I’ve been focused on dreams the last couple of weeks, my dreams specifically. I asked myself, “What does God say about dreams?”

I found lots of references to actual dreams. They were about dreams that mean something or send a message. There was not a lot on dreams like the ones on my list. I kept coming back to Psalms 37:4-5.

⁴Delight yourself also in the Lord; And He shall give you the desires of your heart. ⁵Commit your way to the Lord, Trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass.

The Psalm clearly does not mention dreams but it does mention the ‘desires of your heart.’ That’s close right? Just to be sure I wanted to break it down right here in this post and see if my theory held. I wanted to know if the dreams in my heart, what I want to do, are what God wants for me.

Delight in this context is a verb. It means: great pleasure; a cause or source of great pleasure. “Delight yourself also in the Lord;” The way I read this passage is I take action by finding great pleasure in my Lord. I do find great pleasure and comfort in my Lord. I enjoy prayer and fellowship. I adore sitting in His Presence or walking with Him. I love to hear Him chuckle at my antics. I would live in a very dark place without Him.

Then the passage continues with ‘the desires of your heart.’ Desire in this context is a noun meaning: a strong feeling of wanting to have something or wishing for something to happen. I want my dreams to happen. But are the dreams I wrote for myself the desires of my heart.

I looked up ‘dream’ and this definition resonated with me: a cherished aspiration, ambition, or ideal. Interestingly enough, ‘desire’ is a synonym for both ‘aspiration’ and ‘ambition’.

At this point I recall Psalm 139:13-14 [NABRE]:

¹³You formed my inmost being; You knit me in my mother’s womb. ¹⁴I praise You, because I am wonderfully made; wonderful are Your works! My very self You know.

When I tied these scriptures together, I find God created me in my mother’s womb. Whether or not I understand it or believe it, I am wonderfully made. Some days I don’t feel wonderful or feel wonderful about people around me. But God says we are wonderfully made. I have nothing to say about it. I have to accept this. We are His Creation and we are wonderfully made. That is the point.

I had forgotten about this passage until I was writing today. I had to go look it up. Guess what? In all the times I have read or heard this passage I never saw or heard one of the words until just now: “inmost”

Inmost means innermost which is defined as: (of thoughts or feelings) most private and deeply felt; furthest in; closest to the center. Here’s my “Aha!” moment as I write:

God created my most private thoughts and deeply felt feelings as my being was formed in my mother’s womb. At this point He was the furthest in, the closest to my center, He formed my soul. He knows me!

The dreams I listed are the desires of my heart. And did you know? ‘Soul’ is a synonym for ‘heart?’ I didn’t until now. I have honed my list of dreams in the last several years. God placed them in my soul when I was conceived. I just had to dig deep and find what God formed just for me and my personality.

Remember the little nugget I found in my last post. I cleaned and polished it. Then I discovered it is my desire to follow my Shepherd wherever He might lead. I just came full circle.

I found my dreams and my delight in the Lord. The promise given is He shall give you the desires of your heart. The next verse is another promise for me. It instructs me to commit my way to the Lord. The most important dream on my list is to follow God’s path for me. Then I am told to trust in Him. His Word tells me why I need take these steps. It is because:  He shall bring it to pass.

Bottom line is right there in the scriptures: To reach our dreams we take pleasure in the Lord, commit to Him, and trust in Him. He never goes back on his promises – He will bring it to pass. In other words he will bring about the hidden desires of our souls.

Happy hunting for your dreams,

Milly