Prayer helps us to convey to God all the positive, negative and challenging situations and feelings that arise in our lives. In fact, it's through prayer that we can thank him and ask him for help or solutions to difficult problems.

However, identifying God's guidance, help or comfort is more difficult than just bowing our heads and praying. This is partly because God uses many different means to contact us - he may reach us through another person, an image, a phrase, a feeling or even through a dream.

If you feel like God might be communicating to you through your dreams, here are four ways of discovering his message:

1. Make a record of repetitive dreams

Even if you don't think your repeating dreams are important, they often leave lingering feelings in your heart. Don't ignore these feelings. Instead, analyze them. Write down those feelings and descriptions of the dreams in a journal. After some time, search through your journal and see if you can find a common phrase, person or image that give you an answer to a recent (or maybe a future) prayer.

Remember: with God, there are no coincidences. Don't hesitate to record dreams and analyze them for spiritual messages.

2. Pay attention to the symbolism in your dreams

The world is full of symbols. There are many that you probably don't recognize, but if you look carefully, they have always been there. God often uses symbolism to give you the answers you seek. That's why you need to write down even the most insignificant part of your dreams, because the one part could be the key to unlocking what the dream means and what God is trying to tell you.

Looking for symbols is not the same thing as discovering God's secret code, because God does try to speak in a way that will make sense for you. Sometimes it is necessary to focus on the ordinary details of your dreams to know what God wants to tell you.

3. Heed the messages you hear in your dreams

On more than one occasion, your dreams can reveal some important messages that, due to lack of attention or disbelief, you don't noticed. It may be that given the simplicity or clarity of the message, it's considered unimportant.

However, you should never underestimate that advice since God might have been using your dream as a way to answer a question you asked. While it's true that not all dreams are a solution or response to your challenges, many of them can be a source of comfort and/or strength during a difficult time in your life.

So if your heart tells you that you listen to that simple but powerful message from your dream, don't hesitate to do so.

4. Pray and ask

Just as God gives you the opportunity to communicate with him for help, comfort or counsel, he also allows you to pray to know if your dreams are answering your prayers. Asking him if that special, memorable dream that you had is part of the message that he has for you, is without doubt the most effective way to know if God is trying to tell you something.

Finally, remember that as the son or daughter of God you are, he will always seek to stay in touch with you and show you the great love he has for you.

This article is adapted and translated from the original, "4 formas sencillas para saber si Dios está tratando de hablar contigo a través de tus sueños." It was originally published on familias.com.