"And He replied to him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind (intellect). This is the great (most important, principal) and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as [you do] yourself. These two commandments [a]sum up and upon them depend all the Law and the Prophets." Matthew 22:37-40 (Amplified)But mankind measures success, theological or otherwise, in what would be the recognized standards of the world. Do you make, or have, financial success, work success, familial success, and etc. So when many look at the success they do, or do not, have with their faith, they get out the world's measuring stick. In this they would be vitally wrong.
How can you measure a spiritual principle of God with a mortal measure of success? It would be much like measuring the value of your car by the measure of the salad you had for lunch! In other words, there is no common ground at any level to measure the two. Even Jesus tells us in Luke 9:23:
"And He said to all, If any person wills to come after Me, let him deny himself [[a]disown himself, [b]forget, lose sight of himself and his own interests, [c]refuse and give up himself] and take up his cross daily and follow Me [[d]cleave steadfastly to Me, conform wholly to My example in living and, if need be, in dying also]." (Amplified)So the only way to measure your success is to define, live, and carry out a "divine and Godly" measurement. But we must make a distinction on what is an office of God, and simply walking in righteousness. Why? Because the reward in life is different:
"He who receives and welcomes and accepts a prophet because he is a prophet shall receive a prophet’s reward, and he who receives and welcomes and accepts a righteousman because he is a righteous man shall receive a righteous man’s reward." Matthew 10:41 (Amplified)
"For in the Gospel a righteousness which God ascribes is revealed, both springing from faith and leading to faith [disclosed through the way of faith that arouses to more faith]. As it is written, The man who through faith is just and upright shall live and shall live by faith." Romans 1:17 (Amplified)
"Thus David congratulates the man and pronounces a blessing on him to whom God credits righteousness apart from the works he does" Romans 4:6 (Amplified)Note here we see that God tells us through Paul, that the work you do in "distinctly different" than "who you are". This brings up again that faith is NOT a work, even though you do work "through" your faith. However MOST Christian still define what, or what they don't, do concerning their walk of faith. In this you can never really measure your success, because your definition of such is in the wrong place.
I have lived this, and for a long time considered myself an abject failure. I did not see that God viewed me by my heart, which He did not judge by worldly standards. If God did that how could Jesus be the firstborn of many brethren? Do we not see God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit as "separate and apart"? Haven we not said that God is not like us many times? Wrong!
His whole measure of man, and the destiny in our lives, is to be just like God! But we never will measure up if we never change our assessment of what constitutes our success in following Christ. In other words, our failure is guaranteed if our measure of success in discipleship to Christ is steeped in the world. And since we are supposed to rid ourselves of the world, how can we hold onto it's principles of success when we measure ourselves?
The two are not compatible.
"And [God] Who provides seed for the sower and bread for eating will also provide and multiply your [resources for] sowing and increase the fruits of your righteousness [ which manifests itself in active goodness, kindness, and charity]." 2 Corinthians 9:10 (Amplified)And now we see the measure of our success in what God brings into our lives, and our living by it! Nothing need matter, nor should anything else affect our walk of faith. That is the meaning our discipleship, that is the measure of who we are, in Christ, and it has nothing to do with the world.
Be blessed, be loved and be at peace. May the light of God's glory and presence fire the brilliance of your souls. You are greatly loved.
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