Our dreams and God's sovereignty

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Gary, my husband and avid hunter, and I sat watching a hunting program last week. After plotting non-stop against a monster buck for several years, that hunter's perseverance finally paid off. Moments after downing the trophy deer he exclaimed, "I'm thankful when dreams align with God's will." The hunter may have stopped the deer in its tracks, but his words had the same effect on us.

Since then, we have talked through the presuppositions of that perspective. We 100% embrace God’s sovereignty in all things big and small but we had not considered the role our dreams and goals might have on our actions.

Let’s say we have an athletic goal, i.e. running a personal best in a race. We are smart in our training, exhibit admirable diligence, eat right, and get enough sleep. We go to the start line ready for a break-out performance. Alas, it doesn’t happen. Was God mean to not let it happen? No. Was His will predicated on our actions prior to or during the race? After all, we did all that was humanly possible. Probably not. If God is absolutely sovereign—and I believe He is—God must have had our ultimate good in mind when he ordained the outcome, even though we may not understand it.


Does this mean that we become laissez-faire, taking a “whatever will be will be” attitude. Not at all. There are many Biblical principles and examples—far beyond the scope of these few paragraphs—that compel us to excellence through perseverance and endurance. But how wonderful it is when we set our minds on a good goal and God is so kind to will us to achieve it!

Sometime ago, Gary set his mind on putting a deer he named “Double Forks” both in the freezer and mounted on the wall. He used trail cameras to capture video and pictures of the big guy. He patterned the deer and learned his ways. He carefully selected a day with beneficial temps and wind direction to perch on his stand high up in a tree and patiently wait.

It truly is a beautiful thing when our dreams align with God’s will. Thank you, Lord!

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