Fear Dreams
One of my dream interpretation mentors, John Paul Jackson, instructs: “What you fear, you empower. What you focus on, you make room for.” This concept speaks of how susceptible we humans are in allowing life’s difficulties to swallow up our optimism and hope.
We often project our ‘tough guy’ image or wear the fake smiley face among our peers, despite inner terrors that make us want to hide from the world.
Our worries appear frequently in our dreams, appropriately called ‘Fear dreams’. The purpose of these dreams is to identify fear in us so that we will face that fear and make changes so we are not paralyzed.
Some common examples:
- Fearful mothers have nightmares about something harming their babies (read more about nightmares)
- We need to give a speech in real life and we dream the night before that we forget our notes, nothing goes right, and we fail to wear clothing that day
- We dream that someone breaks into our home, and we try to dial 911 but in our panic, we keep misdialing and never connect—we are afraid nobody will help us
I visited with a teenage girl recently who dreamed every night that her boyfriend was killed in a car wreck. I asked if she was afraid of that. Her answer: ‘VERY—I am terrified about him and my family dying—and leaving me ALONE.” Fear of abandonment was choking out life.
Fear dreams are often recurring. If you see a scary theme surfacing in your dreams, you may need to consider examining a persistent fear issue. Once you address the fear, you will stop having the dreams.
It takes great courage to recognize the fear and face it, but freedom and peace are the desired result. Take a minute to list three of your known fears or anxieties—decide to release them into Divine custody, and picture how you will journey forward in faith.
What you fear, you empower. What you focus on, you make room for. What you ‘stew’ about may come to pass.
What are you making room for in your life today?
