Title: Vision and Ambition/ Genesis 13:9~17
Contents Vision and Ambition/ Genesis 13:9~17
Key Verse: “Lift up your eyes and look from where you are, looking east, west, north and south” (verse 14).
Word: Among the words we are already used to, ‘vision’ is a word. It means imagination, fantasies, dreams. ‘Have a vision’ means ‘Have a dream’. In fact, the hope for heaven is one of the visions. For now, it is a dream drawn in a fantasy.
Abraham and Joseph are typical people with dreams. Their lives are an eternal textbook for those who dream of the future. However, there is something called 'ambition' that is similar to vision. The problem is that ambition is also a dream. The heroes of the world were those who achieved their ambitions. So what is the vision of the Bible and what is the ambition of the world?
First, 'vision' is what God has shown, but 'ambition' is what you see. In today's text, we see two men, Abraham and Lot. However, both of them looked at the same place from the same place. Lot looked at the place he had chosen for himself (verse 10), and Abraham looked at the place God had appointed (verse 14). So is Joseph. The dream that determined Joseph's life was not a dream he had on his own, he was just seeing a vision God had given him. In this way, a vision is a dream that God in heaven put into me, but an ambition is a dream I created myself in my heart while living on earth.
Second, those who embraced the God-given dreams lived their lives in an incredibly difficult way as a human being. Until his death, Abraham lived as a sojourner in tents and faced the ordeal of offering up his son at the age of 100. Joseph had to endure the terrible agony of being sold into slavery. When Abraham and Joseph saw the dream God gave them and the vision God showed them, they had to part with the ordinary life that everyone else lived. A vision necessarily calls for a painful break from the ordinary life of this world and suffering. But ambition makes us more obsessed with peace and success in the world. Unless you are prepared to suffer to the point of death, do not waste your time asking God for a grand dream. It really sucks the trouble. Buy it quietly and plainly as a bowl. However, I could not even dream of it. If God gives you a vision, please obey it. Why? What do you mean you dare to disobey God? Everyone, always be careful. Vision (hope) and ambition may be one word apart, but the result is big enough to be divided into heaven and hell.
Prayer: Gracious God, I know that your vision is always the source of life that keeps us alive, but the ambition that comes from within us, on the contrary, leads to our death. I pray earnestly for you to discern your vision and ambition, so that you can become a dreamer who only has the vision and lives the future in the present. I pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Lord's Prayer