How Would You Define Success?

Sometimes, when a Christian dies, other well-meaning believers might say that we shouldn’t cry because they’re in Heaven. But when you lose a loved one who has died in faith, go ahead and cry because the depth of your sorrow is an indication of the depth of your love.

When young Stephen was martyred for his faith in Christ, Acts 8:2 tells us, “Some devout men came and buried Stephen with great mourning” (NLT).

The Bible also says the people wept when Moses died. In Deuteronomy 34:8, we read, “The people of Israel mourned for Moses on the plains of Moab for thirty days, until the customary period of mourning was over” (NLT).

They wept over Moses because he was such a special person. He was the friend of God. The Bible says, “There has never been another prophet in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face” (Deuteronomy 34:10 NLT).

Even so, we can have a closer relationship with God than Moses had. And here’s what Jesus said about John the Baptist, who was the last of the Old Testament prophets: “I tell you the truth, of all who have ever lived, none is greater than John the Baptist. Yet even the least person in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than he is!” (Matthew 11:11 NLT).

Maybe you’re thinking, “How does that work? How could I be greater than John the Baptist?”

You’re greater in the sense that you have a closer relationship with God because you have Christ living in your heart. When you believe in Jesus, He comes and lives inside you and changes you from the inside out.

Therefore, what kind of difference is your life making? What kind of legacy are you leaving? Where are you in your life? Are you in the morning of it? Are you in the afternoon of it? Or, are you in the evening of your life?

We don’t know how many more years we will live or how many more years of ministry we will have. We never know when the Lord will call us home.

That is why we want to be ready to meet God. And we want to live lives that are worth emulating. Corrie ten Boom, a very godly woman who survived horrible things in a concentration camp during the Holocaust, said, “The measure of a life, after all, is not its duration, but its donation.”

Think of people who have made history because they stood up for what is right and what is true. Edward Everett Hale said, “I am only one, but I am one; I cannot do everything, but I can do something. What I can do, I ought to do. And what I ought to do, by the grace of God, I will do.”

We tend to think that success is defined by a long life. It is—if it is lived for the glory of God. But even a short life, if it is lived for God’s glory, is still a success.

Click below to receive more daily encouragement from Harvest Ministries.

Receive These Devotions In My Inbox   OR   View Available Resources