Inspiring the New Generation 16
THE MEASURE OF SUCCESS
Some years ago, a family asked me, how many members have you gotten; then we were less than a month in ministry. Funny enough, I never went out in the first place to run a church but to fulfill my calling (this work here is testimony to this). To many people ministry is recognized when it looks like a church; and their results must be based on number of souls you have coming into the four-wall structure.
They have forgotten that Jeremiah has no recognized follower but Baruch; Jesus had few who believed in him and at a point he had only 12 disciples when others have deserted him. We might call Jeremiah and Jesus failure based on the immediate quantifiable numbers of souls of souls around them. Jeremiah was the last man standing when the fallout of exile to Babylon took place. Jesus has the greatest followers today on earth, but he didn’t start large and impressive.
The search for credibility, recognition and crowd endorsement has taken the glow out of many children of God. Some of us use wealth and material blessings as the yardstick of the blessings. Recently, some were arguing about number of souls won as indicator of a successful ministry, but I told people that if that is how it is measured, I am a failure. But one thing I know is that everywhere I go people thank God that I come in contact with them.
The thief by the right side of Jesus is a case to look into. How many souls did he win for Christ? There is no hard and fast rule about success. God equates success by his standard not man. Success is doing the will of God. This is simple as ABC. This will save many people from the rat race and competition. Our calling have different signature of success. Success isn’t and will never be a one-size fit them all.
What is success to one person is failure to another. For instance, I write with ease. Somebody who is averse to writing would likely wear himself out competing with me.
Recently, I was at a mission field with friends, I had an evangelist who was doing his things with ease. I just smiled because he is in his field and I wasn’t threatened in anyway. I enjoyed his grace.
Find your ground, work on it and there you will be measured.
Note: A man called to reach 1,000,000 if peradventure he reached just 100,000 will be a failure by God’s stand. The result of the one talent man, five talent man and the ten talent man would most likely be different in investment under similar conditions; yet God expect everyone to bring result based on inherent capacity, talents and gifts.
Don’t wear yourself out trying to be somebody else; find your place. Your success will be determined by your purpose, calling, gifts and talents; not premised on another person’s.
Prayers:
- Help me to discover my gifts and abilities
- Help me bring out results based on the gifts planted within me
*WALE ADEWUMI
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