“Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.” (Jeremiah 29:12-13, NASB)
We become what we are committed to.
Nick Saban, the incredibly successful college football coach at the University of Alabama, was interviewed after his win over Notre Dame in the BCS National Championship game, when he offered this definition of success: “Consistency in performance.” Asked if he was satisfied with the success of his football teams winning back-to-back championships and three in the last four years, Saban did not smile and simply said, “We will enjoy this victory for the next 48 hours, and then we get back to work. Just as we did last year after our victory, we get ready for next season now.”
I love sports, and I love college football, but in a very real way, Saban’s approach is sick, because it offers no end. When is enough? How much is enough? And what will become of Saban’s success in a few years, when sports fans set their eyes on a different team? They will forget who won the championship in 2013, or at least consign it to nostalgia.
This is why worldly success and spiritual success are so far apart. As far as we know, no one in heaven does a dance when this team or that wins a big game. But Jesus assured us that there is rejoicing among the angels when just one sinner repents and gives his life to God. Now that is important—whether or not anyone on earth calls it “success!”
I have a friend who was very successful in the world. He had all that money could buy and was living “the good life.” But something happened along the way. The world got in the way. His house burned to the ground as he watched from the driveway, his business failed, his marriage dissolved, and his sister was dying because she needed a kidney transplant. But the story does not end there. Today he has a new home and a beautiful, godly wife who encourages him. His business has rebounded and his sister got one of his kidneys and is in full recovery now. And now he is starting a Links Fellowship in the town where he lives. He is modeling this new Fellowship after the one that he has consistently and passionately attended for the last few years.
This is not a health-and-wealth prosperity message I’m offering up here. It is about Jesus and the Light that my friend saw in others sitting around the table that inspired him to follow a new trail. Now others see that same Light in him. He reads and studies the Book that his Father wrote, and by God’s grace, he is being transformed and is successful in God’s eyes. This isn’t a one-time “OK, Lord, I’m with you.” He’s doing this day-by-day, every day.
Consistency with God puts us in a place where God can bless us, not because of our effort, but because of his generous promise and love for us. Finished success will come when we get Home with Jesus; but by his grace, that success starts now. Thanks be to God for the success that he alone gives us!
—
Randy Wolff
February 7, 2013
Copyright 2013 Links Players International
The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.