Christians ought to be the hardest workers on earth. Children of God should strive to accomplish great things in the name of the Lord. We should be visionaries and entrepreneurs. We should make radical plans and build bigger, better, more beautiful things. We've been placed by the Creator of heaven and earth to be the resident managers of his planet. We're meant to steward the creation, enhance its beauty, protect it from the danger of wickedness, and in all of this, bring glory to the name of the Lord. Human beings are achievers, meant to build and rebuild, to grow and expand, to uproot and to plant, to tear down and to build, to dream and to achieve dreams.

Psalm 115 says, "May the Lord give you increase, you and your children! May you be blessed by the Lord, who made heaven and earth! The heavens are the Lord's heavens, but the earth he has given to the children of man" (vv. 14-16). We should never be satisfied; we should always be looking to increase our productivity, growth, and success. We should never be passive, because forces of wickedness will look to destroy and erode what God has called us to build, protect, and preserve. There will always be more work to do, so we must never stop working hard!

It's not unspiritual or sinful to achieve. Achievement is not only a wonderful thing; it's also a vital thing. In fact, salvation is all about achievement. There would be no hope of forgiveness, of present help, or of a new heavens and a new earth if it were not for the unstoppable ambition of the Lord of lords to achieve what only he could achieve in extending his grace to his people and in redeeming and restoring his groaning world.

But we must constantly remind ourselves and one another that achievement is a spiritual minefield. God warned the children of Israel of this danger right as they were about to enter the Promised Land: "And when the Lord your God brings you into the land that he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you--with great and good cities that you did not build, and houses full of all good things that you did not fill, and cisterns that you did not dig, and vineyards and olive trees that you did not plant--and when you eat and are full, then take care lest you forget the Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery" (Deuteronomy 6:10-12, emphasis mine).

Look back also at the first verse of Psalm 115; it includes a similar warning and a reminder: "Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory, for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness!"

Even though we were created to achieve and succeed, our sinful hearts will taste achievement and success and be tempted to forget the Lord and give glory to our own name.

Redeemed to Achieve

God created us to achieve and succeed, but after sin corrupted our hearts, his saving and redeeming grace then ignites a radical shift in our ambition. Whereas once our thoughts, desires, words, and actions were motivated and directed by our ambition to achieve our definition of personal happiness, by grace, they are now shaped by our ambition for the kingdom of God to accomplish all God has designed for it to achieve. Whereas once we were ambitious for what we wanted, now we are ambitious to do the will of God.

We have been redeemed to achieve! "You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body" (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). We have been saved from building our own kingdom and now called to be ambitious for the growth and expansion of his kingdom. "For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised" (2 Corinthians 5:14-15).

New-in-Christ, gospel-centered achievement can be a beautiful thing, but we must remember that we are not yet free from the temptations and presence of sin. What starts as a desire to achieve in the name of God can become dangerous when it takes hold of the hearts of believers. We must remain vigilant that the rescue and redirection of our hearts' desires concerning what we seek to achieve are still a work in progress.

I wish I could say that what always motivates me to do what I do and say what I say is a heartfelt ambition for the glory of God and the success of his kingdom, but it is not. I wish that the ways I spend my money and invest my time were always motivated by vertical ambition, but they are not. I wish I could say that God is always at the center of every pursuit of the thoughts of my heart, but he is not. I wish I could say that I always want every achievement in my life to be a finger pointing to God's existence and his glory, but I cannot.

It must be said for me, and I am sure for you, that ambition is a spiritual battleground. Achievement originally intended for God's glory and his kingdom, even borne out of a spirit of pure humility, can easily, quickly, and subtly morph into something else. A good thing can become a bad thing when it becomes a ruling thing.

Below are several signs that indicate when the pursuit of achievement starts to rule your heart and when you may be at risk of chasing glory for your name instead of the name of the Lord.

Maximizing Analytics

God has ordained us to do life, ministry, and business where money is a needed concern, where there are necessary analytical aspects to what we do, where strategic planning is essential, and where numeric growth is a defining metric for success. None of these things is wrong or dangerous, and, in fact, each might be necessary for the wise stewardship of whatever God has called you to do in whatever arena he has placed you. But the desire to achieve analytical, metric growth must not become so dominant that it begins to change you, the way you think about yourself, and the lifestyle of representing Christ to which you have been called.

Have you allowed yourself to migrate from being a humble gospel servant to becoming a proud, domineering achiever, justified in the name of institutional achievement and analytical success?

