To Live The Best, Seek Godly Success

Saturday 28th May 2022

Hey, I hope you have been doing well 💛

I'd be lying if I said I wanted to post today. Truth be told I was kind of indecisive. 

God wanted me to post today but a part of me wanted to postpone it until the first of June because that is the start of a new month. Today's actually the best day though because I have a pretty busy week ahead of me.

The last time I posted on my main page, I started a series called To Divinity in Motion. This talks about how you can enter Heaven, and how you can not enter Heaven so you know what to avoid.

And whilst I'm still doing that, that's going to be on hold for now. There was something else I wanted to talk about. 

Did I plan this beforehand? No, I didn't. 

Not before this morning anyway. But I trust that God is going to guide me.

So today's post is going to be about success, and most of what I am talking about is going to be taken from this website:

How Does God Define Success?

I bookmarked the page on my laptop because I knew that I would talk about that the next time I was here.

This is probably one of the first times I am going to post without really planning it first so please bare with me 😊 

Normally I do organise things because failing to prepare is preparing to fail.

So we are going to begin by defining success.

There are actually two definitions of success: worldly success and Godly success. Here is worldly success.

The gaining of wealth, respect or fame

The accomplishment of an aim or purpose

Here is the definition of Godly success, from the aforementioned website:

Obedience to God. 

Doing what God tells you to do when he says you should do it - i.e. me writing this post today and not on the 1st of June like I originally intended to.

A lot of people out there wish to be successful - but that is mainly by worldly standards and not Godly standards instead.

I read somewhere that research says a lot of people aspire to be famous due to the rise of social media, instead of having a normal profession.

And I read somewhere else that someone was complaining because TikTok stars were gaining more success than them, and they had an actual profession.

I think they were a doctor or something but I can't remember because it was such a long time ago.

There's nothing wrong with fame, i.e. some pastors are famous, but I understand their frustration. 

It also depends on what you do with the fame you have, because fame can mess a lot of people up and ruin their lives for good. 

I pray that this won't happen to you in Jesus' name.

Let me reference some things the website said about Godly and Worldly success.

It's in dark orange so that you know they're not my own words.

//

I can confidently say that I have never met someone who didn’t desire to be successful and prosperous.

I believe no one in their right mind wants to fail. I know I don’t. But one day, as I began my meditation on the Word of God, a question struck my spirit: What is success to God?

People have inaccurately defined success as abundance. 

So, if a person has a career that makes money, houses, cars, things, or earthly legacies, people generally would identify them as successful. But, does God feel the same? 

You and I are believers, and we must see things as God sees them and define them according to our playbook, The Word of God.

What is Success?

Dictionaries define success as an accomplishment. But surprisingly, the word “success” is written only one time in the Bible.

Joshua 1:8 says, Never stop reading this Book of the Law. Day and night you must think about what it says. Make sure you do everything written in it. Then things will go well with you. And you will have great success.

There is so much to this Scripture, and it speaks volumes to the church. 

The words “prosperous” and “success” are terms that the church magnifies.

 Every person is seeking their path to prosperity and success. However, God’s Word does not base success and prosperity on the increase of goods, unlike the world. 

Look at the scripture; nowhere does it correlate success with business, finances, money, or blessings. Success is based on obedience to God. (Hosea 6:6)

//

Whilst a lot of Bible verses indirectly talk about success, I think Joshua 1:8 is the only verse that actually mentions the word success explicitly.

The website also didn't mention the Hosea 6:6 verse. I did that myself: it says that God wants obedience and not sacrifice. He wants people to recognise him as their God more than bringing him burnt offerings.

Worldly success isn't bad, but you shouldn't let it define you or others. You should also seek Godly success more (Matthew 6:33)

 If I said it was bad, that means I'm saying that having success and abundance is wrong, though it's not. 

Sometimes God's even the one that gives success to you, especially when it comes to successful pastors or other people in the ministry.

There was this story in the Bible that I thought of a few minutes ago for this topic. Actually, they're two stories respectively, though they are both in the same chapter and book of the Bible.

It is Mark 12:38-44 and it says this:

Warning Against the Teachers of the Law

38 As he taught, Jesus said, “Watch out for the teachers of the law. They like to walk around in flowing robes and be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, 39 and have the most important seats in the synagogues and the places of honour at banquets. 

40 They devour widows’ houses and for a show make lengthy prayers. These men will be punished most severely.”

The Widow’s Offering

41 Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. 

42 But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a few cents.

43 Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. 

44 They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on.”

With regards to the  second half of the verses, if people had looked at the widow and saw how much she was giving, they would have probably judged her and thought that she was being disrespectful.

I can imagine what some of the rich people had said or thought when she had put her offering inside, assuming they had seen her.

Look at her - she's only giving two copper coins for offering. She really must not care about God. Why is she even here?

Whereas I put half of my earnings in the temple treasury. God is going to be so pleased with me - more than with her anyway.

They were clearly mistaken.

 Don't judge anyone. I even talked about this the last time I was here on my Posts of Encouragement, Part 4 page. I referenced it below.

Stop Judging People

Even the verse above that one, Jesus was talking about teachers of the Law. They may have been rich but did not act righteously.

You need to stop forgetting that God can read your mind. He also knows your true intentions for why you are doing something. You can find this in Jeremiah 17:10.

The Lord says, “I look deep down inside human hearts.
    I see what is in people’s minds.
I reward each person in keeping with their conduct.
    I bless them based on what they have done.”

