Paul Tripp: Our biggest struggle with our imagination is a struggle of worship. The struggle of imagination is all about worship. The war of our heart, the war of the dream, the war of imagination is a war of worship. Our problem with our dreams is that they quickly begin to control our hearts, and when they do, they replace God as the thing that we live for.

Kate Crowley: From Paul Tripp Ministries, this is Right Here, Right Now, connecting the transforming power of Jesus Christ to everyday life. Here now is Paul Tripp.

Paul Tripp: Pretend with me that in your living room on the wall is a huge red magic button that, if you pressed that magic button, it would change something in your life forever. What would you change? If you had that kind of control over the future, how different would your story be?

Is there something in your life that has so disappointed you that you are having trouble living in the middle of your own story? Is there something in your life that you have always wanted to experience or do that has always seemed to allude you? Is there a dream that you have held on to that now seems elusive and unrealistic? You don't know why you held so tightly onto this dream.

Is there somewhere in your life where, if you were honest, if you could really be candid, you would have to say that you're disappointed with God? Is there a place where you have doubted God's presence, God's faithfulness, and God's love? Why would you ever doubt God? Why would you ever question His faithfulness?

Why would you ever consider whether or not He was good? Could it be that you are disappointed with God, not because He hasn't kept His promises to you, but because He hasn't been willing to deliver that dream that you've held so tightly on to.

Music: "Tried And Tested", by Bruce Cockburn

By the cries of birds
By the lies I've heard
By my own loose talk
By the way I walk
By the claws of beasts
By the laws of priests
By the glutton's feast
By the word police
By the planet's arc
By the falling dark
By the state of the art
By the beat of my heart
By dark finance
By the marketing dance
By the poverty trance
By the fateful glance
Tried and tested
Tried and tested

Kate Crowley: You are listening to Right Here, Right Now with Paul Tripp. Today, Paul takes a deeper look at 'Imagination'. Remember, Paul can now be heard each weekday at 11 A.M. on WFIL. It's his goal to reveal the hope found in Jesus Christ. Be sure and share this ministry with your friends.

And there are many resources available on our website, including a stimulating new book by Paul called Lost In The Middle. Just visit www.paultrippministries.org; that's all one word, paultripp, spelled T-R-I-P-P, www.paultrippministries.org.

More on "Imagination" on Right Here, Right Now with Paul Tripp.

Sarah's Story

Paul Tripp: Sarah was a very beautiful lady. She had been a beautiful little girl. She grew up to be a beautiful teenager. She was a physically beautiful young lady. Before long, Sarah had a career based on her beauty. She was a fashion model. She saw the world on somebody else's dime. She was on the cover of magazines all over the place.

Sarah loved her beauty, and she loved the dream that her beauty was building for her. She dreamed of one day leaving the modeling business but having enough money to live the rest of her life on, and she dreamed of all that that free time would provide for her.

Sarah was rushing to get to an airport in order to get a plane to go that next modeling location. She was beginning to wind down with her career. She was looking forward to it being over, but not this soon.

She still had more money that she wanted to make; she still had more things that she wanted to accomplish. And as she was driving too fast, trying to get to the airport, Sarah had a horrible accident that left Sarah scarred, never again to model for a photographer.

When you and I face the inevitable funeral of our dreams, it's easy to lose our way. Sarah lost her way. We all hit those points when we know we should be thankful, but we aren't. We all hit those points when we are tempted to bring God into the court of our judgment, and by our standards, by the standards of our dream, find Him guilty.

When we face the funeral of our dreams, there are several traps that easily ensnare us. There's the envy trap. Why is it that when we are disappointed, we tend to notice all the people that are delighted? It's easy to fall into thinking that God has gotten a wrong address. He couldn't mean this experience for me, that what He has given to another person was actually meant for me.

There's also the bitterness trap. Bitterness is not just about not liking what you have been given, but it's also that feeling in your heart that you deserve more. Bitterness tells me that I have been the victim of a cosmic 'bait and switch'. Bitterness says, "I thought God loved me. I thought He promised me blessing, and all I got was this?" There are many, silently angry people out there who feel ripped off.

There's the doubt trap. We've already been talking about this. The death of my dreams tempts me to question God. It tempts me to doubt His love; it tempts me to question His goodness; it tempts me to run from Him rather than run to Him.

There's the bargain trap. In a desperate attempt to hold on to my dreams, it is tempting to try to bargain with God, but life is not a series of strategic negotiations with God. No! God is in control, and He loves me too much to surrender His control to me.

Have you fallen into the envy trap? Have you fallen into the bitterness trap? Have you fallen into the doubt or bargain trap? How are you doing with your dreams?

Music: "Won't Stop" by Bob Seger

Tyrants and kings do their usual things
And you try to stay out of their way
Follow the truth and you'll find what you need every day

What Are We Supposed to Do With Our Dreams?

