Now I lay me down to sleep. . .

I had another one of those dreams last night, one filled with temptation. I wake up feeling swacked, as if I’ve been in a fight. I asked God about them once. He gave the answer that it was better to be shown my areas of weakness and tendencies toward sin in a dream rather than in real life.

I’m improving. In the dreams, I used to totally fail. Now I am more of an observer, watching the temptation coming at me but not giving in to it, and waking up to quickly clear my head and pray, “May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be pleasing in Your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.”

God always amazes me with a programed Bible reading guide in that it frequently fits with current experience or answers pressing questions. Today it hits the target again.

“A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks. But why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do the things which I say? Whoever comes to Me, and hears My sayings and does them, I will show you whom he is like: he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently against that house, and could not shake it, for it was founded on the rock.”

I ignore the use of generic ‘man’ and read it again like this: ‘Whatever is in the heart of a woman will show up in how she lives and even in her dreams. If she calls Jesus ‘Lord’ yet disobeys Him in her life or in her dreams, she has something disloyal lurking in her heart. But if she trusts Jesus with every part of her life, and can resist temptation, even in her dreams, she is like a person who has built her house on bedrock. No matter what raging storms come at her, she remains solid and unshaken, true to the Lord—who saved her and made her holy.’

I can’t find a chapter and verse that verifies God uses dreams to show me my heart, but in my heart I know this is true. I also am very aware of the areas of weakness in which I need His strength so I can resist temptation and be obedient. And He is right; as unpleasant as these dreams are, and as yucky as they can make me feel, it is far better to experience a dream than discover myself in the same situations when I’m awake.