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Biblical Perspectives on Success and Achievement
Success is encouraged throughout Scripture. There is a direct connection between obedience to all of God’s Law and success.
“Only be strong and courageous, that you may observe to do according to all the law…do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may prosper wherever you go. This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.”
Joshua 1:7-8
“Then you will prosper, if you take care to fulfill the statutes and judgements with which the Lord charged Moses concerning Israel. Be strong and of good courage; do not fear nor be dismayed.” 1 Chronicles 22:13
“Believe in the Lord your God, and you will be established; believe His prophets and you will prosper.” 2 Chronicles 20:20
God has a “success plan” and a purpose for you.
“I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.”
Jeremiah 29:11
God knows everything in your future.
“The days allotted me had all been recorded in your book, before any of them began.” Psalm 139:16
God is a sure source of power, wisdom, direction and supply. God promises us His help in making our plans succeed if we and our plans are committed to Him.
“It is God who is at work within you, giving you the will and the power to achieve His purpose.” Philippians 2:13
“If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given him.” James 1:5
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart…remember the Lord in everything you do, and He will show you the right way.” Proverbs 3:5-6
“I have strength for all things in Christ who empowers me – I am ready for anything and equal to anything through Him who infuses inner strength into me.” Philippians 4:13
“Commit everything you do to the Lord. Trust Him to help you do it and He will.” Psalm 37:5
“Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and your plans will succeed.” Proverbs 16:3
God will stay with you till the end.
“Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” Hebrews 13:5
The more God trusts us with, the more accountable we are for how we use it.
“For to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more.” Luke 12:48
Healthy realism about our own abilities should be matched with an irrepressible optimism about God’s.
“Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God.” 2 Corinthians 3:5
God not only supplies all of our needs, He gives us extra so we can meet the needs of others.
“And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work.” 2 Corinthians 9:8
Biblical / Christian Perspectives on Purpose and Leadership
God’s plan for us is rooted in serving our fellowman and glorifying Him.
“Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.” Philippians 2:4
“God’s goal for you is not just survival – but the best you can do for others.” Charles Swindoll
“God has given us two hands – one to receive with and the other to give with. We are not cisterns for hoarding – we are channels made for sharing.” Billy Graham
The Bible clearly says that the whole duty of man is to fear God and keep His commandments – including His command for us to love one another through active service. The true object of the Christian life is ministry to others – service that becomes a living sacrifice to God and the connecting link bonding us to God and our fellowmen.
True Christian religion is represented in the parable of the Good Samaritan who acted out of the principles of the kingdom of God by choosing the path of humble service when confronted with a fellow human being in need. In the same parable the victim may represent humanity with its universal and individual needs, the priest may represent those who define the essence of religion primarily in terms of personal piety, and the Levite may represent those who define the essence of religion primarily in terms of doctrine.
Christ’s followers have been redeemed for service to God and man. It is our duty and privilege to render God active service in winning souls to Christ. As workers for the Master, we should cultivate every faculty to the highest degree of perfection, growing daily in capability and usefulness – developing all our powers that we may do the greatest amount of good of which we are capable.
God desires us to use every gift we have and places us under obligation to do so.
Remember the parable of the talents:
“The first came before him saying, ‘Lord, your pound has made ten pounds more.’ And he said to him, ‘Well done, good servant! Because you have been faithful in a very little, you shall have authority over ten cities.'” Luke 19:16-17
In Jesus’ parable, the man who received the most lavish affirmation was the one bold enough, with broad vision, to venture into a project of major proportions. It held the promise of being a stunning success producing a tenfold return…or a monumental failure. And remember that the money belonged to someone else!
Perhaps that’s the key. He had been asked to invest that money on behalf of another person: His Master. Certainly he asked himself, “What if I invest in a daring project, and something goes wrong? Will He be outraged at me, and condemn me for making an honest try? Or will He at least be glad that I was willing to reach for something of consequence?” In the end, it was his confidence in his Master that led him to manage the money boldly. He was not only commended, he was given the responsibility of managing ten cities.
But Jesus’ parable isn’t primarily about money. It’s about people who feel that the surest way to retain God’s favour is to live tiny, conventional, risk-free lives. It’s a message about a Master who wraps His people in such intense security that they will be willing to make big plans for Him. If something goes wrong, He will say, “I’m delighted that at least you were willing to try. Here! I have some more resources for you, try again!”
The Master called the servant “good and faithful” because he understood the heart of the Master – which made him secure enough to dare!
All of us have talents, abilities and gifts – often undeveloped – sometimes ignored – and frequently used without realizing they are gifts from God. It is not enough just to have abilities – we have the responsibility to use them appropriately – for human good and to praise God and give Him glory. As we apply our gifts and talents in wholehearted, earnest sacrifice for God’s service, we will have greater gifts to use and our powers will increase.
