Many of us are raised to be ambitious, to identify worthy causes that can make us feel significant, and then pour our time, talents and resources into seeking them. Earthly ambitions yield relationships, goods and services, and philosophical stimulation.
But in our earthly pursuits, we also face the constraints of our earthly bodies and minds, and struggle with our self preserving thoughts of pride, power, control, and in contrast, fear, anger and hopelessness.
Even those who profess to believe in God, can begin to practice a form of "Practical Atheism" where we believe our will on earth should be made to us through circumstances, through others, and through God. We feel disappointments, depression, and disillusionment, which often lead to complaining about how our ambitions or expectations are not being met. (Practical Atheism - S Charnack
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If we seek first the Kingdom, then God is responsible to bring all our circumstances to bear for the increase of his Kingdom, we never have a reason to feel our rights are not being met or to complain.
God calls us to give up on our earthly ambitions and seek His calling for us and His ambitions for His Kingdom. He describes this giving up as "death to self".
Verses that speak to this include;
Most Relevant Verses
Galatians 2:20
"I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.
Ephesians 4:22-24
that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.
Philippians 2:3
Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself.
4 Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others. 5 Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God,7 but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men.
3:8 More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ,
Colossians 3:5
Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry.
Luke 9:23
And He was saying to them all, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me.
John 12:24
"Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.
Luke 9:23-24
And He was saying to them all, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me. "For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it.
Romans 6:11
Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Romans 12:1-2
Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.
1 Peter 4:1-2
Therefore, since Christ has suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same purpose, because he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, so as to live the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for the lusts of men, but for the will of God.
Galatians 5:24
Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
Romans 8:12-13
So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh-- for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
Romans 6:11-14
Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. read more.
John 3:30
"He must increase, but I must decrease.
Titus 2:12
instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age,
1 Peter 4:2
so as to live the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for the lusts of men, but for the will of God.
Luke 14:33
"So then, none of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions.
Matthew 10:38
"And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me.
Ephesians 4:22
that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit,
Galatians 6:14
But may it never be that I would boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.
Romans 6:8
Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him,
Romans 6:6-7
knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin.
Ephesians 4:22-23
that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind,