American ministers often seek power with God. Perfect power will be issued to God's witnesses in the last days, but only to those who are without personal ambition.

The American culture wants to know what an individual has accomplished. We are not always concerned about what kind of person he is just as long as he is achieving something.

God sees matters differently. He is concerned about the person, not what he or she has accomplished. God is creating eternal servants and He wants them in His image and dwelling in untroubled rest in the center of His will.

Whether a pastor has two people in attendance or twenty thousand is of no significance in God's sight. God is looking only for faithfulness. God can do tremendous things with any person at any time and under any circumstance. But to find an individual who limits himself to fearing God and keeping His commandments, who is not leaping with the high hills of personal ambition, is extraordinarily difficult.

Contentment and patience are Bible values.

I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. (Philippians 4:11)

But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. (I Timothy 6:6-9)

Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you."  (Hebrews 13:5)

Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labor in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the watchmen stand guard in vain. In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat—for he grants sleep to those he loves. (Psalms 127:1,2)

I, John, your brother and companion in the suffering and kingdom and patient endurance that are ours in Jesus, was on the island of Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. (Revelation 1:9)

Sometimes we hear people advocating that we should "do big things for God; think big; step out in faith and God will bless you; prove God, take Him at His Word; God is waiting for people who dare to believe."

None of this is of the Lord. Rather, God says: "Be still, and know that I am God." God is not looking for a person who will "dare to do great things for God."

There is no example of aggressive faith in the "faith chapter," the eleventh chapter of the Book of Hebrews.

If God tells us to take some unusual step of faith, then this is altogether different. This is not ambition but obedience and faithfulness. Sometimes God indeed does require an individual to walk on the water, so to speak.

To be continued.