How Do You Define Success?

Most of us define success in terms of our occupations, income, and possessions. Our culture perpetuates that definition as well. One problem with that concept is that there is no period to that definition. In other words, enough is never enough - mostly due to those darn Jones'! We spend way too much time, energy, and money trying to keep up with them, but they seem to always be one or two steps ahead!

One of my daughters is really good with techno-things like computers and cameras. That's good for me because when I can't figure something out, I call her. She is the one who kept insisting that I change over to an iPhone when the 3GS came out, and I am glad she did! As soon as the 3GS came out, she bought one herself and sold her original iPhone. But when the iPhone 4 was about to be released, she learned that our local provider would only have 60 for the first week or so. She arrived at the store at five o'clock the morning of the big release and was second in line. (As a side note, I haven't updated to the 4 yet, but it is really a great phone that has a camera flash and "face talk" ability. I will update when my contract is up!)

My point is not to rag on my daughter for keeping up with technology - 'cause like I said, I will update my own phone soon. The point is that there is always something else on the horizon that is better or more modern than what we have. I'm positive that as I write, Apple is working on the next generation of the iPhone. We can spend our lives trying to keep up with everything and everyone, but if that's how we define success, it will be fleeting and we will be frustrated human beings.

God's Word has a lot of say about success and prosperity. In the New Testament, Jesus equates a successful life to living an abundant life. Abundant in Him and not in the physical, temporal things of this world. Look at Jesus Himself. I feel certain He would say He lived a successful, prosperous life - even though it was murderously cut short in His thirties. He knew the Father intimately, and He lived out the fruit of the Spirit found in Galations 5. And most importantly, He fulfilled the Father's purpose for His life - on the cross. So if we define success via Jesus, it is 1) knowing the Father intimately, 2) living an abundant life (in the spiritual sense), and 3) fulfilling God's purpose for our lives. Um...doesn't have much to do with the latest gadgets and gizzmos, or bank accounts and addresses, does it?

Jesus showed us what a successful life looks like. We can go back to Joshua to find out how to attain that kind of success. The first nine verses of Joshua is a treasure-trove, but let's concentrate on verse eight.

• "This book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on 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 shall have success."

My paraphrase of that verse goes like this (BTW, it is based on study and research):

• Be sure you read and know the Word of God. Ponder it all the time and in every situation. Obey everything it says. Then you will be successful and prosperous - like Jesus.

Very simple to say; very difficult to live out. Success revolves around knowing God intimately - He reveals Himself through His Word. The more we know His Word, meditate on His Word, and obey His Word, the more we know Him. The better we know Him, the more abundant our lives will be - we can actually live in the fruit of the Spirit - love, peace, joy, patience, kindness, goodness, and faithfulness. And just as Jesus did during his earthly life, we can know and fufill His purpose for our individual lives by knowing Him intimately.

That, my friends, is His definition of success. There is certainly nothing wrong with trying to better ourselves in the worldly definition. Thank goodness I haven't talked myself out of that new iPhone! However, when those desires override our desire to spend time getting to know Him more deeply, our idea of success has shifted, and it's time to re-evaluate our priorities. His desires need to always be put before our own. Then we will taste the sweetness of His presence in our midst.