Minimizing Character

God values character, but I'm not sure the church of Jesus Christ always does. I think there are times when we are more attracted to prominent personalities, powerful communicators, and result-producing achievers than to persons of beautiful character who model the fruit of the Spirit.

Examine the list of character qualities that Paul lays out in Ephesians 4:1-3: "I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." Every character quality on this list is a window into what God values in the heart and life of those he has called to represent him. In God's eyes, character trumps achievement.

Do you value being known for your gentleness over being known for your achievements? Are you too tolerant of a belligerent, domineering approach because it appears to have led to your success? Do you justify impatient, harsh, conflictual words and actions in the name of results?

Mistreating People

It is much easier to build "stuff" that achieves than it is to develop or care for people. Sales, systems, products, expansion, events, and awards are much more immediately satisfying and fulfilling than the long-term, often frustrating and discouraging work of investment, discipleship, evangelism, generosity, and love in our relationships. It is tempting to define achievement by the projects we have built, managed, and maintained rather than by the people we are impacting as ambassadors for Christ.

We cannot allow ourselves to be so intent on measurable achievements that we develop negative attitudes toward the messy people God has placed in our path. The Lord knew that in a fallen world, relationships would be inefficient and somewhat chaotic. But the mess of relational ministry is God's mess, a mess that drives us beyond the border of our own wisdom and strength to rely on the presence, power, and promises of the One who sends us. It is crucial to never lose sight of the fact that we have been called, first and foremost, to serve and love people who need fundamental heart and life transformation. The body of Christ will never be effective at discipleship or evangelism if we are so busy achieving that we fail to treat people as people, loving them with humility, gentleness, patience, and grace.

Do you treat people as if they are an obstacle in the way of what God has called you to do instead of the primary purpose for which God has called you?

Magnifying Self

Achievement is more spiritually dangerous than failure. If you experience a run of success--whether it be in your marriage, parenting, academics, business, ministry, or elsewhere--you will be tempted to take credit for what only God, in his presence, power, and grace, could produce. Not only that, you will forget God, who made it all possible and who alone deserves the glory. If you take credit instead of assigning glory to the One who has sent you and who alone produces fruit out of your labors, then you assign to yourself wisdom, power, and righteousness that you do not have. You begin to assess yourself as capable rather than needy, as strong rather than weak, and as self-sufficient rather than dependent.

Consider a similar rebuke God gave Israel as they tasted the success and affluence of the Promised Land: "It was I who knew you in the wilderness, in the land of drought; but when they had grazed, they became full, they were filled, and their heart was lifted up; therefore they forgot me" (Hosea 13:5-6, emphasis mine).

Are you known for your humility or your boasting? "Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord. For it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends" (2 Corinthians 10:17-18)

Missing Prayer

Lastly, pride in achievement will suck the life out of your personal devotional communion with God and your fellowship and dependency on his people. If you experience the buzz of personal achievement without the guardrails of humility, you will be tempted to praise less, pray less, and plan more. We are in trouble when we assign more power to our planning than to our prayer. Of course, we should plan, of course we should work to be good stewards, and of course we should continually evaluate how we are doing--but, as we give much time and energy to these things, we must not let prayer become a perfunctory habit. Prayerlessness is evidence of your taking credit for what only God could produce.

On the contary, a string of achievements should make us even more prayerful, because we should seek to honor the One who has given success to our work, we should desire to continue to acknowledge that we cannot do what we have been called to do without enabling grace, and we should recognize that we need protection from the temptations that success brings.

What is the current state of your personal prayer and devotional life? Has success and achievement created more dependence or a delusion of independence?

"Not to us, O Lord, not to us"

Every ambition and every desire to achieve must be in continual submission to the lordship and the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. This will be a war until we are in the new heavens and new earth, free from the temptation and presence of sin. But there is powerful, "right here, right now" grace for this spiritual battle with humility and achievement. The One who created us with the desire to achieve, redeemed our ambition, and now calls us to succeed in everyday life for his glory, also goes with us.

He empowers us, convicts us, and protects us. He opens the eyes of our hearts to dangers we would not see without him, but he does so not as our judge but as our Father and friend. May we approach him with confidence, with cries for help, with confession where we have wandered, and with a commitment to be good soldiers in this battle. And may we remember that he fights for us even when we do not have the sense to fight for ourselves.

"Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory, for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness! [...] The dead do not praise the Lord, nor do any who go down into silence. But we will bless the Lord from this time forth and forevermore. Praise the Lord!" (Psalm 115:1, 17-18)