Daniel 4:36, 37 
“When my sanity returned to me, so did my honor and glory and kingdom. My advisers and nobles sought me out, and I was restored as head of my kingdom, with even greater honor than before.

“Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and glorify and honor the King of heaven. All his acts are just and true, and he is able to humble the proud.” 
(New Living Translation)

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Our team is leading and participating in a leadership training event at our retreat center. Wi-Fi is generally good, but there are holes in the provision. Delays may occur. 

Have you ever had so many nights of bad dreams that you didn’t want to go to bed, afraid of what might come your way? Nebuchadnezzar might have had a few sleepless nights after what is recorded in the second and fourth chapters of Daniel. 

I recently listened to Pete Greig’s books How to Pray: A Simple Guide for Normal People and How to Hear God: A Simple Guide for Normal People. Listening is definitely the way to go on your first time through these books. Pete reads the books himself in his British accent, which is fun to hear. His voice rises and falls, quickens and slows as if he were having a conversation with you and me over dinner.

Toward the end of How to Hear God, he has a chapter on dreams and visions. He offers a wonderful filter for clarifying whether dreams are messages from God or merely a bad case of indigestion. He uses the ABC filter, asking, “Is it affirming, biblical, and Christlike?” This is important. God will never tell us something in a dream that is not biblical and Christlike. 

Pete offers a simple bedtime prayer for dreamers like us: “Thank you, Father, for this day. Fill my dreams and speak as I sleep.” Trust God to answer this prayer as he sees fit. Know that your posture toward him remains open even in your sleep. Allow him to shape your dreams as he sees fit, even if it means you don’t recall a thing upon awakening. 

And if you dream that you are a giant tree full of birds and fruit and someone comes and cuts you down, well, see the rest of this chapter for what comes next. 

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I will entrust my dreams to God and invite him to shape them as he sees fit.

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Our Father, as Pete Greig so helpfully writes, “Fill my dreams and speak as I sleep.” I am confident that you will protect my heart and mind and bless me with peaceful rest. I belong to you whether I am awake or asleep. Amen.