As I was driving to work the other day, I was noticing several luxury cars being driven by people headed in the same direction. I wondered to myself about how people define success. Some people measure success by how many square feet their home has. Some people measure success by the type of car they drive. Still other’s measure success by how many degrees they have amassed. Still there are others that measure success by the amount of money in their bank accounts. The Bible has a clear message about how we should measure success.
In first Samuel 16, we read the story of God anointing David to be King. God gave Samuel specific instructions about where to go to find the next King. He instructed him to visit Jesse’s house, for one of his sons would be King. When Samuel went to Jesse’s home he initially saw one of Jesse’s other sons, Eliab and automatically assumed that because Eliab was mighty in stature, God was going to make Eliab king! How wrong Samuel was!
Eventually, all of Jesse’s sons stood before Samuel, with the exception of one! Each time a son stood before Samuel, he told Jesse that the particular son standing before him was not whom God had chosen. After seven of Jesse’s son’s had passed before Samuel, He asked Jesse did he have any others. Jesse replied that his youngest son was in the back tending sheep. Samuel summoned for them to get David and bring him to the house.
The Bible says that David was pale looking guy, who was not especially attractive! However, when Samuel saw David, he immediately knew that this was the one that God had anointed to be King!
Back in verse 7 of 1st Samuel, God told Samuel that, “ The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”
As people, we have been conditioned to look at material possessions and accomplishments as an indication of how successful a person is. Some of us have even been conditioned to view success thru the lens of clothes, physical attributes, such as hair, weight, height, facial features, and such.
I am so thankful God gives us the antidote on how we should measure success. Success should be measured by the condition of the heart. Discovering the condition of one’s heart requires us to look deeper, not with human eyes but with spiritual eyes. It requires us to understand the “spirit” of a person.
This, in turn, requires us to develop our “spiritual” sense! This can only be developed by allowing God’s word to be our source in measuring EVERYTHING in our lives. Everything must pass thru the lens of the word of God. Only then can we begin to look, not on the outward appearance, but as God does, we can begin to look at the condition of the heart in order to define success!
~Selah
Leslie Eaddy-Brooks 