The Standard of Success

“I just want to hear God say, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant,'” I said, feeling like I wasn’t sure if I would hear those words.

I was sitting with my mentor, discussing serving God, and my fears around that topic. It wasn’t an easy conversation. However, I’ve been dwelling on it for a while, and have gathered a few thoughts on it. My mentor has also informed a lot of this, so credit is given where credit is due.

When we look at success, whether personal, ministerial or any other avenue of the Christian life, we mix up our priorities. Our standard often falls more along the lines of what the world believes than what God teaches us in the Bible.

In reflecting on my own life, I’ve realized that I’ve put my feelings of success in the incorrect places. Worse than that, according to these standards, I’ve succeeded!

Why is it so bad that I’ve had this kind of success?

The more I’m able to claim that measure of success, the more I turn to relying on it, instead of the actual measure of success, which I’ll explain later. At this point, rooting it out of where it’s been entrenched in my heart is both painful and terrifying.

In response to this rooting, I’ve come up with four statements on standards for success and what they actually reflect on. There are probably more, but these are the four that I hear in the church most often and that I have said over myself. These four are all incorrect assumptions, though they might sound very wise and spiritual. All I ask is you consider and, if you disagree, respond.

Finally, I’ll come to the fifth, which I believe is the actual standard for success that we should aim for.

1. If it’s about numbers, we’re trying to please the world’s standard

This one seems obvious, but it’s easy to try and match how well a ministry or organization is doing with how many people are in attendance. While we know it’s not right, we still chase after it.

The real reason is so we can have some kind of physical thing we can point at and say, “Look. Look, people, look God. See what I made? See how powerfully I’m working for the kingdom?”

That being said – if God is blessing your ministry or church, you might see an increase in numbers. But you might not, and that still might be a blessing. I’ll come back to this point at the end.

2. If it’s about how the message was received, we’re trying to please people

When Verdant Life, the young adult ministry I run, first started, I would tell this to myself often. “If they like what I say, then I’m doing well.”

In reality, this isn’t always about pleasing people, but feeding our ego. We say it to ourselves so we don’t feel so bad that we don’t have a large group that we can point to and boast about, so we try to turn the attention to something ‘more spiritual.’

Feeding your ego, no matter for what reason, is never spiritual. And being an eloquent speaker or fierce debater, who can convince others to their side, is as far from a proper measure of success as putting it in numbers.

3. If it’s about whether or not we obeyed God, we’re trying to please the law

Wait. But isn’t obedience good?

“Obedience is better than sacrifice,” right? (1 Samuel 15:22).

The answer is yes, of course, obedience is good. The statement, however, is not on whether or not we should obey, but our focus. If our focus is performing an act of obedience, we have completely lost sight of the reason for our obedience.

When we focus on obedience, we get caught in the same trap that Christians for centuries have been getting caught in – finding our success in checking off a to-do list. In all effect, we put ourselves back under the covenant that Christ fulfilled in his death and resurrection.

“Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith.” (Romans 3:27)

“I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!” (Galatians 2:21)

4. If it’s about how well we obey, we’re trying to earn favor

This is similar to the last one, but has enough of a difference to make it worth a separate section. When we focus on the completeness of our obedience, or the outcome of our obedience, all we’re trying to do is give to God as a, “See how well I follow?”

In other words, we don’t want to just pass the test, we want to pass it with an A+ and extra credit, if possible.

First of all, anytime you say ‘obeying well’ or ‘obeying better’ – who are you comparing yourself to? What standard is there? We go back to the same question that prompted this discussion – what defines success?

Second of all (and based off the first), we need to remember that we shouldn’t “look on his appearance or on the height of his stature…For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” (1 Samuel 16:7).

When Samuel saw the first son of Jesse, his immediate response was to judge him based off the world’s definition of success. In the same way, we attempt to define our success based on how well we perform in obedience. But following more rules (or following them ‘better’) doesn’t change who we are, nor mark how ‘successful’ we are.

The Standard of Success

Where, then, does our success lie? And how do we navigate the conundrum that obedience is a good thing, and that numbers can represent the movement of God?

Let me add one last statement to our list.

5. If it’s about following God and knowing Him, it’s not about us at all

The truth of the matter is that there is no standard or marker that will make us more or less successful in God’s eyes. What’s the first and greatest commandment? “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” (Deuteronomy 6:4-5, quoted by Jesus throughout the gospels).

We get focused on the ‘love’ part – what does love look like? How are we supposed to love God?

