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What would it take for you to feel successful in life? Really.  Take some time to think about that.

For me it’s how many visitors I get to my blog every month, or when my songs are finally published and people know my music, or when my passions finally become my actual job and source of income, or when some church finally recognizes me as an official minister.

I know I’m not the only who struggles with evaluating success by qualitative results instead of quantitative ones.  The culture drills this mentality into us, especially those of us who are teenagers and young adults.

We’re told that success is defined by how much we accomplish.  How much money we make.  What our job title is.  How much notoriety or fame we generate for ourselves.  How big the scope of our impact is.  We look at numbers and achievements, titles and power.

God looks at none of those things.

How Does God Define Success?

Remember my list of what it would take for me to feel successful? None of those things have to happen for me to actually be successful.  Whatever that list looks like for you, none of those things have to happen for you to be successful either.

They’re not bad things. Not at all.  In the previous post about God’s calling for our lives, we discussed that it’s totally okay to have aspirations and sometimes those things may be planted in our hearts by God.  We just need to make sure that we don’t define our success by them.  We have to make sure that we hold them with the posture of heart that God wants us to hold them with.

So what exactly is God’s definition of success?  In Matthew 25:14-30, Jesus lays it out for us in the parable of the three servants.

¹⁴ “Again, the Kingdom of Heaven can be illustrated by the story of a man going on a long trip. He called together his servants and entrusted his money to them while he was gone. ¹⁵ He gave five bags of silver to one, two bags of silver to another, and one bag of silver to the last—dividing it in proportion to their abilities. He then left on his trip.

¹⁶ “The servant who received the five bags of silver began to invest the money and earned five more. ¹⁷ The servant with two bags of silver also went to work and earned two more. ¹⁸ But the servant who received the one bag of silver dug a hole in the ground and hid the master’s money.(Matthew 25:14-18)

This parable is a picture for us of how God views our lives – both in this life and when He evaluates us at His return and gives us eternal reward.  God gives each of us gifts, passions, assignments, resources, relationships, circumstances etc. throughout our life to steward (or manage) for His glory, the service of others and our enjoyment. And we really will give an account to God at the return of Jesus for how we managed our spiritual lives and the things God entrusted to us during our life on this earth. That’s what this parable in Matthew 25 is about.   God evaluates success by obedience and faithfulness to do what He’s called us to do, not by results.

¹⁹ “After a long time their master returned from his trip and called them to give an account of how they had used his money. ²⁰ The servant to whom he had entrusted the five bags of silver came forward with five more and said, ‘Master, you gave me five bags of silver to invest, and I have earned five more.’

²¹ “The master was full of praise. ‘Well done, my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in handling this small amount, so now I will give you many more responsibilities. Let’s celebrate together! (Matthew 25:19-21)

Each of the servants in the parable in Matthew 25:14-30, were given different amounts of money to manage and the first two servants each increased what they were originally entrusted with by different amounts.  Yet when the master (representing Jesus) returned to receive an account from them he praised them both for their stewardship and rewarded each of them with more responsibility.  They produced at different quantities but they both managed well what they were given and were praised and rewarded for their stewardship.  The last servant wasn’t praised and rewarded because he didn’t do anything with what was entrusted to him for fear that it wouldn’t be enough.

What Jesus wants us to take away from this story?

It’s not about whether what God gives you to steward in life looks exactly like what someone else has been given or how big, impactful and famous you make whatever gifts, assignments and responsibilities He entrusts to you.  It’s not about how much you achieve in the eyes of this world.  God’s interest is that you are obedient to do the things He calls you to do – generally speaking through His Word, first and foremost – and then specifically for your life as His Spirit leads you and that you are faithful to stick with it unless He redirects. (Matthew 7:24-27 // Galatians 5:25) That approach to life leads to praise and reward from God in eternity and that is success in His eyes, regardless of what the quantitative measurements look like.

