Check
Your Motives
For
where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every
evil practice. – James 3:16
She talks tough. Curse
words dot most sentences. Her laughter is a little too loud. She shoves her
arrogance in your face. She’s hard as nails.
In her way of thinking,
she’s got to put everyone else down in order to look good. Her co-workers
despise her. You never know when she’ll lob the next zinger. The air around her
is tense, poised for battle.
She is jealous of
everyone. Selfish ambition fills her. She refuses to be a part of the team. She’s
too focused on herself. She’s too busy “winning” the day to realize she’s
losing the battle.
Do you know someone
like her? You probably do. There always seems to be one like her to dirty up any
environment. Her “wisdom” says it’s all about her and she doesn’t care who she
hurts or what she destroys on her mission.
Maybe you’ve even been
her before. Maybe you know what it’s like to win no matter the cost. Maybe you’ve
felt the emptiness that comes after the triumphant win. Maybe you’ve gone
around and around on that roller coaster, trying desperately to figure out why
success doesn’t seem to mean as much as it used to mean.
One of those viral videos
just came to mind. It was of a young man with cystic fibrosis scoring a touchdown,
as both teams ran with and cheered him on. Don’t miss that. Both teams. I have
no idea who won the game. Who cares? Because, really, they both won when they
united to help a young man achieve a dream.
It’s amazing what can
happen when we work together, isn’t it? It’s amazing what can happen when we
think of someone else first, isn’t it? Then why does the world tell us it’s all
about us?
Satan wants us to
believe that. We get so caught up that we forget we’re in a spiritual battle
every single day. It’s real, folks. Satan dangles the world before us and we
snatch it, the allure seemingly more than we can withstand. He tells us what we
deserve. He makes false promises and we believe him every time.
The only way to
withstand the onslaught is with the strength of Jesus. The only way to know the
truth is to seek His wisdom. Read His Word. Pray. Listen to the Holy Spirit.
James also tells us to resist the devil and he will flee from you. But are you
willing to resist?
Jealousy and selfish
ambition will destroy every relationship you ever have, whether it’s work,
family or friendship. Whenever you start demanding your “rights” or what you
think you “deserve,” step back and do a heart check. None of us deserve God’s
grace. None of us have the right to claim what ultimately belongs to Him.
And none of us have the
right to put others down, to spread lies, to cause trouble for others in a
worthless attempt to look better and, thus, feel better about ourselves. It’s
just wrong. And it doesn’t work. It doesn’t. Because people always see the
truth and you end up destroying yourself.
There are two types of
wisdom: that wisdom that comes from the world and that wisdom that comes from
God. Make sure you know which you’re following before you end up down a path
you never planned to go.
