The Christian’s Biggest Dream
You have probably at one point or another heard phrases like “dream big”. “Don’t settle.” “Everyone has their own mountain to climb.” “Believe in yourself.” And so on. This type of advice can be summarized as “find out what you want or value most inside yourself. Then spend your whole life chasing that thing. Make it your biggest dream, the mountain you spend your life trying to climb.” This is the wisdom the world has to offer. But what about the Christian? What is the Christian’s biggest dream? What mountain should a Christian dedicate their life to climbing?
Glorifying God with your life is the mountain you must climb
Reformed Christians throughout the ages have argued convincingly from Scripture that glorifying God is the reason you and I exist. The famous first question of the Westminster Shorter Catechism says that “Man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.” Jonathan Edwards in his famous treatise “The End for Which God Created the World” argued from reason and from Scripture that God created all things to display His glory and so that His glory could be delighted in.
What is “God’s glory”? I wrote a longer post detailing what “God’s glory” means in Scripture. Simply put, God’s glory is his inherent value, greatness, and importance. You glorify God when you respond to His value, greatness, and importance in thought, feeling, or deed. The Bible is full of references to the fact that you and I exist to know God’s infinite greatness, value Him most highly, and live in a way that draws attention to His significance and majesty.
Therefore, the Christian’s biggest dream is nothing less than glorifying God with his or her life. That is the mountain you must daily climb: how can you live in a way that draws attention to the infinite value and beauty and greatness of God? Christians do not look to their own personal desires or dreams or goals to determine what they should life for. Rather, when the Holy Spirit regenerates a person, He supernaturally allows them to value the Triune God more than anything else. The lifelong goal of a Christian becomes understanding more deeply God’s value and inviting those around them value God in proportion to His holiness and greatness.
All other dreams are infinitely small
The Christian’s biggest dream must be to glorify God because all other dreams are infinitely small. If God is the creator of all things, He is himself greater than what He created. He has more value and is more important than anything He created. And since God is infinite and creation is not, then God is infinitely more important than anything or anyone else. God isn’t just a little bit better than other things, He is in a category of His own. There is nothing and no one that can compete with God’s inherent glory.
Therefore, for a Christian to prioritize any other dream than that God’s glory would be magnified is to dream small. Infinitely small. Unspeakably small. The biggest dream you have ever had apart from God is nothing more than a single grain of sand next to the ocean of God’s greatness. Wealth, fame, comfort, recognition, a big house, a perfect family, might seem like “big dreams” when you think about them in your mind. But when you truly, by the Holy Spirit, have even the faintest glimpse of God’s value and God’s greatness, those “big dreams” suddenly seem petty, small, and idolatrous.
Don’t waste your life pursuing a tiny, insignificant, finite, self-focused dream. The Christian’s biggest dream is to live for God’s glory because no other dream or desire compares. Of course, in our sin, you and I oftentimes prefer the lesser. We become stuck in our small dreams. But God calls you to a bigger dream and a better life than you could possibly imagine for yourself: to live to display God’s worth in everything you do.
You weren’t created to climb any other mountain
Because you are a human created by God, for God, and in the image of God, your life has inherent purpose. You don’t have to create yourself or define your own worth. God didn’t create you and sovereignly place you in the time and place you find yourself in for you to squander your life trying to find a mountain to climb or a dream to realize. God has revealed in His word exactly the mountain you should climb and exactly the dream that should motivate you day in and day out: to live for and delight in God’s infinite greatness, value, and perfection forever.
There are a ton of “big dreams” that the idolatrous modern culture tells you to pursue. All of them are focused on maximizing your comfort, finding your value, showing off your “greatness.” In the end, however, none of those dreams will satisfy or give you peace or comfort you when it comes time to die because God created you for Himself. To live for yourself when you were created for an infinity greater Being is cosmically foolish, sinful, and damning. Don’t “find your purpose” or manufacture life goals for yourself. There is an unspeakable peace that comes when the Christian’s biggest dream matches the purpose for which God created them.
Conclusion: God chooses your mountain, not you
You don’t need to come up with your own dream. God, who created you and loves you with an everlasting love in Christ, has already told you in His word what you should spend your life doing. A life lived for God’s glory is never misinvested. There is more joy and satisfaction to be found in living to know God’s greatness and value and to share God’s greatness and value with others than you could possible imagine.
Don’t follow your dreams. They are small and self-focused and misleading. Instead, follow God, your creator, who has already revealed to you what your greatest dream should be. Daily seek the Lord in the Word to remind yourself of who you should be living for. Pray “hallowed be your name” and “for Thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory.” A life lived for yourself or for a created thing will never satisfy because you are finite. But if you live for an infinite God, your cup will never run dry and daily you will find new opportunities to delight in and display that infinitely glorious God.
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