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Loving God means obeying Him and keeping His commandments.1 The first step in this process is accepting the free gift of eternal life offered by Jesus Christ.2 This is the beginning of true biblical success. When the gift is received, transformation begins. …
As we grow and mature in Christ, we begin to think not only of ourselves but of others. Our greatest joy becomes what we can do for others and give to others, and how we can help them grow and prosper spiritually. This is true success, because a person can have all the power, money, popularity, and prestige the world has to offer, but, if his soul is empty and bitter, worldly success is really failure. “What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?”3
One last word on biblical success. While transformation of our inner lives is God’s goal for us, He also abundantly provides good physical gifts to His children (food, clothing, houses, etc.), and He loves to do it.4 Yet most of us, at one time or another, focus on the gifts rather than on the Giver. That’s when we regress in our contentment and joy and we quench the Spirit’s transforming work within us, because we are focusing on the wrong things. That may be why the Lord sometimes limits His gift-giving to us—so we do not stumble over the gifts and fall away from Him.
Picture two hands. In the right hand there are the offer of true contentment, the ability to handle life’s problems without being overcome by them, amazing peace that sees us through all circumstances, wisdom to know what to do, knowledge and constant direction for life, love for others, acceptance of ourselves, joy no matter what, and, at the end of life, an eternity with the God who freely gives all these gifts.
The other hand holds all the money and power and “success” the world has to offer, without any of what the right hand holds. Which would you choose? The Bible says, “Where your treasure is, there also is your heart.”5 That which is in the right hand is the biblical definition of success.—From gotquestions.org6
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The one big key to becoming a successful person is giving your life to making the lives of others better. If you decide today to give your life—and by “life” I mean your time, your attention, your resources—to making the lives of other people better, you will discover success. …
It’s what Jesus did, teaching, feeding, healing, and serving others to the point of laying down his life as a ransom for all who would follow him.
As a Christian, I believe that the very best thing I can do for anyone else is to share with them the Good News about how they can have a relationship with God through his Son, but I usually only get to share that message with people who trust me on some level.
And why would people trust me? I believe people trust me when I demonstrate my commitment to making their lives better.
When you give your life to helping other humans flourish, you’ll find success. In other words:
Life is about building relationships.
Ministry is about serving people.
Leadership is about elevating others.
Sales is about providing solutions.
Writing is about inspiring or informing readers.
Humanitarianism is about relieving suffering.
Art is about making people think and feel.
It isn’t that success only happens for people in certain professions, or with certain personalities, or with certain advantages and privileges. It’s that success comes to those who see their job, their neighborhood, their church, or their community as a realm in which to serve people.
If your only pursuit in life is your own happiness, you’ll miss out on success because you’ll bypass opportunities to bear pain with and for others. If your only pursuit is financial gain, you can get rich and still miss success because you’ll sell without serving. If your only pursuit is power and authority, you’ll miss out on success because you’ll see people as a means to your own fulfillment. …
Give your life to helping people, to serving people, to loving people, to meeting needs, to being a friend, to providing resources, to answering questions, and fixing problems, and educating minds and encouraging hearts. … The more you forget about yourself, the more fulfilled you’ll become. …
The one big key to real success in life is giving the rest of your life to making the lives of others better.—Brandon Cox7
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Jesus said that the secret to happiness and success is to “seek the kingdom of God above all else,” but does that work today? Can we lead God-centered lives and do more than survive in this materialistic world? I believe we can.
To “seek the kingdom of God above all else” means to bring our priorities into line with God’s, so the first step is to honestly assess our values and goals in life.
The next step is to understand God’s priorities. How would He like to see us live? Many people stop here because they expect God to ask impossibly complicated and sacrificial things of them. Actually, He makes it pretty simple: “What does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?”8 “You, my brothers and sisters, … serve one another humbly in love. The entire law is summed up in a single command: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”9Easier said than done, but doable.
The Bible doesn’t say that “money is the root of all evil,” but rather “the love of money is the root of all evil.”10 God has promised to supply our needs through His riches in glory in Christ Jesus,11 and He even blesses us materially when we will use those blessings to “do justly, love mercy, walk humbly with our God”12 and “love our neighbor.”13
When our values are in line with God’s values and we let His priorities become our priorities, He never fails to care for His own.—Keith Phillips
Published on Anchor October 2020. Read by Jerry Paladino. Music by Michael Dooley.
1 John 14:15, 23–24.
2 John 3:16.
3 Matthew 16:26.
4 Matthew 6:25–33.
5 Matthew 6:21.
6 https://www.gotquestions.org/success-Bible.html.
7 https://brandonacox.com/keytosuccess.
8 Micah 6:8.
9 Galatians 5:13, 14 NIV.
10 1 Timothy 6:10.
11 Philippians 4:19.
12 Micah 6:8.
13 Mark 12:31.
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