making a name for yourself

Do you want to have a great reputation? 
Do you want your name to be held in high esteem?
Do you want others to honor and respect you?
Do you want to be recognized as the greatest?  

If you answered yes to all these questions then what it is that you want is to be like God.  This could be a good desire or a bad desire.  It all depends on who God is to you.

According to the Bible, because God is great he does certain things.

 For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe.
 He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing. (Deuteronomy 10:17-18 ESV)

Widows, orphans, and travellers; these are the folks that have nothing to call their own and nothing to offer to others.  These are the lowest of the low, the poorest of the poor and God demonstrates his greatness and power by taking care of them.  To be the greatest is to serve the lowest.  The first shall be last, the least is actually the greatest.  The greatest among us must be the servant of all.  The highest and best seat is on the floor where we can wash each others feet.. 

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
(Philippians 2:5-8 ESV)

Christ shows us what greatness is...what real obedience is.  It is to be humble and care nothing for ourselves but rather to give ourselves for others.  We cannot do the work of Jesus and die on a cross for the lowest of the low in order to save them and bring them to God but we can die to our wants and desires in order to give of ourselves and our possessions to those who cannot give back.  That is...if we truly want to have our yes to all the questions we began with...

Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
(Philippians 2:9-11 ESV)

So, if you are like me and you want to make a name for yourself now you know how to do it.  All you need is a new nature that is like God's nature and to walk in obedience.

He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it.
Revelation 2:17


The one who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God. Never shall he go out of it, and I will write on him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down from my God out of heaven, and my own new name. 
Revelation 3:12