That used to be my favourite Bible verse. Now it is my second. My first is Isaiah 58:11.

I will always guide you.
    I will satisfy your needs in a land baked by the sun.
    I will make you stronger.
You will be like a garden that has plenty of water.
    You will be like a spring whose water never runs dry.

That can even kind of link to this. Only God can satisfy you, as well as Godly success. 

Worldly success won't be able to satisfy you. And if it does, it's not permanent.

If you're using someone for their wealth, best believe that their wealth is not going to come to you.

Let's also not forget about Matthew 19:24, which says that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.

Speaking of using someone for their wealth, I recently finished watching Black-ish and I can link two episodes to today's topic.

The show is not perfect, no (what show is?) - and some would say it's racist. I relatively overlooked that. But the children grew up so quickly. There are 5 of them, 4 at first.

Zoey is the oldest daughter, Jack is the youngest son, Diane is the youngest daughter, and Junior, or Andre Junior is the eldest son. The father is called Andre Johnson and the mother is called Rainbow Johnson.

There is also another son called Devante who wasn't in Season 7 at all because they were filming during COVID and they were strict on toddlers being on set at that time.

It's long, I can't lie. Almost 180 episodes but I loved it. I finished one season in 2 days, sometimes 1.

In Season 2, episode 22, Andre Johnson (the father) respected his son more for hanging out with wealthy friends. This episode was called Super Rich Kids. 

At the same time, Andre was worried that their living condition was not good enough for Junior due to his super rich friends.

In Season 2, Episode 13 (Keeping Up With the Johnsons), Bow wanted her and Dre to be more financially responsible because she felt as though she was living too lavishly.

Worldly success and abundance were the root problems of both episodes here.

Andre only respected Junior because of his wealthy friends. If he had "poorer" friends, Andre most likely would have convinced him to find some richer ones, maybe regardless of their personality.

In the meantime, Rainbow thought that money was the answer to her problems. She was concerned that they were living too wealthily, and they were. Andre had a whole collection of about 100 sneakers. I bet he didn't even use half of them.

And Andre wasn't even worried about Junior's living condition before he found out about his friends. Having wealthy friends isn't wrong, the problem lies though when you start to think you can't live up to their standards or expectations.

I know it's scripted but it's still true. These things can happen in real life.

Unfortunately, a lot of people can look down on others due to how much worldly success they have, or don't have. People could be wishing to be like a famous person, or have what they have.

Going back to the website from earlier, I also wanted to copy this:

//

Let me make it straightforward. You may see a person with a great career, houses, cars, equity, and label them as successful. 

Indeed they are, but they may have attained this success through drug dealing. 

As believers, there is no way we can label their “success” as good because God is not pleased with the way or method in which they became successful.

Or, what if a person is a believer, and gained their increase in goods the honest way? 

But they fail to complete the three requirements of success, and never do the Word of God? 

Would this person be successful if they achieved much without godliness? Certainly not. The increase in goods is not what follows a person into eternity. We may be saved by grace, but we are judged according to our works (Revelation 20:12).

Here is another example, people are claiming success but are indirectly involved in sin.

//

Then they mentioned another example which I didn't like but yeah - that's basically what they said.

The three requirements for success are found in Joshua 1:8 again:

1. Not allowing God’s law to depart from your mouth.
2. Meditate on His law day and night.
3. To do all that is written in God’s law. 

Not just read. Do. 

I learnt today that you can't be selective about God's instructions for your life. You can't say you want to do 80% of tasks sent by him to you. 

You have to do all of them, as soon as you can.

Just because someone is famous does not mean that they became famous righteously. Perhaps someone is wishing to become as rich as someone on Instagram.

Maybe they stole all the money they have.

Maybe it's not even theirs.

Maybe they committed fraud to get it. You never know.

Some people pose in front of cars and post it online. But the car is not even theirs - it's someone else's.  I'm not saying this is wrong.

 You just need to make sure that the car is yours, or someone you're close to. Even better, you got their consent to pose in front of the car.

Another reason that Worldly success isn't everything is because when you die, these things won't matter anymore. Anything that has Earthly value won't matter in Heaven.

1 Timothy 6:7 - For we brought nothing into the World, and we can take nothing out of it.

A lot of people with Worldly success have deliberately ended their life. I can name a few, Robin Williams, Caroline Flack and then some. I don't think anyone with Godly success has.

Seek Godly success more than Worldly. That is the main message for today.

Being successful or seeking success is not wrong. It just depends why you want it and what you do with it.

There is this woman called Deborah James who currently has bowel cancer, which is a terminal illness. She's on end of life care because of it.

This is her. Prince William gave her a visit the other day.

She helped raised more than £4m for Cancer Research since launching an online fundraising donation page approximately two weeks ago. This is using success for a good cause.

I read today that Deborah James is scared to go to sleep each night because she doesn't know when she is going to die. Her situation must be really difficult, and I can't even imagine what she is going through right now.

God can bless you with abundance. And I pray he does, amen.

However, if success affects your life to the point where you only want Worldly success and not Godly success - then that is a predicament. 

You need to make sure that you are measuring success by Godly standards and not worldly standards.

I hope you were blessed by this message today and I think I did pretty well for a post that was originally unplanned 💙 regardless of what anyone else thinks!

I shall hopefully see you next time - in June! June 13th will be the one year anniversary of this website. 

Or in other words, this website's birthday.

I'll definitely try and update then if I don't have anything planned. 

But for now goodbye xx