A Daily Encounter reader asks, “I am presently suffering from the advanced stages of Muscular Dystrophy. I’ve prayed to God for healing my incurable family disease for many years–all to no avail. My family has lost hope for a cure. I’ve been on a feeding tube for four years. Why doesn’t God heal neurologic genetic familial diseases and give hope to suffering people like me?

Hello, Rex (name changed), I confess I don’t know why God doesn’t heal many illnesses. Sometimes God does heal these ills and sometimes he doesn’t. Speaking personally, there is mental illness in my family and a sister, son and a nephew all suffer and have never been healed. The harsh reality is that we live in a very broken and sin-sick world . . . a world that has been broken by the disease of sin and there will be no deliverance from so much evil, sickness and sorrow until the Lord Jesus comes back and takes all his true followers to be with him forever in heaven where, thanks to God, there will be no more sadness, sickness, sorrow and suffering.

My personal desire is that God would hasten the day of Christ’s return to put an end to all the evil and suffering in the world. But God always does things in his timing—never mine, and that is unquestionably a good thing.

In the meantime we struggle on. I suggest that every day for the rest of your life you commit and trust your life and way to the Lord. Tell God that you are available with all your problems and sickness and ask him to help you in some way to be “as Jesus” to every life you touch. And may God use you to be a channel of his love in some way—no matter how small—to every life you touch. It is amazing what God can do in and through people regardless of their circumstances when their life is totally committed to him.

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, there are so many things in life that we don’t understand. So in the words of the serenity prayer, ‘grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference.’ And regardless of my circumstances please use me to be a channel of your love in some way to every life I touch. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name, amen.”

1. Revelation 21:4 (NJKV).

Dreams not only give valuable personal insights but also have given many creative insights. Some inventors, for example, have received profound ideas from dreams. I recall reading how the inventor, Elias Howe, designed the first sewing machine. He was having great difficulty in conceiving a workable needle. When he was close to running out of money, he had an unusual dream. He dreamt that he was about to be executed because he failed to design a sewing machine for the king of a strange country.

In his dream he was surrounded by guards, all of whom held spears that had been pierced with holes near the tip. Howe woke up and immediately rushed to his workshop. The perfect concept for the sewing machine needle came to him in this dream. Within a few hours the first sewing machine was well on the way to being designed.

I have heard it said that the theory of relativity came to Einstein in either a dream or a vision. Apparently he saw it on a beam of light. I have also read that the design for the first radio tube came to the inventor in a dream.

Was it time for these discoveries to come into the world and did God give them to the persons who were trained to understand them and put them to use? Or did they just happen by chance? I prefer to think the former.

So whatever we think about dreams, as we said yesterday, they are a God-given gift in that he gave us the ability to dream. Whether we repress them as many do, ignore them as most do, or use them for creative purposes as some do is entirely up to each individual.

To remember dreams it can be very helpful to keep a pen and pad at your bedside and record any dream that makes a strong impression on your mind. Speaking personally, dreams have given me many valuable insights for growth and recovery.

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, whenever I have a dream that is meant to help me grow, resolve an issue, do a good deed, help someone in need, or gain a valuable insight, please help me to interpret it correctly and use it for the purpose for which it was given. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully in Jesus’ name, amen.”

1. Joel 2:28.

Dreams. Do they have meaning and purpose? Does God still speak to people through them?

Technically speaking, dreams are the right or creative side of the brain communicating to the left or logical side of the brain. They are often visual symbols representing what we are feeling deep inside. Clinical tests have shown that we all dream every night even if we don’t remember what we have dreamed.

Dreaming is one of nature’s ways to relieve tension. In one test, sleepers were monitored with electronic equipment to show when they were dreaming. As soon as they started to dream, they were awakened and the dream stopped. The test had to be discontinued after several nights as the people in the test were becoming too emotionally distressed.

Some dreams can be caused by an emotional upset; others by stress or physical pain. For several days, following an operation on my Achilles tendon, which I snapped twice in three months, I kept dreaming over and over that I was falling and snapping my tendon. These were more like nightmares!

At other times dreams can be very insightful. For instance, some dreams have clearly shown me conflicts from childhood that I needed to resolve.

When we have repeated dreams on a theme—such as when we are trying to run from something but can’t move, or when we are being chased but can’t get away, or falling and can’t catch ourselves—it may indicate an unresolved fear or conflict from the past. It’s nature’s way of notifying us that we need to resolve some long forgotten memory.

But does God ever speak to us today through dreams as he did in Bible times to the patriarchs and prophets?

At times I think God still uses dreams to communicate to us. On one occasion when my organization (ACTS International) was facing a severe financial crisis, I was feeling very afraid and discouraged, and fell asleep during my morning devotional time when I had a fascinating dream. In the dream I heard a voice that said very clearly, “Philippians 4:18 makes sense to me.”

Immediately I woke up, opened my Bible to that passage and read the following: “I have received full payment and even more; I am amply supplied!” I had never memorized that Scripture verse so it didn’t come from my memory bank! That certainly encouraged me and, by way of interest, we did survive that crisis.

Some dreams may be from God. Most aren’t. However, the ability to dream is. And we have been given them for a purpose—at least to relieve stress and to gain insights for personal and spiritual growth. The difficulty can be in interpreting them correctly. However, through prayer and practice we can learn to do this and use these dreams creatively.

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, thank you for the God-given ability to dream. Help me to recognize when my dreams are telling me that I have an issue that needs to be resolved, or a responsibility I need to take care of, and then lead me to the help I need to do this. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully in Jesus’ name, amen.”

To be continued. . .

1. Philippians 4:18.