You are welcome again, friends, as we go through our discussion today. I want to speak on SUCCESS in life.

TEXT Joshua 1:8.

In Joshua 1:8 God said to Joshua,

⁸“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.”

PRAYER:

Our father and our GOD, we want to thank you for another opportunity we have to reason with You around your word. Let the entrance of your word, this hour, bring blessings in our lives. Teach us how to succeed through success – good success, in life, In Jesus’ name. Amen!

Success in life has always been the pursuit of many people throughout human history, and every culture. Although it seems to have intensified in our day. Nobody wants to be identified as a failure. Nobody wants to be identified as unsuccessful in life. And so, many look for success by all means, both fair as well as foul. With the change in our cultural values lately, only a small minority mind how success is achieved today. It is important that we first examine what we mean by “success”, and this will help us pursue it rightfully.

What is success?

The dictionary definitions of success include:

1. Achievement of something planned or attempted,
2. Attainment of fame, wealth or power [This, many of us identify with very easily],
3. Something that turns out well, as planned or as intended.

These are popular but inadequate concepts of success because there is more to success than these definitions convey. Albert Einstein, the Jewish scientist well known for his scientific equation,

Energy E = MC²

Which was the key to the discovery of nuclear energy.

This man, though not a Christian, said something about success. I quote Einstein, “Try not to become a man of success but rather try to become a man of value.” By this definition, I think he implied that value is more important than success; such values as honesty, moral integrity, reliability, fairness etc. These values are important when we speak of success. Thus, a dishonest multimillionaire cannot be described as a successful businessman. There is no success in that [that is, in his achievement] because he is dishonest in business.

Still speaking of success someone says, “As you climb the ladder of success, be sure it is leaning against the right building.” You will have bad success, (this is a paradox), if your ladder of success is leaning against the wrong building. Identifying the right building takes precedence over success, just as much as having value in life takes precedence over success.

The above two pieces of advice get us closer to what I call biblical definition of success. I find what I regard as GOD’s definition of success in the instruction HE gave Joshua, which we read earlier,

Joshua 1:8.

⁸“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.”

God seems to be saying in effect that, the key to success and prosperity lies in holding God’s word in high esteem or high regard, by reading it, meditating in it and diligently obeying it. In other words, as someone has observed, God defines success in terms of obedience and faithfulness.

I will therefore attempt to define success in this way, “being all that God would want you to be and doing all that God would want you to do, and in the manner that God would want you to do them, and at the time God has prescribed for you to do them.” In other words, for us to have success in life, we have to focus on God, we have to be obedient to God, we have to know what HE desires and designs for us, and we have to live our lives according to God’s word.

Many people fail to succeed in life because they do not have perseverance. I want to mention this as a very important ingredient in succeeding in life. Perseverance! They do not have patience. The adage, the patient dog eats the fattest bone, comes to mind at this point. I have come to discover that impatience is a terrible enemy of success. One of the greatest problems Nigerians have is impatience. You find it on the road, you find it in offices, you find it in doing businesses. When you drive in our society you will find out how impatient people are. You are traffigating to turn left, and somebody is coming behind you, he will not slow down so you could turn. He will overtake you on the same side you are traffigating to turn. Impatience! Much of the accidents we have on our roads today is as a result of impatience. Can you imagine how many businesses fail, how many marriages fail as a result of lack of perseverance or patience.

Thomas Edison who invented the light bulb and many other things said two significant or two insightful and informative things about the role perseverance plays in ensuring success. I will share those two things with you when we come back to conclude this discussion on success in life.

PRAYER:

Father, thank you for those who have read this. I know that everyone is seeking to succeed. And I am praying that those who have heard will succeed, but that they will succeed by being obedient to you, yielding themselves to Jesus Christ, first and foremost, and You will reveal to them true success. I commit them into Your hands, o God. And I say, bless them, in Jesus’ name. Amen!