Let’s look at Holley Gerth’s “You’re Made for a God-Sized Dream: Opening the Door to All God Has for You.” Part 1
I really like this title, don’t you? Doesn’t it make you feel like saying, “see… I knew I was important! I knew I wasn’t created to just be a helper, bear children and house clean. I was made for MORE!”
Holley Gerth specializes in coaching and motivating women to accomplish their dreams. That’s the purpose of this book and she is full of encouragement. Encouragement to go after that God-sized dream. Just out of curiosity, what is the difference between a God-sized dream and a regular dream? I think about the description; “God-sized” and I think about what we read about God in regards to His “size” in Scripture; that He fills the heavens and the Earth (Jer.23:24). Does that mean my dream will fill the whole earth?
I’m saying all this tongue-in-cheek, of course. But I am laying a very simple fleshly response to the premise of this book. In fact, I believe the encouragement toward what Holley calls “God-sized dreams” point to works that look more like the Feminist American dream than the humble servanthood of Titus 2 or the Proverbs 31 woman.
I’m sure you’ve heard this doctrine at some point in your life. Even devotionals push the “you are made for a great purpose” kind of talk. At the heart of this doctrine/teaching is why God made you, what He made you for, and what are good works. These questions are what we are going to work through as we go through the first couple chapters of Holley Gerth’s book “You Were Made for a God-Sized Dream”.
Chapter 1- The “More” You Were Made For.
We were all made to dream. “[We] really are made for more”(pg 13). As children we dreamed about being and doing all sorts of things. As we get older, though, she says, “As we mature, so do our desires. Yet in those early dreams, we often find the seeds of the something more God has planted within us” (Pg. 14.)
Are we made for more? What does Scripture say we are made for? Ephesians 2:10 says “… we are [God’s] workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” We are created for His Glory (Isa. 43:7; Rom.11:36). Whatever we do, we are to shine our lights so they may see our good works and glorify God (1Corin 10:31; Matt.5:16). We were made to believe in Jesus Christ, do what He commands and love one another (John 6:29; 1John 3:23). Nowhere in Scripture does it talk about being made to live out our dreams. Instead it talks alot about good works, plural, that are prepared for us to walk in. Not only does it direct us to walk in good works but it thoroughly equips us for them (2Tim.3:16-17).
“As long as you are alive, God wants you to go further, dig deeper, and draw closer to him. And I believe dreams are one of the primary ways God makes that happen. Every dream or desire you have that comes from God is an invitation for more intimacy with him” (Pg 17). Is this true? Are desires that come from God invitations for more intimacy with Him? Well how does Scripture say we become intimate with God? We know, if we have been told the Gospel correctly, that we are all born in sin making us separated from God and children of wrath. “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus”– Ephs.2:3-7. John 10:30 Christ tells us that He is one with the Father. Notice what Ephesians says about us. We are raised up with Christ and seated with Him in the heavenly places. In Christ we have an intimacy with God the Father. Not only are we IN Christ but we are given the Holy Spirit who causes us to walk like Christ, for “If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.”-Gal.5:25. We are already intimate with God, by the Son and through the Holy Spirit. As we get to know Christ more we get to know the Father more, and the Spirit more. I wouldn’t say we gain more intimacy with God by living out God given desires, but that we gain more knowledge of God the more we walk in the Spirit. A marriage is a good description of this. We are intimate with our husbands because the marriage has allowed that to happen, because we are now united we now share in intimacy and as time goes and we walk with each other our knowledge of each other grows making our relationship more intimate.
Let’s apply this idea of living out our God given desires as bringing us closer to God. We all are given the desire to eat, as we eat are we getting closer to God? We can go in the opposite direction as well, aren’t there things directed and given to us by God that we don’t desire to do, such as love our enemy, that actually bring us closer to God? Our dreams and desires are not where we become more intimate with God, Christ does that.
Moving on, she talks about 5 lies we tell ourselves that keep us from dreaming:
- Dreaming is selfish.
- I don’t have what it takes.
- It’s too late.
- I don’t deserve a dream.
- I don’t have time.
For time’s sake I will only address 2 lies here. Lie #1 and Lie #4. So let’s tackle #1: Dreaming is selfish. She starts by telling us about a conversation she had with a woman she was trying to encourage to follow her dreams.
