Friday, 6 July 2018

MANAGING SUCCESS – JESUS, NOT SUCCESS, MUST BE LORD

True success is from God; and through He whom all things are made and in whom they all consist – Jesus Christ.  This is the lasting, all-encompassing success which does not come with sorrow. God is the only source of true success. I am by no means suggesting that a successful person is one who doesn’t face challenges; but God is not only with every such person through every challenge but also brings them through to a better place and causes every experience to work good for them. Life will always throw challenges but God’s people come through. One of the most important things in life is to have a knowing that we own nothing. We came into this world with nothing and will leave everything behind when we leave so success is not success until it facilitates our success in eternity. The life we live here must prepare us to live a good life hereafter so we do not want success by all means because we know that the end does not justify the means; true success begins with the means. It is of utmost importance that we all as believers are very mindful of this truth. The assumption that “the means” isn’t so important is a fallacy that is weakening the church at least in my Country, making us less impactful. It would appear that our “means” have left us very handicapped.

Romans 8: 28 “And we know that God causes everything to work everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.”

Psalm 23: 4 “Even when I walk through the darkest valley, I will not be afraid, for you are close beside me.

If we understand that success is from God, then we would not struggle to hold unto to it. It is needless and vain to wickedly fight to hold unto or perpetuate it down family line. Some believers get so desperate to perpetuate success down their family lines, they wreck the lives of their children and still end up unable to do so. The only way to achieve this with God given success is to ensure that one passes down the very same principles that got you there; those are the most important things. Everything that comes from God starts from the spiritual. We must do all to ensure that our success is not allowed to compromise our relationship with God because it has a way of taking on its own life and attempting to mislead the successful. Sometimes, it is wise to write down the things we must not forget to do before we get there especially since we know that success is definitely our portion. The earlier we make decisions regarding what must not be compromised, the better for us. That way, success is tamed and will fail when it attempts to take on a life of its own. It is so easy to forget the basic things that took us there when success is allowed to take charge. We must be controlled in all things.

Hebrews 11: 3b “what we now see did not come from anything that can be seen.”

Proverbs 16: 25 “There is a path before each person that seems right but it ends in death.”

King Saul is for us, an example of a man who was misled by success. He did not start out hungry for power. Infact he was shy initially and even hid himself when he was elected at the general assembly: but after success, which he did not earn because it was purely a gift from God, he changed. He was so drowned by it that he even wanted to kill to ensure that his son became king after him. Such is the craftiness of untamed success and this could be some of the problem of today’s church in my Country. Could it be that success has craftily led us away from God and we don’t know it? Could it be that we moved away from Him so much that “the philistines” seem to be taking over land? Could it be that success met us ill prepared and as a result is drowning us? From what we see in the bible, sometimes our inability to deal and/or destroy the enemy is not so much for their strength but for our own weakness. Separation from God weakens the believer. We may not have carried our success well. Pride in anyone or form is terrible. Just as it does evil to the poor, it does even greater evil to the successful. How so presumptuous to assume that your son will be king just because He made you king. Pride does not lift anyone up. It just creates a false sense of lifting. All promotion comes from God who is also able to put down.

Psalms 75: 7 “It is God alone who judges; he decides who will rise and who will fall.”

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