What would you think if you were invited to a party, but when you arrived at the venue, you saw hundreds of balloons hanging lifeless and deflated? I’ve asked this question to many people while facilitating leadership trainings. Here are the responses I hear most frequently:
· Whoever decorated is lazy or has weak lungs
· Someone didn’t understand how to inflate balloons
· The party must be over
I like to think of vision as a balloon. God’s vision (His perspective, His plans, His desires) is always bigger than ours. Isaiah 55:8-9 explains this well:
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
God’s vision can be represented by a huge, inflated balloon. Man’s vision, on the other hand, can be represented by a lifeless, un-inflated balloon. When we as humans try to accomplish a plan in our strength, with our limited wisdom and ideas, it ends up looking like the party I mentioned before, full of deflated balloons. However, when we seek God’s vision, the result is always completely different. Why do we sometimes shy away from seeking God’s bigger, better vision? Because it can be scary! There’s risk involved. It requires courage and faith.
What if God would lead you to do something really big, such as change your career, sell your home, support a missionary, start a prayer group at work, rebuild a broken friendship, host a connect group, confess a sin to someone, or step into a new leadership position? Often, the vision He calls us to can feel risky. But it’s always worth it! “Playing it safe” and avoiding God’s vision is actually very dangerous. Remember the Israelites when God led them out of slavery in Egypt and brought them to the Promised Land for the first time? His vision for them was to go in and take possession of that land, but they were too afraid. After they refused to follow His vision, they experienced heart-breaking consequences!
This comparison chart shows some of the great contrasts between God’s vision and our human
vision:
God’s Vision vs. Human Vision
Exciting Boring
God-inspired Human-inspired
Uncomfortable Comfortable
Pleases God Does not please God
Risky Safe
Supernatural strength Human effort
Requires faith Requires no faith
Fulfilling Un-fulfilling
Results in momentum Results in stagnancy
Leads to worship Leads to fatigue
As followers of Jesus, we must seek God’s vision and never settle for our own. Proverbs 29:18 is a reminder of why this is necessary:
Where there is no prophetic vision, the people cast off restraint but blessed is he who keeps the law.
The next time God asks you to follow His big vision, take comfort in the words of Moses when the Israelites were afraid to possess the land because of the giants and all the strong cities:
But I said to you, “Don’t be shocked or afraid of them! The Lord your God is going ahead of you. He will fight for you, just as you saw him do in Egypt. And you saw how the Lord your God cared for you all along the way as you traveled through the wilderness, just as a father cares for his child. Now he has brought you to this place.”
Trust God to take care of you as you embrace His big vision for your life. Be strong and
courageous. Get excited for the adventure you will have as you obey Him. A big vision can be scary, but it is absolutely worth it!
