What Is Success?

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Don’t lose your grip on love and loyalty. Tie them around your neck; carve their initials on your heart. Earn a reputation for living well in God’s eyes and the eyes of the people. (Proverbs 3:3-4, The Message)

Our dreams are usually shaped by what we think is the best, most fulfilling way to spend our time in this world. We don’t want to be failures. We only get one life and we want to use it well. So we dream about the kind of success we desire, and we eventually pursue those dreams. But does God see success the same way we do? If we’re going to live by faith in a good God, we have to rethink our culture’s ideas about “success” and shape our goals around His.

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Many of us think of success as “being important,” or maybe being at the top of whatever field we work in. We would likely say that the CEO of a company is successful, but we might not say the same about his secretary. We would think of a famous athlete as successful, but we might not say the same of a middle school basketball coach. This is how we define success because these are the goals our culture has put before us. But the truth is, God hasn’t commanded us all to become CEO’s or famous athletes. He hasn’t called us to worldly success; He’s called us to faithfulness. We need to adjust our goals, and further, adjust our dreams.

It is not your business to succeed, but to do right: when you have done so, the rest lies with God.—C. S. Lewis

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Formula for Faithfulness

faithfulness_dribbbleIn his book Be All You Can Be, John Maxwell shares the formula for fruitfulness taught by Jesus.

Jesus gives us a three-word formula for fruitfulness in John 15. These three words are the ones I want you to remember, because they are the key to fruitful living.

1. REMAIN – The first word is remain. Throughout John 15 Jesus tells us to remain. In fact, the word abide in the original language can be translated “remain.” “Remain in Me,” Jesus says. He’s talking about our willingness to take time with Him in prayer and in study of the Word. We need to let Him begin to be part of our lives and work on our lives.

2. RECEIVE – The second word in the formula is receive. Jesus says in John 15 that if we remain in Him, we will begin to receive certain things. What we’ll receive is good, fruitful living.

3. REPRODUCE – The third word is reproduce. If we remain in Him, we’re going to receive what He has for us, then and only then will we begin to reproduce in our lives.

Spend some time reading John chapter 15 from God’s Word, and then I encourage you to apply these principles to you life.  Decide today you are going to be fruitful!