VISION
Defined:
1.The ability to think about or plan the future with imagination or wisdom
Or
2. A mental image of what the future will or COULD BE like.
Vision has always been something I have strived to have for my life. As a daughter of the Most High, I know that my life has so much purpose. Throughout my life I have seen ideas or suggestions and my natural thought process always goes to “what can physically be done to achieve this?”
I love prayer and am always one to suggest big prayers to other people and have challenged myself to pray for big things in my own life. In Matthew 7:7 the Lord says, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.” I know that the Lord wants us to be people who do things. Do things for the Kingdom. Do things in His name. God wants us to be people who take the truth written in His holy word and put it into practice. The Lord absolutely will make decisions that hold our best interest and sometimes hearing “no” can be hard. “Take delight in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart” Psalm 37:4. Asking the Lord isn’t a guarantee that you will get everything you ask for. Some of the most rewarding things I prayed for were the ones that took huge seasons of continuing to ask the Lord. In those seasons not hearing an answer is difficult, but when those long awaited prayers are answered they hold so much more meaning because the Lord has granted such a deep desire of your heart.
In my life as an athlete, I have seen so much of how work ethic and hard work pays off. I have taken the life concepts I’ve learned from t-ball and onward, all the way to colligate volleyball—and have seen how they also play a role in my spiritual walk. I know the Lord continually puts opportunity in front of us. God completely lets us make decisions on how we act in the opportunities He puts in our lives. My senior year of high school I made a decision that pursuing volleyball over the other two sports I played was a direction I wanted to go. That desire to grow in my strengths as a volleyball player dictated the time invested into summer workouts and all of the extra hours during season my teammates and I would pour into physically training to be better athletes. At the end of my season I felt that I reaped the reward of all my extra training when I received the All League MVP award. My prayer of being a better volleyball player was answered both by asking the Lord and by committing each week to press into the physical aspect of growing my volleyball skillset.
We can pray for things like holding a volleyball skill—but if we aren’t going to set forth a physical plan to see it come true, how can we expect to have the outcome we want? Prayer isn’t a one-way conversation with the Lord of asking for things and walking away.
The same is in the kingdom of God. My vision for myself in this season in condensed into “Discipline in achieving deeper intimacy with God”. My vision is to strengthen my relationship with the Lord, but I also know that I need to have a means of achieving that vision in a physical way. For me I love practicing disciplines and discovering ways I can achieve my vision in this season—like continuing to be consistent with the Lord. Most of the time I need to sacrifice the wee-hours of morning to have time with the Lord without distraction and with silence. By making the time daily and putting in the effort to continue to grow my relationship with the Lord, I know that I am able to achieve the goals I have.
So just as in the second definition of “Vision” a huge factor is something that “COULD BE”. To me vision is taking your dreams and deepest desires and seeing them come to be an accomplishment. Recently I have written down some of my biggest dreams and desires in a way to seek an overarching vision of my life. Honestly none of the things on that list are impractical or unachievable. They simply are things I have yet to achieve.
This year of leading “S Squad” is a year that I want to grow in my relationship with the Lord. I know that the way He will pour into me— this in turn is the way that I will pour out into this group of 52 young people I’m leading. I know that for me vision isn’t about doing a few big things every once in a while, but about daily doing all of the little things. The things that I sacrifice my time on a daily basis are the things that are priorities in my life.
What’s your vision? And how are you making it come true?
Lo Acosta
I am currently $2,300 away from being fully funded. If you would like to partner with me you can donate through my blog home page; lauraacosta.theworldrace.org If you would like to receive monthly/ sometimes more often updates of what the Lord is doing in my life and through my squad—please comment your email below. And if you would like to pray for my squad, I would LOVE that. God bless.
