Gospel Driven Ambition

Gospel Driven Ambition

Ambition is having a strong desire to do or achieve something. Ambition is what drives a lot of us to complete those 12+ page papers in college, or go back to school to get a Masters Degree, or to start a business knowing what the outcome could be. The world tells us that we need ambition to make a name for ourselves and to be able to achieve what we want. Having ambition isn’t wrong, by any means. But it’s how we allow that ambition to motivate us and how we act on that motivation, and what the true reason for our motivation turns out to be. 

In Genesis 11...the people on the Earth spoke the same language. They were all gathered in one place and that’s when they decided to start building with bricks instead of stone. Building with bricks, the Babylonians were able to build better homes, roads and cities. They were able to make them stronger. Then they got an idea; to them it seemed great to build a huge tower so they would be known for what they’ve built. But that was their motive. To make a name for themselves. To get ahead of the game and come out more powerful. But in verse 8...God sees their motivation, because we can’t hide anything from God. He’s all knowing. He saw their motivation and in that he knew their intentions weren’t to glorify Him with what they had built. God then decided to confuse the people and give them all different languages and they were scattered throughout the Earth. 

If the Babylonian people aren’t a good enough example of what our motives should be, there’s many more examples in the Bible. 

What’s your true motivation for what you do? I haven’t asked myself this question enough. When I read my devotionals my motivation is to get closer to God. When I do photography or do work for my small business, what’s my motivation then? There’s been many times I’ve had to check myself because my carnal mind, my flesh was starting to only think of things that would benefit me and not glorify God. It is possible to have a job and still glorify God in it. It’s all how you react to situations and how you decide to live that day and do your work for that day. I have to make sure I’m thinking about my Godly intentions and not my fleshly intentions. It’s hard. Especially when the enemy knows our past, our previous patterns and uses that against us. But it’s a daily, daily, daily battle. We can’t end up like the Babylonians, scattered across the earth and confused. At least I don’t want God to punish me for my carnal motivation because I was too stubborn to use it for His glory. 

His will is perfect and good and pleasing. He only wants good for us! He wants us to succeed and to be fruitful in what we do, but our motivation has to be in the right place. Our ambition can’t be worldly, it has to be Godly. 

I encourage you, if you haven’t been doing as well in your job that you’d like. Check your ambition. What’s driving you? Is it to make a name for yourself, or is it to serve God and to make a name for Him?