A couple of months ago, I started writing a weekly devotional for my church. We post it on the website and cross-list it on our Facebook group page. I also started posting it here on the blog, because I hoped that it would be helpful to other readers. The feedback has been uplifting, and I hope that you continue getting something out of the posts. As he often does, God surprised me this morning with his timing.

 

You see, I write the prayer prompts the week prior so that we have time to distribute/post them the following Sunday morning. Invariably, God still nudges me to re-read and apply that day’s post to my own life. Today, for instance, is about asking his forgiveness for harboring vengeance against our enemies. I often have to remind myself that the true enemy is in the spiritual realm, but you could say that I have an “enemy” in the human sense. This person is a thorn in my side, to say the very least. The less I have to deal with this person and the longer stretches of time between having to talk to her = the less stressed I feel.

 

Last night, I had a dream that she pulled a gun on me. No kidding – it was crazy scary. I’ve had dreams before of getting held up at a bank, etc., then Dream Me turns into a black belt and kicks some serious booty. This dream was different. She was pretty far off, in a parking lot, and two of the boys started running toward her to say hi. I could tell by her swagger and the glazed look on her face that she was not in her right mind. I hollered toward the boys to stop and come back, and they both stopped, looked at me, looked back at her, and looked at me again. She hollered at them to come to her, and I shouted, “No, stop!” One of them started walking back to me, but the other just stood there, torn about who to obey. I hollered again, “It’s not safe! Come back and get in the car now!” and he finally turned and came back to me.

 

That’s when she started running (well, tripping over herself, seeing as she was totally stoned) and pulled a gun out of her pocket. I waved my hand in front of me (I imagined that I was painting a force field … hey, it was a dream – bear with me) and started quoting Scripture. I claimed aloud that the Lord is a shield around me, and I traced my foot in an arc across the ground (again, with the force field thing). I demanded that the devil flee in the name of Jesus, and she stopped running and started screaming nonsense and waving the gun in the air. It was as if she was immobilized! By this time, of course, on-lookers were hiding behind cars and calling 911. The boys were all safely back in the car, so I walked backwards to the car and got in and drove off.

 

So, this is the crazy dream that I woke up remembering this morning, then I read the prayer prompt about our enemies. I don’t know what to make of it; perhaps God is trying to remind me that he’s in control. Perhaps it’s a reminder that our war is not with people, but with the real enemy. Perhaps I was just working out my anxiety in my sleep. Whatever the reason, I was relieved to wake up.

 

In other bizarre dream news, I reconciled the federal deficit and held a press conference last night. Just thought you’d want to know.