If you haven’t read Day 1 yet, you can right here: Work and Ambition Devotional Day 1
We barely squeaked the devotional in this morning. The boys had a harder time getting out of bed, and then getting dressed was apparently just too much lol. But we made it!
This morning’s devotional was short and sweet. I had gone over it last night about how I wanted to bring it out but then this morning it kind of went out the window! Guess I should have written my thoughts down last night!
Here’s our scripture reading for this morning…
Matthew 6:8-13
8. Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.
9. After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
10. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
11. Give us this day our daily bread.
12. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
13. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.
Look To The Future…
In verse 10…. Looking forward to that heavenly kingdom is looking toward the future. We need to be looking ahead so we know what we need to achieve that goal. Now I’m talking about doing/working for our spiritual reward after we’ve accepted Christ as our saviour. I know some would like to think that I’m talking about works for salvation, but I am not. Once you’ve become a child of God, you are forever a child of God.
Every child of God has a mansion in Heaven and has that to look forward to. However, you do not have to work for that mansion do you? You don’t work for salvation. It is by grace through faith, not of works. But God does have work for us to do after we are saved! He also has a reward for those that are faithful.
Ephesians 2:8-10
8. For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9. Not of works, lest any man should boast. 10. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
So, no works to be saved, BUT after we are saved, God wants us to walk in them.
Now all of this stuff that I wanted to bring out to the boys this morning is just gushing out of course! Maybe I’ll try to get them up even earlier tomorrow and we can recap some of this.
Immediate and Short Term Goals…
Not only do we need to look to the future and have goals, but we also need to have ambition for the immediate things and short term goals. We see in the verses above that we are to pray and ask God to give us our immediate needs. “Give us this day our daily bread”. Now, yes, we ask and trust God to take care of our needs, but that doesn’t mean we can just sit on our rears and do nothing and expect God to just lay food, clothes, shelter in our lap! He never said that! In fact he tells us that we need to work and provide for our family.
2 Thessalonians 3:10-12
10. For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat. 11. For we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busybodies. 12. Now them that are such we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ, that with quietness they work, and eat their own bread.
Ephesians 4:28
28. Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth.
Ephesians 4:28 even says we should work so that we might have enough to give to the needy.
Teaching Ambition and Responsibility…
I want my boys to grow into responsible, strong men that have ambition to serve the Lord and take care of their families. I want them to be husbands that their wives can respect and follow. There are a lot of men and women out there that have a lot of ambition but it’s only for the things of this world. I want my boys to be ambitious in serving the Lord and being the best husbands and fathers they can be. If they have those ambitions, then they will automatically want to work hard to provide for their family.
I think we need to work even harder now days to teach our children about work ethic in whatever they do. There are so many things to keep them entertained that we as parents tend to not teach them how to work. We don’t want to take the time to teach them because we ourselves are so busy and we don’t have the patience. Back in the days before we had all this instant gratification, make your life easy stuff, families had to work together. Children had to help a lot more than they do now. Many people couldn’t afford to hire help (or keep slaves :/ ) so their children were what they had to help on the farm or in the family business, or just doing chores around the home.
Children back then had to be more mature at a younger age than they are now. Look at David. He was a boy taking care of his father’s sheep. The sheep were part of their livelihood so that was actually a big responsibility. I’m not saying it’s a completely bad thing that kids are able to be kids longer now, but at the same time, I think many kids don’t grow up by the time they should because of our own laziness as parents and not having the “ambition” (word of the week! lol) to teach them.
Well, that’s it for today! That is way more than I talked about this morning with the boys but I will be going over a lot of this stuff with them throughout the rest of the week.
Take Action!
What’s one thing you can have your child/children help you out with today? Even if it takes you longer, get in the habit of having them help out! (I’m working on that myself!)
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