What is Success?

I know for a fact that God has a great plan for all of our lives. Plans to prosper, and not to harm us.  This simple fact excites me very much because our God is so huge and I know He can do incredible things with our lives. For example, God is calling me into his Ministry. I feel a huge tug towards preaching the Word of God. Along with that calling, I can really get wrapped up into thinking about how many people I will be speaking to every Sunday or how big our Church is. Then I get to thinking, "What is Success?". Will I be successful by how many people come to know Jesus? Or what about how much money the church I am Pastoring will make? Actually its neither of those. My Pastor at church described it best, "Success is knowing and doing the Will of God".

Joshua 1:8 states, "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". This verse is really encouraging to me, but leads me to think, "What kind of Success is Joshua talking about?'. God does not measure success by how much weight we can bench press or the type of grades we get. Nevertheless how much money we make. God's view on success is knowing and doing His will. Do you now see how the world's view of success and God's view of success is very different? God doesnt care what color you are or what kind of car you drive. He describes success as accepting His Son Jesus as your Lord and Savior and knowing and be obedient to His will. How awesome is that?!? We do not have to spend our time trying to make millions of dollars to prove our life is a success. What a huge weight of our shoulders! When we follow God and are obedient to His will we are already a success!

I can remember many nights spent alone in my room reading and feasting on the Word of God. Through these times I have been lucky enough to get a glimpse of His heart and the plans He has for my life. The only way you can get you know someone in a relationship is to spend endless amounts of time with them. With Jesus it's the exact same. So when the worldy pressures of success drag you down, just remember what God's view of success is. You dont have to be a pre-med major or in Engineering to become a success in God's eyes. Its not about your ability, but its about your availibility and obedience to Him. So I encourage all of you to be availible and spend time with Him in His word. He has great plans for your life.

- Derek