Are you successful?

What is success? What does it mean to be successful in ministry? Are you a successful Christian? We often define our success by worldly measures like numbers and growth. However, the Bible defines success in very different ways. According to Kent and Barbara Hughes, in their book Liberating Ministry from the Success Syndrome, success involves faithfulness, serving, loving, believing, prayer, holiness, and attitude. They give some related questions to help us evaluate our success based on the Bible's standards, not the world's.

1. Are you proving faithful in the exercise of your ministry? Specifically, are you obedient to God's Word? Or is there, perhaps, some area, in personal or public ministry, in which you are knowingly disobedient? (This is a telling question because you cannot be a faithful servant and a disobedient servant at the same time.) Also, since there can be no such thing as a faithful but lazy servant, are you truly hardworking?
2. Are you living your life as a servant, or have you drifted from servanthood into self-service? This question is fundamental for success, for this will move you from success to failure.
3. The great question for all who want to please God is, Do we love him? After his resurrection, Jesus unforgettably dramatized this question by asking Peter three times, "Do you love me?" Thus, from the lips of Jesus we learn that nothing is of greater importance! There can be no success without loving God.
4. Do we believe that God's Son is the Creator of everything in the universe, Sustainer of every atom, the Goal of all creation, and the Lover of our souls who died for us? And more, do we believe that as Rewarder he will equitably reward us? We say we believe it. But do we really believe it with all our hearts? Do we believe what we believe? If so, we have the smile of God, and that is true success.
5. Are we people of prayer? Do we regularly take significant portions of time for an exposure to God, to bare our needs and the needs of our people to God? Is your prayer life moving toward success or failure?
6. Is your life growing in holiness? Or are you becoming captive to the culture? In respect to holiness, would God classify your life as a success or a failure? There is much to consider here. But this question is so important to the Christian life and ministry; it must be answered.
7. What is your basic attitude toward your ministry - positive or negative? Some attitudes exclude success, namely negativism and jealousy. Negative people never fully experience success, regardless of their accomplishment. Their negativism taints their work for God and the experience of satisfaction they might have enjoyed. Jealous people envy the good fortune of others and gloat over others' misfortunes. They find it difficult to rejoice with those who rejoice. Such people please neither God nor themselves. But those with positive, encouraging attitudes are a success in themselves for they serve God with a heart that pleases him - and that is success.

So, how are you doing? Are you successful?