book chapter 2

From Chapter Two of the book, Become A Better You by Joel Osteen…


Give Your Dreams A New Beginning



If you will have the right attitude, you will give birth to more in the future than you’ve lost in the past. Quit looking back. This is a new day. It may seem like your dreams have died, but God can resurrect your dead dreams or give you brand-new ones. He is a supernatural God and when we believe, all things are possible.

God has not given up on you; He knows that He put seeds of greatness in you. You have something to offer that nobody else has. He’s given you noble dreams and desires. Too often, however, we allow adversities, disappointments, and setbacks to deter us.

Unfortunately, the enemy knows something about what’s on the inside of you, as well. He knows the potential you’re carrying, so he does everything he can to keep that seed from taking root. He doesn’t want your gifts and talents to flourish. He doesn’t want you to accomplish your dreams. He wants you to live an average, mediocre life.

Life may have tried to push you down through disappointments or setbacks. In the natural, you don’t know how you could rise any higher. You don’t see how you’re ever going to be happy. You need to dig your heels in and say, “I know what I have on the inside. I’m a child of the Most-High God. I’m full of His ‘can-do’ power, and I’m going to rise up to become everything God has created me to be.”

You may have had more than your share of unfair, negative experiences. But know this: God wants to do a new thing. He wants to give you a new beginning. Don’t give up. Don’t go around thinking that you’ve peaked; that you’ve reached your limits in life.

I know our God, and he is all-powerful. He has more in store for you. My question for you is: Can you perceive it? Can you make room for it? The first place it starts is in your thinking. If your thinking is limited, then your life is going to be limited.

When one door closes, God will always open another. If all the doors close, He’ll open a window! God always wants to give you a fresh beginning. He still has a great plan for your life. Do you know when that’s going to happen? It will commence the moment you quit looking back. Whenever you quit grieving over what you’ve lost. Nothing will keep you from the good things of God as much as living in the past.

If you can’t find anybody to encourage you, learnt o encourage yourself. Get up in the morning, put your shoulders back, look in the mirror, and say, “I’ve come too far to stop now. I may be knocked down, but I’m not knocked out. I’m going to get back up again. I know I’m a victor, not a victim.”

You must keep yourself stirred up if you’re going to see these new doors open.

Keep pressing. Keep believing. You were not made to be average; you were made to excel. You were made to leave your mark on this generation. At the start of each new day, remind yourself: “I am talented. I am creative. I am greatly favoured by God. I am equipped. I am well able. I will see my dreams come to pass.” Declare those statements by faith and before long, you will begin to see them in reality.

Many times, the adversities, the unfair situations are the results of the enemy’s efforts, attempting to discourage us and to deceive us into giving up on our dreams. You may feel as if you’re at an empty place in life today. Not much is going your way. You’ve been through severe difficulties. But God wants to restore you, to encourage you, to fill you with His hope. He wants to resurrect your dreams. He wants to do a new thing.

Remind yourself that God is still in complete control of your life. If you’ll keep your trust in Him, He promises that no weapon formed against you will prosper. Your situation may seem unfair, it may be difficult; it may seem that the forces working against you are winning momentarily, but God said He’d turn your circumstances around and use them to your advantage.

The Scripture says, “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy is coming in the morning.”

You’ve got to get your dreams back. Get your fire back.

You’ve got more in you. Push yourself a bit. What you are hoping for may not have happened in the past, but this is a new day. If you’ll keep pressing, hoping, believing, not only will you rise higher, but also you’ll see things begin to change in your favour.

Perhaps a relationship didn’t work out. For everything that you’ve lost, everything that’s been stolen, everything that’s been taken away, know this: God has another plan. He has another seed.

God uses the word seed because that hints at what is coming. Remember, if you will do your part to let go of the old, and start pressing forward, you will give birth to more in the future than you’ve lost in the past.

If you’ve made mistakes, know this: God is the God of a second chance, a third chance, a fourth, and more. I’m not saying to take the easy path and bail out of a marriage. No, if at all possible, stick with that marriage and make it work. However, if you’re already past that point,. Don’t sit around thinking that life is over and that you’re never going to be happy. No, God has another seed. He wants to give you a new beginning.

What happened in your past is not nearly as important as what is in your future. Where you are going is much more important than where you’ve been.

Don’t let disappointment become the central theme of your life. Quit mourning over something you can’t change

Maybe you’ve allowed other people to convince you that you’re never going to rise higher, that you will never see your dreams come to pass. It’s been too long. You’ve messed up too severely.

Don’t believe those lies. Instead, take courage from the Old Testament character Caleb. When Caleb was a young man, he and Joshua were part of an exploratory spy mission to determine the strength of the enemy before God’s people moved into the land God had promised them. The majority tried to talk Moses and the rest of the children of Israel out of pressing forward into the blessings that God promised them. They were all too willing to settle for second best, to dwell for the rest of their lives right where they were. They spent the next forty years spinning their wheels and wandering around aimlessly in a desert. They died, and God raised up an entire new generation of people.

By then, Caleb was eighty-five years old, but he hadn’t given up on the dream God had placed in his heart. He told Joshua that he was still as strong as he was when the promise first came to him.

Caleb went back to the exact same place; the same mountain that the others had feared to climb. He said, “God, give me this mountain.” Caleb was saying in effect “I don’t want another place to live. I still have this dream in my heart.”

Caleb said, “I don’t care how many obstacles are there. God promised me this place. Although it is forty years later, I’m going to keep pressing; I’m going to keep believing until I see that promise fulfilled.”

That’s the kind of attitude we need to have. We give up too easily.

Don’t allow complacency to keep you from seeing God’s promises fulfilled in your life.

You cannot hang out with negative people and expect to live a positive life. If all your friends are depressed and defeated and have given up on their dreams, make some changes. Let’s be honest: You’re probably not going to pull them up; more likely, if you continue to spend too much time in their presence, they will pull you down.

Put yourself in a healthy, positive, faith-filled environment. It doesn’t matter how great the potential in the seed, if you don’t put it in good soil, it will not take root and grow.

Create a positive environment. Be careful with whom you associate, especially when you feel emotionally vulnerable, because negative people can steal the dream right out of your heart.

You need to hang around other dreamers – not daydreamers, but people with big goals, people who plan to do something significant with their lives. Hang around people who are going to help you become all God created you to be.

God is saying this is a time of new beginnings. Get your fire back. Get your passion back.

Start stretching your faith once again. Get up each morning expecting good things to happen. And remember, God is on your side. He loves you. He’s for you. The Scripture says, “If you put your trust in Him, you will not be disappointed.”