Daily Devotional

The Success Measuring Stick

By Tanya S. Martin-James
This week's topic: A Life Of Success

What is considered a life of success? Often you hear people defining what they believe it means to be successful. For some it’s finishing college and working in their desired field. For others it may be finding that special someone, getting married and raising a family. For others the size of their house, the model of car they drive or the amount of money they have in savings and investments may be their measuring stick.

Everyone has their own thoughts on success. However I can’t help but wonder what our lives would be like if we put all of those things aside and equated success with living a life pleasing unto God?

What if instead of chasing the promotions or the bigger car, we made running after God a priority?

“Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” Matthew 6:33

What if we measured our success by the fact that we were teaching our children through our words and actions about Christ and they were walking in those teachings … instead of measuring our success by how many pairs of Nikes or how many toys we can buy them?

“Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.” Proverbs 22:6

What if we really believed that our bodies were temples of God and considered living a life of success taking care of those temples – eating right, exercising and rejecting anything or anybody that tries to defile them?

“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.” Romans 12:1

It’s just a thought … it doesn’t mean you can’t desire the “finer” things in life. I’m just suggesting that we re-evaluate our measuring sticks for success and spend more time focusing on things that will draw us closer to Christ … and watch how everything else will fall into its proper place.

Scripture Of The Day: “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” - Matthew 6:33 (NKJV)

Tanya Martin James is the author of From Promiscuity to Proverbs 31: Getting Off the Fence of Sexual Immorality and Coffee Moments: A Work in Progress http://www.armedanddangerous.biz She also blogs at http://www.mycoffeemoments.com

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