We all know that in and of itself, time is a neutral force. Time can work for us or against us; it can be a healing force or a destructive force. For example, we have heard the saying; “Time heals all wounds.” But we have also heard, “There just wasn’t enough time to save them.”
In each of these situations, time played a very important role, either negatively or positively.
There are a multitude of dream thieves in life, but one of the major thieves that works to steal the dreams of men and women is time in its negative state. There is something about time that can have a way of gnawing away at one’s faith and perseverance.
As time passes and your dream remains unfulfilled, time has a way of telling you, “You are nothing more than a dreamer! You probably didn’t receive a real word from the Lord after all. It was just something you wanted to happen, just some wild thing that you dreamed up to make you feel more important in your little, unimportant world! You’re just a dreamer. Let it go!”
Sometimes you may even come to a place in your life where you are sorry that you ever discovered God’s plan for your life, because it has seemed to put your whole life “on hold.” You begin to think about the great life you might be living and you never heard that word from God had that dream never been put into your heart. You may even want to “kiss it all good-bye” and forfeit it all for the sake of a “normal life.”
I wonder how many men and women of God have come to a place in their spiritual life where they’ve regretted that God ever spoke to them. Then, because they have waited so long to see the victory, they finally abandon the plan of God altogether.
Rather than hold their dream down all the harder and with all the more resolve, the passing of time pressures them to let it slip through their fingers – probably when they were at the very edge of seeing the full manifestation of the promise!
The Word of God tells us, “Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time” (1 Pet. 5:6). Whenever time becomes a dream thief, attempting to steal our God-given vision, we must “hold fast” and remind ourselves again and again and again that it will come to pass “in due time.”
We must let our hearts be established in the Word of God, and refuse to be moved or shaken by the length of time it takes for us to see the fruit of our labor and the manifestation of our steadfast faith.
Excerpt permission granted by Albury Publishing
Rick and Denise met while they were each on an individual quest to wholeheartedly follow God's plan for their lives. Rick was a college student, growing in his teaching ministry. Denise was a talented vocalist. She chose not to pursue a course that held the prospect of performing with the Metropolitan Opera so that she could instead pursue a relationship with Rick and fulfill her heart's desire to enter full-time ministry.
Rick and Denise's friendship has led to lifelong love and a powerful partnership in building the Kingdom of God. After a decade of ministry, first as pastor and then as itinerant ministers, Rick and Denise Renner embarked on an adventure of a lifetime. In January 1991, the Renners and their sons Paul, Philip, and Joel left behind all they knew to relocate their family to serve the region that only weeks earlier had become the former Soviet Union.
Rick and Denise remember kneeling together as a family and kissing the ground when they arrived at the airport in Latvia on that cold January day. At that moment, they all committed their lives to the will of God and to the people of their new homeland. The following year, Rick moved forward to launch and establish the first of its kind, and eventually the largest, a Christian television network in that region of the world.
Over the years, Rick and Denise pioneered three churches, a Bible school, and a ministerial association that serves thousands of Russian-speaking pastors throughout the former USSR as well as parts of the Middle East. As Rick began training and mentoring leaders in the early days, Denise also developed a women's ministry that is actively involved in changing the lives of women and their families today. Specifically, they minister to the needs of orphans, women prisoners, the homeless, and drug-and-alcohol addicts.
Rick, Denise, and their children began as a small circle of five, willing to go beyond their comfort zone to reach the uttermost parts of the world. Today that circle includes their sons' wives, six grandchildren, and a large ministry staff that helps the Renners extend their reach as they exalt Jesus Christ as the Hope of all nations.