Matthew 16:26 (NLT),”And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul?”
What is it to be successful in life? What makes someone call their life a success? There are so many different ways we measure success. Success is defined as the favorable or prosperous termination of attempts or endeavors; the accomplishment of one’s goals. It’s also defined as the attainment of wealth, position, honors or the like. Those two definitions show you how differently success can be measured. Unfortunately, the second definition is how many of us define success.
This is evident in the fascination many of us have with the rich and famous. You look at them and think, Wow they have made it! Look at how successful they are! But your view of their success is purely based on the wealth, position or fame you’ve seen them attain. Then you compare their life with your life and in no way do you view your life as being a success.
This is the danger of basing your success off of things like money and wealth. You start to focus more on what other people are doing and trying to attain their level of success. But their race may not be your race, so you start getting outside of what God has called you to do. You focus on those material measures of success and you forget about the calling God has placed on you.
Ecclesiastes 4:4 (NLT) tells us, “Then I observed that most people are motivated to success because they envy their neighbors. But this, too, is meaningless – like chasing the wind.” Each of you has your race to run and reaching the end of your race is the measure of success. That’s why I like the first definition which says success is the accomplishment of one’s goals. It’s not the money or fame you should judge yourself by, but the way you ran and completed the race God set in front of you.
It’s so easy to let society determine for you what success looks like. Don’t let others judge your success and determine your worth. God has you running the race He needs you to run for the glory of His kingdom. God sees you as a success every step of the way as you continue to run that race. The prize He has for you is much greater than any wealth or title you could gain here on earth.
Success is running your race to the end!
Truth In Love! ~ Chuck