"You have to pursue your own dreams, but you are given your dreams by the God". Has the author contradicted himself?

[Utibe Amos]

The author is not in any way contradicting his statement. The author is trying to make us realize that God wants us to pursue our own dreams. God has deposited into everyone a dream or a potential, but finding that dream or utilizing that potential is largely dependant on us. Every one has a God given dream, but not everyone fulfills that God given dream because they neglected the need to pursue their dreams.

[Caleb 044]

No I don't think the author has contradicted themselves.This is because it is God who has given to us these dreams, and they have become our own. So we follow our own dreams which have been given to us by God.

[Jen Kenkyo]

I don't think it's a contradiction. I think the author understands that if we trust God with all of our hearts, and seek His will in all we do, then He will give us our hearts desires. Free will is being able to decide whether I want God to be a part of my dreams or not. God will not interfere in our lives without our invitation.
When God gives you the desires of your heart, He is giving you things to desire. I would think that the things placed in your heart by Him, through your invitation are your God dreams.
To explain it using my own personal experience, I have realised God knows me better than I know myself. The more I get to know Him, the more he reveals me to me. He reveals who I am without the pain, the scars, the sin, the rejection and everything that comes with being alive. So overall I think we already have those dreams inside of us and sometimes they are hidden by our experiences. Getting to know God gives you a revelation of who you truly are, including your dreams. That is what I understand from what the author is saying.

[Terkula Azakere]

God our creator always directs our steps. He gives us dreams and inspiration to be our road map in life. When you diligently pursue a dream given to you from God Almighty, you will definitely reach your destination and also have a joyful and fulfilling life.

[Ahbed Nadir]

I feel that while God's plan for our life is best as He alone knows what we are meant to do on this earth, we are also free to make our own choices of what path to follow or pursue and our dreams are what we most want to do or most feel comfortable doing however it might differ from God's plan so this somewhat contradicts itself.

[dennisbragra]

i feel like a dream is an inspiration towards something. Can God inspire you towards something? Their are people who tend to believe that.so no the author doesn't contradict himself

[Miriam nkere]

No the author is not contradicting himself. Yes we dream but as we dream we make sure it's in line with Gods purpose for us in life so we won't miss it. We can't make other peoples dream our, because as our faces are different so our dreams, future and problems are different. So every purpose we want to chase we must make sure it's in line with God has in store for us.

[Marie Blackwell]

The author could be basing himself on the belief that God has assigned us each our own destiny and that the main aspects of our story have already been written by him. So, he's encouraging us to remain truthful to our own individuality and to pursue all the dreams and goals we want yet the success of those tasks will be determined by that superior power. However, it can also simply refer to the general knowledge that we all have free will and as such we can determine our own path instead of being prisoners of others imposed expectations.

[mchidoori]

I don't think the author was contradicting himself. The reality is that each one of us has been given a space or opportunity to express yourself. The relevance of God is his sovereignity and us being his creation.

[Ahbed Nadir]

The author is not in any way contradicting his statement. The author is trying to make us realize that God wants us to pursue our own dreams. God has deposited into everyone a dream or a potential, but finding that dream or utilizing that potential is largely dependant on us. Every one has a God given dream, but not everyone fulfills that God given dream because they neglected the need to pursue their dreams.

I didn't consider it that way. Its hard for people to discover their purpose and as God is the one that created everyone, He will of course know the purpose for which He created you and as such you should follow his leading in whatever you do. In this manner, its not contradictory.

[Ahbed Nadir]

God our creator always directs our steps. He gives us dreams and inspiration to be our road map in life. When you diligently pursue a dream given to you from God Almighty, you will definitely reach your destination and also have a joyful and fulfilling life.

A purpose filled life is God's ultimate hope for us His children and as such its only right for us to follow His leadings in whatever we do. As such I would say that following God is not contradictory to fulfilling your dreams.

[Ahbed Nadir]

Dreams are God's way of peaking to His children. No human can know the plans that God has for us, but we have to trust that He intends for us to fulfill our destinies and achieve greatness and as such when He leads us in a way, we must accept that He is leading us to achieve our goals.

[Ahbed Nadir]

I don't think there's a contradiction in line with the author's belief that the dream is given to an individual by God. He's pretty clear that God, and not man, is the source of such a dream. It could coincide with parents' or close ones' dreams though - I would say that the author is neutral on that point in the book. But God/Jesus/scripture are his cardinal reference points, not people. I'm sure that he would say that the fact that the dream was given to you by God does not mean that it is not yours.

At the same time he recognizes the importance of operating in the context of the world today. This can be seen, for example, in his identification of the tension between the American Dream and "Kingdom" dreams in lesson 18. So he admits that individuals can't live outside society. In that sense, he implies that an individual dream could be in harmony with social expectations.

I'm non-religious but have cherished dreams that come from wherever - just things that are of paramount importance to me. No real reference point - just a feeling. Just things I've always seen myself doing - though I'm struggling to realize them and hope this book will help!

When considering it from this perspective, it might be ideal to assume that God's dreams might sometimes be different from the path that we have envisioned for ourselves. Our parents dreams for us, society's expectations from us, our personal wants, none of these matter in the face of God's own divine plan and purpose for us. Ours issimply to follow.

[S P]

"You were created to live a life of service, yes, but service can be weighty if we don’t unearth our own, unique, God-given vision." (Foreword)

I think this is the contradiction - the idea that a dream is "our own", when in the same sentence it is called "God-given". A dream or vision that is truly our own is one that arrives from independent thought, not placed there by God.

That being said, I think that following a dream that was once someone's vision for you and has now become your own can be a positive experience. As long as you believe and support your own dream, surely the origin of it does not matter.

[Anna Bookowski]

I don't think that the author has contradicted himself. To every one that God created is a special purpose. So the dreams you pursue is in line with your purpose. That's what I think the author means. Just as we are different, so are our dreams. Chasing our dreams is thus, fulfilling our purpose given by God, the giver of dreams.

If I get it correct, you too have said it. God is the giver of our dreams. If so, how can we pursue our own dreams? It will always be someone else's dream, atleast of God's. If this is true, what has happened to the free will that He gave us? If all of us are given a purpose by the God, there will be nothing called free will. Correct me if I am wrong

I also think that so called 'free will' is a weird expression given that yes, you can choose, but if you choose 'wrong' than you'll be punished (for example, you'll go to hell). And it also seems, thinking that we have a purpose 'given by God' that this purpose is mostly to guess what the purpose is. It's all kind of tricky.
On the other hand if the statement that God has created us on his own image, that we're also being him/her in some way of meaning. If we all have this 'particle of God' in us than to say that our dreams are given by God would be correct some way.
But I'm also not a big fan of any statements in the name of things that we can only imagine or hypothesise about. I don't think anyone should speak in the name or even about God in any ways that assume to be definietely right, like we actually really know anything for sure about it.