Dreaming of a Better Life - Your Nightly Prayer

Your Nightly Prayer

Dreaming of a Better Life
Your Nightly Prayer for May 9, 2025
by Meg Bucher

TONIGHT’S SCRIPTURE

“The Lord says, “I will guide you along the best pathway for your life. I will advise you and watch over you” - Psalm 32:8

SOMETHING TO PONDER

The human heart tends to dream big. I’ve always believed, and planted in my daughters, that God doesn’t put a dream in our hearts by accident. In fact, nothing God does is accidental. He is not a God of coincidence but of purpose. Exact purpose. “I know the number of your days,” precision, and “I knew you before you were knit in your mother’s womb” certainty. There is no wiggle room for the perfection of God. He is who He is. So, what do we do with our dreams? What is the godly way to dream them?

Psalm 32:8 reminds us that our dreams belong to their author, our Father in Heaven. Creator. Everything we see and know, experience, and think begins and ends with Him. His intimate connection to His creation, the Psalmist wrote, guides us through days and to purposes that have been laid out before us since the beginning of time. It’s an impossibility I like to drift off to sleep thinking about. Especially as a mother. “What do you have in store for them, Father?” I wonder, excited to have a front-row seat to this sometimes terrifying unknown space that lies before us called …the future.

“I will guide you along the best pathway for your life.”

He will, not I. That’s a relief as a mom. My job is to make sure they know how to find Him by following His lead in my own life – as a mom, friend, writer, wife, daughter, sister …and whatever other roles He places me in. To teach them to work hard with whatever God gives them – gifts, blessings, talents, relationships, jobs, callings …classes at school …and to do the same, myself.

“I will advise you and watch over you.”

I choose to drift off many nights, comforted by the warmth of this promise. Chaotic days do not go as planned in this fallen, sin-sick world. There are things that make us anxious around every corner we turn and page we scroll by. But God is in it with us. We aren’t alone. And he is …God. Embrace the comfort of knowing there is a great purpose for this day, no matter how it turned out. This one, and the next …and the next …

YOUR NIGHTLY PRAYER

Father,
You are amazing. I love this truth. Thank you for comforting me with it so many days and especially nights. As we close out this day together, God, bless everyone reading, and listening, with the comfort of this promise. Calm our hearts, and our minds, as we dream the dreams you have placed in our hearts.
In Jesus’ Name,
Amen.

THREE THINGS TO MEDITATE UPON

1. What dreams has God put in your heart? Think about them. Explore them in your mind, to the greatest detail and most unrealistic happenings. Give them back to God, and ask for His clarification, guidance, and leading.

2. Take a moment to pray for the next generations, growing up with God-placed dreams in their hearts. Pray that those dreams will come true according to God’s will for their lives.

3-. What about you? Do you have some deferred dreams in your life? Disappointments? Ask God to come alongside you and help you to understand what happened, where you are now, and what to do next.

Meg Bucher Meg writes about everyday life within the love of Christ at megbucher.com. She is the author of “Friends with Everyone, Friendship within the Love of Christ,” “Surface, Unlocking the Gift of Sensitivity,” “Glory Up, The Everyday Pursuit of Praise,” “Home, Finding Our Identity in Christ,” and "Sent, Faith in Motion." Meg earned a Marketing/PR degree from Ashland University but stepped out of the business world to stay home and raise her two daughters …which led her to pursue her writing passion. A contributing writer for Salem Web Network since 2016, Meg is now thrilled to be a part of the editorial team at Salem Web Network. Meg loves being involved in her community and local church, leads Bible study, and serves as a youth leader for teen girls.