The Right Ambition

​Watchman Nee shares the story of two brothers who both cultivated paddy-fields located half way up a hill.  They watered their fields during the heat of the day but at night, farmers whose fields were lower down the hill, dug a hole in the irrigation channel surrounding the brother’s fields so that the water flowed down to their land.  The brothers noticed but said nothing.  They patched the hole and continued to water their own land.  For seven successive nights their neighbors stole their water.  Still the brothers endured this thieveryin silence but increasingly became unhappy so at last they went to another brother in the Lord’s service to seek his advice.

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“You’re unhappy because you’ve not gone the full length.  You should first irrigate those farmers’ fields and then irrigate your own.”  The brothers listened and returned home.  For the next several days they watered their neighbor’s land and then their own. To their surprise, their joy returned.  Their neighbors approached them and apologized and said, “If this is Christianity, then we want to hear more about it.”[1]
 
Meditation
2 Corinthians 5:9—Therefore, whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to be pleasing to Him.
 
Personal ambition fed and nurtured will eventually rip our heart apart because its food is poison.  Unhappiness is frequently the clue that our drive is off-base. Godly motivation, the right ambition, goes to the neighbor’s field and waters it because it is not about us or them, it is about God—always about God!  Then we find joy.  We find fruit where before there was nothing because our actions are noted by godless people who see divine fingerprints where we have placed our hands.
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To have the right, ambitious attitude is to eagerly seek the Lord and His work. It is thrilling to find heaven laboring on earth through usbecause we were willing to let go of our ego and our need to be right so that our Father might be glorified.  What is your aim?  What motivates and inspires you?  May it be an enthusiastic drive in line with Colossians 3:17, “And whatever you do, in word or in deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.”
            
Inspiration
The demands of the divine life must be met, so we dare not stop short of God’s satisfaction.—Watchman Nee in Twelve Baskets Full Vol. II
 
©2018 Daniel York  ARR. Reveration is the weekly devotional ministry of First Cause.  If you would like to receive these devotionals go to www.firstcause.org and click on the "Click here to receive weekly devotionals" box. Unlimited permission to copy this devotional without altering text or profiteering is allowed subject to inclusion of this copyright notice.      
 
Ecclesiastes 12:10-The Teacher sought to find delightful sayings and to accurately write words of truth.  (Holman CSB)


[1]Watchman Nee in Twelve Baskets Full, Vol. II