What does it mean to be successful?

The world usually defines success as a having a good, well-paid job and a nice family. On social media we portray ourselves as happy people who are going places, it’s always a very positive image. And there is something to be said about that. Abraham and Isaac were both blessed by God, and as a result they got very wealthy. But there is no mention of success.

As Christians we usually measure success by our fruit. I run this ministry and people come to know the Lord. We have a church of this size, and we are still growing in members. Or as a speaker I get invited everywhere. Or to put it more in a YWAM context: I run schools with lots of students, and many stay to staff. Yes, these are all wonderful things and we see God working through them and we see Gods Kingdom advance. But is this success?

To take another angle I want to look at 2 prophets, prophets who I think were successful, and not because they had it all together with a good job and a nice family (one of them wasn’t even allowed to marry), and not even because they were so “successful” in their ministry.

I want to look at Jeremiah and Ezekiel.

 

Jeremiah got a call from the Lord to prophecy over Judah just before they were taken into exile by the Babylonian empire. In Jeremiah 1:4-19 we read about the calling of Jeremiah: Vs. 7 “For to all whom I send you, you shall go, and whatever I command you, you shall speak.” and vs. 17 “If you don’t go, I will trouble you.” Later in Jer. 7:27, God says: “So you shall speak all these words to them, but they will not listen to you. You shall call to them, but they will not answer you.” and in Jer. 1:19, “They shall fight against you”, in other words, “they won’t listen”. But Jeremiah had no choice, he had to go or God would trouble him. So Jeremiah went, but it wasn’t easy. He often complained towards God (Jer. 12:1-4, 15:10-18, 17:14-18 etc.)

In Jer. 16:2, we read: “You shall not take a wife, nor shall you have sons or daughters in this place.” He wasn’t allowed to marry and have children, as a symbolic act, but also to spare him even more heartache.

He got imprisoned, cast into a cistern, after the first deportations into exile Jeremiah warned the people left in Jerusalem NOT to go to Egypt, but the people didn’t listen, went to Egypt and took Jeremiah along (abduction). So he didn’t have a beautiful family or a good job, he was even thrown into prison and he was not very fruitful in his ministry. So what is success in God’s eyes?

 

Ezekiel was a priest who prophesied to the Jews in exile, and he also had a hard time of it. Already when he called Ezekiel (Ez. 2:3-7) God said that the Jews were rebellious, in Ez 3:7 “But the house of Israel will not be willing to listen to you, for they are not willing to listen to me: because all the house Israel have a hard forehead and a stubborn heart.” Like most prophets, Ezekiel was given the task to call the people back to the covenant, and again God told him beforehand that “They will not listen” Still Ezekiel went. In Ezekiel 24: 15-27 we also read that his wife died while he was still in his thirties and he was not allowed to mourn her. This doesn’t sound successful to me.

 

Still I think that Jeremiah and Ezekiel were successful in what they did, but not because they had it all together with a good job, a nice family and a fruitful ministry. So what was it then that made both of these men successful? What the lives of these two men teach us, is that obeying God is above everything, it is above family, it is above a fruitful ministry. If God calls us to do something, we have to simply obey, no matter the outcome. It is not up to us to qualify something as successful. We have to obey and the rest is in God’s hands. Of course God will work through us, and we may have a nice family and it is beautiful if we have a fruitful ministry, but we may not let that define whether we are successful or not. That also applies to how we look at others, do we envy people because of what they do? Do we look up to people based on our human standards of what success is? Or do we see success as having a close relationship with God? Jeremiah was frustrated in his ministry, but he always brought his frustrations to God, he complained to God a lot. That is how we should define success, it is having a strong relationship with God, and if we have a strong relationship with God we will hear his voice, know what is according God’s will and have a successful life.