A successful relationship is based upon a consistent relationship. It requires an obedience to God’s Word. Success and obedience go together. If the Word is absent in your life, it will only lead to failure.
Visible signs of success are not related to a successful relationship in Christ. The temporal things that you possess are not true success from a spiritual sense. Your contentment in Jesus is not measurable from a worldly perspective. You will see how successful you truly are when you take an inventory of all of the things that you have that money cannot buy.
Matthew 6:25-33
25 “This is why I tell you: Don’t worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Isn’t life more than food and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the sky: They don’t sow or reap or gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren’t you worth more than they? 27 Can any of you add a single cubit to his height by worrying? 28 And why do you worry about clothes? Learn how the wildflowers of the field grow: they don’t labor or spin thread. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was adorned like one of these! 30 If that’s how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and thrown into the furnace tomorrow, won’t He do much more for you—you of little faith? 31 So don’t worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ 32 For the idolaters eagerly seek all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you.
Obedience to God’s Word is critical in the development of your relationship with Him.
Numbers 14:41
But Moses responded, “Why are you going against the LORD’s command? It won’t succeed.
Jeremiah 7:23-24
23 However, I did give them this command: Obey Me, and then I will be your God, and you will be My people. You must follow every way I command you so that it may go well with you. 24 Yet they didn’t listen or pay attention but followed their own advice and according to their own stubborn, evil heart. They went backward and not forward.
A successful person moves forward by listening to and heeding God’s Word. He always keeps His promises.
1 Kings 8:56
“May the LORD be praised! He has given rest to His people Israel according to all He has said. Not one of all the good promises He made through His servant Moses has failed.”
Obedience to God’s Word will require you to do things that are in opposition to the natural mind; as a result, you may ask the questions:
- Does God really know what is best for me?
- Is God’s Word written for me when the Word was written for a different time?
- People today live differently…is God’s Word relevant in today’s world?
It starts with following God’s Word and remaining obedient to Him, even if it doesn’t make sense to you.
2 Timothy 2:5
Also, if anyone competes as an athlete, he is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules.
Luke 5:3-10
3 He got into one of the boats, which belonged to Simon, and asked him to put out a little from the land. Then He sat down and was teaching the crowds from the boat.
4 When He had finished speaking, He said to Simon, “Put out into deep water and let down your nets for a catch.”
5 “Master,” Simon replied, “we’ve worked hard all night long and caught nothing! But at Your word, I’ll let down the nets.”
6 When they did this, they caught a great number of fish, and their nets began to tear. 7 So they signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them; they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink.
8 When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees and said, “Go away from me, because I’m a sinful man, Lord!” 9 For he and all those with him were amazed at the catch of fish they took, 10 and so were James and John, Zebedee’s sons, who were Simon’s partners.
“Don’t be afraid,” Jesus told Simon. “From now on you will be catching people!”
You respond to God because you have faith and trust in His Word.
When you disobey God, you deem it as useless to you, and it only leads to separation from God and a damaged relationship. David had reasoned himself to commit all of the acts of sin because of his initial transgression with coveting Bathsheba.
2 Samuel 12:9
Why then have you despised the command of the LORD by doing what I consider evil? You struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and took his wife as your own wife—you murdered him with the Ammonite’s sword.
Exodus 20:13-14, 17
13 Do not murder.
14 Do not commit adultery.
17 Do not covet your neighbor’s house. Do not covet your neighbor’s wife, his male or female slave, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.
1 Kings 15:5
For David did what was right in the LORD’s eyes, and he did not turn aside from anything He had commanded him all the days of his life, except in the matter of Uriah the Hittite.
God’s Word is for your good.
Deuteronomy 10:12-13
12 “And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God ask of you except to fear the LORD your God by walking in all His ways, to love Him, and to worship the LORD your God with all your heart and all your soul? 13 Keep the LORD’s commands and statutes I am giving you today, for your own good.
It is good for you because He is truthful.
Numbers 23:19
God is not a man who lies,
or a son of man who changes His mind.
Does He speak and not act,
or promise and not fulfill?
Titus 1:2
in the hope of eternal life that God, who cannot lie, promised before time began.
Hebrews 6:18
…so that through two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to seize the hope set before us.
Romans 3:4
…Absolutely not! God must be true, even if everyone is a liar, as it is written:
That You may be justified in Your words
and triumph when You judge.
What will God’s Word do for you?
- It will bless you and keep you from wrong (Psalm 119:1-3).
- It will help you to learn what is right (Psalm 119:7).
- It keeps you clean in a dirty world (Psalm 119:9).
- It gives you understanding of His Word (Psalm 119:34).
- It keeps you from selfish gains (Psalm 119:36).
- It protects and preserves your life (Psalm 119:37).
- It gives you the ability to deal with what is wrong in your life and resist it (Psalm 119:104).
- It shows the importance of a total life of dependence upon God (Psalm 119:114).
God is a keeper of His Word. He does what His Word declares.
Isaiah 55:11
…so My word that comes from My mouth
will not return to Me empty,
but it will accomplish what I please
and will prosper in what I send it to do.”
Isaiah 46:9-11
9 Remember what happened long ago,
for I am God, and there is no other;
I am God, and no one is like Me.
10 I declare the end from the beginning,
and from long ago what is not yet done,
saying: My plan will take place,
and I will do all My will.
11 I call a bird of prey[a] from the east,
a man for My purpose from a far country.
Yes, I have spoken; so I will also bring it about.
I have planned it; I will also do it.
Jeremiah 29:10
For this is what the LORD says: “When 70 years for Babylon are complete, I will attend to you and will confirm My promise concerning you to restore you to this place.
Proverbs 11:21
Be assured that the wicked
will not go unpunished,
but the offspring of the righteous will escape.
Proverbs 15:6
The house of the righteous has great wealth,
but trouble accompanies the income of the wicked.
Your success is measured in your faithfulness and obedience to Jesus Christ and His Word. There is no comparison to success in Him to that of the world’s success. It requires trusting in Him, for He doesn’t lie to us and He only wants the best for us.
Akron Alliance Fellowship 