Have you ever had one of those sleepless nights where relaxing slumber is replaced with stress, anxiety, and fear? Hopefully not, but sometimes our current life situations (work, relationships, community, etc…) are not as expected or planned and our soul suffers. This has happened a few times in my life so I am getting pretty good at finally talking with God and learning what is causing me to only focus on my current situation.
One time it was because I had just returned home from being overseas and nothing felt quite right, I couldn’t rest, I couldn’t sleep. I was just trying to figure out how the next day would go and what the right things to do might even be. My current reality was just overwhelming. Another time it was during the recession and I was not sure how I was going to support my wife and two kids and all their needs. The doom scenarios just kept spinning in my head over and over again. In these examples I couldn’t(or didn’t) even take time to dream about how God was going to change things. I could not even dream about our future hope in Jesus because my current situation was so stressful.
In Psalm 126 I love how the NLT describes what the Lord did in verse 1, “…it was like a dream.” Verses 2 and 3 describe the people with laughter, joy and praise. That all came because their dream was in the Lord and his future promises being fulfilled. Their current situation was not there yet, but they looked to him so they could have enough hope to dream about how bright things could get. They remembered what God had done so they could dream about what he would do. They dared to dream so they could find the hope they needed each day. That would have been good for me to do as well.
Jesus has defeated the grave, he defeated sin so we could dream about what is in store for us. He did all that so no matter what we face today we can dream about what Jesus has for us tomorrow. If you are facing a current situation that seems bleak, would you pray and call us. We will listen and talk, and hopefully find enough hope in the Lord so we can dream about what he will do.
Jeremy Johnson
Family Pastor