Jesus found satisfaction in doing what was pleasing to the Father. That is the touchstone of success, since success for a child of God is rooted in obedience.
To be obedient is to be successful.
This is how far we went last month. Let me now give you a couple of specifics.
Desire!
You will never be able to succeed if you don't have a tremendous drive in you to reach your clearly defined goal.
Your work has to appear worthwhile and meaningful to you for you to become a success in it.
Jesus for instance was consumed with his task of erecting God's kingdom. He wanted heaven on earth. He prayed for it and taught others to pray for it: "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." He wanted both to overlap and intermingle. At times in prayer he got the two to literally meet, like on the mount of transfiguration, when Moses and Elijah came out of the glory cloud to discuss his ministry with him. Jesus was not satisfied until he saw the suffering of the sick relieved by heavenly means, the burdens of sin removed through forgiveness, devils cast out... His dream was God's kingdom on earth.
He worked tirelessly for it.
After he had cleansed the temple in Jerusalem from hucksters and greedy merchants his disciples were reminded of the scripture: "Zeal for your house will consume me!" (John 2, 17.) Jesus was a driven, consumed man in the best sense of the word.
Success doesn't come overnight.
Overnight success has been twenty years in the making. But it won't come at all, if you are a couch potato and don't do much of anything.
Let me clarify the first statement: Your life consists of habits, routines, which are pretty much the same every day. If you have good habits, these habits will prove to be tremendous assets. If you have bad ones they will surely ruin you in the long run. Somebody once said: Sow a deed, reap a habit. Sow a habit, reap a character. This statement is consistent with Galatians 6, 8: "For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the spirit will from the spirit reap eternal life."
First you form your habits, then your habits form you.
Take a look at what you are doing daily.
Jesus had habits, so did Paul. Both went consistently to the synagoge on the sabbath. Jesus taught there as was his habit. (Luke 4, 16; Mark 10, 1). In Jerusalem before his crucifixion he established a pattern of regularly teaching in the temple and leaving for mount Olivet at a set time each day. (Luke 22, 39.)
Sure, routines don't look very spontaneous or inspired, but if you want more than the occasional, spontaneous triumph, if you want lasting favor, cultivate your habits. In the long run they will lead you to enduring success.
Rework your every day routine and optimize it.
Appreciate the process of life more than the breakthroughs.
Especially charismatics seem to always chase a breakthrough of some kind after which everything will be wonderful. Well and good, but remember: after every steep ascent comes a new flat plane.
After every (long) birth comes a (longer) life.
After every wedding comes a marriage.
After every death comes an entire eternity!
Life doesn't consist of climaxes only. Sure, you can induce them, but they will wear you out. That's why drug users are such sorry sights. Don't be a spiritual junkie.
A steady drop hollows the stone. Appreciate the daily routine of growing and slowly changing more than the one spectacular breakthrough.
Planning is no sin!
Jesus himself counseled in Luke 14, 28: "For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to conplete it?" As a matter of fact, planning can make the difference between life and death if the stakes are high enough. Take the 1911 race to the South Pole for instance.
The one contender, Norwegian Roald Amundsen, took clues for his expedition from the Eskimos who live in frigid conditions constantly and yet go unharmed. He decided on fur coats for his men, ran with dog sleds, erected depots at proper distances and had no problems reaching his goal, the pole, in the allotted time. That hell of ice on the bottom of the earth which is Antarctica had to surrender him without as much as a scar. He came out triumphant.
The same journey proved lethal for the other man and his team, however. Sir Robert Falcon Scott's haphazard planning was responsible for one of the greatest fiascos in the history of exploration.
Scott decided to travel by motor sled and also took ponies with him. Well, five days into the journey the motor sleds quit working. And at the foot of the Transantarctic Mountains the poor animals had to be slain. The men commenced to carry the load of their equipment by themselves. After a while everybody became snowblind because of the poor-quality sunglasses Scott had selected. Soon they were running short of supplies as well, since the former British navy officer had made a last minute decision to take a fifth man with him, for whom he had basically no equipment.
The clothes of his team were so inappropriate that they produced severe frostbite and consequently gangrene on his men. Since they were short on fuel they could't melt enough snow and ended up dehydrated in the middle of all this water. When they finally arrived at the pole, ten weeks after they had set out, they found the Norwegian flag flying proudly in the wind. A letter from the wise and planning Amundsen left for them at the site revealed that the other team had beaten Scott's men by more than a month! The disheartened Brits started their desolate trek back. However, not one of them came out alive. 250 km away from their base camp they died by freezing, racked by scurvy and the blistering cold.
Scott had acted too much on impulse and not enough on planning. It killed him and those he was responsible for. Don't let the same be true with you.
If you know your task in life and work towards becoming better in fulfilling it, you can count yourself to be a success. You will come out on top. Be content to be a plodder and in the long run God will use you to bless many.
Let me end for today with two scriptures, Proverbs 27, 23-24: "Know well the condition of your flocks, and pay attention to your herds; for riches are not forever, nor does a crown endure to all generations." Take these verses as encouragement to keep striving for personal growth and development. Be flexible, learn and adapt. Don't get left behind.
And Proverbs 22, 29 says: "Do you see a man skilled in his work? He will stand before kings; he will not stand before obscure men."
Now my son wants to play Mini-Mario on the computer and I better quit for today.
God's richest and best to you,
your friend,
Gert Hoinle, Pastor
Copyright © 2001 by Delta Christliche Dienste e.V.