Success

Think for a moment what you feel is the most important thing in life.  I’m sure it’s a bit hard to zero in on one particular thing, because so many areas are significant and of a high priority.  It may be family members, friends, or merely looking for an opportunity to help someone that is in real need.  It might be to find success in all of your attempts to better yourself. 

           

Let us consider for a moment the word, success.  I will endeavor to create in your mind's eye an image of how I view success and how I feel it directly influences our very existence.  Success affects all aspects of life, especially in the pursuit of peace and happiness.

           

Life is interesting; full of surprises, to say the least.  It’s amazing how one person can look at a surprise and see it as a challenge to conquer, while refusing to collapse beneath it’s heavy load, whereas, another person breaks into pieces and crumbles as they gaze at the insurmountable mountain of defeat that stands unmovable before them. 

What causes, or creates the differences in these two people?  Even though the surprise is exactly the same in both cases, what makes one succeed and the other to bend and break in defeat?  What causes one person to be crushed under the burden, while the other rises above the problem?

           

Personality, parental guidance, peers, the environment in which they were raised, and their mental state of mind, to name a few, have significant impacts of influence.  Let us look at the mental state of a person's mind.  The psychological state of the mind plays an important role in how successful or failure oriented they are—optimistic and unbeaten, or pessimistic and a defeatist. 

The manner by which the brain has been programmed certainly lends to this emotional struggle to achieve and succeed, or succumb and fail.  It’s a roller coaster ride that not only plagues individuals in this nation, but people around the world.  Success comes through working at being successful and taking the right steps to achieve it.

           

Positive environmental influence, good parental persuasion, and quality friends directly or indirectly affect the mental assent to success.  Is this to say, conclusively, that all people that come from a bad environment; having had an abusive or inert parent; or the association with the wrong crowd of questionable integrity; are hell-bent for negative results and failures?  A hundred times no!  A thousand times no!  Success is up to the individual. It is a choice.

           

The answer is not setting back on one's laurels in self pity and feeling that because something happened to them yesterday, or earlier in life, that these are the reasons for their dilemma today.  Pointing an accusing finger in another person’s direction is not the answer.  This type of attitude only reveals the immaturity in a person.  It’s this poor me syndrome that creates bondage.

At whatever level in life we find ourselves, peace equals success, and it’s attainable.  Peace can be ours just for the asking.  It is the number one, most desirable reality there is. 

If you are looking to the world as your source of peace, it will be impossible to find.  The world only offers seasonal pleasure, not a lasting calmness.  It is filled with unrest and wickedness, and only gives heartache as its reward; bringing turmoil to an empty soul.  When things are possessed, or if things possess us, true peace evades the grasp and quickly slips away, leaving confusion and pain behind.

Is there a person that has reached the pinnacle of success that we should desire to pattern our life after? Who can offer peace of mind to a person that is tired and weary from the agonizing search for answers?  How can true peace enter our being and provide rest for the weary mind?  The answer to these questions and more are summed up in five letters—Jesus. 

It is not the other five letter word that so many people think will bring peace, which is money, but it is the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God that the hungry soul is longing for.  Peace brings happiness, satisfaction, and yes, success.  Jesus is complete and total success as we follow His lead.  He is the Way, the Truth and the Life—true success.

When a personal commitment to follow Jesus has been made, a "keep on keeping on" attitude springs up from within the inner person.  Peace reigns in their soul and brings success, because of the Lord.  God's Word (the Holy Bible) guarantees that the moment a person chooses to follow Jesus, it is this step that provides a more loving and peaceful existence in a world of troubled souls. 

To touch other lives with this newly found success, through the act of sharing Jesus with hurting individuals, is an act of love.  Sharing about the miraculous transformation that took place in one’s life enables others to experience the same peace for themselves.

           

God, through His Son Jesus, gives direction and stability to sustain us as we encounter life's surprises.  He provides a sure ability to succeed, while allowing us to possess the peace that our soul has been longing for.  The full benefits are beyond our full comprehension, but they are ours just the same, because Jesus loves us and died on a cross that we might have life; life more abundantly.  Jesus has gone to prepare a place in heaven for those that follow him—a successful ending to a perfect life in Him.

           

Disciplined people that are strong and successful in life, because of Jesus, need to look beyond their own four walls of success and get acquainted with the weaknesses of others.  They should open their mind to the principle that when a hand of support reaches out to a weak person, that individual now has someone to lean upon.  Not only are they supported, but blinded eyes open that reveal true reality to the one searching for answers to unanswered questions. 

When the course on which they are traveling has been altered through caring intervention, lives are changed.  Success begins to reign in their life also.  Seeing the results of witnessing to others brings satisfaction to the one reaching out their hand in compassion.  Taking the time to stand in the gap and giving of one's self helps searching people realize their short comings, which enables them to be elevated to a level of maturity that is so desperately needed when seeking success in life.

           

Asking forgiveness of our sins is the first step to success.  Seeing another person’s need and acting upon this awareness is the second step of God’s plan for our life.  Directing people to Jesus and helping them realize that others are not to blame for their misfortunes is the beginning of maturity in them.  Self discipline takes hold when hurting people learn how to pattern their life after the example of Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.

(1 Samuel 2:8), “He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the beggar from the ash heap; to set them among princes and make them inherit the throne of glory.”

Written by,

Papa Boyd