In our household we like to have dream discussions. Especially when they were younger, the girls would share the dreams of the past night: funny dreams about our dog, strange dreams involving teeth, and scary dreams featuring snakes.
We would laugh or shudder together, offer a plausible interpretation of what it all meant, and then carry on with our day. We tried not to take the dreams too seriously or invest them with too much importance.
But dreams can also be impure. Maybe you’ve had it where you wake up and feel like you’ve actually done something wrong, even while you slept. In your dream you attacked someone, or touched someone inappropriately, or did some other evil thing that you’d (probably) never do normally.
A dream like that can be disconcerting. It’s like our mind has betrayed us, bringing us somewhere we didn’t want to go. It also raises the question of responsibility. Are we culpable for the dark thoughts that our mind generates while we’re unconscious? We didn’t craft that dream ourselves, did we? Our dreams aren’t like a playlist that we select at the beginning of a night’s sleep before closing our eyes—dreams just happen, right?
There is much we don’t understand about how our minds work. For instance, the connections between our desiring and our reasoning, or our memory and our motivation, are tightly wound knots that seem impossible to untangle. Yet Scripture teaches a simple but enduring truth: our minds work with what we put into them. Jesus says, “A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him” (Matt 12:35). The things we choose to dwell on each day will supply the raw material of our words and thoughts.
We are a new creation in Christ through his Spirit. But as people who are still the target of Satan’s temptations in this fallen world, it is often corrupted (and corrupting) stuff that we’re inputting each day. We might foster envy of our neighbour’s success or let bitterness against a brother take root. We might construct elaborate sexual fantasies or obsess over money.
And what about the fuel we consume with our eyes and ears and minds? The movies and shows we view, the music we plug into, the books we read, the websites we visit—these become the raw material for our dreams. If I store up trash, it is trash that’ll seep out. The reality is that our dreams can be a telling window into the hidden life of the mind.
Now, we shouldn’t over-interpret our dreams or become neurotic about where this or that detail sprang from. Sometimes a dream really does appear random and disconnected from the ordinary current of our thoughts. But we should grapple with the sobering truth that our unconscious mind is largely busy with those things that we’ve fed into it.
In the back of our church’s songbook is a collection of prayers. One of them is called “An Evening Prayer.” There we pray to God: “Control our sleep and rule our hearts, in order that we may not be defiled in any way but may glorify you even in our nightly rest.” This is a humble and realistic prayer because it acknowledges that even while sleeping, we can be defiled by sin, and that even in the first moments of a new day we might need to ask for Christ’s cleansing.
So as we go to bed at night, why not pray for protection from the evil one? Pray for the blessing of a good night’s sleep, untroubled by nightmares or vile dreams. For even our sleep is in the hands of our faithful Father: “I will both lie down in peace, and sleep; for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety” (Ps 4:8).
We pray that, whether we are awake or asleep, the thoughts and meditations of our heart may be pleasing to God. And while awake, let’s fill our minds with what is good and holy: “Whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things” (Phil 4:8).
When it is the Word of God and the gospel of Christ that occupy us often, the Holy Spirit will surely mould our thoughts, renew our desires, and sanctify our dreams.
