Why biblical dream interpretation is like solving a wordle puzzle

10 things we can learn from solving wordle puzzles – to help us interpret dreams from God.

A craze has entered our world in the form of a type of word puzzle that has many people hooked. It is called a wordle.

I have been reflecting on how interpreting a dream (from a biblical perspective) is surprisingly similar to solving a wordle!

In this article I explore 10 similarities between the two activities.

I approach dream interpretation from a biblical perspective. My belief is that our dreams can come from God, and understanding them is best understood within the context of an ongoing relationship with Him.

If you have just come across this post and are new to dream interpretation, it is worth mentioning that dreams are symbolic in nature. You might find it helpful to read the following articles: Understand your dreams: A bible-based introduction to dream language and Beginner’s guide to biblical dream interpretation .

What is a wordle?

Wordle is an internet-based word game/puzzle on the New York Times website, which publishes a new word game challenge each day.

It involves finding a five-letter word – and you have six guesses to do so. If you guess a right letter but in the wrong place the letter square turns an amber colour, and if you guess a right letter in the right place it turns green.

Here is a screenshot from Wordle No.483, which I solved in a surprisingly few number of attempts due to a lucky break on my second guess:

If you’ve never done one before, you can have a go at the following link: https://www.nytimes.com/games/wordle/

You can also create your own wordle!
I thought it could potentially be a fun family activity over the holiday season, making wordle puzzles for one another to solve! If you want to have a go, you can make one at the following link: https://mywordle.strivemath.com/

So, let’s move on… to the dream interpretation business!

10 reasons why dreams are like wordles

1. They are ‘word’ puzzles

A wordle game involves solving a word puzzle. The aim is to find the word which has been set by the puzzle creator that day.

In the same way, I am convinced (due to many years of testing this out) that dreams contain messages from God. They contain living words from heaven – much like prophetic words which we are used to talking about in some Christian circles. In other words, they are like heavenly ‘word’ puzzles!!

Therefore, the aim of interpreting a dream is to understand the ‘word’ that has come from the mouth of God Himself – who is the dream-puzzle creator!

• Isaiah 50:4, NIV The Sovereign Lord has given me a well-instructed tongue, to know the word that sustains the weary. He wakens me morning by morning, wakens my ear to listen like one being instructed.

God sends us these personal dream words nightly while we sleep, so we can unravel them each morning – just like our daily wordle puzzle.

2. At first you have no clue about the answer

When you first look at a wordle, the boxes are completely blank, and you don’t have a clue what the answer is going to be. The word could be any legitimate five-letter word!

Dreams are similar. Occasionally we may wake up knowing what a dream means, but that is rare. Usually they need some puzzling over. Dreams are like night parables (illustrations) that need unravelling.

The message in the dream is like a treasure waiting to be discovered – just like the wordle word – and God has placed it there for us to find.

• Proverbs 25:2, DRA It is the glory of God to conceal the word, and the glory of kings to search out the speech.

The true message in a dream (by which I mean the God-intended one) is hidden underneath the illustration – and so the meaning needs to be discovered – just like a wordle word.

3. It may take several attempts to solve them

A wordle game gives you six attempts to solve the puzzle and find the word. Usually it takes 4 or 5 tries to narrow down the letters and find the right word – less if you make a lucky guess early on!

In the same way, it will take a little puzzling and trying different ideas before you hit on the right meaning of a dream. Sometimes God’s Spirit will whisper a clue which can speed the process up (which feels great, a bit like making a lucky guess on wordle!!) – but you still need to test it out to see if that meaning makes sense.

Sometimes it take a while to think of the next word to try in wordle – but it’s usually a matter of minutes rather than hours. With dreams, it can sometimes be a long time (even years occasionally) before we think of another potential meaning to test out – so we must be patient and not allow discouragement to put us off.

• Hebrews 12:11, NIV No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.

We must persevere with our dreams by testing out different interpretation ideas – and not give up until we understand the dream – just like we need to persevere with word attempts till we get the right wordle word.

4. We need to use our minds logically and creatively

When solving a wordle, we need to use intelligence – and draw on our mental word bank – to solve the puzzle. We need to think both creatively (to come up with new words to try) and logically (to make sure it fits the clues) at the same time.

In the same way, we need to use both logic and creativity to solve a dream. We do have to think creatively and listen to the Holy Spirit – and being intuitive can help – but we also need to be logical in the process and draw on our past experience of dream meanings.

If part of a dream doesn’t fit with our suggested meaning, or the clues don’t add up – then it probably isn’t the right meaning and we need to think again. I love this aspect of dream interpretation: how logical thinking can be useful in confirming whether we have understood God’s message correctly.

This is great news, because it means that anyone can learn to interpret dreams – not just the obviously gifted prophetic ones! It is also very helpful because it means that, once we understand a dream, we have a grasp of the spiritual truths it contains and what God is saying in a concrete way that we can process with our natural mind.

So we do have to be creative and Spirit-led to find the God-intended meaning of a dream. But past experience and logical thinking are also vital and can help us test out an idea – just like we do with a wordle.

5. There are individual elements that need solving

Solving a wordle means finding the right individual letters that make up the right word.

In the same way, a dream contains different elements or symbols which need to be interpreted by relating them to real things in our life that they represent.

