What to do when chasing your dream gets HARD!

I want to talk today about having a plan when chasing your dream gets hard. If we don’t have a plan, we lose track of where we are going. We lost sight of our dream. Life distracts us and satan deceives us and we get off track. If you’re like me you can get off track for years and those dreams go back into a dormancy.

My last month has been hard (longer than a month really, but the last month got harder.) I want to share with you what happened to me mentally and emotionally and talk about where I was almost taken out again.

I had a picture in my mind of how my life would go now since we found some great employees but I didn’t account for some sickness and a few other issues that we ran into and I found myself working 35-40 hours a week on top of doing my blog (which is kind of a joke right now) and working a part time job as well. Ugh… my expectations got me into some trouble and I started down a wrong path in my thinking.

What do you do when things get hard? I usually start doubting? Did you really hear God give you permission to buy this business? There have been problems and obstacles since day 1 are you sure you heard right? So I go back through how we came to our decision and start doubting that. If I heard God wrong then, then how do I know I’m hearing God right now. Maybe I’m all wrong. Do you hear Satan saying, “Did God really say you couldn’t eat from that apple?”

When it gets hard you start doubting. The doubting started. Did you really hear God give you permission to buy this business? There have been problems and obstacles since day 1 are you sure you heard right? So I go back through how we came to our decision and start doubting that. If I heard God wrong then, then how do I know I’m hearing God right now. Maybe I’m all wrong. Do you hear Satan saying, having some fun with me?

After the doubt then self-pity started. How come my life always has to be hard? What am I doing wrong? If I’m not careful I can fall into a self pity pit pretty quickly and it’s usually pretty ugly and destructive.

I love what Jesus Calling shares from Feb. 23 devotion:

Be on guard against the pit of self-pity. When you are weary or unwell this demonic trap is the greatest danger you face. Don’t even go near the edge of the pit. It’s edges crumble easily, and before you know it you are on the way down. It is ever so much harder to get out of the pit than to keep a safe distance from it. That is why I tell you to be on guard. There are several ways to protect yourself from self-pity. When you are occupied with praising and thanking me it is impossible to feel sorry for yourself. Also, the closer you live in Me, the more distance there is between you and the pit. Live in the light of my presence by fixing your eyes on me then you will be able to run with endurance the race that s set before you without stumbling or falling.

We have to FIGHT! We have to have a battle plan and have it ready for these time when it gets really hard. I wasn’t ready and he came hard and he came in fierce.

He tried to distract me and he did! He came in full force to try and steal my dream. Actually two of my dreams. Let me explain really quick. In all my doubting and questioning, God reminded me that owning the cookie store was a dream. We have always wanted a family business that we could work together in (not necessarily a cookie store). We bought the store with our son and daughter in law that live in Atlanta. Our CPA daughter does the books for us and one of our twins works at the store.

God had given me a heads up and told me to be on guard, be alert. That he would be coming at me hard in the area of teaching. I’ve shared how two times he took me out and where I shut down and walked back into the prison. But, God showed me his scheme this time was to come at me so hard in the area of the store that I go back into shut down mode which would take me out in the area of the teaching as well.

Can you look back over your life and seen where he has worked hard to take you out?

2 Cor. 2:11 says To keep Satan from taking advantage of us; for we are not ignorant of his schemes.

To not live ignorantly we need to have a battle plan.

We are going to create a battle plan.

Here are several different questions to help you formulate a battle plan. This is NOT an exhaustive list so if the Holy Spirit shows you something to do, do it. I shared in a blog post last year on Our Spiritual Weapons of Warfare and then a post on Satan’s Weapons he uses against us aka his schemes.