Living His Secret Ambition!

"Then Jesus said to His disciples, 'If any of you wants to be My follower, you must put aside your selfish ambition, shoulder your cross, and follow Me. If you try to keep your life for yourself, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for Me, you will find true life. And how do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul in the process. Is anything worth more than your soul?"

Matthew 16:24-26

As I read this passage I was quickly reminded by Father that the world is filled with sefishly ambitious people. Hollywood celebrities and professional athletes have fame, fortune, respect and better opportunities for now. The successful business man or woman has power, prestige and perks for now. The problem is not ambition or the success of these careers, but people driven by selfish ambition with little or no regard for God.

Did you know that God can move us from selfish ambition to Christ Centered ambition? We can live a life that has greater purpose and is more fulfilling because we live our lives in relationship with the living God. How can we experience this radical change from selfish ambition to Christ centered ambition?

Jesus tells us to be willing to shoulder our cross. The cross signifies death. We can learn to live with His best in the forefront of our minds and hearts. This means that we can identify with Christ in His rejection, shame, suffering, death and resurrection.

In the next verse we learn that trying to hold onto our life and dreams, for our own selfish gain, can lead to losing everything in the end that really matters.

As Christians we learn that life is not to be ultimately about us and our agendas, but about God and His agenda. We actually live and work to leave this world not live and work to stay. We, like our Lord, can live being about our Father's business. We get to give up our selfish ambitions, which are hollow and short-lived, for the glory of the Living God who reigns forever and ever.

Finally, the climax of this passage. Jesus says, what does it matter if you are the greatest, richest, most well known and admired person at your job, your ministry, in your community or on the planet and yet lose your soul at the same time? In other words, you have been duped and end up with nothing of eternal value!

Imagine wasting all of your life building your personal empire, collecting, climbing, and achieving only to die poor in spirit while taking nothing with you into eternity with Father. Jesus ends this passage by asking a thought provoking, staggering rhetorical question. Is anything worth more than your soul? The answer is absolutely not!

I think our Lord is graciously offering us an eternal perspective so that we might seriously consider who we are living from (His Life) and what are we living for (His Purposes). We can actually live His secret ambition today and every day!

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