Bad Dreams

I don't know how many people out there are afraid of the dark, or afraid of bad dreams, but I am pretty sure you weren't as bad as I was. As little girl, and even as a big girl I was terrified of being alone in the dark, or being awake in the dark. It wasn't until later that the fears of darkness carried over into fears of bad dreams as well. At one point in my life I was dreading night time so bad that I would stay up as long as possible and then would wake up at four or five in the morning (this is when I was 10 or 11). I would turn on all the major lights in the house, even extra lamps to take out those creepy shadows. Then I would sit upright in a chair and wait for everyone else in my house to wake up. It was pretty pitiful.
The night before last I had another bad dream. In my dream I aided some people who were sinning. I knew they were doing things that offended God and didn't stop them. My apathy and selfishness was huge, and when I finally woke up I felt so guilty. I didn't know what to do with the guilt. At first I tried to just shake it off, I thought it was just a dream. Shaking it off didn't turn out to be an option. The dream haunted me or taunted me all day. I had to deal with this.
The Bible says that men look on the outward appearance but God looks on the heart. It says that our iniquities are not hid from Him but they are open and before His face. King David, the man who wrote most of the Psalms, asked God to show him his secret faults. He understood that there were sins in his life, blind-spots, that he couldn't see. I think this apathy in my dream is, though seemingly on a lesser scale, a sin in my heart. I find it very difficult to confront people when they are doing something that is wrong. My fears have been so great that some people feel comfortable committing sin in front of me... and still I say nothing. This emboldens the enemy, and this helps my friends feel better about the sin they are committing.
The next day I brought this before the Lord and asked him for forgiveness for this dream, and for my sin of apathy in real life. I asked Him to forgive me and deliver me from this apathy towards sin. He did. He showed me that I needed to purify my mind with His Word. King David said, (Ps. 119) "Wherewith all shall a young man cleanse his way, by taking heed thereto according to thy word. With my whole heart have I sought Thee, O, let me not wonder from thy commandments. Thy word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against thee." Also, I need to stand bold for Christ, against sin in my own life as well as in the lives of my friends. If God isn't okay with it, I can't be either.
You know the great thing is that in Christ, even bad dreams have good endings. Even though I have bad dreams the Lord teaches me so much the next day. Just goes to show you that a Soldier of Christ is never off duty. :-)