Spiritual Success
Success is a word that is familiar to all of us. Most of us want to be successful in life. There is nothing wrong with striving to be successful as long as we are going forward according to the will of God. The problem is that many seek success in the wrong area or with the wrong things. What is your definition of success? Does your definition line up with God’s will and what the Bible teaches or is it by what the world sees as important?
We all must ask, what does God want for my life? If a person hasn’t solved the spiritual issues in their life, then other things are not going to work out right. We should all try to live by Luke 12:31, “seek ye the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you.” Real success comes when we have the right priorities in life. That right priority means that God must always be first. That’s what Luke tells us and I have sure found this to be the right way to live. I have also seen this in the lives of other Christians that I know. It is easy to tell others to make the Lord the number one priority in their life but it is another thing to really live by this principle.
We read in I Thessalonians 5:23 these words, “I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” This sure talks about total commitment. Note that this verse is talking about every aspect of our lives. How can we be blameless? It will come when we are totally devoted to Jesus Christ. All to many of us fall short of pleasing God because we are not totally committed to Him. We all, so to speak, have outside interests. Have you ever worked two jobs and found yourself pulled in two directions? When the spiritual finds itself in conflict with worldly desires you are not going to be happy or successful. True commitment to God will bring true happiness.
In all honesty I have found it difficult to be able to say that all I want is God’s will. A lot of Christians want the Lord in their life but at times we get focused on the things of the world. Let’s be honest, the things of the world can start looking good and the devil can sure tempt us with worldly pleasures. I struggle in this area and I have been guilty of wanting to modify God’s will for my life so that it includes the things I like. The Lord has helped me in this area. God must be the number one priority in your life! God cannot be second. To succeed in something, you must give it your all.
We read in I John 5:14, “And this is the confidence that we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us.” This is a promise that I claim many times. God hears me and that’s good news in a world where people tend to ignore you. We can never put our faith and trust in someone until we have confidence in that person. I learned this when I first enlisted in the Navy. Putting your trust in another person is vital to any military exercise or actual war situation. To lack confidence in the person leading you during a difficult time can bring about disaster. This can also happen in the spiritual realm with the same disastrous results. In my early military days I worked on the aircraft flight line which can be a dangerous place during busy flight operations. Spend a few days on an aircraft carrier and you will see the importance of people putting their trust in each other. Aviators and crewmembers must trust the maintenance people and flight deck crew. The flight deck crew must have confidence in the pilots landing their aircraft.
Everyone must trust each other. Before we can really be used by God we must have confidence in Him. We must believe that God knows what is best for our life. You may say, well I am a Christian, I believe in the power of God but I am sure there have been times you questioned God.
As human beings we tend to question things. When a person is going through a difficult time it is not so easy to praise God. When I begin to doubt I increase my time in prayer and claim the promises that I read in the Bible. I pray for strength and don’t let the world get to me.
I think from time to time that we should come to the Lord and pray and ask God to reveal to us the areas that we need to improve upon for spiritual success. We find it easy to find faults in others. Why not ask the Lord to reveal to you your own shortcomings. When people look for a church to attend some ask the question, how spiritual is the church? The answer is how spiritual are the people? Won’t you join me in prayer and ask the Lord make us all spiritually successful?