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How close can you come to success and still fail? Why do some people succeed and others who seemingly are doing the same thing fail? I guess I am asking is, “What is the secret to succeeding?”
In the Bible God tells us about the lives of some people who were successful and some who were failures. “Then He spoke a parable to them, saying: ‘The ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully. And he thought within himself, saying, ‘What shall I do, since I have no room to store my crops?’ So he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build greater, and there I will store all my crops and my goods. And I will say to my soul, ‘Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease; eat, drink, and be merry.’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided ?’ So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God” (Luke 12:16-21).
The man in the above passage may have considered himself to be successful. The neighbors may have considered him to be successful. God considered the man a fool because he was not rich toward God. How close to success was this man? Remember the rich young man who came to Jesus asking, “What shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?” Jesus told him to keep the commandments. He responded that he had kept these from his youth. “So when Jesus heard these things, He said to him, ‘You still lack one thing. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me’” (Luke 18:22). The man had good morals. He seemed to be the kind of person we would like for a neighbor or friend. He too may have been considered successful in material life. One thing kept him from eternal life. How close are you to success? Is there one thing standing in your way?
The success of Job was his faithfulness to God. He had some very devastating experiences: the loss of all his animals and the death of all his children. He lost his health. He still remained faithful to God. Others thought he was being punished for wickedness. His wife told him to curse God and die. When all his troubles (which were caused by Satan) were over, God blessed him once more even greater than before. His success came from perseverance. He did not give up his faith. He was successful because he did not let the riches (or the loss) keep him from faithfulness to God.
Inventors many times are not successful on the first try. Their success comes because they keep on. All Christians sin, but do not plan on sinning. Some fail in living for God because they quit. Christians are told to add to their life, “But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love” (2 Peter 1:5-7). We are told if we continue in these things we will never fall. The devil is persistent. He will never give up. If you give up then he has won. When you sin you must repent and ask the Lord to forgive you. Remember when Jesus was teaching His disciples to pray he said, “And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one” (Matthew 6:13). We know the need to be faithful to the Lord. We also know the need to ask for His help to resist the devil. When we resist the devil, he will flee from us. And when we draw near to God, He will draw near to us (James 4:7-8).
Your success may be just one time away. Stay faithful to God. Go to heaven.
Vernon Curry
Highland Drive Church of Christ
Poplar Bluff, MO