saying in my spirit "Don't Settle!"

My theme verse this year is Isaiah 49. I sense the Lord saying this is going to be a year of tremendous fulfillment...but in the midst of this promise...I also sense a shifting in my expectations...a change in my ambitions...a greater awareness of my own frailty and temptation to "Settle".

So, back to my dream. At first I didn't really understand it's meaning. Though the dream only lasted for about 30 seconds, it seemed like an eternity.

I was edged into a room that I didn't want to be in. A room filled with my past. In the dream I was paraded past every person who had ever rejected me. Past men I had "settled" for. I felt their disdain for me. I felt their rejection. I remember the Lord speaking something in my thoughts as I shamefully walked through the small room, filled with all my past regrets, though when I first awoke, I couldn't remember what He said.

Over the last few days, the Lord revealed the greater significance of the dream. You see, so often in my life I tend to "Settle". In a desire for significance, acceptance, and love I make choices that bring heartache, disappointment, and miss God's "BEST". Those decisions and choices only produced brokenness, shame, and judgment...

God lovingly encouraged me, to never forsake "MY FIRST LOVE"..."HIM"! To never settle for a little bit of His Presence...but to openly invite Him into every area of my life...my thinking, my writing, my parenting. Though this year holds a lot of PROMISE...to not get ahead of that promise and mistakenly "Settle" for an imitation of His best...but to seek HIM with ALL my heart. Give Him my every desire. To listen. To wait.

Not waiting on God brings brokenness, shame, and judgment. Waiting for God produces wisdom, discernment, hope, and life!

G. Campbell Morgan wrote, "Waiting for God is not laziness. Waiting for God is not going to sleep. Waiting for God is not the abandonment of effort. Waiting for God means, first, activity under command; second, readiness for any new command that may come; third, the ability to do nothing until the command is given."  (http://www.sermonillustrations.com/a-z/w/waiting_on_god.htm)

So, the purpose of the dream??? To remind me--Don't ever settle. Don't mistakenly run after "2nd or 3rd best"! Don't ever forsake my first love of God!

Friends, God has amazing plans for our lives! May we never...ever...settle! May we always hold out for His Very Best!

Today, may we ask ourself..."Have I settled? Am I waiting for His best?" Lord, reveal Your will for our lives!

PRAYER: Thank You for YOU! For never leaving us. For redeeming our bad choices. For loving us. For empowering us to NEVER SETTLE for anything less than YOU! Fill us. Empower us. Strengthen us. And encourage us by Your Spirit. IN Jesus name, amen!