The blessing of the Lord makes one rich, and He adds no sorrow with it. —Proverbs 10:22
GOD DOES NOT simply want you to experience success in your life. He wants you to have good success. Is there such a thing as “bad success”? Yes there is and I am sure you have seen it yourself. There are people who are high achievers according to the world’s definition. Perhaps they are movers and shakers of the economy, famous celebrities who live in fabulous pads or sports stars who make millions of dollars a week hitting or kicking a ball around. However, for some of these people, what they have is only success in amassing wealth.
But, my friend, having financial success alone does not equate to good success. Good success is holistic and permeates every spectrum of your life. If you were to take a closer look at individuals who only have financial success, you would find that other areas of their lives are suffering. For instance, while they may have plenty of money, their lives could be scarred by one broken marriage after another. Beloved, being a public success but a private failure is not good success at all!
There are people who get promoted through the ranks so quickly and take on so many work responsibilities that they no longer have time to put their own kids to bed or read their little ones a bedtime story. They become victims of their own career success, and to hang on to the “success” they have created in the cutthroat corporate world, they allow their lives to zip past them. They may have earned more money than they will ever need, but they can’t enjoy their spouses and their children grow up without really knowing them.
Realize this: Even if you do win the rat race after scampering around all day, all you would have achieved is the status of number one rat! Is it really worth sacrificing your marriage and your children for that? Don’t just bury yourself in climbing the corporate ladder. Make sure your ladder is placed against the right building, and don’t wait till you reach the top before you realize that it’s not what you really want out of life.
I often tell my congregation that they should believe God not just for a job, but also depend on His favor for a position of influence. However, I also remind them to be careful not to get promoted out of their place of blessings, because not every promotion is necessarily God’s best for them.
Do you know that you can be promoted out of the good success that you are currently enjoying into a place where you enjoy only partial success? That promotion that you receive may also come with new responsibilities that will cause you to compromise your time with your family and draw you away from being in the house of God. All of a sudden, instead of being in God’s house on Sunday morning and bringing your kids for a picnic after church, you find yourself in the office every weekend. Perhaps you need to respond to urgent emails, resolve major crises, attend pressing board meetings or have yet another critical business trip to go for. You see, it can all sound very legitimate, but is this the “good success” that God wants for you?
Listen carefully to what I am saying. I am all for you being promoted in your workplace. In fact, I believe that God can promote you way beyond your educational qualifications and work experience! Just look at what God did for Joseph. He was promoted from being a slave (the lowest possible position) to an overseer in Potiphar’s house. And even when he was thrown into prison, the Lord’s favor caused him to be promoted again and he became the overseer of all the prisoners.
Joseph experienced one promotion after another until he became the prime minister of Egypt (the highest possible position)! There is no doubt that God wants to promote and increase you. But note that Joseph’s eyes were not fixed on any of the promotions that he received. His eyes were fixed on the Lord each step of the way. That made him safe for the next round of promotion and he grew in the good success that the Lord had for him.
Beloved, while you depend on His unmerited favor to bring you to a place of influence and increase, be conscious of Jesus’ goodness toward you. This will keep you walking in the kind of success that truly blesses you and makes you a blessing to others.
Today’s Prayer
Father, I thank You that You can and want to promote me beyond my educational qualifications, natural abilities and work experience. As You only want me to have good success, I ask that You open doors of opportunities that are good for me and shut those doors that are bad for me. Help me to always keep my eyes on Jesus so that promotions and success do not get the better of me.
Today’s Thought
Fixing my eyes on Jesus makes me safe for the good success that He has for me.
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Prince, Joseph. 100 Days Of Favor, Daily Readings From Unmerited Favor.