What is Success?

"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." {Joshua 1:8}

The other day I was reading this passage; I had already been contemplating the question, 'What is success?' and this started me thinking even more. I mean we can all figure out the world's definition of being successful. If we have a good job [and we're on top of the corporate ladder], we drive a Caddy or a BMW [or a Ferrari], we have lots of investments and a huge house. But what I was wondering is, what is success supposed to look like for the Christian.

Unconsciously, before I starting really thinking about all this, my view of success was finishing what you've begun. And although in some cases that can be true, I can think of some circumstances where that idea held me back from doing what I was supposed to be doing. At one point last spring, I felt the need to quit a job that I had only been working at for less than two months. For a while before I quit, and even after, I struggled with the fact that I didn't finish what I'd started. I came to the conclusion that success doesn't always mean that you have to finish it. So if that's not success, and neither is money, or a job, or a car and house, than what is?

Even the definition of success leaves you hanging:

"a degree of measure of succeeding / A favorable termination of a venture / one who succeeds / obtaining wealth, favor or eminence." [Websters Dictionary]

So basically, success is measured by what *you* think is a favorable termination of a venture. [Or by what our culture thinks]

So is success by God's standards physical things? Is it spiritual gifts? Is it the amount of people that you win for the Lord? Is it the amount of work you do?

Is it being rich? Is it being smart? Is it helping lots of people? Is it just plain doing exactly what the Lord tells you?

The Hebrew meaning of the word is:

To be intelligent, consider, expert, instruct, prosper, deal prudently. give skillful, teach, to have and make to understand[ing], wisdom,  behave self wisely, make wise, guide wittingly.

In the other parts of the bible where this word is used the word is translated wisdom. Maybe success doesn't have a tangible form, and maybe it looks different for each person that is following the will of God for their life.I think it's more like wisdom, behaving wisely, teaching, instructing, to make wise, to make to understand.

"Only may the Lord give you wisdom [success] and understanding." {1 Chronicles 22:12}

"The proverbs of Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel... to receive the instruction of wisdom [success], justice, judgement and equity." {Proverbs 1:3} 

"A man will be commended according to his wisdom [success]." {Proverbs 12:8} 

I guess, though, regardless of what success looks like, the way to get there is laid out in the first verse that we read....

"The book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, that you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe what is written...."

I wish you all much success, in God's terms!

~Kelley

Because Two are Better

"Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their labor."

For if they fall, one will lift up his companion. 

"Though one may be overpowered by another, two can withstand him." 

"And a threefold cord is not quickly broken." [Ecclesiastes 4:9-10,12]

"Where there is no counsel, the people fall; but in the multitude of counselors there is safety."

[Proverbs 11:14]

Because two are better!

The Beginning of Knowledge

"I will declare the decree: The Lord has said to Me, You are My Son, Today I have begotten You. Ask of Me, and I will give You the Nations for Your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for Your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron; You shall dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel.
"Now therefore, be wise, O kings; Be instructed you judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and you perish in the way, when His wrath is kindled but a little.
"Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him." ~Psalm 2:7-12

"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge." ~Proverbs 1:7

After watch the movie "Amazing Grace" the other night I read the first scripture. I had been thinking about the things that humans have done to each other (slavery, abortion, wars, the list goes on). While reading the verse, "Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling" I felt this awesome fear of the Lord, but at the same time, I felt His overwhelming love for me and the rest of His creation. It occurred to me that before I had always felt the two emotions separately, and viewed them as such, either the fear of the Lord, or the love of the Lord. But they really come together. It says to rejoice with trembling, even in our worship and love of the Lord we still feel His awesome power, and we should fear. The fear of the Lord provides the motivation for the things we do or don't do, but the love of the Lord provides the hope we need to carry on. Without the fear of the Lord we would not have the incentive to stop sinning, but without the love of the Lord we would lose the hope of having the ability to change.

The next morning in our family "church" time we were talking about..... the fear of the Lord! We read Proverbs 1:7; without the fear of the Lord we can not know truth. To be wise, and to have the ability to discern what is right or wrong, we must first have a fear of the Lord. If we fear the consequences of judging something or someone in a manner that is not truthful, we are much more likely to take this seriously!

Another interesting thought is that in the absence of the fear of the Lord, other fears have room to take over. Consider our society, and the phobias and fears that govern peoples lives. After the 9/11 tragedy the public was in enough terror to give up many of their rights for bodily protection. But this goes even farther than fear of physical dangers or death. Many people are afraid of things such as certain relationships, not getting a certain job, failing at a project, letting someone down. We have traded a healthy fear of an an awesome God for a multitude of fears that take hold of our lives.

The Lord that we should fear and love reveals Himself to Moses in the book of Exodus:

"And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, 'The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children's children to the third and fourth generation.'" ~Exodus 34:6-7