Ultimate Success!
People worldwide are looking for success. Some are successful when they get the boat they want. Others are successful when they achieve the top position, the head of the food chain. Still, others define success as getting enough food to live another day. That’s sad but true. Comparatively, few define success as having a home in heaven. And that’s where true success lies. For all the pain anyone may suffer here on this rock, our ultimate success is found in the life after this life! For ultimate success, we must be successful at getting home to heaven.
The Problem Is that the Heart Is Misaligned.
Look at Romans 12:2, NASB. To be genuinely successful, everyone has to change their heart. If you imitate the world, you will eventually fail. You see, it’s not about money, possessions, status, or power. True success lies in making a home for yourself in heaven. Algin your heart with the world, and that’s all you get – you get the things of the world. And those things are temporary. The saying goes, “You can’t take it with you.”
So, we all need to put things in their proper perspective. Have you ever felt like you’ve tried and tried and tried but somehow, you can’t get over some unseen hurdle? Then, after enough failures, your bones dry up and get brittle, Proverbs 17:22, NASB. Well, if that’s the case, you need a shot in the arm with the best vitamin!
Viewing our life through the lens of eternity is that vitamin. Having earth stuff is fine, but the “new” always wears off. Soon, there’s not much to motivate us. So, eternity is where it’s at. We will spend a few years here but experience genuine existence there, eternally. So, think forward! If eternity’s what it’s all about, then we must align our hearts with God, Psalm 34:8, NASB!
There Is a Better Way to Live!
If you’ve been rattling around in your mind with ever-growing frustration, there is a better way to live. It’s simple. Trust the Lord for everything, Psalms 37:5, NASB. For example, NFL owners spend billions on people, infrastructure, and business expenses. But there’s only one team at the top at the end of the playoffs. The point is that we can’t control all of the parts. Sometimes the farmer loses his crop. Sometimes, the gymnast falls off the balance beam. Sometimes, the plane crashes.
And if eternity is where God is, it only makes sense to put your trust in Him. He has everything under control, even if it doesn’t seem like it now (that’s because people have free will to make sinful choices, and the world is a messed-up place because of it. But God has plans for all of that). And when I say trust Him for everything, I mean everything—getting to work, your health, big things, little things, and all things between. We must lean on Him for life support. He wants it that way.
If there’s anxiety in your life, learn to trust God’s love for you. Perfect, that is, complete, love casts out fear, 1 John 4:18, NASB. And God has that love for you. He loves you, regardless of what you’ve done or how you’ve done it. God accepts you when you change everything and come to Him.
In our lives, we must do the things God wants to be done. If you want a home in eternity, heaven, then we’ll do as He says for salvation and righteous life. Believers must wash their sins away in water baptism leaning on Jesus’ sacrifice for salvation. Afterward, every child of God must learn the family ways, living a life acceptable to Him. And when it’s time for us to move along from this life, we move to our permanent home. Don’t be a slave to the world of sin, be a servant to Jesus, Romans 6:16, NASB.
Ultimate Success Is a Home in Heaven.
Did you know that when we’re baptized, we become new people, 2 Corinthians 5:17, NASB? The old stuff is over. It’s forgotten. We are created in Christ Jesus. We begin living that way. Want peace? It’s in Jesus. How about love? Want that? That’s in Jesus, too. Joy? Jesus. Hope for the best life ever? It’s all in Jesus. He teaches us how to live and get home to heaven, Revelation 14:13, NASB.
Our Father promises to eliminate anything and everything that ails us. He fixes the mind. He heals the heart (emotions). He gives us a perfect body made for heaven. The real us, our inner spirit, is at home with our true Father.
Our efforts must be centered on heaven, then. That’s our goal. That’s our prize, and that’s where Christians are headed. I’m sure you’ve heard that to achieve your goals, you must keep your eyes on them. It’s no different from the desire for heaven. So then, we must keep our minds on heaven, Colossians 3:2, NASB.
That’s an every-hour sort of thing. We can’t afford to take our eyes off Jesus, our Lord. We can’t afford to look at the lures of the world. Lures catch fish, you know, and they end up dead on someone’s dinner plate!
Do you want ultimate success? It’s all by living in God, Matthew 7:21!
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