Dreams

Genesis 20:2a God came to Abimelech in a dream by night, and said to him, Behold, thou art but a dead man,

Dreams are a powerful force of the mind. They can seem so real, in touch, smell and sight, that it can be difficult to know if you are really awake or asleep. Most nights I do not remember my dreams, possibly because I am at peace with myself.

Years ago when I was in the work force my job was writing visual basic code for software that was interactive with the plant’s quality conformance system. The reports required abstracting raw data into meaningful trends and had to be analyzed using statistical control formulas. If that sounds complicated, it was. I often went home without the answer for a code that was needed.

I started dreaming about code. I even put pen and paper on my night stand to write it down when I woke up excited with an answer. In the morning I would look over the code I had written during the night, so excited, and it was all unusable. It had no relationship to reality. So I guess my dreams were nothing more than a coping mechanism for my anxiety.

But what if God had to come to you in a dream because you weren’t seeking Him in your waking hours? What if there was something so important that it could affect your life? Could you trust your dream? Do you trust God? If so do you seek Him in your waking moments, or are you too busy trying to find the answers on your own?

Proverbs 3:5  Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.

I got your back

Isaiah 38:17 Behold, for peace I had great bitterness: but thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption: for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back.

The term “I got your back.” has been around a long time. It is meant to be comforting, supportive, protective. In reality it only goes into effect if you are challenged and has no value it the one behind you is weaker than your opponent. It also requires you to be “the front man” and put yourself at risk.

I love it when I find a word of God that flips conventional wisdom or the ways of the world and demonstrates His character in doing just the opposite. As a father I would place myself between my child and danger. I would place my child at my back and face the enemy. That is a world view.

In God’s eyes our sins are the danger, we are our own worst enemy. Sin is the thing that keeps us separated from God. So God takes our sin and places it behind Him and all we can see is our loving and protective Father. If we want to get to our sins, we have to go through Him.

Colossians 2:13-14

And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses; Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross;

That cross was at His back. Do you want you sin? No problem, all you have to do is go thru Christ to have them. Maybe if we had to look at what Christ had to suffer to save us from our sins we wouldn’t be so anxious to have sin in our lives.

Or we could just bask in the love of the Father who loves us and try not to sneak around behind His back.