The Measure of Success - Martin Wiles

You must give them my messages whether they listen or not. But they won’t listen, for they are completely rebellious! Ezekiel 2:7 NLT

Success isn’t always what we hoped or what others defined it as.

Apple began with two men in a garage. Years later, it is a $2 billion company with thousands of employees. Yet, in the beginning, the very company Steve Jobs founded fired him. Losing his job made him realize his passion for his work exceeded the disappointment of failure. He ventured into NeXT and Pixar, but eventually made his way back to Apple. Jobs said, “I didn’t see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me.”

And Bill Gates. A Harvard dropout, who co-owned a business called Traf-O-Data, which failed. But his skill and passion for computer programming turned this failure into success when he began the now-famous software company, Microsoft, which turned the then 31-year-old into the world’s youngest self-made billionaire. Gates said, “It’s fine to celebrate success, but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure.”

The road to success often proves difficult, nor may it look the way we thought it would. It didn’t for the prophet Ezekiel. God called him to preach to God’s people, a rebellious and hardheaded lot. Most of them wouldn’t listen, but Ezekiel’s job was to give them God’s message whether they did or not. The people’s response would not gauge success for Ezekiel. Obedience would.

In our world, success is normally measured by job position, money, possessions, and relationships. God measures it differently—by obedience. And by a different attitude. Jesus said in God’s Kingdom, the last will be first and vice versa.

If we want to know success by God’s standard, we have to adopt a different attitude. Whether or not we have any of what the world defines as success is immaterial. When we obey God’s commands, live a holy lifestyle, and follow God’s plan, we achieve success. Nothing more, nothing less.

Initially, we may not enjoy the way God tells us to pursue success—as with Ezekiel, we may have to travel roads we’d rather not traverse—but God’s way remains the best choice. And what others think doesn’t matter. God’s opinion measures our success.

Ask God for the grace to help you pursue success His way.

Prayer: Father, give us the kind of success that pleases You, not others.

Tweetable: How do you measure your success? 

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