One of the biggest challenges of dream interpretation is interpreting the individual symbols – which is why there are so many books and dream dictionaries written about the subject.

Interpreting a dream involves interpreting all the different elements correctly – just like all the letters in a wordle.

6. Some parts may become clear before others

When we do a wordle, we get some letters right before others. It is very unusual to guess the whole word in one go – and if we do it’s a bit of luck!

In the same way, we will understand some parts of a dream before others. That’s ok.

Dream interpretation is a process, and we can start with the clear parts and work from there – just like we gradually build of a picture of the wordle word.

7. We can start to rule out some ideas

In wordle we have to attempt to guess the word, and, unless we are usually lucky, some of the letters in that guess will turn out to be wrong. Those wrong letter squares turn grey (see example below) But that is not a bad thing! It is actually helpful because we can use that information to narrow down the letter options for future guesses.

In the same way, dream symbols can have many potential meanings. This can put some people off dream interpretation and stop them even trying! But it simply means that we may have to try out a number of potential ideas before we hit on the right dream symbol meaning.

This takes time and can feel frustrating. But it’s ok, because ruling out ideas is progress!

It is helpful to be able to rule out some dream element meaning ideas, as this is part of the interpretation process – just like we can rule out some letters when doing a wordle.

8. We get confirmation when we get something right

The letter square in a wordle turns an amber colour when we guess a right letter (see example below). This confirmation is vital and helps us be more informed in our next guess.

As I have already said, I believe that dreams are like puzzles set by God, and therefore it is His Holy Spirit who helps us in the dream interpretation process. He is the one who gives us a witness in our spirit (like an amber light) when we understand part of a dream correctly.

This confirmation could happen in a number of ways, for example:

• A feeling of certainty or confidence that this is the right meaning
• A ‘picture’ in or imagination that gives us confirmation
• Something in our everyday life that confirms our idea (like something we see or read)

There are many more ways God can confirm our right ideas if we keep our eyes and ears open.

When this happens, we can use that confidence/understanding as a foundation to work out the rest of the dream from.

God gives us witness in our spirit when we are on the right track with a dream, and we can use that as a basis for interpreting the rest of the dream – just like a wordle letter changes colour when we make a correct guess.

9. We start to get some elements in the right place

A letter square in a wordle turns green when we get a right letter in the right place (see example below). This is even better than when it turns amber – and at that point our word guesses quickly start to home in on the right answer.

The key to dream interpretation is linking the illustration/symbolism to a real life situation. This part of the process is rather like laying a map over a landscape. We can start to match up elements of the dream to real things in our life. When that happens it is as though we get a green light!

Again, we get a witness in our spirit that we have identified the right area of life that the dream is about.

Again, when this happens, we can use it as a key for unravelling the rest of the dream – and very soon the whole dream will start falling into place.

Parts of the dream start to line up with areas of our life and make sense – just like the wordle puzzle affirms when we have guessed a letter which is in the word.

10. Suddenly the answer falls into place

Sometimes we can be taken by surprise by suddenly guessing the right word in a wordle. Sometimes it takes some serious thinking and working though the options. But either way, when we guess the right word it all lights up green – and a confirmation box pops up. What a great feeling that is!

Dreams are very similar! Sometimes we hit on the meaning straight away (or God gives us prophetic inspiration to speed things up!), but mostly we have to work through the process.

But… suddenly… we hit on the right interpretation… and everything makes sense!

We suddenly link the dream to real life and know what God is tying to communicate to us about that situation. We may get a witness in our spirit (some of my friends call this a ‘ping’ moment ), or we might suddenly understand with clarity and it all makes sense.

The experience of suddenly understanding the true, God-intended, meaning of a dream is very much like the feeling of solving a wordle and seeing all the squares go green! It is a wonderful moment, and makes all the wrestling and perseverance worth it.

Conclusion

There is a common misperception in some circles that dream interpretations just somehow ‘fall from heaven’ into our understanding – but that’s not my experience.

I am a regular follower of Jesus pursuing relationship with God – and I have found dreams to be much more like solving wordle puzzles! Dreams have brought hearing God’s voice into something concrete I can mentally wrestle with and understand with my mind.

God sets us dream puzzles to solve every morning.

I have found that God, as the dream-puzzle creator, sends us messages hidden in these nightly parables – and then helps us interpret them by giving us witness in our spirit and confirmations when we get things right or wrong.

What an amazing privilege to have a Creator who is willing to do this for each one of us, night after night!

I rarely have the time do wordle puzzles these days because I have dreams to decipher – and it takes all my puzzle-solving time and skills to understand them.

Who need wordles when you have daily dream puzzles?

Maybe dreams are the new craze that is about to hit the world. Maybe dreams are your next puzzle challenge… What do you think?

If you feel inspired to explore more about biblical dream interpretation, do leave a comment below! I’d love to hear from you.

Dream interpretations

The purpose of this blog is to provide biblical foundations for interpreting dreams and encourage others to make their own dream journey. I am primarily a writer and bible teacher – who loves dreams, and I hope you will be inspired to learn to interpret your own dreams.

It is not currently my aim to routinely engage in dream interpretations or provide training, except through writing blog posts. You can read my most up to date position on interpreting dreams here: Requests for dream interpretations.

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