A Reason for Dreams

I have never been one to regard dreams with a grain of salt.  Some may say that our dreams might be related to nothing more than eating too much spicy food too close to bedtime.  Others might declare they are nothing more than an extension of the last television program viewed before going to bed.  And some of the more modernist types say that no one should watch the news of the world before going to bed.  To do so is a formula for nightmares!  The problem with what we do with most our dreams is that we look for what seems to be the obvious reason we have them without considering the possibility they may be a Word from God.    

Instead of being taken with a grain of salt, it makes more sense to regard dreams as a potentially powerful divine Voice of wisdom, insight and leading.  Dream stories take no small place in the inspired Word.  Jacob dreamed of a ladder and angels when he fled from his brother's wrath (Genesis 28:16 ff.), Joseph had such dreams that his brothers sold him into slavery ((Genesis 37), Daniel was a dreamer (Daniel 7) and certainly Joseph, the husband of Mary, was prone to dreams in which God spoke (Matthew 1, 2).  What is common to these Biblical dream stories is the way God uses the dream life of the individual to speak His Word.   

Anyone who does not include God in their undersanding of their dream life is missing an important factor.  With the conscious mind on standby as it is when sleeping, it seems that there is a direct road to the subconscious mind where God is able to speak in a way that is both veiled and unfiltered.  There may be moments when the dream awakens us to the work of pondering what is being said and there are also those moments of being awaken by a strange dream that is followed by a clear interpretation that comes from the God who has put the dream into our life in the first place.  With such a real possiblity each time we sleep, it makes good sense to keep a pad and pen close by to make sure we remember what needs to be remembered when morning comes.