Psalm 90:17 And may the Lord our God show us His approval and make our efforts successful. Yes, make our efforts successful!
When we start school, I guess it is safe to assume, our parents are praying that it will be the start of something successful. I know my parents did. They had dreams for us. They wanted us to be able to read, comprehend, and test well so we could finish each grade and move on to the next. We got to a certain age or year in school, and they added the chance to play an instrument, or to be in a choir. If we were able to do this and keep up our grades, we were considered a successful student.
As we got older, parents (including myself with my own kids), started to see areas in which we personally thought our kids were excelling in. My parents noticed that my friends would come to our house to get their hair styled for homecomings and proms. My mother asked me if I had ever thought about going to beauty school. I said no, she said well maybe you should. I said okay. I went and I’ve been a hairdresser ever since. Was it my passion? No, but it paid my bills. Did I love it? Sometimes, but not all the time. Did I make mistakes? Yes, but I learned from them.
Mistakes or wrong choices that we refuse to learn from will result in disaster. Ask me how I know that. Job 5:3 I have seen that fools may be successful for the moment, but then comes sudden disaster. It was sudden. I lived in my sin until sin no longer allowed me to live. It was an experience I will never forget, and I pray I never do.
Deuteronomy 8:18 Remember the Lord your God. He is the one who gives you power to be successful, in order to fulfill the covenant He confirmed to your ancestors with an oath.
It wasn’t until I fully realized God’s love for me, submitted and surrendered to Him, that I became what I would call successful in life. Don’t get me wrong. I still make bad choices. I make mistakes. I struggle with sin. I’m human. But success in my eyes, is realizing that I am nothing without Jesus. I can not do this thing called life on my own.
Revelation 3:17 You say, “I am rich. I have everything I want. I don’t need a thing!” And you don’t realize that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked.
The world says a certain amount of money in the bank makes you successful. The world says a certain size home, a particular car, possessions, vacations, etc. are what show your success. This is all bogus.
To me, success is heaven. Success will be walking the streets of gold and meeting people that are there because I was bold enough, at some point, to either tell them about Jesus, or they saw something in my life that made them want to seek Him out themselves. Success is loving the people that are hard to love. (I’m aware (LOL) some may think that that is me.) Success is reading the Word, and even though it is hard, to keep running the race.
Don’t give up on success. Just redefine it.
- Seasons - November 13, 2024
- What is Success - October 9, 2024
- I Don’t Understand - August 14, 2024