What Does God Think Success Is?

13 Dec What Does God Think Success Is?

Success and Apple Pies

My wife and I used to have an elderly lady friend who, when anyone new moved into the neighborhood, would bake an apple pie and take it to them. Then, in the process, she would share Jesus with them. She admitted that she could not do a lot for the Lord (from the world’s perspective). But she would say, “But I can bake a pie.” And bake pies she did and used them to tell others about Jesus.

Was she a success? Or would she have had to do much more to be considered a success in God’s eyes?

We typically desire success in order to validate our worth as a human being.

Our worth is based, not on “success,” but on having been created in the image of God. So, one of the greatest things to learn in life is that, by God’s definition, success isn’t necessary. Each of us has inherent and infinite worth because, and only because, we are created in the image of God. We have worth, not because of what we accomplish but because of who we are… we are His creation. God created us so that He could have a relationship with us, so He could be kind to us forever, so He could demonstrate to the world through us that He is who He says He is . . . omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, loving, just, kind, holy, and good.

If we insist on pursuing success as a measure of our worth, then two unpleasant things may happen. First, circumstances may thwart us. We cannot control people, possessions, and circumstances well enough to guarantee success. Also, if we don’t get what we want, we will be unsatisfied because we didn’t get it. If we do get what we want, we will realize it does not satisfy. It is as Oscar Wilde famously said, “There are only two tragedies in life: one is not getting what one wants and the other is getting it.”  We climb the ladder of success only to find it was leaning against the wrong wall.

The second unpleasant thing that may happen to us is that God may pry our stubby little fingers, one at a time, off the thing we think will satisfy. He is the only thing (One) who can satisfy us completely and unendingly. And He loves us too much to allow us to go through life blindly trying to find satisfaction in anything other than Himself. He may induce failure so we will learn to transfer our affections to Him (Hebrews 12:5-11). As John Newton (author of Amazing Grace) once wrote, from God’s perspective, “These earthly trials I employ from self and pride to set thee free, and break thy schemes of earthly joy that thou mayest seek thy all in Me.”

True success is being faithful to God and leaving the results to Him.

In Joshua 1:8, God tells us what it takes to succeed in His eyes: “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.”

We can see it a little more clearly if we think through the passage backwards. For us to make our way prosperous and successful, we must do according to all that is written in the Book of the Law. In order to do all that is written in it, we must study and meditate on it continuously. So, success comes when we are faithfully obedient to God’s Word. All we must do is discern as well as we can what God wants us to do and do it. That is success.

All the results belong to God. The apostle Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 3:6, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase.” This only reinforced the words of Jesus recorded by John, “without Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). We can bear no fruit without the Lord. Why? Because bearing fruit is beyond our ability. Only God can bring forth fruit. But He will use us to produce fruit through us if we are faithful to Him.

The single most discouraging person in the world to me when I first became a Christian was – surprisingly enough – Billy Graham. Don’t get me wrong. I admired him more than I can say. It’s just that I couldn’t measure up to him. I felt hopelessly inferior.

I tried to be like him and it soon became clear that that was not going to happen on any level. I concluded that he was going to get a fabulous mansion in heaven for his reward, and I was going to get a tar-paper shack. In my spiritual infancy, I didn’t realize one fundamental truth: God doesn’t reward us on the basis of our results. He rewards us on the basis of our faithfulness to Him. He is the one who determines the results.

Conclusion

So, God may call a person like Billy Graham to a ministry that is very public, has a phenomenal response, and leads to worldwide recognition. And Billy could have been 100% faithful to that call, or 50% faithful, or 0 % faithful. And God will reward him according to his faithfulness.

On the other hand, God may call a person like our elderly friend to a very humble ministry of baking pies and sharing Jesus.  And that person can be 100%, 50% or 0% faithful. We all have an equal opportunity and ability to be faithful to whatever God has called us. Therefore, God can reward everyone equally.

God wants to bring us to the place where we realize that success doesn’t satisfy and defeat doesn’t destroy. The only thing that matters is whether we get up in the morning and say, “Lord, what do you want me to do today?” and whether we can lie down at night and say “I did it.” That is true success in God’s eyes.

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