Seize the Moment – Day 829
Count the Cost of your Ambition!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Friday, June 24.
What is the price tag on your ambition?
At the end of 1 Kings 16, an overview of six successive evil kings of Israel, there is a one-verse description of the cost of rebuilding Jericho in verse 34, “In his days Hiel the Bethelite built Jericho; he laid its foundations with the loss of Abiram his firstborn, and set up its gates with the loss of his youngest son Segub, according to the word of the Lord, which He spoke by Joshua the son of Nun.”
Whereas the material and labor costs would have been substantial to Hiel, those would have paled in comparison to the value of his two sons, who died in fulfillment of the ancient curse against the rebuilding of this city, recorded in Joshua 6:26, “Then Joshua made them take an oath at that time, saying, ‘Cursed before the Lord is the man who rises up and builds this city Jericho; with the loss of his firstborn he shall lay its foundation, and with the loss of his youngest son he shall set up its gates.’”
While most industrious people, today, would laugh off the concept of ancient curses, there are blessings and curses built into the Law of God, which, like gravity, are at work regardless of whether you believe in the Creator of those laws. Like gravity, there is a consequence upon those who teeter on the cliff of their own ambition. In Mark 8:36, Jesus gave us a principle to sober us in our ambitions, “For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul?”
What is the price tag on your ambition: your marriage, your children, your health, or your soul?
Seize the moment and count the cost of your ambition today. Step back from the cliff and discover contentment in Jesus (Philippians 4:12).