Not another bad dream!

Have you ever been unsettled by a dream?  You know the kind I mean - those which either awaken you in a start as though you were falling some great distance, or in which you find your heart beating as though it were going to burst from your chest at any moment!  I think we may have all had these on occasion, but if they are a steady thing for us, it may be time to consider the cause of those dreams.  I have been around people who believe it is possible to attach meaning to each and every dream.  I guess I am not that superstitious or "believing" in the "reading" of dreams, but I do know this for sure - when I watch some thriller movie which leaves me on the edge of my seat throughout, I look for "bad men" under the bed!  It is only natural!  What goes into the mind has a way of playing tricks on the mind.  Be without something long enough and you might just crave it a little - to think upon it is not some supernatural occurrence, but rather a normal thought!  Bad dreams come from too many worries - now this is a true thing.  Spend hour after hour pondering the hard things in this life and you will find it almost impossible to drift into the quiet repose of a restful night's sleep!

Bad dreams come from too many worries, and too many words come from the mouth of a fool. (Ecclesiastes 5:3 ERV)

If we were to examine what scripture has to say about worry, we'd find reminders such as: 
  • Matthew 6:25-34 "Don't worry about the things you need to live - what you will eat, drink, or wear....you cannot add any time to your life by worrying about it..."
  • Proverbs 12:25 "Worry takes away your joy, but a kind word makes you happy."
  • Ecclesiastes 5:12 "Those who work hard all day come home and sleep in peace. It is not important if they have little or much to eat. But the rich worry about their wealth and are not able to sleep."
  • Philippians 4:6 "Don’t worry about anything, but pray and ask God for everything you need, always giving thanks for what you have."
These are but a few of the scriptures which point out the futility in our worries. They are concerns placed on the wrong shoulders - ours!  When we worry, we are imagining all the possibilities about how "we" will handle the problem at hand.  We are attempting to shoulder the weight of the issue at hand rather than leaving that issue on the shoulders of the one who has not only the strength to bear it, but the wherewithal to handle it once and for all!  

Imagine a life without bad dreams - wouldn't that be a good thing?  Imagine a life without worries - wouldn't that make your heart skip a beat for a totally different reason than those bad dreams do?  Just as too many words come from the mouth of a fool (and we have all experienced that one), too many worries result in restless nights of sleep.  If we don't put those anxieties where they belong (on the shoulders of Jesus), we will continue to shoulders burden too big for us to handle, too hard for us to solve, and too great for us to bear up under.

The things we need to live - clothing, food, shelter, etc. - all things which are best left in the hands of the one who actually provides them!  It is true - worry takes away our joy - consuming us with the weight of the issue.  We don't have time to enjoy life if all we do is stumble through it with the weight of our worries clearly upon our own shoulders.  Maybe this is the revelation we need - we are stumbling (at best) through life as long as we try to handle our life's issues. Who knew the issue even before it came?  God.  Who has all the resources to address that issue (no matter how big or small)?  God.  Whose words are powerful, consistently trustworthy, and never spoken in vain?  God's.  Now, that we have settled those few facts, isn't it senseless to carry these things into our slumber?  Just sayin!

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