Paul Tripp: So at the end of this series of programs focusing on the imagination, what are you thinking? What are you thinking about this ability that God has given you?

Maybe you're thinking, "Okay, Paul, so what are we supposed to do with our dreams?" We've already established the fact that you and I won't stop dreaming. And the moment your imagination no longer works, you are in serious trouble - you're dead!

And you know that this side of heaven, your dreams will tend to compete with the Lord for the allegiance of your heart. You know how utterly easy it is to give way to envy and bitterness and doubt and bargaining. We've all been blindsided by the death of our dreams. We've all been blindsided by disappointment. We've all been captured in many, many ways. We've all pursued a whole catalog of God-replacements, asking those God-replacements to do what only God can do.

You see, all of us dream, and we'd better know what to do with our dream. You know how easy it is to slip into feeling that you know better what you need than God does. You know how easy it is to judge God, not according to His promises, but according to His willingness to deliver what we've set our hearts on. It's hard to face the fact God hasn't promised you a good job; He hasn't promised you a great marriage; He hasn't promised you wonderful children; He hasn't promised you physical health; He hasn't promised you financial ease. God has promised you Himself, and that's a promise He will always deliver.

I guess it is easy for all of us to wish that God was a divine waiter, delivering our dreams on a platter, rather than being a wise father who gives us what He thinks is best. I can remember our children coming home from school and saying, "Dad, I want something to eat, how about a candy bar, some ice cream and some soda?"

And, I would say, "Look, I'll make you a peanut butter sandwich and some carrots." I never had one of my children ever say, "Oh, what a wonderfully wise father I have! I'm so glad he saw through that unhealthy request, and he's giving me something better."

My children never said that! They would say, "Carrots!? If I eat any more carrots, daddy, I'm gonna hop! Peanut Butter! I hate peanut butter! I hate the fact that peanut butter was ever created. Forget it, I'm not hungry!"

You see, that's often how we are with God. We really do slip into thinking that we know better. And we don't want Him to be a wise Father; we want Him to be a divine waiter. So it's important to understand what God wants you to do with this amazing capacity to dream. It is vital to understand what God wants you to do with this ability. So here it is, some directions on what to do with your dreams.

Dream, first of all, vertically. You must keep reminding yourself again, and again, and again that you have been given an amazing ability; you have been given eyes to see what cannot be physically seen so that you would have the capacity to know, commune, and love God.

Let your heart be filled with God's great big dream. Let your mind be captured by the huge and glorious purposes of His great big kingdom of righteousness. Take time to meditate on the glory of His wisdom, the glory of His power, the glory of His presence, the glory of His love; dream wide; dream high; dream often; dream huge, but let God be the center of your dreams.

Don't stop dreaming, but dream vertically. Let God consume your dreams; read good things; listen to good things; sing good things; fellowship with good people, all of which can turn you to God and His glory, the one thing that can only ever satisfy that longing in your heart; dream vertically.

Second, recognize the power of your dreams. Don't let yourself be fooled; be unwilling to be naïve; refuse to be ignorant. We often get ourselves into trouble because we fail to see how powerful, how seductive, how controlling our dreams can be, and we swindle ourselves into thinking that we're actually serving God when we're not.

We swindle ourselves into thinking that we're not in pursuit of dreams when we actually are, so we tend to deny how much of a hold these dreams have on us. And we tend to deny how much they shape the way we think, and the way we speak, and what we desire, and what we do. We seem blind to how much those dreams control our decisions, our expectations, our words and our actions, and because we do, we get trapped and enslaved again, and again, and again, and again. Recognize the power of your dreams .

The third thing is this - greet your disappointment and your pain as a loving warning. Think about physical pain in the physical body. It's given as a warning. Now physical pain is not a nice thing; physical pain is a hard thing; it's a discomforting thing. Physical pain causes suffering, but physical pain is not a bad thing.

You see, physical pain is a God-given warning announcing that something is wrong inside our bodies that needs to be addressed. Pain is God's loving warning of physical difficulty in the same way the pain of heart that grips us when our dreams die is designed to be God's warning that we have been captured by things that were never meant to control us.

You see, when you are disappointed because your dream has died, you aren't being rejected; you aren't being forsaken; you aren't being ignored; you are, in fact, being loved because God knows the death of that dream is necessary in order for His glory to be the thing that controls me.

Fourth thing, when your dreams die, fix your eyes on a better dream. Don't run inside of yourself; don't run away from God. When your dreams die, run to the one place where true hope, true peace, true rest, true life can be found - run to Jesus. He really does have a better dream. He really has a better dream for you than you could ever have for yourself.

And then finally, celebrate the fact that God is a God of fresh starts. Your dream has died, but you haven't. You're not trapped; you're not stuck; it may feel like it, but your life is not over. In the death of every dream, there is an opportunity for a new and better way.

