Imagine yourself as a living house.

I love C.S. Lewis. He's a brilliant man and has written so many amazing books. I came across this quote a couple weeks ago at a craft sale. It stopped me enough to read it a couple times and it brought tears to my eyes. Imagine ourselves as a living house. Imagine our lives the way we want them to be. Imagine our dreams and when we wanted those dreams to happen. Imagine our Christianity and our walk with God. We all have had these images of what our lives would be like, when would our dreams would come true, and how we could have this amazing and fulfilling life as Christians.

Now take a look at your life now. Is your life what you imagined? Have your dreams come to fruition? After reading this passage I walked around the craft sale and thought about my life. I thought about all the dreams I've had and continue to have. And then I thought about God the builder. He's the contractor of our lives. He demolishes what we don't need and builds what we do need. I thought about the path that I've gone down so far, the dreams that I've had, and the new dreams I have. What has your dreams looked like? How have they changed?

We build the live we want. We dream big and can have a hard time letting go of those dreams. Have your dreams been changing lately? Have you been feeling a change happening? Have you felt unsettled and unsure? "But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense." When I looked at this section of the quote I thought about my journey so far. I had such dreams that many of you may know, that I wanted to be married and start having children when I was 23/24. I wanted to be a young mom and had this part of my life planned and was just waiting to meet "the man". So I'm 33 now and my life is far from where I dreamed it would be...I'm single and childless. Not exactly how I wanted it but I look at this part as the rebuilding. I looked at this sentence as, yes I'm hurting, but this is God's way of molding me? It doesn't make any sense when I look around and see others married with families...but why would God want to hurt me?

"The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of - throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself"

He's building a palace! He wants to take the little cottage that is our dreams and lives and build a palace. He wants us to let go of our dreams and allow Him to dream for us. He wants to mold our lives around his purpose and plan. We can have all the dreams that we want but until we relinquish those dreams to the one above all we will never become the palace he wants to build. Here's some examples of people of faith in the Bible who lost their human dreams and replaced with the desire to do the will of God:

...A wife of a great man would never dream that she would be 90 years old before God gave her a single child.

...A favored youngest boy would never dream up that he would be sold into slavery to foreigners by his brothers, then be thrown in prison for years for something he didn't do, only later to become second only to the Pharaoh of Egypt and later save the entire nation of Israel

...A sweet young girl betrothed to marry a carpenter would never dream she would become pregnant before she was married with the very Messiah, the Son of God.

I could continue giving you examples, but these are my favorites. We cannot live by the flesh and our own dreams and desires. We are to be led by the Spirit, and live. "So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God." Romans 8:12-14. Casting Crowns has a song specifically for allowing God to dream for you. It's one of my favorites and I'll attach a link here: https://youtu.be/R8nsJZx8eWw

I encourage you to relinquish your dreams, allow God to dream for you. Allow Him to build your life into the palace you never could imaging you could be.