Build a New Life

Steve Arterburn

Your past sometimes gets in the way of your vision for the future, doesn’t it?  If you allow yourself to dwell on the areas where you’ve failed or on losses and disappointments that hurt you, you might find it difficult to look forward to the future God has for you.

King David was a man who dreamed of building a magnificent temple.  When he commissioned his son Solomon to do the work he said, ‘Be strong and courageous, and do the work.  Don’t be afraid or discouraged by the size of the task, for the Lord God, my God is with you’.  Many years later another man’the apostle Paul’said to the church in Ephesus, ‘We who believe are carefully joined together, becoming a holy temple for the Lord’.

Just as David dreamed of building a magnificent temple, you can dare to dream of building a new life.  God has the blueprint already drawn up:  just follow it by faith. You may be afraid that you will start and fail, but you need only to’in the words of David”be strong and courageous, and do the work.’ As someone once said: Beginning is half done. In other words, take the first step ‘ it’s the toughest.  

What dreams have you been quietly suppressing?  Dreams of becoming a missionary? Maybe you have dreams of adopting.  Or dreams of starting a new career.  Maybe you’ve been dreaming about building deep friendships or making an impact on your community.  Don’t be frightened.  When God begins a good work in you, He is faithful to complete it.