Last weekend I attended an event in Long Beach, CA, and listened to a talk given by Jack Canfield, the author of Chicken Soup for the Soul that was encouraging and inspiring. When I sat down to write this snowy morning, I did not intend to share his words, but a few things he said will be encouraging to you.
After Jack finished the first Chicken Soup for the Soul book, he was rejected by 144 publishers. 144!! The world would be a different place if he had given up after a few rejections?
He made a statement which I have used in prayer in the past, so this was a good reminder:
“REJECT REJECTION!”
And lastly Jack Canfield said that we need a vision of the goal - to write the vision, see it, feel it, and speak it, which leads me to my post for this week. (Computer issues is my excuse for the delay)
“And then God answered: ‘Write this. Write what you see.Write it out in big block letters so that it can be read on the run.This vision-message is a witness pointing to what's coming.It aches for the coming—it can hardly wait! And it doesn't lie.If it seems slow in coming, wait. It's on its way. It will come right on time.’” (Habakkuk 2:2-3 The Message)
Several years ago I lived in New York City, and worked for an evangelistic ministry. While there, a pastor from South Korea, specifically Yongi Cho’s church, stopped by our office to learn more about the ministry, I was the only one available to accept his dinner invitation, and we had a delightful visit. The pastor seemed intrigued that I had not been married, and at that time I was in my mid 30s, so he told me a story about a woman in his church who longed to be married. He counseled her to write in great detail a list describing the man she would like God to send to her - including occupation, looks, etc. Do you know what happened? A man fitting the smallest details of her description came into her life and they were married! Of course that would happen at Yongi Cho’s church in S Korea, but could that happen to me? Or to you?
Shake off the dust! Dare to dream!
The Pastor from South Korea strongly encouraged me to write my list, “write the vision”.... So I did. and I waited..... and the list ended up in a box. With each passing year and continued “hope deferred”, my detailed list dwindled, and my sick heart was afraid to dream and hope.
BUT GOD is the God of hope!
I am revising the vision of my future marriage, and I am continually adding to my new list some things that I had decided would be impossible at this point in my life. NOTHING is impossible with God. I am dreaming with Him to imagine and see my future husband, and my life with the dreams and desires God has set in my heart and spirit.
When a group of my friends gathered to pray for marriages at the beginning of this project, I asked them what they thought about writing out the characteristics of the men we would like to marry. It is risky! Scary! We might be disappointed! Isn’t it easier to pray, “God, Your will be done, and I trust You to send the right man to me - You know what is best for me.” And while that is true, we agreed that there is a reason we are to “write the vision” of our desires.
Writing the vision will prevent you from settling for less than God’s best, and those red flags will be easier to discern when someone comes along who is not meant for us.
Abraham... “believed - God who gives life to the dead, and calls those things which do not exist as though they did. [Abraham] who contrary to hope, IN HOPE believed....” (Romans 4:17)
Charles Capps in his book, Faith and Confession writes:
“Hope is a goal setter. You must have a goal... a goal gives direction... Faith is the substance of things hoped for.”
“Hope works in the head. What you continue to speak becomes your goal. Your head is the goal-setter. Where there is no hope, there is no goal set for the better - although 'no hope' sets a negative goal.”
Did you catch that? "No hope sets a negative goal!"
One of my mother’s books caught my attention recently, The Power of Positive Thinking by Norman Vincent Peal. In his chapter, “Try Prayer Power”, he describes how his friend became more successful in business, and this was his key:
"1) PRAYERIZE, 2) PICTURIZE, 3) ACTUALIZE....
By prayerize my friend meant a daily system of creative prayer....
The second point in his formula of creative prayer is to 'picturize.' The basic factor in physics is force. The basic factor in psychology is the realizable wish. When either failure or success is picturized it strongly tends to actualize in terms equivalent to the mental image pictured. To assure something worthwhile happening, first pray about it and test it according to God’s will, then print a picture firmly in consciousness. Continue to surrender the picture to God’s will.”
Let’s begin and take the first steps:
“AWAKE, AWAKE, put on your strength; put on your beautiful garments! Shake yourself from the dust; arise, sit [erect in a dignified place], ...loose yourself from the bonds of your neck, O captive Daughter of Zion.” Isaiah 52: 1-2 (Amplified)
What does God say? You are beautiful, powerful, a wife of valor, you are clothed in His Righteousness, His heir, His beloved daughter....
Write the vision. Write it all out, this is an important step.
3. Ask God to give you His vision for your marriage. Write the vision of the person you will marry, the relationship, your marriage, and pray again. SEE it!
God may change it up a little, but only to surprise you “exceedingly, abundantly more than you can ask or think!” (Ephesians 3:20)
We need to "reject the rejection", and the anticipation of rejection, and begin again. Jack Canfield and his 144 rejections changed the world, and so can you.
Write the vision! Then declare the vision!
AMEN!
Expecting to be amazed ~
Barbara
© Barbara Nelson – 2013
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