“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.” – Ephesians 1:3-4

“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. “– Ephesians 2:10

“For the grace of God has appeared, brining salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age.” – Titus 2:11-12

I am using a book by John Macarthur, Drawing Near: Daily Readings for a Deeper Faith to help me dig deeper into studying and applying God’s word. I’ve had it for a few weeks now, but I’ve decided to write about what I’m reading to enable me to really think about it. It does me no good to read everyday and not give it any more thought.

Today’s reading is titled: The Measure of True Success. Right at the beginning it says:

God is more interested in your faithfulness

than in your accomplishments.

This culture measures success by our status, wealth, and possessions. However, God is not impressed by any of that. God measures our success by how faithful we are to His will. His will very often directly contradicts what the world says is successful. He tells us not to give thought to our possessions, to be content with what we have, to seek His approval rather than man’s approval. This is not easy to do, but it is what He requires.

If I am to be what God wants me to be, my focus has to be on being a success in HIS eyes, not in the eyes of people. I truly have to not care about what anybody else thinks of me, as long as I’m pleasing him. Now, I often say I don’t give a rip about what anybody else thinks of me, and for the most part it’s true. But I have to admit: I’m human, and at times, I’d love for others to approve of me. At those times, I have to ask myself: WHAT IS MY GOAL? Is it to hear the compliments and accolades of those around me, or is it to stand before God when it’s my turn (and we ALL will have a turn) and hear him say, “Well done, good and faithful servant? (Matthew 25:21). I can honestly say it’s the latter. Approval from other people is nice, but it does not satisfy me. Approval from others will change like the wind. I’d much rather work toward pleasing God, who does not change. God, who works out everything for my good. God, who knew me before I was in my mother’s womb. God, who I will stand in front of and give an account for everything I did in my life. There’s really no comparison.

So how do I do that? First, I need to be more consistent in my obedience of His word. This means, I have to be more consistent in my STUDY of his word. I have to be more consistent in communication with him. I have to make a conscience effort to pray EVERYDAY, and not just God bless me and mine, but sitting still and meditating on His word and asking him to guide me in living it out. And as the scriptures above say, I need to resolve to live holy and blameless before Him. I need to live my life to do the good works He has prepared for me to do. I need to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live a self-controlled, upright, and godly life. I cannot do these things in my own power. I will have to fully rely on His grace and His Spirit within me to make this possible in any way.

Following Christ in this world is not easy…..but it’s what I am committed to doing. I’ve given up making New Year’s Resolutions. What I’m talking about here is not about the New Year at all. It’s just about wanting to be faithful to God.

That’s the success I’m pursuing.