Everything I've ever done is laced with selfish ambition. Why? Because I'm not completely sanctified. If you want to go to the next level of leadership you need to allow God to crucify your selfish ambitions, but that is only half the equation. You also need God to intensify your godly ambitions. There is a fine line between those two motivations, but they will determine what gets rewarded and what gets disregarded. I think there are lots of leaders who are accomplishing great things for the kingdom, but it will go totally unrewarded because they are doing it for the wrong reasons. And it is our motivations that will one day be revealed and judged by God.
The difference between selfish ambition and godly ambition is sort of like the difference between self confidence and holy confidence. The source of the motivations are polar opposites while the actions on the surface seem to be the same. It's so easy to do the right things for the wrong reasons and appear to be godly. May God sanctify our motives. May God crucify our selfish ambitions and intensity our godly ambitions. May the glory of God be the only motivation driving us!
The difference between selfish ambition and godly ambition is sort of like the difference between self confidence and holy confidence. The source of the motivations are polar opposites while the actions on the surface seem to be the same. It's so easy to do the right things for the wrong reasons and appear to be godly. May God sanctify our motives. May God crucify our selfish ambitions and intensity our godly ambitions. May the glory of God be the only motivation driving us!
9 Comments:
Wow, this is so good! I'm talking about 'serving' on my blog today and this - at least for me - ties in perfectly! I'm going to mention it in my comments @ iChilly.
Thanks!
Great post... retweeting now! This is why I follow you on Twitter. Also congrats to my buddy Kurtis on his new position there at NCC!
Getting good things done for the wrong reasons happens a lot. But I still feel very confused and frustrated about this. I know how to recognize and confess my bad motives, but I don't know how to change them. I don't know how to change what I want. I think our desires are out of our control and because of that I find myself beating myself up for something I can't change. All I know how to do is ask God to help me change my motives.
Any suggestions?
Thx, Mark. Wow! I needed to hear that...scary, sobering, convicting.
So what questions do you ask yourself in determining (selfish or Godly) ambitions? What has helped you in the past?
Your books and ministry have been a life changer for me Mark...all the way up in Grand Rapids MI! I'm in middle of chasing my own coffee house lion right now. A vision that was snuffed out by worldly assumptions years ago. But today, a door was opened that seemed impossible...with Him all things are truly possible. I pray that He continues to grow your ministry. Thanks for being a difference maker.
In faith,
Jason
Mark, I really like your post here. However, I did want to comment on the penultimate sentence in the first paragraph.
I don't know how to say this without it sounding pretty self-righteous. Therefore, I am apologizing right off the bat; sorry if this comes across with a holier than thou slant to it!
You mention accomplishing things and not getting rewarded for it. In my honest opinion I believe our reward is actually being able to serve the Creator--the reward is the doing. I think it is very similar to your saying that you use for many things. For example, "you don't have to read the Bible, you get to read the Bible." or "you don't have to tithe, you get to tithe." Not to be redundant, but you don't perform the action and then get the reward, the action is the reward.
Therefore, if our motivations are for down-the-road-rewards, then yes, I agree we do miss out on the true reward of being able to serve the Author and Creator.
Great post, Pastor Mark! I only wish Lebron would have woke up yesterday morning and read this blog entry.
Mark,
Great post - as always! It reminds me of Proverbs 16:3 in the Amplified Bible which reads,
"Roll your works upon the Lord [commit and trust them wholly to Him; He will cause your thoughts to become agreeable to His will, and] so shall your plans be established and succeed."
Thanks for your ministry!
Tor Constantino
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