So what you do with your dreams? Dream vertically. Recognize the power of your dreams. Greet your disappointment and pain as a loving warning. When your dreams die, fix your eyes on a better dream, and celebrate the fact that the God, who rules your heart, is a God of fresh starts.

Music: "Oh Love That Will Not Let Me Go" by George Mattheson, Albert L. Peace

O Love that wilt not let me go,
I rest my weary soul in thee;
I give thee back the life I owe,
That in thine ocean depths its flow
May richer, fuller be.
O light that foll'west all my way,
I yield my flick'ring torch to thee;
My heart restores its borrowed ray,
That in thy sunshine's blaze its day
May brighter, fairer be.

How Are You Using Your Ability to Imagine?

Paul Tripp: So I will ask you one more time, "How are you using this profound ability to imagine?" You know it's not something you can escape. It's always something you are investing in. Yes, it goes on from the make-believe of that little toddler to the visions of heaven of the dying man. Dreaming is an intensely human thing to do.

We dream about our friendships; we dream about our jobs; we dream of vacations and succulent steaks; at least I do. We dream of nice neighbors and the perfect marriage; we dream about how our children will turn out and what retirement will be like; we dream of exotic locations and what a certain amount of money that we probably will never make, could buy.

Some of our dreams are very beautiful; some of our dreams are wholesome in God's eyes. Some of our dreams evidence wisdom, but some of our dreams forget God and dishonor Him. Some of our dreams honor God and remember His glory, but some of our dreams are unholy and destructive; some of our dreams do dishonor God's name, and they forget His place in the universe.

But in all of our dreaming, our biggest struggle with our imagination is a struggle of worship; the struggle of imagination is all about worship, the war of our heart, the war of the dream, the war of imagination is a war of worship. Our problem with our dreams is that they quickly begin to control our hearts, and when they do, they replace God as the thing that we live for.

You know, as we get to the end of this week-long consideration of how we have this drive to dream, what dream do you really want to realize? Are you in active service today of God's dream or yours? Has a certain dream reached such a level of control of your heart that there's no room for God there anymore? Are you still going to church, singing songs, reading your Bible, and praying, yet you've been kidnapped; you are addicted to a dream, and it's more of your god than God actually is?

Could it be, could it possibly be that there's a dream in your heart, right here, right now, that is competing with God for control? Could it be that worship of God has morphed into worship of the creation without you knowing it? Is there a war of imagination taking place in your heart, right here, right now, and who or what is winning that war?

(Interlude Music)

Paul Tripp: Do you know that in those moments when you dream, you are never alone? Do you know that you are never all by yourself when your dreams shatter into pieces? Do you know that the God of the ultimate dream does battle every day on your behalf to free you from your slavery to hopes and dreams that will only ever disappoint you?

Do you know that His amazing grace reaches right into your struggle, that struggle of imagination to give you what you need to keep your heart focused on Him? Do you know that He lets you be disappointed? He lets you be disappointed, not because He has forsaken you, but because He loves you, and He wants something better for you than you would ever want for yourself. He takes away your dream, not to give you less, but to give you much, much, much more.

Right here, right now, ask him to give you the grace to open your hands, and let go of your dream. Ask Him to give you the grace to let Him hold your dreams, and then find your life, not in the constant cravings of your little kingdom, but in the glorious glories of His big kingdom. Don't settle for shadow-glory dreams when you have been brought into personal relationship with the One Glory that is truly, truly glorious.

Kate Crowley: "Living Big Dreams for a Big God"-- Paul Tripp with "Imagination" on today's edition of Right Here, Right Now.

Be sure and take a look at Lost in the Middle. In this book, Paul Tripp talks about the hope that can only be found in the midst of broken dreams. That's Lost in the Middle, available at our website, www.paultrippministries.org. It's all one word, paultripp, spelled T-R-I-P-P, www.paultrippministries.org.

And while you're there, you can hear today's program once more, or sign up for the daily podcast. If you would like a CD copy of today's broadcast, it is available for just five dollars. You can order a copy as well as other video, audio, and print resources on issues that are important to you. Check them out at paultripministries.org, or call us at 1-800-551-6595. That's toll-free 800-551-6595.

By the way, you can help spread the ministry of Right Here, Right Now across the country. Go on line at paultrippministries.org., and just click on 'Ministry Support' or write 7214 Frankford Avenue, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 19135.

If you would like Paul to take part in your local ministry as a guest speaker, go to the 'Events Link' at paultrippministries.org. (T-R-I-P-P)...paultrippministries.org. Be here next time for more hope in the name of Jesus Christ; that's on Monday. This is Kate Crowley, and for all of us at Paul Tripp Ministries, we want to remind you that in Jesus Christ, there really is help right here, right now. Have a great weekend.