Get Rid of Your Small Ambitions

The title of this posting was the theme of a missions conference I attended some years back.  The phrase came to mind as I read Galatians 3:4 today, "He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Jesus Christ, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit."

Abraham was a rich man without an heir.  The heart of men and women cry out for offspring.  I myself have walked the road of infertility and know the pain of unfulfilled desire.  This pain was the constant companion of Abraham whose longing to have a child was aggravated by the abundance of his possessions. Yet God made him a promise, not just an heir, but descendants as abundant as the stars of the sky and the sands on the seashore.  Wow, this would seem so much more than what Abraham had in mind.  And yet in comparison to Galatians 3:14, it is still small.

You see Abraham wanted an heir for himself, God planned an inheritance for all of humanity.  Abraham wanted biological offspring, God delivered the means to adopt sinners into His divine family.  In the interim: all the days, weeks, months, and years during which Abraham waited for God's promise to come to pass, God was slowly unfolding his eternal plan of salvation. He was setting in motion a way to bring "the blessing given to Abraham to the Gentiles," in other words, to all nations.

So of course I thought, "get rid of your small ambitions".  Abraham's desire, while great and his faith, which is to be applauded ("Abraham believed God" is a statement much repeated in the New Testament), pales and is minuscule in comparison to enormous plans the Father was working.  Not just redemption but the very presence of God restored to man ("so that we might we receive the promise of the Spirit").  It doesn't get any better or bigger than that.  God's presence indwelling man?  Now that's ambitious!

Makes you wonder, doesn't it?  What are you desiring?  What are you believing for?  Does it seem huge?  Does it seem impossible?  Does it take more faith than you currently have to believe for it?  Perhaps it is both huge and impossible (without God's intervention) and even difficult to believe.  Yet, after reading Galatians 3:14 doesn't it make you wonder if your ambitions may be tiny in comparison to some great plan our Father may be working behind the scenes, unbeknownst to anyone, including you?  I have to admit, that it makes me wonder. And so I hear again the challenge, get rid of your small ambitions.