Every human being with a healthy mind has ambition . It is just a matter of the different degrees of ambition you have. Some have a lot, some very little.
• Those who have a lot of ambition see it as a good thing and tend to look down on those who are not so ambitious.
• Those who are not so ambitious tend to be suspicious of those who are ambitious and look down on them.
Is being ambitious good or bad?
Ambition according to Oxford Dictionary is a strong desire to achieve something. It comes from Latin word ambitio , ‘a going around of candidates to solicit votes for office in Rome '. Thus, it means the desire to become famous, rich, powerful and etc.
• Undeniably, ambitious people are almost always the ones who make a difference in others' lives and in history by their inventions, research and discoveries, oratory, leadership and composition though not all of them are leaders.
• It is true in society and in the church.
• One's ambition has its root partly in the influences of one's past and background.
When I call to remembrance the genuine faith that is in you, which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am persuaded is in you also (2 Timothy 1:5 NKJV).
• At the natural level, your ambition is influenced by your parental relationships, peer relationships, authority figures, social class, deprivation and traumas.
• At the spiritual level, God uses some or all of those natural criteria. However God may infuse motivation either at the level of common or special grace.
• Through common grace, God expresses goodness to all men whether or not they are saved e.g. the law of sowing and reaping (see Galatians 6:7).
Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands (2 Timothy 1:6 NKJV).
• On the other hand, a believer is given special grace to live for something unusual e.g. a vision, a prophetic word, a spiritual destiny.
So, the issue here is not about whether it is good or bad being ambitious. It is about having the right ambition.
Types of ambition
The problem to cope with when it comes to ambition is that people are largely motivated because it make others admire or jealous of them.
Again, I saw that for all toil and every skillful work a man is envied by his neighbor. This also is vanity and grasping for the wind (Ecclesiastes 4:4 NKJV).
Authentic ambition
This genuine ambition is what all should wish for. It is natural and part of being human. You should not be ashamed of it as long as it is not in the expense of others.
• You grow up wanting to please your parents. It is right to obey your parents in the Lord so that you may live well and long on earth (see Ephesians 6:1-3) and this pleases the Lord (see Colossians 3:20).
• Parents give their best for their children's future (see Ephesians 6:4).
• In the process of growing mature, you develop healthy rival relationships with peers and the best of friends.
Teach me Your way, O Lord; I will walk in Your truth; Unite my heart to fear Your name. I will praise You, O Lord my God, with all my heart, and I will glorify Your name forevermore (Psalm 86:11-12 NKJV).
• After accepting Christ into your life, you develop an ambition to glorify God, wanting to please the Father as a child of God.
Ambiguous ambition
Some want to be great but in the name of God! They seemed to be on fire and all out to serve God but with hidden motivation in mind, consciously or sub-consciously.
• They are anxious for their own career and future. But God's name is quoted to justify their desire for greatness.
For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways (James 1:8 NKJV).
• They involve in the ministry but preaching the gospel is not the main thing after a while. They continue to tell themselves and the world ‘It's all for God'. Really?
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it? I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings (Jeremiah 17:9-10 NKJV).
• God knows the deepest part of the heart. There is nothing one can hide from Him. Those with impure motivation will not achieve anything until they are willing to be brought low in total surrendering under God's training.
Arrogant ambition
People with arrogant ambition just want to make others stand in awe of them.
• Some are willing to manipulate and deceive, pretending to be people whom they are not, relying on worldly values and own strengths to achieve their goals. Sometimes it is done by associating and being seen with the right people.
But if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth. This wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, demonic. For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there (James 3:14-16 NKJV).
• Do not love the ways of the world if you want the love of God to abide in you. The world is passing away and the lust of it; but those who do the will of God abides forever (see 1 John 2:15-17).
Purely ambitious for God
To have the right ambition is to have your motivation sanctified.
And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it (Matthew 10:38-39 NKJV).
• If you want to grow mature spiritually, you must die to the things that had been so important to you but not God's will for you, the things that wrongly motivated you and the desire for your own success and honor.
• This will only come as you continue to walk in the light and allow yourself to be transformed into His likeness with ever-increasing glory (see 2 Corinthians 3:18).
• Every process of change is painful because it cuts away the old self and you are renewed in the spirit of your mind (see Ephesians 4:22-24). Every promotion to a higher level of glory almost always comes with its own experience of suffering. But the fresh increment of grace is worth it (see also 1 Peter 5:5-10; James 4:1-10).
How can you believe, who receive honor from one another, and do not seek the honor that comes from the only God? (John 5:44 NKJV).
• To have godly motivation, you must have a love for the glory of God, looking forward to obtain the praise that first comes from the only God and not people.
• A love for the glory of God instead of your own is what Satan cannot successfully counterfeit. If you love God and keep His commandments, you will overcome the world (see 1 John 5:1-5).
What, then, is a love for the glory of God?
• It is having the contentment that God alone knows about your service to Him. You get the joy of serving not from telling others but just knowing that He knows (see Matthew 6:1-4).
• It is willingness to give up any success that God has not ordained, which also means forfeiting your own plans and choosing to wait for His ways and timing (see Hebrews 10:35-36).
• It is getting the joy by doing things for those who cannot pay you back. The honor of man is: ‘What will this person do for me?' but the honor of God is: ‘Who can I help who cannot possibly return the favor?' (see Colossians 3:23-24).
• It is refusal to vindicate yourself but to let God vindicate you (see Psalms 17:2). If you try to clear your name yourself, you tell the Lord to hand off and get honor from men yourself but if you wait for God's vindication, you get honor from Him.
• It is refusal to point the finger and pass the blame. Pointing the finger is keeping a record of wrongs, that you might be exalted over others. The honor of God is that you choose to be self-effacing and let Him do the judging (see James 4:11-12).
• It is giving preference to one another when it comes to receiving honor (see Romans 12:10).
The love for the glory of God cannot be forged. It takes your intimate relationship and close walk with God.
Therefore humble yourself under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time (1 Peter 5:6 NKJV).
• The exaltation and promotion God has in mind for us is worth waiting for. You will experience it if you are willing to postpone the honor that comes fro m people whether they are your superior or peers, and wait for the honor that comes only from God. Have pure and sanctified ambition. Who knows what God will do with you if the love for His glory is your chief motivation? |