God’s definition of success and when he blesses people with it.
Success, when we think of success from the perspective of people and of the world, what is the first thing that comes to your mind? Is it fame, money, influence, material possessions, or anything that is like this that would show your status of being wealthy and successful? Most likely was the first thing, mainly because the world has perverted the definition of being successful; we think we must have these things to be successful when the opposite is true. Godly success doesn’t contain all of these things, your Godly success might be being able to manage a household properly, having children, and faithfully stewarding the will of God on your life. That definition is one where you rely on God and he blesses you accordingly to what you need and when you need it for that season, not all the fame, glory, money, and material things that the world offers. Our success is knowing that we are serving The Lord to the best our ability and relying on him to help us through and model our definition of success off of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior and what he did for his life.
Jesus was successful. Did he have possessions, worldly fame, and worldly influence like how most people today define success? No, instead he was successful in following what God had sent him down to do and who to be which was the ultimate sacrifice for our lives and a ransom for our souls. We are given some steps to live a lifestyle that Jesus did in order to have this Godly success and to also help people throughout the world and in this lifetime. The need for children of God is urgent, with the issues in the world from starvation, to bad health systems, corrupt governments and so on. The world needs peace and the reassurance that God sees and loves them despite anything they have done all they have to do is follow him and let him guide them. Our motivation for these actions should not be to get praise from others, but out of love; this love is what Jesus demonstrated to the women with a 12 year hemorrhage and then the religious leader when his daughter had passed. We are to help these people out of love and not to receive any reward of any kind, just to show that they are seen, heard, and loved in every way.
We must pray to God and ask him to send people out and harvest the fields that are ready to be harvested to return more souls back to him. It is written “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few”, we are not only tasked do help but to also pray for help. The potential amount of people who are waiting to hear the Gospel is a extremely vast amount, all they are waiting to hear are the proper words and then they will return to God and change their ways. We are supposed to help them to find God and then leave it up to him to change their ways and to grow the seed in their heart, we cannot make them change, only God can. With this, we must also pray for success of guidance from The Lord Jesus knowing he will show us what we need and when we need it.
God may guide is 5 different and unique ways. He will give us commanding scripture, this is scripture that reminds us of what we can and cannot do, like sacrificing to false idols, being unequally yoked and so forth. An example, even though not scripture but a command nonetheless, is when Abraham told his servant to find his son Isaac a wife, he said to return back to his homeland to find one and not to take one from the Canaanites. The next one is being compelled by The Holy Spirit to do certain things in order to position yourself. We are shown that when the servant arrived at the well, before he could finish praying, Rebekah appeared to him and gave all the signs that she was the one God wanted for Isaac. When the servant and Rebekah were returning, Isaac was positioned just in the right spot meditating in order to start walking to them and to meet Rebekah for the first time. The Holy Spirit might lead you to certain places in order to have certain successful interactions to further your walk with God.
The other is common sense, we are shown this when Rebekah did all the actions and signs that Abraham’s servant was praying to God about to give him a successful trip for his master’s son. She did all of these things, was generous and kind, she was beautiful, and was still pure. All of this confirmed to the servant that she was the proper choice and was the one The Lord wanted for Isaac to marry and be with. Then there is consulting of the saints, in which everyone saw and heard what had happened and recognized it was arranged by God himself. When we carry out tasks or meet people that we are supposed to do and meet, we will see how The Lord made it be with his circumstantial signs as well. When we pray to ask for signs and then we see said signs take place, take it back and study it very closely to see if it is what God is wanting you to do. Rebekah did all of these signs for the servant confirming that she was the one The Lord wanted for Isaac. This is what made their marriage successful, they trusted God and prayed for signs knowing he would follow through.
So, Godly success is different from worldly success in many ways and forms. We must recognize the urgency and then do what we can while also praying for more harvesters in order to participate and help lost souls find their way home to Jesus. Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior will guide us to what he needs us to do and will then confirm to us it is what he wants us to do. We just have to be patient and wait on God for the right times and the right things knowing he is with us and will guide us. Do not worry, trust him entirely, Amen!