The more I study God’s Word, the more difficult it becomes for me to justify selfish ambitions of any kind. I believe God instills specific passions, talents, and desires into every person. The catch is He expects us to use all of those things for His glory and to build His Kingdom. (1 Peter 4:10-11; Romans 12:6-8) There is no part of life that should be for our glory or satisfaction. (1 Corinthians 10:31; Colossians 3:17)
The reason we have the interests we have is so that we can figure out how best to channel those interests to draw others to Christ and put His excellencies on display. All our lives, we’ve been encouraged to follow our dreams and be true to ourselves. Such advice stands opposed to God and His Word.
Part of our problem is we’re allowing the world to define success. The world flaunts money, popularity, and a plethora of possessions as the hallmarks of what it means to be successful. The Bible has a different definition. Enoch enjoyed such close fellowship with God that the Lord brought him to heaven without ever having to experience death. (Genesis 5:21-24; Hebrews 11:5) That takes a life lived free of selfish ambitions and a total focus on the Creator of life. That sounds like success to me. Who wouldn’t want a life like that?
The Lord called David, despite all his failures, a man after His own heart. (1 Samuel 13:13-14; Acts 13:22) To me, that is the definition of success. To know and be known by God is better than any platform or amount of influence we could ever have on earth. (Jeremiah 9:23-24; Philippians 3:7-8) This is the goal. This is what matters. None of our selfish ambitions will ever bring this kind of satisfaction. To live life well, we must walk just as Jesus walked. (1 John 2:6) We will love the Lord with every ounce of our being and love our neighbors as ourselves. (Mark 12:28-31) That is the life every Christian should be pursuing.
Compare that with what the world and too many confessing Christians run after: sexual immorality, moral impurity, promiscuity, idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambitions, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things of this nature. (Galatians 5:19-21) Pursuing such things makes us prone to quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambitions, slander, gossip, arrogance, and disorder. (2 Corinthians 12:20) All of this leads to God’s wrath and indignation (Romans 2:8). And this is the “good life” the world holds up as the ideal!
By contrast, Paul exhorts us to do “nothing out of rivalry or conceit, but in humility consider others as more important than yourselves.” (Philippians 2:3) The goal is to live peaceful lives in quiet humility. (1 Thessalonians 4:10-12; 1 Timothy 2:1-2) Selfish ambitions haves no place in the life of a follower of Christ. You cannot follow the Son of God while holding onto your pride. (Luke 9:23; James 4:6) This life is not about us and never will be. All of our ambition must be to build the Kingdom of God and rescue as many as we can from the fires of Hell. (Matthew 6:33; Matthew 28:19-20; Jude 22-23) Spending our time on anything else is arrogant and wasteful. I’m tempted to call it all sinful because what is sin if not living in violation of God’s will? (1 John 3:4; James 4:17)
Don’t let selfish ambition ruin the short time you have in this life. (James 4:13-14; Ephesians 5:15-17) Each of us will have to give an account of how we spent our days to the all-holy God. (Romans 14:12; 2 Corinthians 5:10) Your rationalizations won’t cut it. God knows the truth, and so do you. Each moment of every day, we will choose to follow Jesus or do what brings pleasure and satisfaction to our flesh. (Galatians 5:16-17; Romans 8:5-8) We have little time to get this right. Don’t waste another breath on your silly dreams and desires. Only what we do for Jesus will last, and only those things will matter in the end. (1 Corinthians 3:12-15; 1 John 2:17)