In my last blog, Chosen for the Dream, we saw how God called Abram to his dream by making promises to him, which included that he would be the father of many nations. God made these promises to Abram at the age of seventy-five when he was childless (Genesis 12:1-4). Abram probably expected his wife Sarai to become pregnant in the next couple of years and continue to bear many children. How else would God turn him into the father of many nations?

But many years passed, and Sarai remained childless. After ten years, Abram and Sarai may have thought they had misunderstood their God-given dream or doubted that He would fulfill it in the way they expected. As Sarai struggled with the reality of being childless, she devised a plan to help God fulfill His promise. She took her handmaid Hagar and offered her to Abram as a surrogate mother. Hagar gave birth to Ishmael when Abram was eighty-six years old (Genesis 16).

More years passed. When Abram was ninety-nine years old, God appeared to him again, renewed His promise to make him a father of many nations, and changed his name to Abraham. Abraham now thought God intended to fulfill the dream through Ishmael, but God corrected him and said Sarah (Sarai) would birth a son, Isaac, and the promise would be fulfilled through him. (Genesis 17:1-19).

God fulfilled his promise and set the dream in motion.

“And the Lord visited Sarah as He had said, and the Lord did for Sarah as He had spoken. For Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him. And Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him—whom Sarah bore to him—Isaac (Genesis 21:1-3).

God fulfilled the dream He gave to Abraham in His perfect way and time. He will do the same for us. God has plans for each of us to love Him and help others know Him. He is able to fulfill the dreams He puts in our hearts just as He did with Abraham and Sarah.

Lessons we can learn from Abraham and Sarah:

• God’s dream doesn’t always happen as quickly as we think it should.

• We should not give up on the dream, even when it seems delayed.

• We should not compromise or try to make the dream happen.

• As we continue to serve God and faithfully take the next step, He will bring the dream to completion.

We can trust God with every dream He puts in our hearts. Our God-given dreams will be fulfilled as we continue to love and serve Him. There may be times we misunderstand our dreams or make mistakes, like Abraham and Sarah did. But our God is big enough to handle all our mistakes. He is able to correct our understanding of what He called us to do, and lead us down the paths that fulfills the dreams He gives us. He knows His perfect plan for each of His children, and He will fulfill them as we obediently serve Him. We don’t have to be perfect, because He is. He “is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us” (Ephesians 3:20).

What dream has God placed in your heart?

How have you seen God work despite your mistakes?

How do you keep living for the dream when it seems delayed?

*All Scriptures are quoted from the New King James version