3 Practical Steps to Help You Accomplish Your Dreams

 

If you’re like most teenagers, you want to do something big with your life. You don’t want to be ordinary, but you do want to accomplish something meaningful. You desire to live your life to help others.

These desires are God breathed into your life. They’re exciting and fun and for some of you, they will be world changing. As fun as dreams are, success doesn’t happen automatically. To help your dreams become successful in the long term, we’ve come up with three practical steps to help you accomplish your dreams.

Step One – Prayer.

When you’re in the midst of doing something big for God prayer is vital. You’ve got to get God’s vision for your dream. God will show you how to do something when you don’t know how. He’ll show you the people you need to do the things that God is calling you to do, and He’ll give you the grace to do it. Be quick to go to God for His help.

Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. – Proverbs 3:5-6 (NLT)

God sees the big picture. He has the benefit of knowing the future, so it’s important to get His input on your dreams and goals. Sometimes God will tell you to wait because the timing isn’t right to accomplish your dream. Other times, He might show you that you need some help or training to do what you feel in your heart to do. Be open to hearing from God about your dream. Follow His leading on the timing, and whether the dream is really what you’re to be doing right now.

Often God will put things in your heart, but they won’t come to pass all at once. Be patient and let God lead you in the development and discovery of your dream.

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Step Two – Discovery.

Discovery should always be a step in reaching your dreams. Discovery is simply getting to know yourself. During this phase, you’ll want to identify what types of things you excel at, and discover potential weaknesses. Its also helpful to get to know about jobs or careers that could potentially interest you. Learning about both of these areas is what dream discovery is all about.

God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another. – 1 Peter 4:10 (NLT)

You have a God given gift that you can use to help others. Spend the time to find out what that is for you. Ask God to show you what things He’s put inside you and how you can begin to use them to make a difference.

Another part of discovery is to begin looking for others who have done something similar to what you want to do. Maybe you dream of a music career. Seek out others who have careers in music. Find out what education they needed for what they do. Find out what they do on a daily basis and see if it seems like this is something that would be a good fit for your strengths.

Those who trust in themselves are fools, but those who walk in wisdom are kept safe. – Proverbs 28:26 (NLT)

It’s always worth it to invest the time to discover if your dream is a good fit for your gifts, personality and strengths.

Step Three – Reality Check.

After exploring the other two steps above, it’s good to do a little reality check. After you’ve spent some time discovering some of your gifts and talents, does your dream fit within your gifts? Do you believe that you could realistically accomplish your dream?

Also after praying and spending time with God, how do you feel about your dream? Is the timing right for you to pursue your dream? Do you feel like this dream is inspired by God? In answering these questions, choose to put God’s leading ahead of your own excitement if it’s needed. Be open to adjusting your goal or dream if God is pushing you that way. Choose to put God first in the pursuit of your dreams and goals.

Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need. – Matthew 6:33 (NLT)

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God has given you a dream to do something exciting with your life. He’s gifted you in a unique way to accomplish the things that He has put on your heart. Don’t be afraid to dream big and get involved with your dreams. With God’s help you can accomplish big things!

If you’ve got a Bible study or a youth group and would like to use this devotion for discussion, we’ve got some easy to use discussion questions based on this devotion.