All blessings are from God. Sometimes, we receive his gifts gratefully: a promotion, a redeemed relationship, beauty, wealth, a baby, opportunities, a favor, the list goes on.
But at other times, we envy. In scripture, envy is about discontentment and rivalry that breaks down relationships. It starts with comparing what they have and what you lack. Temptation whispers, “Why do they have that?” and the envious heart responds, “Why not me, Lord?”
Envy compares
Sadly, I have heard these confessions from countless women: “Comparisons are really depressing me lately,” or “Why can’t my husband be like hers?” or “I am unhappy because my life doesn’t look like hers.” My own envy has sounded like, “Why can’t my body bounce back like hers?”
“And I saw all achievement and all labor that sprung from man’s envy of his neighbor” (Ecclesiastes 4:4).
Envy kills
Everyone in our life possesses something we don’t. We often secretly resent their blessings. I have envied friends’ weight loss, vacations, or nearby grandparents. My envy has threatened those relationships. Furthermore, when we stew on what we don’t have, we waste away, for “envy rots the bones” (Prov. 14:30).
Envy is Evil
Envy is selfish, resentful and is often joined by jealousy and coveting. Let’s not just call it comparison. Let’s call it what it is—envy. Like a three headed monster, these sins are demonic. “For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice” (James 3:14-16).
So friends, I ask you, who do you envy? Does your heart secretly despise her for what she has? Are you hard-hearted, avoiding close conversation that may disclose your secret envy?
God wants us to be thankful, not to focus on gifts, but the Giver. Jesus is the greatest treasure any of us enjoy. Because of his glorious death and resurrection, we can all be saved from evil envy that robs our hearts of peace.
20 years ago, I met Jesus. He has continued to love me, extend constant grace, and show me more of who He is. Long ago, I began dreaming of ways to live out who Jesus wants me to be. One of those dreams was to be a mommy. Another was to teach my children. As the season of childBEARING has ended (I guess there can always be a sweet surprise), a new season has sprung. We have felt God tugging at our hearts to home-school our four kids. Not necessarily forever, but for now. He has called us to this enormous task. Tears of joy in my throat– I am obeying by God’s grace. God is making this dream (authored by him) come true.
The abyss of knowledge, methods, theories, and resources has been exciting, overwhelming, and humbling. Early on in the research phase, I felt a gentle tug from the Holy Spirit, warning me to not make “home-schooler” a new identity for myself. THIS IS SO DIFFICULT FOR ME! TO DO ANYTHING WITH PASSION AND PURPOSE and NOT BECOME IT!? It is good to find WHO I AM in Jesus. I don’t stop there. I add to my Gospel Identity and I “BECOME” my roles or tasks. Wife, mom, friend, home-maker, pastor’s wife, whatever. My successes and failures creep into my identity like gnarly weeds.
So, the question I started asking God is. “How, LORD, can I do home-schooling with passion and tenderness, humility and grace and NOT let it define me?” ….waiting on the Lord. I began to feel stripped of something deep. Thus, began a heart change. God revealed my sin. I was unmasked.
The masks I am prone to wear are of colorful and confident successes in many areas. I tend to sprinkle the mask with gospel glitter, so that even if I’m arrogant, somehow God gets a shot at Glory. Let me spell this out for you. When esteemed as a wife, my identity mask shines brightly, finding hope and who I am as a Godly wife. When my house is in order the mask sparkles with praise to me. I’ve found meaning in my roles and jobs for too long. There has been gobs of redemption to worship Jesus in this! Yet, this gigantic undertaking of homeschooling has dug out at a deeper layer of where I find my identity. Even a blessing, like a dream come true can be a place for weed-pulling.
Deep in my heart, my Identity in Christ is secure. Along the way, as a believer, I have neglected strengthening my grip on Gospel Identity and slipped in to becoming whatever I do. What I DO as NOT who I am.
So, to wrap things up– God is pursuing big things for my kids hearts and for mine. He wants me to use my gifts with my children so that they know God. Not so they think I am a great teacher. I am more vulnerable than I have ever been. I asked for help just the other day. Humility and Grace are sinking in. Thankfully, my Jesus is rescuing my Identity!
By the Grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I but the Grace of God with me” – 1 Corinthians 15:10
God’s grace is with us in all we do. He enables me to work not for my own accomplishment, but for HIS own glory.
“He wills and he works for his good pleasure. But believing this does not make Christians passive. It makes them hopeful and energetic and courageous. Each day there is a work to be done in our special ministry. Paul commands us to work at doing it. But he tells us how to do it in the power of future grace: believe the promise that in this day God will be at work in you to will and to work for his good pleasure.” – John Piper, Future Grace
Every good work that I can possibly do is God at work in and thru me. For HIS glory.
