Ambition

Ambition

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit (PHILIPPIANS 2:3).

1 Samuel 15:17-30

Reading

“Lacks drive and ambition.” Trust me, that’s not something you want to have written on your end-of-term report at school. It’s not a great thing for your parents to read . . .

We need to have some drive in our lives. If we don’t want to get things done, we won’t. But drive and ambition have a dark side we should be aware of. It can easily become “selfish ambition” (PHIL. 2:3), which is all about doing things to make our own lives better at any cost—even if others get hurt along the way.

This was the case with many of the kings of Israel, including the first one. Saul started out with humility, but he came to think of his role of king as something that belonged to him. He forgot that it was a gift from God. He was meant to lead God’s people in a way that would show them, and the other nations around them, the way to God. When God decided to take the role of king away from him, Saul’s only thoughts were for himself (1 SAM. 15:30).

In a world where ambition often means pushing others out of the way to get what we want, God wants us to live differently. We are to do nothing out of “selfish ambition” and to put away anything that makes us live in that way (HEB. 12:1).
Instead, our ambition should be to love and follow God, serving Him and the people we meet with everything we’ve got (MARK 12:30).

SELFISH AMBITION OR GOD-CENTRED AMBITION. WHICH DESCRIBES YOU BEST?

Youth Edition – Our Daily Bread Ministries