“She sits on the edge of her chair and stares at the corner of the room. I watch her fidget and run fingers along the edge of her jeans. I can tell she’s thinking of her husband and children and laundry waiting for her at home.
‘I want to follow this dream,’ she says. ‘But it just feels so selfish’
From all the women I’ve talked about God-sized dreams, this is the lie I hear most often. Women are a generous gender…But you matter too. So do your dreams. The enemy knows there is often one little word that can stop our dreaming in its tracks: selfish”(pg.17-18).
What are the good works that Scripture tells us are unselfish, especially for a woman? God is clear in Scripture that His Law, the 10 commandments are how we love God and our neighbor (Matt. 26:36-40). In Titus 2 older women of the Church are to teach the younger what is good (this is of course unselfish) encouraging us to love husbands and children, be pure and self-controlled, working from home, and submitting to husbands, so God’s Word is not reviled. Do you see what happened here? The woman in her conscience knew that this dream of hers would take her from serving in her home to serving outside the home. Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with doing work outside of the home, but if you are feeling that it is selfish to go after a dream because it will take you away from serving in the home WHERE GOD CALLS WOMEN TO SERVE, then trust that it is. Trust that God’s word is right, that serving in the home honors God’s Word.
“But if you have yielded to God and you have the snagging and desire within you that just won’t go away then most likely it’s from him. And if it is, then he has a way that you can live it out that isn’t about selfishness but instead is about service” (Pg 18).
I want to give a very grave warning here. The Lord rebukes those who attend to a “service of God” at the expense of His Word. Here’s what I mean:
In Mark chapter 7 Jesus rebukes the Pharisees for leaving the commandment of God and holding to the traditions of men. “And he said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written,
“‘This people honors me with their lips,
but their heart is far from me;
in vain do they worship me,
teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’
You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.”
And he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition! For Moses said, Honor your father and your mother’; and, Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ But you say, ‘If a man tells his father or his mother, “Whatever you would have gained from me is Corban”’ (that is, given to God) then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And many such things you do.”
Corban was taking money or service and claiming that it was dedicated to God. So can you see what’s going on here? If we take our service, and dedicate it to a supposed dream given by God and neglect the Word given to us by the Holy Spirit God condemns that. If we love Him we obey what He commands (John 14:15). My dreams don’t matter here, God’s commandments do.
Under lie #4-I don’t deserve to dream she says:
“Listen closely, my friend. You have not been disqualified from dreaming...Dreams are about the future. We can say these words with the Apostle Paul, a man who had murder, persecuting Christians, and a long list of other sins in his past: ‘But one thing I do: forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus’”(Philippians 3:13 – 14). (Pg 24)
This verse is stated after Paul “boasted” on what he had and how he gave it all up for Christ and his righteousness. Paul is saying he’s pressing on into the salvation given by Christ not pressing on to a god-sized dream. All he does is to win Christ. Christ is the goal not his individual dream unless you want to say that Christ formed in him and in the church was his dream. But I don’t think that’s the dream she is talking about here.
To sum up Chapter 1 she acknowledges that the lies don’t ever go away. They will chase us and we must battle them. “It doesn’t mean you’re not spiritual enough or you’re on the wrong path. It just means ‘Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers against the authorities, against the power of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms -Ephesians 6:12 “(pg 26).
The struggle talked about in this verse is not against our dreams, it is against the Gospel. The enemy fights against the Gospel, against God’s Word. It always has been from the beginning. And any dream calling you away from what God has commanded in His Word, even if it’s something you think you’re giving to God (Corban), is most likely your flesh, or from Satan drawing you away from God’s Word.
Chapter 2- You Might Have a God-sized Dream if…
This Chapter is all about discerning if that desire in your heart is given by God or not. So you might have a God-sized dream if…
- If it fits your strengths
- If your skills and experience have prepared you for it
- If you can’t think of anything else
- If you’re scared silly
- If people think you’re crazy
- If it’s bigger than you are
- If it aligns with God’s purposes
- If it’s harder than you thought it would be
- If it leads to Joy
I will only go into a few of these. The first one being the idea that we can know if the dream is from God if it fits our strengths. Mrs. Gerth says, “A strength is a personal characteristic that can be used on behalf of God in service to others” (Pg 31).
