Does Success Matter?Sýnishorn

Using What God Has Given Us

I opened this Bible Plan with a question: does success matter?

I’m going to answer this right out the gate. Yes, success does matter… but not in the way you think it does. 

Worldly success is vastly different from godly success, and knowing the difference will give you joy in your daily pursuits of success. 

Here’s how I define godly success: using what God has given us to become the best we can be for the praise of God. 

In this Bible Plan, we’ll break down this definition of success using the Parable of the Talents. By the end, you’ll know how your pursuit of godly success can give you daily joy.

At the beginning of the Parable of the Talents, we see a master going on a long trip and giving talents (or money) to his servants according to their ability (Matthew 25:14-15). To one he gave five talents, to another two, and to the last he gave one. 

It doesn’t matter how many talents they received from the master. What matters is they all had the opportunity to use their talents for good. 

It is in this picture that we see the first marker of godly success: God has given us everything we need to succeed. The first marker is simply recognizing this. 

However, this differs from worldly success. In today’s society, we love the “rag to riches” story—the idea that people come from nothing and end up having everything. 

Worldly success wants us to believe that we come from nothing so we get all the credit in the end. But a deeper exploration of this pursuit proves this version of success is not satisfying. Why? Because people who believe they come from nothing spend their entire lives trying to prove that they themselves are not nothing. 

Success is not a vehicle to prove that we matter in the world. 

As God’s children, we have nothing to prove. This is best exemplified in Jesus’ baptism (Matthew 3:13-17). Jesus didn’t go out and prove himself before God said he was proud of Him. Jesus hadn’t even started His ministry yet, and God says, “with Him, I am well pleased.” For what?

Jesus didn’t need to prove anything to God, and neither do we.

We do not start from nothing and then have to prove something. The more we believe this worldly view of success, the more we’ll trap ourselves in a cycle of having to prove our worth.

Instead, God has given us everything we need to succeed. Recognizing this empowers us, humbles us, and frees us to pursue godly success.

Today, recognize that God has given you everything you need to succeed and confess the times in which you’ve tried to steal the credit by believing otherwise. And as you go throughout your day, remember this: God has given you what you need for success. It’s up to you to use it.