My friend posted this status about J.R.R. Tolkien (author of the Lord of the Rings trilogy) on Facebook and I kept it because it so speaks to the heart of this blog post.

“It was the Inklings (a group of believers who loved literature and Jesus) that encouraged J.R.R. Tolkien to persevere in His work while also reminding him that even if his magnum opus was never completed, the simple act of being faithful to God’s call to create had eternal significance.  You just gotta keep at it! Whether it sees the light of day or not!”

Where you wrestle with feeling successful may involve creativity or it may not, but the point is this: the eternal significance of what we do in life is found in the simple act of being obedient and faithful to the things God leads us to do, not in what those things evolve into.

I don’t have to have a record deal one day (although that would be great); I just need to be obedient and faithful to share the songs God gives me and pray He uses them to draw people closer to Him.  If I do that, I’m successful.  Whether those songs reach 5 people or 5,000 people doesn’t matter.

I don’t have to have a viral blog post, or thousands of subscribers to my blog one day; I just need to be obedient and faithful to communicate God’s Word to people through this platform and however else He allows me to and trust Him to speak to people through it.  If I do that, I’m successful.  The number of views on my articles isn’t the point in God’s eyes.  (But I like having you around, so don’t let that discourage you from reading 😉 )

I don’t need to make a full-time living from being a minister so I can focus on helping people grow spiritually in the way I really want to.  I just need to be obedient and faithful to share the gospel and make disciples of Jesus however I can. If I do that, I’m successful.

I’d LOVE for all those things to happen and more.  I pray for God to use those outlets in the lives of others.  I pray for God to give me the desires of my heart. I try to work as hard as I can at my craft/ministry, but my success is not impacted by whether they do or don’t happen…Because my success is not about results but faithfulness.  That’s the key.

Pray for and pursue the things God has placed in your heart or goals you have, just make sure you hold on to God’s definition of success as you do it.  Then your heart will be in the right place.  Remember, in God’s Kingdom success is about quality not quantity.

Success and Satisfaction

Success in life also has to do with how we manage our spiritual lives.

In addition to your success being defined by obedience and faithfulness, your success is defined by relationship with God and doing His will.

 Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you. For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world. 

And this world is fading away, along with everything that people crave. But anyone who does what pleases God will live forever. (1 John 2:15-17)

We already talked about how our culture teaches us to find success in earthy accomplishments and even to find our satisfaction or fulfillment in life through earthly accomplishments.

Now, when this passage tells us not to love the world it doesn’t mean that everything about this world and the culture is bad.  They are only bad when they are sinful, otherwise God intends for us to enjoy them. (More on that here) It simply means the cravings, passions and accomplishments of this world will fade and their ability to satisfy us is fleeting.

What’s eternal is this: living in the love of God and living to do what pleases Him.  Our satisfaction and success in life is found in being loved by God, loving God back and doing His will.  In His Word, God tells us how much He loves us, how we express love back to Him on His terms, and what type of lifestyle pleases Him and agrees with His will. With that foundation, you and I can pursue earthly accomplishments and enjoy the good things of this world while not elevating them to a place in our hearts that should be held only by God.

God constantly has to bring my heart back to this truth.  Ask Him to do the same for you.  Find out how much God loves you, get to know God deeply and love Him with your emotions and the way you live your life, and obey His instructions in Scripture about what pleases Him.  Then, you’ll be living for eternal things even as you enjoy temporal things in a balanced way.

So, to sum it up:

Your success and satisfaction in life are defined by two things:

1. Your obedience and faithfulness to do what God calls you to do
2. Your relationship with God and doing His will

Go for your aspirations in life for ministry, career, relationships, recreation etc. as God allows you to.  I know I’m going to do that.  Just ask God to help you keep the right perspective as you do it.

Your Turn: Have a conversation with God this week about your desires in life and your definition of success.  Ask Him to help your definition of success to match His even as you pursue your goals in life.  Discuss this post in the comments below.

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