Sep 27, 2018
God wants all people
to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. 1Tim 2:4
Our greatest
happiness doesn’t come from successes or experiences, but from finding a
growing personal relationship with Him.
How do you define and measure personal success?
When that question was asked of people, the most significant
answer related to what gave them happiness.
Money, career satisfaction, family connection, lifestyle and more make
up the responses for how to achieve success and happiness. All of these factors lead to a personal
satisfaction, which equates to happiness, which then is considered success.
But what if all of those factors had nothing to do with true
success?
Men have made this mistake for centuries. Adam considered success as knowing good and
evil. Jacob thought it dealt with having
the parents’ blessing. Moses thought it
was having everyone’s respect. Saul
thought it was about being all powerful.
Solomon thought it was having all the answers. You can look through the Scriptures and find
many examples of different definitions – but all of them come from man’s
perspective. The definition of success
is as varied as the number of humans that have ever lived.
Maybe we need to change perspectives – maybe the perspective
we need is to learn what God defines as success.
Paul figured it out.
He realized by changing perspectives, we would discover the right
definition of success. God’s perspective
on success was that everyone find Him and know His Truth. (That’s far different than any of man’s
definitions!) God isn’t concerned about
money, career satisfaction, family connection or lifestyle… He has control of
all that! He has the ability to make us
feel happy … that’s not a big deal either.
What He doesn’t control is YOU!
You are the only one that can decide to pursue a relationship with
God. You are the only one that can
decide to believe the Truth. His
definition of success is all about you wanting to turn your life over to God.
And here’s the ultimate Truth – when we put God in charge of
our lives, we discover happiness in ALL of it!
We find contentment in our work, no matter what it is. We find joy in our lifestyle and experiences. We find appreciation for the family we
have. We discover success – because it
no longer means comparing ourselves to others.
Success is about fulfilling the Will of God in our lives, wherever He
has us.
Maybe it’s time to change perspectives. Stop looking at what makes us happy … and
start looking at what makes God happy.
Pursue happiness without God and you get neither, but pursue God and
you will find both Him & Happiness.
No comments:
Post a Comment