Take responsibility for your waking thoughts—put off what fuels sin, put on what honors Christ, embrace the gospel’s power, and seek accountability in His church. Trust that God, your strength and Redeemer, cleanses every fault and shapes your heart to honor Him. As the Psalmist declares, “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O LORD, my strength and my Redeemer” (Psalm 19:14).

In the previous post, What Should You Do When Your Dreams Include Sin?, we explored the spiritual implications of dreams involving sin through two illustrations: a crime and adultery. We saw how Psalm 19:12–14 guides us through the guilt that can follow such dreams, answering questions like, Does this dream signify guilt before God? or Why do I feel so guilty? Moments after publishing the post, a dear friend shared her personal story, which vividly illustrates how God uses His Word and community to bring victory. Her testimony is both deeply personal and profoundly encouraging. With her permission, I share her Victory Story.

Let me highlight a key aspect of her story: she recognized that her waking sinful thoughts and actions, such as romantic fantasies, fueled her dreams, leading her to repent. The previous post focused on the involuntary nature of dreams, but her testimony underscores the importance of addressing waking patterns that influence them.

This story highlights the truth of the previous blog, but more importantly, the way to specifically address this issue through the Word, the church, and great self-counsel.

A Victory Story

To Kevin: I know this was so random and detailed to share, but I hoped that since you shared the article, What Should You Do When Your Dreams Include Sin, it might be a blessing to have a praise story to share with someone else who might come to you who is in the midst of a struggle with this. God is so good! Thank you again for addressing this, I would have loved to have found your article those years ago!

My story:

I struggled greatly with a season of adulterous dreams about several years ago when my husband and I moved back to my hometown and we found a new home church there. Moving back to the area brought up a lot of thinking about my old high school boyfriend and worrying about, but also desiring to, run into him. I was struggling with discontentment with my husband, and with loneliness in general from moving cross country. My discontentment was exacerbated as I had a lot of admiration for, and jealousy over, some of the husbands in couples we were meeting and becoming friends with. I also was watching a lot of TV shows with romance storylines (certainly nothing explicit, but enough for me to quickly realize was an added pressure when I began having romantic and sexual dreams).

As soon as I realized the dreams were a recurring problem, and I knew I was struggling with discontentment in my marriage, I told my small group of ladies and they did an excellent job of holding me accountable and asking good heart questions. (I had only been a part of this small group at our new church for a short while!) They were ongoing prayer partners for me.

After searching the Scriptures and praying, I determined – like you did in your article – that while I am not guilty for the frequency or content of my dreams, I am fully responsible for two critical things: 1) how I decide to respond in thought and action as soon as I’m awake, and 2) my patterns of thinking and fighting sin during waking hours.

Read More