Starke Reality: Success is by Obedience

Tuesday, November 03, 2015

Success is by Obedience

From: firstlight@billriceranch.org

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Jeremiah 1:8 Be not afraid of their faces: for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the LORD.

Success is by Obedience

Nothing is ever accomplished by doing nothing. This fall, I have had the privilege of meeting a number of people who are very gifted and proficient in what they do. They will tell you it takes a lot of hard work to accomplish anything. But the greatest accomplishments are attained by obedience and not by ambition.

Now, God is obliged to empower our obedience, but He is not obliged to honor our ambitions. God never lacks for vision, so do we honestly think that we have higher ambitions than God has? No, but we displace God's vision when we live our own ambitions without regard to His. Obedience to God is not an excuse for failure. It is our measure of success.

Take the case of Jeremiah. The Bible talks of Jeremiah and it also talks about the great kings whom he addressed. Who was a success in God's eyes, the kings or Jeremiah? If ambition is the measure of success then the kings were, if obedience is the measure of success than Jeremiah was.

Notice the elements of Jeremiah's story that make it Scripture-worthy.

God's Word- The Bible says, "The words of Jeremiah." Verse 2 says, "To whom the word of the LORD came…" Right away we find that what Jeremiah had to say was not of his own ambition. These were God's ideas, God's Words that were in Jeremiah's mouth. We should be more taken with what God says than with what we can say about what God says.

God's creation- Success is living in obedience to God's claims on your life. God said in verse 5, "Before I formed thee… I knew thee… I sanctified thee…and I ordained thee." God made Jeremiah for a reason. God has made you for a reason, as well.

God's purpose- Jeremiah protested that he could not speak, but God told Jeremiah to go where God sent him and to say what God told him. God saw more than Jeremiah could see. God did more than Jeremiah could do. God can see well into the future, and God is sufficient for anything there. God never lacks for ambition, so just get connected to what His purpose is.

God's strength- In verse 8 God says, "Be not afraid of their faces: for I am with thee." Then the Bible tells us that He touched Jeremiah's mouth and Jeremiah was able to speak. God rarely says to a weak person, "You can do it." Instead He says, "I am with you." If God is with you, you can do what you cannot do because God does it through you.

God has an opinion about our lives and about this day. Let's find out what it is.

Prayer Requests: -Meetings this week in Taylors, SC and Smyrna, GA
- Men's Challenge- November 5-7