STANDING ON TRUTH & GROWING IN GRACE

What is success? For many people, success is getting the dream job or the house on the beach. For some, success looks like driving the nicest cars or having the finest clothing. To the world, all these things make sense. That all sounds like success, but what about for the Christian? What is success for a person who has trusted in Jesus Christ and is living in this world right now? What is success for the person whose home is in heaven and not here on this earth? Is it the same as the world’s definition of success? I hope not. For the Christian, success is knowing God, knowing God’s will for your life, and doing His will. Success is faithfulness to His calling. God’s calling on your life might be different from another person’s calling. One might be called to travel the world and become a missionary in a poor country. Another might be called to start a church in their hometown. Others might be called to carry on the family business and be a missionary through that occupation. No matter what God has called us to do, we must be faithful to Him. We must trust Him through whatever He wants us to go through. That is success. The hard part is that there are things that will stop us from doing all that God has called us to do. One of those things is the sinful flesh we are all born with. The flesh goes against God’s law. Even though we as believers have the Holy Spirit, we still battle the flesh. We will either listen to our own sinful nature or listen to God’s word. This is the daily battle the Christian will face. Not only do we still have the flesh, but we also live in a hostile environment, where men have surrendered to their flesh. We are surrounded by sin and evil that goes against all that God wants for our lives. One might say this is Satan’s playground. He has corrupted this world and has turned everything against God. People may think this environment is apart from any church setting, or typical church surrounding. This is not the case. Sin has crept into the church. One of the ways Satan has done this is through apostates and false teachers, a person who has abandoned their faith and is a threat to the church.