2 Corinthians 9:8 And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.
Whatever work God has called me to, He provides grace to me all that I need to accomplish the ministry for His glory and purpose.
My labor because of who I am:
I am a christian woman. I desire more and more of Jesus, knowing him, worshipping him, and working for him. I am a wife. I am called to serve, love, respect, grow with, minister with, repent with, my husband. As he loves Jesus and me, I become more radiant like Christ and the church. I am a mother. God has called me to raise four children up in him, serve them, nurture them, laugh and play with them, teach them, and guide them like a shepherd to Jesus, the great shepherd. I am a friend. God’s love happens in these relationships as we sharpen one another, preach the gospel to one another and confess sin to one another. I am “in Christ.” So, every battle I fight, Jesus fought and won. In Christ, I have eyes to see needs for others and in Christ, I can be in this world to love others…
In all of these callings- there is labor. Labor for what? For the Gospel. For God’s glory. I keep asking myself this fundamental question, “In my work/labor, am I worshiping JESUS?”
God’s grace is sufficient! Certainly!
Ah ha!
If I am worshiping Christ in my work–the focus is not on me working, the attention, the spotlight, the focus is on GOD being the worker. He is as Piper said, that…
God is the decisive worker.
Philippians 2:12-13 but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, 13for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.
As I am doing my “works, good deeds, labor” God is by the Holy Spirit moving my hands, in my heart showing me his grace. His glory is revealed in the duties, works, and righteousness because of Jesus. I have this image in my head, of a misty glory rising off of my body because of Jesus and God is at work to receive it. Like a vapor moving out of my body, Christ absorbs it, for His glory! That glory is radiant and it is ALL His.
My work is because God is the most magnificent worker, and He is perfect at it.
Are you ambitious? When you examine your life or heart, where do you see yourself tending towards selfish ambition? Are you finding that God is maturing your heart motivations towards Godly ambition?
Godly Ambition is reverent activism that constantly depends on the Holy Spirit to accomplish what he wants to do through us.
Selfish ambition is striving to accomplish anything for our own end, our own glory. It is a cold and empty lie that cheats us out of worship.
Dave Harvey in his new book, Rescuing Ambition calls ambition– the instinctual motivation to aspire to things, to make something happen, to have an impact, to count for something in life.
I’ve always had ambition, a passionate drive to accomplish as much as I can. Hyperactivity and the love of accomplishment have characterized my days. One could call it work ethic – a God created, directed vision for success that guides my dreams and decisions with passion and humility every day?! However, because of my sinful heart I so often in an effort to “check off the boxes” in my days, along the way, I steal God’s glory and feel pride in my work. As God changes me, ambition is changing, work is becoming more worshipful. I am SLOWLY becoming more dependent on Jesus and am more aware of His hand in even the smallest of tasks.
Pursuing ambition can certainly be self-glorifying. I don’t want to merely sprinkle bible verses and prayers on my ambitious striving and call it Godly. Seems to me calling my ideas God’s, is pretty low on the scale of selfish ambition. So how can we, pursue Jesus in life’s ambitions and trust that God will keep us from all evil. (Psalm 121)
1. God created us to be ambitious. (for HIS glory)
2. He wants us to work hard, steward well, and exercise wisdom with dreams, plans, and actions.
3. Ultimately, all that we DO or DREAM is for Jesus to look good, not us.
4. He knows me personally and the Gospel transforms my heart, plans, and dreams every day.
5. The Grace of God is where I get approval, in my justification before God is my peace.
6. Striving towards worship in my actions, prayers, and dependence on Jesus refines my motivations.
Awareness of the temptation to sin with ambition can suffocate a God given desire to act. “True humility doesn’t kill our dreams; it provides a guardrail for them, ensuring that they remain on God’s road and move in the direction of his glory.”
As Christians, we have a deep down appetite for God’s glory. Each of us have different expressions of worshipful response to the awe of God’s glory. When we plan our lives and actions, we must pray for wisdom and ask, “am I worshiping Jesus with this?”
If we love God’s glory, it translates into a lifelong, passionate quest –in other words, godly ambition.
Jesus Christ embodies the glory of God. As we come face to face with the Cross of Jesus, we are compelled in belief and worship. The grace of God wires us for ambition. Ambition that is authored by the in-dwellling Holy Spirit inspires us to “do” for his glory.
The good news with ambition for us, is that we can run with passion to point others to Jesus, by loving Jesus and others through the works he has given us to to.
Ambition can be sinful, but DOES NOT mean we should go apathetic because of our fear of sin. As sure as we are God’s loved kids, he will keep us from evil (Psalm 121) and rescue our hearts. He will create in us passion, conviction, and action to Give HIM Glory.
Are you worshiping Jesus with your ambitions?
Posted on 14 July '10 by trisha, under Ambition, worship. No Comments.
