For in many dreams and in many words there is emptiness. Rather, fear God (Ecclesiastes 5:7, NASB1995).
I’ve asked others, “What are your dreams?”
Answers included winning the lottery, living in Florida, becoming a Division One football player, paying off the mortgage, and marrying the perfect person.
There’s nothing wrong with goals.
But we’ve ruined the Biblical conception of dreams through positive thinking. Scriptural dreams are about God’s revelation to us. In our humanistic culture, dreams describe our desires.
HHHHMMMHHM! Yes, in the Bible, God communicates His will through dreams.
There are about 21 dreams recorded in the Bible.
The dreams warn a king not to sleep with Abraham’s wife, depict angels ascending to heaven, followed by God promising Jacob to give him and his descendants the land (this promise still exists today), Daniel’s four beasts indicating future empires, and a direct warning to Joseph to flee (with Mary and infant Jesus) to Egypt.
If you examine all the dreams of the Bible, we note they reveal God’s plans for history and our future.
Godly dreams reveal God’s will for us. They aren’t a goal to lose weight for ten dollars a month at Planet Fitness (Tough, as most of us should lose 20 pounds!)
I have no complaint with health, financial, or career goals, but when we consider them “our dreams,” do we diminish a manner of revelation (godly dreams) through which God speaks to us?
Shouldn’t we ask for godly dreams in our sleep, learn to discern God’s will in these dreams, and then set our earthly goals?
If I was preaching this blog as a sermon on a Sunday morning, someone would shout, “Amen!” But alone in your prayer chair or reading at work right now, it’s okay to just mutter, “Amen.”
Last year Rick Warren (probably the best-selling Christian author living today) wrote a book entitled Created to Dream. In this book, he writes …
There is an important connection between dreaming and believing, between your imagination and your growth. Without a dream, you get stuck. But with God-inspired dreams, you have almost limitless possibilities.
I’m nitpicking a bit here, but let’s carefully consider Warren’s phrase … an important connection between dreaming and believing, between your imagination and your growth.
Biblical dreams are God’s word to us and not our imagination. Again, we should have goals, but should we use the word “dream” as a synonym for “goal”? With dreams as goals, do we dilute our ability to hear God?
We should ask for God’s revelation and then prayerfully discern the meaning of our dreams.
The Apostle Paul warns about a culture that walks away from God.
Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened (Romans 1:21, KJV).
Goals lacking divine inspiration are often “vain imaginations.” And our country today has lots of imaginations lacking God’s guidance.
As the author of Ecclesiastes sums it up, “For in many dreams… there is emptiness.”