God wants you to Succeed

 I love success. It feels good. God doesn't want his children to fail. God wants to help you make progress in his work with your talents.

Jesus told of a rich man who entrusted three of his servants with a considerable sum of money each. They were to invest the money productively. They were to act wisely and diligently.

When the rich man returned from a long journey, the first two servants had invested with great success.

The first servant reported, ‘Master, I invested your money and made ten times the original amount!’

“ ‘Well done!’ the king exclaimed. ‘You are a good servant. You have been faithful with the little I entrusted to you, so you will be governor of ten cities as your reward.’ Lk 19:16–17 NLT

The second had brought in five more of his five pounds of silver, and he was rewarded in the same way.

But the third was frightened and did not want to take any risks.

“But the third servant brought back only the original amount of money and said, ‘Master, I hid your money and kept it safe.

I was afraid because you are a hard man to deal with, taking what isn’t yours and harvesting crops you didn’t plant.’ Lk 19:20–21 NLT

The rich man was angry and the fearful servant was dismissed.

Many say that Jesus accomplished everything on the cross and we can do nothing to earn our salvation.

This is certainly true. But a wise preacher once said:

Jesus didn't accomplish everything so that you could accomplish nothing.

Success is good, but not always good.

If you use your talents to build a big porn company like Hugh Heffner, the founder of Playboy, you will burn in hell unless you repent and get God's forgiveness.

If you use your spiritual gifts to build a big church and get rich, but the members look to you instead of going into the world as disciples of Jesus, you may finally get into God's heaven, but not as a hero of faith.

Success is good when your success is the work of God in you, through you and with you.

I love success. It feels good.
God doesn't want his children to fail. God wants to help you move forward in his work with your talents.