3 John 2AMP “Beloved, I pray that in every way you may succeed and
prosper and be in good health (physically), just as (I know) your health
prospers (spiritually)
There is no doubt that every
believer is called to be successful. That one ultimately fails or succeeds in
life has nothing to do with God anymore because He has equipped or endowed us with
all we need to succeed. Let me say, that success means many different things to
different people. If however, we go by the scripture above, then it involves
every area of our lives. So we are certain that God’s plan is that we prosper
in every area of life. It is therefore surprising to find that success is one
of the things we struggle with as believers; well, in my own area of the world.
Meanwhile, it should be one of those things we walk into easily and remain well
grounded. In my opinion, it is a major struggle both with the highest of believers
or the smallest amongst us. It is almost as though we never thought it would
happen so we live unprepared for it. It is becoming so consistent for believers
to handle success badly around here that it is beginning to look like when the
devil realizes he can’t stop one from succeeding, he waits for you to succeed
and watches for when (i.e. if) one gets so deceived that they are lured out of the
will of God. It is so easy to point at people who are failing but the struggle
is real and we must bring an awareness to this seeming reality so that we better
prepare ourselves for that eventuality. If God’s word is real as we know that
it is it, we shall all have good success.
James 1: 14 “Temptation comes from our own desires which entices us and
drag us away.”
Romans 12: 3 “Because of the privilege and authority God has given me,
I give each of you this warning. Don’t think you are better than you really
are. Be honest in your evaluation of yourselves, measuring yourselves by the
faith God has given us.”
I recall that I once heard Bishop
Jakes talk about how tough it is managing success well; it was indeed an
opener. As I pondered on that sermon, it became even clearer to me that since
success is bound to happen to believers, we should prepare for it as we prepare
for every other thing that we expect to happen to us. We do all sorts of things
including making financial investments just preparing for what we often refer
to as “the rainy day” which we don’t really hope for, so we ought to be deliberate
about preparing ourselves for success. It is very interesting to note that success
as with several other things, can be deceptive otherwise, Adam and Eve, who in
my opinion are the ultimate of success, would not have fallen for the trick of
the enemy. They had everything they needed and more yet they were lured away by
the desire for greater success. Surely, God never meant for us to be drowned in
the success so there must be a few things we could do better. Please note that
success here is not limited to money, success is success even if it is “success
as a preacher” which is particularly interesting because the work is in truth,
done by the Holy Spirit but if we are misled, we tend of think of ourselves a
little higher than we should.
Ecclesiastes 5: 19 “And it is a good thing to receive wealth from God
and the good health to enjoy it. To enjoy your work and accept your lot in
life-this is indeed a gift from God,”
Ecclesiastes 1: 9 - 10 “History merely repeats itself. It has all been
done before. Nothing under the sun is truly new. Sometimes people say ‘here is
something new! But actually it is old, nothing is ever truly new.
In preparing ourselves, we have a
host of witness, even in the bible, to look to. Some who failed because they
were successful; and others who remained successful to the end. Maybe also
those who never succeeded; perchance we may learn from them, some things we
should never do. We shall together look at some such people from the scriptures
in the next few blogs. Please remember, there is no height of success that has
never been experienced before now. Whatever we see today, was; and will also be.
There is indeed nothing new under the sun so we really ought to be calm but
more often than not, we aren’t. Also, if we truly believe that all we are and
have belong to God, which is something we say often, then it is easy to remain unmoved
by all that God allows us enjoy because we are well aware of the fact that we remain
stewards because we own nothing. Of course, a good steward is first partaker of
the fruits but they don’t get carried away with them. The effort that God puts
into preparing us to be good stewards for all He places in our care reveals the
importance He attaches to good stewardship. It is important that we do not
fail.
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