Vision Map: Charting a Course for Your Hopes and DreamsSample

Divide and Conquer

When you’ve got a ginormous vision in your heart, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by the size of the dream. So the best place to start is small. Aim low. Start with what you can do. Irenaeus said: “Work as if it depends on you. Pray as if it depends on God.” Both are true. God will bring the dream to pass, but you have to work hard in faith.

God only asks us to use what we have to the best of our ability. So start by doing what you can, right now, no matter how small or insignificant it may seem.

Today’s verse talks about how we all tend to look at small beginnings as insignificant. But everything that grows big always starts small. Your vision will be no exception. So don’t despise, or look down on, those small beginnings.

This is where the Vision Map comes into play. When you have a dream that seems too big to accomplish, it's important to break the process down to small, manageable steps.

This is how you start writing out your Vision Map:

1. Go grab the page where you wrote your one-line vision statement and go to the bottom of that page.
2. Use a black pen and write the first small step you can take to move toward the vision in your heart. Even if the steps seems obvious or too simple, write it down.
3. Then put a deadline for when you’ll get it done. Then go do it!

Write down those small beginning steps you can take right now in black letters, things like:
Download the application
Make the call
File the paperwork

When you accomplish a small black letter item say a prayer of thanks, do a little victory dance, then keep moving ahead. Keep writing every small step you can take that's right in front of you. There's an excitement that starts to build as you take those small steps.

Sooner or later, you’ll get to a step you can’t do on your own. It will be something that requires divine intervention – finances, a connection with someone, a change of heart, a miracle. When you get to that place, take a cue from the story in the passage you read today.

When King Jehoshaphat was faced with the impossible battle in front of him, he knew he was outnumbered and overwhelmed. So he prayed and God showed him how to divide and conquer. He told him to put the choir out in front of the army and God would take care of the rest. It seemed like a wacky strategy, but Jehoshaphat obeyed and God did what Jehoshaphat couldn’t do on his own.

When you face something you can’t do without God’s help, pull out a red marker and write that step out. That red-letter item will become your prayer focus as you keep doing what you can (black letter items) and watch God come in and do what you can’t (red letter items).

If Jehoshaphat had made his own Vision Map, it might have looked like this:
Black letters: Put the choir out front and worship
Red letters: Let God win the battle

As you watch God do what only he can do it will build your faith. It will give you encouragement to keep writing out the next step you can take in black and writing out the areas where you’ll need divine intervention in red.

Today, take a moment to write out one black letter item you can do on your Vision Map. There’s always some small step you can take. Then write out one red letter item and start praying for God’s divine intervention. Then start paying attention, because you never know what he might do and how he might do it!