"D"efining Success

The definition of success is the accomplishment of an aim or purpose.  Most of us view success as someone wealthy, someone "living the dream", someone who has everything they could ever want.  But is that really success by God's standards?  True, genuine success has very little to do with things, fame or money.  True success has everything to do with God.  God's love.  God's grace.  God's promises.  God's salvation.

With your perspective changed to what success truly is, as a believer in Christ, you begin to see success in everything.  Every blessing.  Every moment of life.  Every opportunity God gives you.  It's far to easy for us to look at what we don't have, what we lack.  And we envy and want what someone else has gotten.  "He who can give thanks for a little will always find he has enough." (Anonymous)

Take a moment and take a look at your surroundings, your life.  Take a quick inventory of everything in your life.  What do you see?  Do you see your life as a glass half empty or a glass half full?

God promises to supply all our needs, and he has promised that beyond what we can even begin to

think we need.  Remember the story in the Bible of Jesus feeding the five thousand with just a few loaves and fish?  That was a major success in God's eyes.  People had a need and God provided, and then some!

Could it be that we more often than not focus on what we lack instead of the blessings we have been given?  And if we took at moment to acknowledge that each and every blessing is a gift from God to us, would we be thankful and praise Him for it?  We should.  We need to remind ourselves daily that "Apart from me [Jesus] you can do nothing"- John 15:5.  Without God continually in our lives, we will never find enough successes for us to be satisfied.  Cliff Richard once said, "The more we depend on God, the more dependable we find He is".  Yep.  He sure is.  He is enough and HE is the one we should align our successes to.  In our insufficiency, Jesus is sufficient.

So instead of sitting around complaining that we didn't get the job we thought we wanted.  Complaining that we don't have enough money saved up.  Complaining that our kids aren't good enough, our house isn't big enough, my life isn't good enough; we need to look at our life as God sees us. 

"Winners see an answer for every problem; losers see a problem in every answer."- Barbara Johnson

"People judge us by the success of our efforts.  God looks at the efforts themselves.:- Charlotte Bronte

Don't get so caught up in the wants and failures of life that you miss out on true success from your Father in heaven.  Galatians 6:9, Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. 

There is a blessing and a success everyday with your name written on it.  God is a loving Father full of grace, compassion and mercy. 

Look at your life through His eyes.  See yourself as God views you.  Once you redefine what true success is, your total perspective will change and you will begin noticing all the true successes that are blessings to you each and everyday. 

"Success isn't the key.  Faithfulness is."- Joni Eareckson Tada