“[Solomon] shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.” 2 Samuel 7:13

When the Israelites left Mount Sinai to journey through the wilderness to the Promised Land, assignments were made by Moses as to who would carry which part of the tabernacle. Imagine the disappointment of the one who wanted to help carry the Ark of the Covenant but was given a lowly bag of tent pegs to carry. Dreams are sometimes replaced by disappointment, even when serving God.

What do we do when our dream job—“carrying the Ark of the Covenant”—for the Lord is denied and given to another? Sometimes David faced that challenge as king; he had a dream of building a “house” (temple) for the Lord in Jerusalem.  He really wanted to do that! But that task was given to his son and successor, Solomon. God told David his job was to fight Israel’s battles and subdue her enemies, allowing for peace so that Solomon could build the temple (2 Samuel 7:8-13). 

Every child of God must learn to submit his or her dreams to the will of God (James 4:13-17). We tend to make great plans…and dreaming is not a bad thing…but we need to make sure that we are doing what God wants us to do.  We need to do our very best to discover God’s will before putting our dreams in motion. His will is always best – “Good, pleasing and perfect” is what Paul tells us in Romans 2.

There are no disappointments to those whose wills are buried in the will of God. 
Frederick W. Faber