Be great? Yes...
The greatest in the Kingdom will be the servant of all!
,
Jesus recognized desire and ambition for significance and accomplishment. He even affirmed them, and gave instruction how to direct these passions - but His perspective required an important reorientation. Desire and ambition should be intense, in the right expression, toward the right objective - because God is great, with great desires, so those whom He created reflect this characteristic.
,
.
.
Consecrate your passion, dedicate your desire, submit your
ambition, by offering your body as a living sacrifice to God - His Holy Spirit
will inspire your desire, fashion your passion, and condition your ambition, to
bear the beautiful fruit of His Spirit for His Kingdom's sake.
Worthy Ministries
“Then He came to Capernaum. And when He was in the
house He asked them, ‘What was it you disputed among yourselves on the road?’
But they kept silent, for on the road they had disputed among themselves who
would be the greatest. And He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, ‘If
anyone desires to be first, he shall be last of all and servant of all.’” - Mark 9:33-35
Yet as believers, we often consider
ambition to be a bad and worldly thing.
But Yeshua (Jesus) said, “He who would be greatest among you must be the servant of all.”
So think about it … did Yeshua say we
shouldn't desire greatness?
No, to the contrary, He recognized desire
and ambition for significance and accomplishment.
He even affirmed them, and gave instruction
how to direct these passions. But His perspective required an important
reorientation.
C.S. Lewis had something illuminating to
share about this subject:
"If we consider the unblushing promises of reward
and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem
that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are
half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when
infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making
mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a
holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased." (Excerpt from
"The Weight of Glory").
Lewis agrees with the Lord that desire and ambition should be intense, in the right expression, toward the right objective.
Some people have great and passionate
worldly desires and ambitions for wealth, power, fame, etc, and even these
desires reveal an aspect of God's image which every man carries, because God is
great, with great desires, so those whom He created reflect this
characteristic.
The critical element then, is not to kill
desire, as for example Buddhist religion demands, but to sanctify it... How?
Simply by yoking it to love for God and
love for others, expressed by becoming a servant.
Yeshua said that true greatness is achieved
in servanthood.
In this light, ambition, passion, and
desire, under the unction of the Holy Spirit do not serve pride or vainglory,
but are expressed in humility, servanthood and self-giving.
Yeshua came from glory and lowered Himself
from the heights of heaven, and so He taught us how to be great.
The awesome paradox that the Son of God,
entirely equal with the Father as His express image, became a flesh and blood
human in order to die, is the quintessential act of loving servanthood.
This qualified Him to receive the greatest
Name above every name.
Apart from being nearly impossible, short
of becoming a self-flagellating monk, these energies ought rather to be
redirected.
Consecrate your passion, dedicate your
desire, submit your ambition, by offering your body as a living sacrifice to
God [Romans
12:1-2].
His Holy Spirit will inspire your desire,
fashion your passion, and condition your ambition, to bear the beautiful fruit
of His Spirit for His Kingdom's sake.
The greatest in the Kingdom will be the
servant of all! Be a servant of His love, His compassion, and His grace.
Exemplify Godly ambition!
Worthy Ministries is a Christian
organization based in the United States and Israel with a global outreach to
more than 120 countries on a daily basis.
Though
we are an internet ministry, we are also significantly involved in the land of
Israel.
Each
week, Worthy Ministries delivers thousands of daily devotionals and news briefs
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https://www.worthydevotions.com/christian-devotional/be-great-yes
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