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ARE YOU A
SUCCESS?
How
would you finish this sentence? I would really be
successful if I __________________.
If we adopt a wrong definition of success, we are well on our
way to wasting our lives completely. Most people are driven by one
or more of the following goals:
To be happy To be comfortable
To be fulfilled To be admired
To be rich
The average person spends his day seeking his own
advantage, his own interests. He works so hard at finding
happiness and fulfillment, perhaps it's surprising he finds misery
instead. It's impossible to find happiness and fulfillment
by living for ourselves. Why? Because we were not designed to live
for ourselves. We cannot be genuinely fulfilled without fulfilling
the purpose for which we were created.
1 Cor. 8:6 there is one God, the Father,...for whom
we exist.
Revelation 4:11 God created all things, and for His
pleasure they...were created.
Real success is pleasing God. Someone may ask, "If I
concentrate on pleasing God, won't I be forfeiting my own
happiness?" Our happiness is within the will of God. Thomas A
Kempis wrote, "There is but one happiness for man. Everything
else is but an illusion." Because we were created for God's
pleasure, pleasing Him is the only thing that truly fulfills us.
J.C. Ryle wrote:
Zeal in religion is a burning desire to please God, to do His
will, and to advance His glory in every possible way. A zealous
man in religion is pre-eminently a man of one thing. It is not
enough to say that he is earnest, hearty, uncompromising,
thorough-going, whole-hearted, fervent in spirit. He only sees one
thing, he cares for one thing, he lives for one thing, he is
swallowed up in one thing; and that one thing is to please God.
Whether he lives, or whether he dies--whether he has health, or
whether he has sickness--whether he is rich, or whether he is
poor--whether he pleases man, or whether he gives offense--whether
he is thought wise, or whether he is thought foolish--whether he
gets blame, or whether he gets praise--whether he gets honour, or
whether he gets shame--for all this the zealous man cares nothing
at all. He burns for one thing; and that one thing is to please
God, and to advance God's glory. If he is consumed in the very
burning, he cares not for it--he is content. He feels that, like a
lamp, he is made to burn; and if consumed in burning, he has but
done the work for which God appointed him.
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— Jamie
Lash
(assisted by Brent Wallace)
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