Rethinking Success

Paul Tripp's thoughts: "You and I don't live by instinct. We are value-oriented, goal-oriented, purpose-oriented, and importance-oriented human beings. We are constantly rating everything in our lives. We all have things that are important to us and things that are not, things that mean a lot to us and things that mean very little. We willingly make sacrifices for one thing and refuse to sacrifice for another. We grieve the loss of one thing and celebrate the loss of another.

In the center of this value system is our definition of success. No rational human being wants to be a failure. No one wants to think that he has wasted his life. No one wants to think that in the end she will look back and realize that she invested in things that just didn't matter. Everyone wants to think that his or her life is or will be successful. But what is success? Is it judged by the size of your house, the prominence of your friends, the success of your career, the power of your position, the size of the pile of your possessions, the perfection of your physical beauty, the breadth of your knowledge, or the list of your achievements? The problem with all of these things is that they quickly pass away, and because they do, if you have lived for these things, you will eventually come up empty.

Contrast that view of success with the success of God's work in and through you. God offers you things of supreme value (his forgiveness, his presence, welcome into his kingdom, a clean conscience, and a pure heart). These things will never pass away. They are the eternally valuable gifts of divine grace. This leaves you with this question: "What do I really want in life: the success of God's agenda of grace or the fulfillment of my catalog of desires?" At the end of the day, what do you long for: for God's grace to do its work or for more of the stuff that this physical created world has to offer? Be honest. What kind of success are you hooking your heart to and how is it shaping the decisions you make and he actions you take?"

Candy's thoughts: This was the excerpt that I read this morning from Paul Tripp. As soon as I put his book down, I opened another: Contentment: Seeing God's Goodness by Megan Hill. Here is the Scripture reference on which she based her writing for today:

"Incline my heart to your testimonies, and not to selfish gain! Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things: and give me life in your ways."  (Ps. 119:36-37)

I immediately scrapped what I was going to post today in favor of the one you are now reading. Could there be a better Bible verse to follow upon Tripp's exhortation for us to examine our thoughts on success? I was amazed at the timing and nearly identical topics of these two devotional messages. Wow. God works all things for our good and for His glory. Let us train our desires, then, to be in complete union with God's desires. May we do this with an ever increasing eye toward the blessings of His grace, and a decreasing obsession upon our own longings that are too often shaped by the world, our flesh, and the devil.