"What does success mean to you?” This was one of the first things that Evangelist Greg Fritz asked the interns when he spoke this past Thursday. Following his question he gave us his definition of success saying, “Success is simply doing what God wants you to do”. He continued to explain that success means nothing without God in it. God is the only one who can fulfill you. Where we go and what we do only means something if there is purpose to it. Ask yourself, “Is it what God told me to do?
Changing gears he began to emphasize the value of following God’s direction for our lives. He started off with an interesting statement and an honest one in my opinion; “God doesn’t always fill in all the blanks for us”. How many of us feel like we can relate to that? Isn’t that the beauty of trusting in God though? The fact is, we can’t see the whole plan when we are in the middle of walking it out. We experience it one page at a time, like a good book. Like many things in our life, it comes down to a decision. If you are determined to follow God right now, God will lead you. If you learn to follow Him, He will get you to your goals. More than likely though, it won’t be the way you thought it would be. Finishing his previous statement we were directed towards Proverbs 3:5 – “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding”. After reading the passage he proclaimed, “If you are going to follow God, you are going to have to learn to make your heart overrule your head.” Wow, how prevalent that was for me! Honestly, we don’t know what tomorrow will bring and we can only go so far when we are leading ourselves.
Wrapping up with what his definition of success was, he gave us two keys to achieve it. The first was following the Holy Spirit and the second was being honest with yourself- both of which are crucial. After he had left I felt like I was looking at things with a fresh perspective. God ALLOWS us to have a part in something much bigger than ourselves. God gives us the OPPORTUNITY to be in His plan for our lives. Loving people and leading them to Jesus is a blessing.
He ended the discussion with this statement and challenge; “I want to lay my head down at night and know that this is where God wants me to be”. This may seem like a simple goal at face value, but I believe it is one that is worth our time. Remember, success means nothing without God in it.
