My initial contemplation on success was rather simplistic. At that time, success for me was no more than attainment of set goals. I picked holes in that definition when I realized that if a man robs a bank having set that as a goal, it would not be reasonable to call it success. For although such a fellow achieved what he set out to do, he added no value to life. He probably has left death and sorrow in its wake. It was at that point I realized that authentic success is impossible without God! On the surface, a lot of people would think that once you have goals and attain them, you are already a success. However, success is more than having a number of goals and achieving them. It is of no use achieving what will not count ultimately. When God gave Joshua the leadership mandate, He exhorted him on a number of things to do in order to attain good success. The best we can do by ourselves is to attain success; good success is reserved for those who appreciate the God factor in the pursuit of life.
“To succeed in earnest is to first determine what God would have you do, and having known it to pour your energy wholly in its pursuit. Success in the eye of God cannot be achieved by ‘’copy and paste’’ attitude. “
The passage for our meditation today is about Samson. His parents asked the angel to tell them the rules that should govern the boy’s life and what his life work would be. Notice that all that had been determined even before the child was conceived. From scriptures we know that the life work of Samson was to deliver the children of God from the oppressive rule of the Philistines. Whatever else Samson did or achieved would not have mattered if he did not deliver the people from the Philistines. To succeed in earnest is to first determine what God would have you do, and having known it to pour your energy wholly in its pursuit. Success in the eye of God cannot be achieved by ‘’copy and paste’’ attitude. You cannot wholly adopt what someone else is doing and make that your preoccupation. As far as success in the kingdom is concerned, everyone is answerable to God.
