The other day while praying with some friends, I found myself on Old Testament Mount Moriah. I was surprised to be there. A split second before I’d been huddled in front of the fireplace staving off the shivers of the Colorado cold. The Rockies are a long way from the Middle East, but you know how it is. When God gets involved the most unexpected things can happen.
To be clear, it was no literal translation. My arms still clutched the oversized throw pillow I like to hug when I pray. My fuzzy-sock-clad feet never left the living room floor. But inside I was standing on the sacred spot in Genesis 22. And I was there because God wanted to resurrect a dream.
It was a dream I placed on the altar of my heart years ago. Like Abraham once did with Isaac, I bound it with rope and gave it up as a sacrifice to God.
Unlike Abraham, however, I left the dream on the mountain. I went back down to live life without it. Figuring it was dead, I gave it up. I forgot about it.
But God didn’t.
He never forgets our dreams. He created them for us, and us for them. So even if they have to lie on the altar for a while, even if by all appearances they are stone-cold, daisy-pushing, mackerel-looking, ain’t-ever-gonna happen kind of dead, we can count on God to revive them.
We can expect a resurrection.
On my prayer trip to the mount, I found that out. I discovered that while I’d been away tending to the tasks God had given me, He had been watching over my dream. He had kept it alive.
Anyone who has ever made a serious commitment to God knows this. There are times when His plans require us to put our own on hold for a season. Times when He asks us to trudge up Moriah with our burnt-offering wood bundled under one arm and our dream under the other. But if we understand the promise and the power of God, we need not grieve. We can smile instead and say what Abraham said to those who watched him head up the hill with Isaac. “Don’t worry. I’m just going up to worship. The dream and I will be back.”
If you’ve ever laid down a heart’s desire on the altar of devotion to God—even if it was many years ago—I encourage you to go looking for it again. I believe you’ll find it there with The Lord Who Provides caring tenderly for it. I believe He wants you to know today: your dream lives.