I agree that God uses strengths that we have to serve people but he also uses weakness. Read Paul’s letter to the Philippians. I don’t think Paul dreamed nor even desired to be in jail, and yet while he is chained Paul says that his imprisonment is being used by God to proclaim Christ (Phil.1:12-14). In 1Corinthians 11 & 12 Paul talks about boasting in his weaknesses not his strengths. What were those weaknesses? All the sufferings he went through in proclaiming Christ (vs.23-29) Why did he look at his weaknesses? Because when he is weak Christ’s power may rest on him (1Corin.12:9). See, God uses strengths AND weaknesses to advance His Kingdom. So if He uses both, then I don’t need to look at my strengths to see if He can use them to serve others because He can use my weakness too.
We might have a God-sized dream if we can’t think of anything else, says Mrs. Gerth. This dream is like someone calling to you deep inside, a voice we just can’t ignore. She explains why this is:
“Why are God size dreams so compelling? Because we powerfully experience God’s presence in our lives through them. It’s not about the destination. It’s not what we will get if we complete the dream. It’s about a relationship” (Pg 37).
Again, this is not found in Scripture. God has created all things. We can learn and come to know about Him through His creation. But He will look on the one “who is poor and contrite of spirit, and who trembles at [His] Word.”– Is.66:2. We experience and know God in His Word, we come to know Him and Jesus Christ, whom he sent. Many unsaved people accomplish their dreams and desires . Are they experiencing God?
She goes on. “If God is calling you to a dream, then that’s where his presence is in your life..” (pg 38). Two things here: 1) Since God is Sovereign over all things even the hearts of kings (Prov 21:1). Then the dreams and desires of those who are not saved are also directed by God. 2) His presence is everywhere, there is nowhere that God doesn’t fill (Jer.23:24). From these 2 things we can understand that God is involved in everything. His hand is even at work in the lives of unbelievers, and there is not one specific place or situation to go to see or experience His presence, for His presence and hand is in everything. God’s calling us to a dream is not where His presence is in our lives.
If we are “scared silly” then it’s probably a God-sized dream. She wants to go even further and says,“…that if you don’t fear anything at all, then it’s probably not a God-sized dream. Our God is big, wild, and far beyond our understanding and limits. He tells us, ‘My thoughts are not your thoughts neither are your ways my ways’(Isaiah 55:8). That means whenever he asks us to do something it is almost always out of our comfort zone” (Pg 38-39).
Isaiah 55:8 does not mean that when He asks us to do something it’s almost always out of our comfort zone. This is proclaiming how holy God is, that He is set apart from us and is not like us. Just because God is not like us doesn’t necessarily mean He wants us to do things outside of our comfort zones. God can call us to this but He also calls us to serve in our homes. Spending time with our husbands and children watching a movie can be quite comfortable AND a good work done in faith to God. Point is, good works can be both comfortable and uncomfortable.
But finally…you might have a God-sized dream if it brings you joy. “Your God size dream is meant to bring your soul joy” (Pg 46). And if instead you are imprisoned for being a believer as Paul was what happens to your dream? Will you still have joy? Paul is in this exact situation when he writes the letter to the Philippians explaining that Christ is what brings us joy. Suffering with and for Him brings us joy, serving Him as He instructs us brings us joy. We can find joy in anything because we know God is Sovereign in all things. We have joy because everything done in faith for Christ now pleases God. So even changing a diaper can bring us joy because God has placed that work before us to do in faith that pleases Him.
We weren’t made for “more” we were made for “…good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in” (Eph.2:10). These are done day by day, in service to our neighbor. God, through His Word, has told us what these good work(S) are- notice that’s plural. If we understand that humans, without Christ, cannot obey the Law God has given, meaning humans cannot accomplish good works, truly, then we understand the work Jesus did. A being made for more is not necessary to do good, but as Martin Luther says in his A Treatise on Good Works, “Oh, if a man were so to regard himself and his position, and attended to its duties alone, how rich in good works would he be in a short time, so quietly and secretly that no one would notice it except God alone!” So let us attend to these works as given to us in Scripture. Let us be Titus 2 women, serving and submitting in our households, being pure and self-controlled because that is honoring to God’s Word.
Until next time, let us be focused on the works He has called us to in Scripture.
Let us be in His Word,
MelbaToast
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