Many people look at ambition like it is evil, but you must remember the Bible says a "false balance is an abomination" (Proverbs 11:1). Must I note with you, a man without ambition won't even wash his clothes or brush his teeth. Pot-smoking masses of young American adults never reach their potential because their ambition is numbed by the high.
In Japan, there is now a generation of sexless men who are not producing children because men have lost their ambition for women, replaced by the satisfaction of a fantasy on their handheld devices.
Ambition comes from God - it's what wakes you up early when you're tired, it's what keeps you up late when your eyelids are drooping. It's what pushed you to go the extra mile so that you have the advantage over your competitor. Now I think we have all been around the ambitious bully who is full of him or herself, and is often times, in reality, the most insecure person you'll ever know. So we think about them and think we should be humble and not so ambitious.
Yet it's more likely that the ambitious one will fulfill his calling than the one who is turned off by their selfish, jerk counterpart. So should we be like them? Or should we settle for the paycheck, for the low-level job, and the rented flat?
Ambition is not the problem; it's the purpose behind the ambition that matters. Are you just trying to prove to your haters that you can make it? Are you just lusting after possessions under some false assumption that they will fulfill you? Or are you ambitious to make a difference, to feed all the hungry in your city, to stop sex trafficking, to provide a better life for your children?
Ambition is what God looks for when he chooses to use someone. I was never ambitious to be seen, but I have always been ambitious for people to see Jesus! And things just seemed to work out, hallelujah!
I'm ambitious to see the nations saved. You see when everything means nothing to you, then you can have everything. God has called the whole world to Him, but who He chooses to use mightily are those that have ambition.
A pastor once asked Reinhard Bonnke, "Why does God use you and not me?" Bonnke replied, "If you wanted to cook something would you use a hot stove or a cold one?" When God wants to do something, He always looks for those who are burning hot for Jesus. He don't look for the most lackadaisical, halfway saved person there is. As a matter of fact, in history, God even used non-believers, but those non-believers were men and women of action!
If you will get the ball rolling, be a mover and a shaker, God will choose you to be a history maker. But what's also equally important is your motivation. Never chase after things. Instead, chase after making a difference, letting God use you in your job, in your sphere of influence. And everything else will work itself out. I know it's popular in our lust-driven society to put a car up on your wall and make it your goal to drive it. But what if you put up a picture of kids in a Nepal village and made it your goal to feed them? I believe if you did that, you'll have that toy. God doesn't mind you having things, but He doesn't want things to have you.