Everybody wants something. Another way of saying this is that we all have ambitions. Sometimes we want the wrong things. Sometimes we want the right things. Sometimes we want the right things for the wrong reasons. Ambition is one of those things that can be rather difficult to discuss biblically. We know God created us with ambitions, but where do we begin to look in God’s word to let it inform our ambitions. The Bible uses the word ambition a few ways. In Philippians 2:3 it says, “do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit”. In Romans 15:20 Paul says, “I make it my ambition to preach the gospel…”. Based on those two references, it would appear that ambition can be a good thing and it can be a bad thing. Ambition in the first example is stained by selfishness, while the other seems to be a God-given ambition. This has led to the all-important question of what does godly ambition look like?
I don’t know of one passage that gives us all we need to know about ambition, but as we take in the full counsel of scripture, it does inform this topic substantially. Let us start by defining our terms. A quick google definition shows ambition to mean a strong desire to do or to achieve something, typically requiring determination and hard work. I believe this to be a fair definition of ambition and if we dissect it a bit, we will see a few things.
The first is that ambition in its base forms desire. It is a desire for something. It is desire that leads to action. Ambition starts with a desire in our heart to achieve something. The Bible says more than a few things about desire. The first step to having godly ambition is to understand that the desires of our hearts, apart from divine intervention, are a complete mess. Jeremiah 17:9 says, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?”. We don’t desire right things apart from the Lord. Our ambitions are perverted by sin to go after selfish things. The first step towards godly ambition is asking the Lord to change the desires of your heart. We need the gospel to transform our hearts to want what God wants. Even once we are saved in Jesus Christ and we are new creations, the sinful tendencies still linger. We must constantly be renewing our minds and our desires to think clearly, to see clearly, to desire clearly. We need the help of the spirit to even want the right things.
The second thing we see from Google’s definition is a bit more subtle. We desire to achieve something. We only desire to achieve what we see to be valuable. This is again fairly obvious. So many of us are so ambitious at work. We work hard, clocking 12 hour days. We plot out our family plan, and seek to move up from house to house until we achieve “the dream”. What we are saying when we do this, is that we see that lifestyle or dream as supremely valuable. Our value system is so infected as a result of sin. You probably are saying this sounds like what you said a few sentences ago. And you are right. Sin corrupts everything, including what we value. We cannot have godly desires if we do not have a biblical value system. In our current state, the world is the one who is setting the metric of value. They tell us that we need a six-figure salary, a beautiful 5 bedroom home, and 2 nice cars. They are the ones who tell us we need a fancy vacation to truly rest. They are the ones who tell us we need to retire at 50 and move to Florida to be happy. They are setting the scale of value, and we accept it time and time again. This is terribly flawed. We must open God’s word to see what should I value? What does God’s value system look like? I believe it looks very different than ours. It looks like, “whoever finds his life shall lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” (Matt 10:39). It looks like, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.” (Matt 6:19-20). It looks like, “And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” (Luke 9:23). It looks like, “ And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.” (Luke 6:20)
Now if you’re like me, your inner lawyer is starting to come up. You might even be getting ready to pull out some verses on biblical financial stewardship. Before you do just pause. My point is not to say those things listed above are wrong. My point is that they are not supremely valuable. And if we want to have godly ambition, we need to have God’s metrics of value. We must let him drive the desires of our heart! If we want what He wants, and we see value where He sees value, we are headed in a good direction.
God wants you to be ambitious. God wants you to have audacious goals for yourself. He wants to see you do daring things. It just might look different than you thought. What if your job was just a means to an end rather than the end? What if the end was to see the kingdom of God advance? What if God got a hold of your heart and your drive, and He set you on a new course for His glory. We need the gospel to change our desires and our value system if we are to have godly ambition. I pray the Spirit of God would move in our hearts. Oh God, would we see truly ambitious people stand up and go after your kingdom for your glory!
Author: Brandon Beckman is currently the Worship Leader at Harvest Bible Chapel Oakville. He has an undergraduate degree in Worship & Pastoral Leadership from Liberty University. He is currently pursuing his MDIV from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He and his wife Bethany live in Burlington ON with their border collie Kaiya. His passion is to see people drawn into deeper worship of Jesus Christ through the teaching of God’s word and the writing and singing of songs in corporate worship.
