I once read a story about one of the leading men of God in our country. His church congregation then was just about a thousand membership. Then the thought came to him that; “You have done your best. Even if you die now, you are fulfilled.” He later realized that it was the devil trying to cut short his destiny. Today, the Church has thousands of branches all over the world.
Friend, how do you measure success? It is wisdom to view success from God’s perspective. Let God define success for you. While different people have different ways they measure success, from having a particular amount of money in bank, to getting happily married, to achieving a major career feat or pastoring a mega church, God has His own measurement parameters which we must consider (Isaiah 55:8-9).
Don’t allow the people that did not enlist you in a race to determine if you have finished or succeeded (1 Corinthians 9:24-27, 2 Timothy 4:6-8). Don’t listen to the whisper of the devil trying to cut short your destiny. Let God define success for you. It is God who sent you here that can judge you a success or failure (1 Corinthians 4:1-5). Men can be clapping for you while Heaven is weeping over you, and men may be looking down on you while Heaven is giving you a standing ovation (Acts 7:54-56).
Success is in fulfilling your God-given purpose and destiny. Without purpose as a yardstick, we would be measuring success wrongly. When God told Joshua he would have good success by following His commandments, God was not talking about an arbitrary success, He was defining the success based on the assignment given to Joshua (Joshua 1:1-10).
As far as God is concerned, if you are where you should be, doing what He wants you to do, and moving at the pace that He wants you to move, you are already successful. Achieving great feats, building big stuff, acquiring certificates, etc., are mere bye products of fulfilling purpose. If you have all of those outside of divine purpose, you are still a failure before God (Philippians 3:1-14). Pursuing what the world calls success is not our goal. Purpose is our goal. Success is only a bye product.
Success is releasing your maximum potential (Matthew 25:15). Your potential talks about what you can do that you are not currently doing. Even if you are doing big stuff, you are not yet successful until you reach your best. Our potential and capacities are different. If you are given five talents, you must not compare yourself with a one-talent man, and if you are a one-talent man, you must never be intimidated by the five-talent man (Matthew 25:24-30, 2 Corinthians 10:12).
‘Demola Awoyele
Lead Pastor,
Destiny Impact Church
Akure, Nigeria