Success | God’s Way
A few years ago, I had the opportunity to speak on the subject of “God’s measure of success”. The more I studied the issue, the more I was struck by how radically different God’s thoughts are from ours. Most of us are familiar with the verses
“My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the LORD “and my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.” (Is 55:8-9 NLT)
Why are we surprised, and even offended, when things happen in our lives that we don’t understand?
Why do we find it so easy to believe the same old dysfunctional stuff about ourselves instead of what God says about us?
Can I ask a couple difficult questions? Why are we surprised, or even offended, when things happen in our lives that we don’t understand? Why do we find it so easy to believe the same old dysfunctional stuff about ourselves instead of what God says about us?
The subject of success is one of the areas both of these questions frequently impact. We commonly use a number of predictable criteria for judging whether or not something, or someone, is successful. It probably shouldn’t be a big surprise to discover that men and women tend to use different criteria for judging success. Men, in general, tend to look at success through the filter of accomplishment. They determine success by using standards of size, quantity, quality and number of accolades. Women, on the other hand, often consider quality of their relationships to determine success or failure. Other factors that influence our method of determining success include culture, socio-economic background, religious experience, even geo-political experience.
How does God measure or determine success? I think the Apostle Paul gave us a hint 2 Tim 4:6-8 “For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing”. (NIV)
Paul indicates his successfulness will be determined by two things: what he did with God’s calling and whether or not he did it in faith. These two criteria and only these two will be his judge. What he doesn’t mention are any of his accomplishments. Considering his situation (he was about to be martyred) it would have been almost expected for him to begin citing his accomplishments: things like winning thousands to Christ, healing hundreds and probably thousands. Even better, the fact that he had written a good portion of the New Testament.
Paul apparently knew that these common criteria for judging success weren’t really very important. He knew that man’s thoughts are actually far below God’s thoughts, even in the area of judging success. This knowledge gave Paul great peace and strength, even when facing imminent death. It is absolutely thrilling to realize that God will also use this same set of criteria to judge each of us. When we stand before God on that day, our reward will be determined by these two criteria:
- Did we do what God called us to do?
- Did we go about doing it in faith?
Often, we think the biggest problem is that we don’t know what God has called us to do. In fact, a good portion of us have a difficult time even believing that God has something for us to do. Well, let me assure you that each and every one of us has a job to do. We really do have a purpose and, contrary to what most of us like to claim, I honestly believe that deep down inside we generally know what it is. The real problem is that we’re fearful. We are fearful for two reasons. First of all, we really don’t believe we are good enough for God to have a job for us. Second, we think we need a clear understanding of how to go about doing it.
What we don’t see is that this predicament isn’t an unusual problem at all. It is absolutely normal, and exactly the way God wants it to be. Most of us would agree that if we know what to do, but don’t know how to do it, we will be totally dependent on God. The difficulty comes when God asks us to step out in faith without having a plan. What we fail to understand is that it takes great faith to step out before the plan and/or the ability become real to us. This is exactly how God wants it to be because only what is done in faith is pleasing to Him. Fact is, if we knew how to accomplish God’s plan we wouldn’t need faith at all. Years before Paul reached the impending end to his life, God had inspired him to write in Rom 14:23 “…for whatever does not originate and proceed from faith is sin” (Amp)
Recently I heard this statement, “Faith does not move God to action, true faith moves man to action.” Maybe that is why James wrote “faith apart from works is useless.” Jam 2:20 (ESV)
God’s measure of success is really quite simple: FAITH = SUCCESS! When we look back on our lives, do we see faith (trust and confidence in God) or do we see fear and doubt? God loves to see faith in His people. God is pleased with faith. God rewards faith!