Daily Devotional

Divine Interruption

By Shawneda Marks
This week's topic: A Life Of Success

Turn on the television. Glance at a magazine cover. Click through some blogs and you will find subliminal and obvious images, depictions, opinions and messages about success. Merriam Webster’s definition of success as a noun is a favorable or desired outcome, as well as, the attainment of wealth, favor, or eminence. Random House’s definition of success as a noun is the favorable or prosperous termination of attempts or endeavors in addition to the attainment of wealth, position, honors or the like.

Think about the images you see again. Mansions, fancy cars, designer clothes and stacks of money are considered ultimate success by many. Yet throughout the bible, we find people who considered God’s desired outcomes and prosperous termination of their attempts or endeavors as the measure of their success.

My foster family owned many of the things people use to define their success—nice cars, nice clothes and a nice-sized home. My first week living with them, my new parents took me out to breakfast to get to know me and one thing my Dad said that day never left me. He said, “What you have doesn’t define if you’re a success; doing what you set out to do for the right reason and who you are inside, does.”

At that time (before it was popular) I planned to become a forensic psychologist and catch serial criminals of the worst kind. I wasn’t a success yet because my motivation was to seek vengeance for their victims and shame the criminals. My plans were to be an FBI sensation, expert witness and write books about the most diabolical cases I solved (like the ones I’d read since middle school). Marriage and children were optional. I wanted to be rich and famous for putting away evil people.

God interrupted the plans I made for my life. When I think about the condo, convertible luxury car and crime-fighting future I described to my parents that morning, it was a story of success based on the definition of someone else. It was based on the pain from my past and the circumstances that landed me in foster care. It was based on the admiration I thought I’d receive if I had things I saw in magazines, movies and on television. Watching my parents love each other and experiencing love from my new family even after I hurt them began to change what I viewed as success. Encountering the forgiveness and redemption of God after walking away from Him wiped society’s definition of success out of my mind. It made me wonder if as a child of God how I defined my life’s success should be based more on if I accomplished the things I wanted in life or if I embraced God’s purpose for me.

If I chose to allow what I originally wanted for my life to determine whether or not I am a success, I failed miserably. My plans didn’t include being irreversibly in love with the Creator of the universe, an intercessor, worshipper, wife to a God-fearing husband, and devoted mother to an imaginative daughter. The books I write focus on how much God loves the hurting instead of exacting vengeance on the people or situations that hurt them.

Entering into an intimate relationship with God opened my eyes to the ability to determine my own definition of success. I prayed for God to save me, and today I pray that everything I do prospers His purpose for my being here, and based on the fact that He loves me, I know I live a life of success.

Scripture Of The Day: “Save now, we beseech You, O Lord; send now prosperity, O Lord, we beseech You, and give to us success!” - Psalm 118:25 (AMP)

Shawneda Marks, awareness author, penned the award-nominated inspirational HIV awareness novel It’s In My Blood, and the women’s devotional for empowering emotional healing, Diamond Butterfly. Learn more about her passion to empower healthier living at http://www.shawneda.com.

Subscribe to receive the SF Daily Devotional in your inbox each morning!