Faith Filled Family Magazine September 2016 | Page 111

By Toni Troxell

W

hen
our
motives
are
fueled by selfish ambitions
the outcome is generally never
good. Not only can it destroy
families and businesses it can
devastate churches and communities. Imagine belonging to
a church and a church member
comes eagerly ready to participate in tithing. They put the
money in the plate and suddenly
the preacher turns to them and
declares “what have you done?”
In amazement the member turns
and responds “whatever do you
mean?” The preacher goes on
to reveal that they have lied to
the Holy Spirit about the tithe
they brought and suddenly the
member drops dead. As horrifying as this seems the story
is far from over. The member’s
spouse now shows up unaware
of the events that have just taken
place. The preacher questions
the spouse about the tithe and

they too lie about the amount
given. Suddenly that person to
falls dead.
After reading such a story many
would be shocked with such an
ending. However, upon examination we see that this story, found
in Acts 5, reveals a problem that
many in today’s society face and
that problem is called selfish
ambition. Ambition in and of its
self is not a bad thing however
ambition clouded with selfishness is. The couple mentioned
at the beginning found in Acts 5
were Ananias and Sapphira. Like
any other church members, they
may have wanted to do the right
thing however greed and selfishness became their motivation
and they believed their actions
would never be uncovered. Selfish ambition is like a jar of honey
falling on the family dog, the only
way you can deal with it is take
it out back, hose it down, and
then continue to do some major
cleaning.

What is selfish ambition. Paul

tells us in the book of Philippians,
“Do nothing from selfishness or
empty conceit, but with humility
of mind regard one another as
more important than yourselves;
4 do not merely look out for your
own personal interests, but also
for the interests of others.” (Philippians 2:3,4 NASB). Did you
get that in verse 4, “…do not
merely look out for your own
personal interests, but also for
the interests of others.” Selfish
ambition is when we do things
for the wrong motive, for our own
benefit, rather than for the good
of others. It’s when I decide that
it’s all about me and no one else
matters. It is contrary to the word
of God. The outcome is of no
concern other than the fact that
I am elevated. Those who have
sought after their own desires
without the concern of others
soon find that the end is not what
they had hoped for as we have
seen in Acts 5.

Now some may declare that
ambition is needed to get a head