Apprehending an Anointed Ambition
Apprehending an Anointed Ambition
“That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death.” Philippians 3:10 (KJV)
“Great ambition is the passion of a great character. Those endowed with it may perform very good or very bad acts. All depends on the principles which direct them.” Napoleon Bonaparte
Are you an ambitious person? Is it a good thing to be ambitious? When we talk about ambition it’s essential that we examine the context, methods influences and results of our ambition. Careful consideration to context is crucial in understanding the word ambition. In addition, when we consider apprehending an anointed ambition we need to consider the means and the ends (steps/course of actions and results).
Let’s look at some definitions:
Apprehend: to lay hold of; to lay hold of so as to make one's own, to obtain, attain to, to make one's own, to take into one's self, appropriate
Anointed: To dedicate to the service of God
Ambition: an earnest desire for some type of achievement or distinction, as power, honor, fame, or wealth, and the willingness to strive for its attainment
I submit to you that if you have no ambition you will not advance or ascend to where our good God wants to take us. Consider for a moment a real-time scenario.
Right now it’s playoff season or money time which means getting to the big dance in the National Football League. For all of you that are not familiar with the term NFL playoffs allow me to explain. The National Football League playoffs are basically a single-elimination tournament that commences at the close of the National Football League (NFL) 16 game regular season to determine the NFL champion.
Six teams from each of the league's two conferences qualify for the playoffs based on regular season records, and a tie-breaking procedure exists in the case two teams have identical records. The tournament ends with the Super Bowl, the league's championship game, which matches the two conference champions: National Football Conference verses the American Football Conference. I confess to my bias as to why I mention the NFC first; my team favorite, the Dallas Cowboys, are in the the NFC. Unfortunately, the great majority of you as well as me have something in common with the Dallas Cowboys in that we will be only spectators to the Super Bowl Playoffs.
My rabbit trail in discussing the NFL Playoffs points to thirty-two teams that started with an ambition and set goals to get to the championship. Now the league is down to twelve teams contending for a place in the championship. At the close of this weekend, four of those will be eliminated.
For the believer, ambitions are inseparable from goals. Apprehending an anointed ambition is what I also refer to as grasping God-centered goals. This is what we should pursue in 2018.
Just as there are four 15-minute quarters played in a NFL game, I give you four God-centered goals from our opening text.
1 PERSONALLY KNOW HIM
2 POWER OF HIS RESURRECTION
3 PERSONALIZE THE FELLOWSHIP OF HIS SUFFERING
4 PRODUCE THE PATTERN HIS DEATH
The four goals demand explanation for application. So join me next time as we process these Goals and make them practical and prevalent in our personal lives.
For the Glory of God,
PBKSR