“Love is not a feeling. Love is a verb. Love is action.”

Oh, how spiritual we sound as we lie to ourselves, chasing after an action-based love, and not looking for the true source. We try to obey more and more rules, saying that we are attempting to love God better. We do things for the kingdom, saying that we are loving God by it.

When was the last time your significant other, or your parent, or roommate said, “You’ll learn to love me by working for me.” When was the last time you said that?

No, love is not found or developed by living a godly life. All it makes you is a whitewashed grave – you look real good on the outside, but inside is nothing but bones.

Character – the strength of will and ability to act in a way that lines up with God – can be developed by the disciplines of the Christian life. But not love.

Love only comes from one thing: “We love because he first loved us.” (1 John 4:19).

Knowing God, Knowing Success

I’ve already written on the topic of loving God, so I’m not going to dig into that much further. If you’d like to read it, it’s called (naturally) Loving God.

Here, however, we’re talking about measuring our success.

The reality, after over 1,000 words of discourse, is that God doesn’t care about our success. We keep trying to measure it, but he tells us over and over, don’t.

Don’t try and change how you measure success, just stop measuring it altogether.

Sometimes, he sets up situations where you can see that all success is from him. The story of Gideon, for example, God continues to whittle down the number of troops so that it would be literally impossible, apart from divine intervention, for Gideon to win. Why?

“The Lord said to Gideon, “The people with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hand, lest Israel boast over me, saying, ‘My own hand has saved me.’”” (Judges 7:2). You can read the rest of the story surrounding that verse.

And in the New Testament, we see the same theme constantly displayed.

“May I never boast, except in the cross of Christ, through which the world was crucified to me, and I to the world.” (Galatians 6:14)

“For who sees anything different in you? What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?” (1 Corinthians 4:7)

What else is boasting than declaring a great success?

I have a lot more to say about boasting, but I’ll have to do a study on it another time.

The Heart of the Matter

God does not care about our ‘successes.’ All he wants is our hearts. And he wants all of our heart.

I wrote this Jealous For My Sundays, but it bears repeating. Even though we have an infinite God who knows us better than we know ourselves, he still wants us to tell him those things he knows, and surrender every aspect of our lives to him.

And even though we have an infinite God who can never be fully known, he wants to continually reveal himself to us. As we give him our heart, so he gives us his heart in return.

Here’s the crux of the matter. As we pursue after God, showing him our heart and learning his, a change begins to happen. Your heart begins to beat to the same rhythm. Your feet begin to follow the same steps.

Obedience becomes less of God telling you what to do and you obeying, rather than you knowing the will of God and acting on it.

People looking at you, with their lens of worldly success, with say you’re obeying him better. Maybe they’ll say you’re ‘succeeding’ in the Christian life.

But God will look at you and say, “You are in daily, constant fellowship with me, not because you’re crawling to my throne as a peasant to a king, begging for the scraps of grace that save you, not as a serf who has been ordered to attend to my whim, but as my child. You enter into my presence as my child wanting to know their Father. And that relationship, whether you sit in the corner, scared to open up, whether you sit in my lap and cry for the grief of your life, whether you celebrate in my presence for the freedom I have given you, that relationship, my dear sweet child, that is success.”

That’s our standard.

He doesn’t ask for us to be perfect. He doesn’t ask us to reveal everything in one prayer. He doesn’t call us to be Moses, sitting on a mountain to see the back of God. What does he say?

“Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.” (Revelation 3:20)

Put aside your checklist, remove the cracked lens of worldly success, and open the door. Or maybe he’s already inside, and all he’s asking you to do is to sit at the table and join him for a meal.

Whatever the step is, I pray that you take it. Then, when the next step comes, you follow. Not because you feel obligated from a sense of morality, but because you’ve seen the one you’re following and you’re filled with love.

Well Done, Good and Faithful Servant

I’m not worried about missing out on those words now. I’m not trying to earn them by doing more work. I know where my worth is placed, and when I face my failures and flaws, I remember that my worth isn’t found there, either.

No, my identity is in Christ. In the salvation he has given me, but more than that, in the adoption I have through him. It’s in my daily talks with God, letting him comfort me when I am hurting, letting him celebrate with me when I am joyful. I give my heart to God, and he, in turn, hands his back. Daily, I am shaped to be more like him.

So, no, I’m not worried about hearing those words. When I die, I’m not going to need validation that I lived a life worthy of the calling I have received. The God I’ll see welcoming me to heaven is the same God I have a relationship with now.

And if he commends me now, won’t he commend me then?