“Are you a successful person? Honestly, are you? Do you want to be a successful person? Honestly now, do you? Most of us would say that, honestly, we do want to be successful. Who wants to be a failure? The book of 1 Kings helps us sort out success and failure.
King David was a successful military leader, psalmist, king, and spiritual leader. He was also a failure as a father. With several wives, he wasn’t exactly a role model for us in marriage either. At the pinnacle of his success, he plunged into the depths of failure -- entering an adulterous relationship with Bathsheba and murdering Bathsheba’s husband to cover his tracks. For a man who had it all, how could David have made two such incredibly dumb decisions?
Solomon began his reign as king begging God in humility for wisdom above riches and honor. So God gave him both. He became not only the wisest king ever, but probably the richest king ever. Success? Absolutely! Failure? See Solomon later with hundreds of wives and concubines, many bringing their evil, pagan gods into Israel and infecting the nation. Solomon was at the same time the wisest man on earth and the dumbest man on earth. Who could have so much God-given wisdom and success and misuse it so badly?
Solomon left his kingdom to his son Rehoboam. If ever a man inherited wealth, power, prestige, might, honor -- almost anything a person could want -- it was Rehoboam. What more could he desire? All he had to do was be faithful to God and serve his people well. He could have reigned for a lifetime over all Israel and extended its golden hour. His wise counselors told him this. But he listened to the wrong crowd. He not only lost Solomon’s wealth and power, he split the kingdom in two.
You may be financially successful but still make a marital or parental decision that is foolish beyond words. You may be a role model in athletics or business or a profession or even in ministry. Be careful. In your golden hour, you may make one foolish decision that will blow up your successful world.
True success is not how much money you accumulate, how many adoring fans you have at your feet, how many military victories you have achieved, how much education you have. It is not how much fame has come to you, how much power over others you have. True success is what you do with these emblems of success when they come. It is something of a tragedy when we see a person with the emblems of success -- money, fame, power, athletic ability, popularity -- become a failure in simple morality or basic family life. Too often, failure in things that matter most comes at the pinnacle of success in things that matter least.
If we want to truly succeed in life, we will humbly accept the emblems of material success, asking God to help us use them fully in the arenas of life where things matter most -- with God, with family, with other significant people in our lives. True success is not so much what you have as what you do with what you have.” (Touch Point Bible)
Lord, thank you for your Word today! Help us minimize the damage! Help us follow the formula for keeping our successes in perspective...understanding that those successes are gifts from you, and if we pay those successes forward, knowing that those successes are not ours, but yours, we will reduce the failures in our lives. As we read the book, 1 Kings, help us recognize that these spiritual giants were flawed individuals that experienced many failures, just like us. And like you loved and covered them, in spite of their faults, you will love and cover us. Lord, thank you for your grace and mercy. We love you!
May the Lord bless you and protect you. May the Lord smile on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord show you his favor and give you his peace.” (Numbers 6:24-26)
….AND MAY WE ALL PRACTICE THIS WITH ONE ANOTHER.
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