Last time I ended the message off with the following question:
"Let's say your future self could return to the past and they appeared to you today, what would they say to you? What advice or encouragement would they give you? What would they tell you to stop doing, start doing and keep doing?"
One way to answer the above is to ask ourselves, "what are my ambitions?" (or vision). If we can establish what our ambitions are, it makes it easier for us to recognise what we'd need to adjust now in order to ensure that we're on track with accomplishing what we've/God has set for us.
Whilst this extends to our marriage, health, family, finances, etc, I'll be focusing specifically on our ambitions with, and for, God.
Last week we spoke about regret and one of the definitions of regret is the following - "a feeling of sadness, repentance, or disappointment over an occurrence or something that one has done or failed to do", whereas ambition can be defined as, "a strong desire to do or achieve something"
In the following passages we find the Apostle Paul share a few of his ambitions:
Romans 15:20-21
My ambition has always been to preach the Good News where the name of Christ has never been heard, rather than where a church has already been started by someone else. I have been following the plan spoken of in the Scriptures, where it says, “Those who have never been told about him will see, and those who have never heard of him will understand.”
2 Corinthians 5:9-11
Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade men, but we are made manifest to God; and I hope that we are made manifest also in your consciences.
1 Corinthians 14:12
Therefore, seeing that you are ambitious for spiritual gifts, seek to excel in them so as to benefit the Church.
In addition to the above, what I like about the below passages is that you can see his determination, what's on his heart, and just how adamant he is about what he wants to accomplish. You can clearly see how ambitious he is concerning his relationship with God and God's assignment for his life:
Acts 18:24
And when they had come to him, he said to them: “You know, from the first day that I came to Asia, in what manner I always lived among you, serving the Lord with all humility, with many tears and trials which happened to me by the plotting of the Jews; how I kept back nothing that was helpful, but proclaimed it to you, and taught you publicly and from house to house, testifying to Jews, and also to Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. And see, now I go bound in the spirit to Jerusalem, not knowing the things that will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit testifies in every city, saying that chains and tribulations await me. But none of these things move me; nor do I count my life dear to myself, so that I may finish my race with joy, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.
Philippians 3:7-16
But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. Only let us hold true to what we have attained.
If I was to take all of the above passages and make it personal, I would ask myself the following:
"When friends or family hear me speak, can they tell that I'm ambitious for the things of God?"
"What would I like others to say about me after I leave the Earth? What would I like God to say about me when I stand before Him one day?"
"If I was asked what my ambitions are concerning my relationship with God, would I be able to answer that question?" Do I have any? Have I thought about it?
"If I've set goals for my health, finances, family, career - have I done the same for my relationship with God? ... And if so, how high up the list of priorities is that ambition compared to some of the others mentioned? If I was to measure it against the others, would I see the same amount of progress?"
These are just some good self-reflecting questions that we can ask ourselves concerning our progress with God. Trust me that when I share these I am most definitely talking to myself and simply sharing what God has placed on my heart, things that He's been dealing with me with that I need to improve on ... but I also know, and this happens most times, that what is shared is not only for me but for others as well, so I trust that the above can be of encouragement to you as it is to me because God is definitely in the transformation business ... and He loves us too much to leave us as we are! So let us receive His word today, let's allow that word to challenge us, to transform us, and see us become everything He desires of us. Amen!