None of us can live without a vision for our future. If we don't have one, we flounder aimlessly. Without it, life seems pointless and we die a little every day. "Where there is no vision, the people perish" (Proverbs 29:18). Having a vision doesn't necessarily mean knowing the specifics about what is going to happen next. It has to do with sensing the general direction you're moving in and having hope that something good is on the horizon. It's knowing that you do have a future and a purpose, and that it is bright.
Not every man has that certainty. When he doesn't, you can almost see life droning from him. Even the ones who do, don't necessarily have it all the time. Even the most spiritual man can get overtired, burned out, beaten down, distanced from God, confused about who he is and why he is here, and lose his vision for the future. He can misplace his sense of purpose and become overwhelmed and hopeless because of it. If he loses sight of his dreams and forgets the truth about himself and his situation, he can end up believing destructive lies about his future. "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge" (Hosea 4:6).
God says not to listen to voices that speak lies, for "they speak a vision of their own heart, not from the mouth of the LORD" (Jeremiah 23:16). Any vision for the future that is full of failure and empty of hope is not from God (Jeremiah 29:11). But God can restore vision where it has been lost. He can give hope to dream again. He can bring His truth to bear upon the lies of discouragement. He can give assurance of a promising future. Prayer is the avenue through which He can accomplish it.
If your husband's eyes get focused on the day-to-day details of living that he loses his vision for the future, your prayers can lift his sights. They can help him see that God is his future and he needs to run his life in a way that invests in that. "Do you know that those run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it" (1 Corinthians 9:24). You don't want your husband to be a man who speaks a vision of his own heart and loses the prize. You want him to be able to see from God's perspective.
God doesn't want us to know the future, He wants us to know Him. He wants us to trust Him to guide us into the future one step at a time. In order to understand God's leading, we must seek Him for every step. " Those who seek stay close enough to hear His answer. The Lord is the giver of vision; pray that your husband looks to Him for it. With God, his future is secure.
PRAYER
Lord, I pray that You would give (husband's name) a vision for his future. Help him to understand that Your plans for him are for good and not evil, to give him a future and a hope (Jeremiah 29:11). Fill him with the knowledge of Your will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that he may have a walk worthy of You, fully pleasing You, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of You (Colossians 1:9,10). May he live with leading from the Holy Spirit and not walk in doubt and fear of what may happen. Help him to mature and grow in You daily, submitting to You all his dreams and desires, knowing that "the things which are impossible with men are possible with God" (Luke 18:27). Give him God-ordained goals and show him how to conduct himself in a way that always invests in his future.
I pray that he will be active in service for You al the days of his life. Keep him from losing his sense of purpose and fill him with hope for his future as an "anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast" (Hebrews 6:19). Give him "his heart's desire" (Psalm 21:2) and "the heritage of those who fear Your name" (Psalm 61:5). Plant him firmly in Your house and keep him fresh and flourishing and bearing fruit into old age (Psalm 92:13,14). And when it comes time for him to leave this earth and go to be with You, may he have such a strong vision for his eternal future that it makes his transition smooth, painless, and accompanied by peace and joy. Until that day, I pray he will find the vision for his future in You.
SCRIPTURE FOR MEDITATION
Jeremiah 29:11
For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.
Psalm 37:37,38
Mark the blameless man, and observe the upright; For the future of that man is peace. But the transgressors shall be destroyed together; The future of the wicked shall be cut off.
Psalm 92:13-15
Those who are planted in the house of the Lord. Shall flourish in the courts of our God. They shall still bear fruit in old age; They shall be fresh and flourishing, To declare that the Lord is upright; He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.
Psalm 27:4
One thing I have desired of the Lord, That will I seek: That I may dwell in the house of the Lord. All the days of my life, To behold the beauty of the Lord, And to inquire in His temple.
Jeremiah 31:17
There is hope in your future, says the Lord, That your children shall come back to their own border.
#inspired...ann #WiseQuotes
*Stomie Omartian, The Power of a Praying Wife(2006)
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