What Makes You a Success?

        In this life, there is a certain view that many people of the world have of what makes a person a success. Most people in the world consider having great riches makes a person a success. Others may think that being famous makes you a success. Still others may say that living life the way you want to live it makes you a success. But what does it mean to really be a success in life?
        Being a true success in life doesn’t require you to have a lot of money. It doesn’t require you to have a high-paying, high-profile job. It doesn’t even require you to be famous. What makes us a true success in life is living our lives as faithful Christians and going to Heaven when we die. If we fail to do either of these things, then we are failures in life. King Solomon in Ecclesiastes 12:13 says; “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.” (Ecclesiastes 12:13). Our whole purpose for being on this earth is to fear God and to obey Him. If we do these things throughout our lives and are able to have a home in Heaven after we die, then we are a true success!
         Likewise, we are a success if we teach our children to be faithful Christians. Most parents are focused on making sure that their children make a certain letter grade in school, learn as much as they can about the various subjects taught in school, or acquire that academic or athletic scholarship. Unfortunately, many parents place these things above this children’s spiritual training. There are many children who do very well in school, but who have never been to a worship service of the church. This is so sad because these parents are setting their children up for failure. Yes, they may do well in this life, with jobs that allow them to make enough money to have as many temporary luxuries as they want. However, when it’s all said and done, and their lives are over, these children who were taught to base their entire focus and identity on earthly things, will have no place in Heaven, which is solely for  spiritually minded Christians.
        Parents, if you fail to do your duty of training your children to be faithful Christians throughout their lives, then you are a failure in life. “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” (Proverbs 22:6).
       We have to measure ourselves with God’s Measurements, not the measuring stick that the world uses, because the world only focuses on the “here-and-now.” Our minds should be always fixed on eternity, and when we do this, the various troubles and cares of this world will seem more like the “small stuff” in comparison. The “big stuff” in life have to do with spiritual matters, not matters of the world. We cannot let our jobs, families, friends, hobbies, or anything else take priority above serving God and obeying Him.
         If we allow worldly things to take first place over spiritual things, then we are making the world our home and not Heaven. “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Matthew 6:19-21), If we lose Heaven, we have lost everything and everything we have done while on this earth will be for nothing. “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” (Mark 8:36).
         So, do not worry about how much or how little you have accomplished in this life. If you are living the life of a faithful Christian, you are a major success in this life! It does not matter what the world thinks of you, it is what God Thinks of you that matters! If you are not living faithfully to God’s Word, I encourage you to start doing so now! Your eternal soul depends on it!

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