The challenge to more fully execute “The Great Commission”
Take a close look at “The Great Commission” Christ gave us in Matthew 28:19-20:
“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them… *…teaching them to observe ALL things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.
*Note: In the Scriptural quotation above the words “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” have been omitted. Those words were NOT in the original manuscripts and were spuriously added several centuries later by Trinitarian scribes. Christ uses the phrase “in my name” 17 times. But He never used the triune / threefold name.
Also note Christ’s commission for us to “teach” (repeated twice in the King James Version). Note Christ’s commission for us to teach the people to “observe” – so that they are “doers” of the Word and not just “hearers”. And note Christ’s commission for us to teach the people to observe “all” the things that He commanded (not just “some”; not just “most”).
Note another important Scripture that connects to the “all” in The Great Commission, that of Matthew 4:4:
“It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.'”
Despite Christ’s Great Commission, today many churches and preachers fail miserably in “teaching them to observe all things” and in teaching “every word” that proceeds from the mouth of God (through Scripture). The result is that many Christians today are being malnourished, even starved to death spiritually. Yet it is the prescribed purpose and lifestyle of the true Christian to live by every word, every command, every encouragement, every motivation, every goal, every warning, every idea put forth, by God, through His Word. All the commandments of Christ are still to be followed by those who claim to be His disciples today.
Commandment keeping isn’t, nor ever was a means of salvation. Keeping God’s Law isn’t being legalistic. God’s commandments were – and are – to strengthen our relationship with Him and His Son through evidencing our faith or “allegiance” to Them. Following God’s commandments as a standard of Christian living – and being obedient to them – was and is an opportunity to receive, from God, both the “blessings” and “protection” which are inherent to such obedience.
More thoughts from Scripture for Christian Achievers to consider re helping to more fully execute The Great Commission:
All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. 2 Timothy 3:16-17
And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, and that they might come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will. 2 Timothy 2:24-26
I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ…Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables. But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. 2 Timothy 4:1-5
Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. To this end I also labour, striving according to His working which works in me mightily. Colossians 1:28-29
These things command and teach. Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in the word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity. Till I come, give attention to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. Do not neglect the gift that is in you, which was given to you by prophecy with the laying on of hands of the presbytery. Meditate on these things; give yourself entirely to them, that your progress may be evident to all. Take heed to yourself and to the doctrine. Continue in them, for in doing this you will save yourself and those who hear you. 1 Timothy 4:11-16
“Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will be no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 5:17-19
“Blessed is he who reads (preaches) and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it; for the time is near.” Revelation 1:3
And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ…Then a third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, “If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives his mark on his forehead or on his hand, he himself shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God…Here is the patience of the saints; here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus”…”Come out of her (Babylon), my people, lest you share in her sins and receive of her plagues.” Revelation 12:17; 14:9,12; 18:4
“For I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds to these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book; and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the Book of Life, from the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.” Revelation 22:18-19
“If you love Me, keep my commandments.” John 14:15
“He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me.” John 14:21
“As the Father loved Me, and I also have loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.” Matthew 15:9-10
“But why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do the things which I say? Whoever comes to Me, and hears My sayings and does them…is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock.” Luke 6:46-48
“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.'” Matthew 7:21-23
“He answered and said to them, ‘Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written: ‘This people honours Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. And in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’…All too well you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your tradition…making the word of God of no effect through your tradition which you have handed down…” Mark 7: parts of 6-13
“Jesus said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind’. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself’. On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” Matthew 22:37-40
If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth…Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He who says, ‘I know Him,’ and does not keep His commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him. He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked. 1 John 1:6; 2:3-6
And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight. 1 John 3:22
Now he who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. And by this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us. 1 John 3:24
By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome. 1 John 5:2-3
“For as the days of Noah were, so also will be the coming of the Son of Man be. For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will be the coming of the Son of Man be…Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of man is coming at an hour when you do not expect Him.” Matthew 24:37-39,44
The disciples came to Him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be? And when will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?” And Jesus answered and said to them: “Take heed that no one deceives you. For many will come in My name, saying that I am the Christ, and will deceive many. And you will hear of wars and rumours of wars. See that you are no troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end if not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences and earthquakes in various places. All these things will be the beginning of sorrows. Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake. And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. But he who endures to the end shall be saved. And this gospel will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come…For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. And unless those days will be shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s sake those days will be shortened. Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There!’ do not believe it. For false Christs and false prophets will arise and show great signs and wonders, so as to deceive, if possible, even the elect…For as the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be…Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.” Matthew 24:3-14,21-24,27,29-31
“For the Son of man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward each according to his works.” Matthew 16:27
ChristianAchievers is an outreach ministry of Mark of God Communications Inc.
For more information on ChristianAchievers programs, please contact Braden Caldwell
at (phone) 416 804 6213 or (email) bradencaldwell777@gmail.com
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