You have nothing to worry about. Everybody, including YOU, will make it, as long as we all define success differently. There’s a reason why the Book described comparison as fools. But they measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise” (2 Corinthians 10:12).
It is more convenient to conclude that you are successful when you are using your own yardstick rather than comparing yourself to a standard set by the world or others.
Can we say Elijah was a successful prophet while Hosea was not successful? After all, Elijah “brought” down fire amidst the numerous miracles that he wrought, while one of Hosea’s major points was that he was married to a prostitute.
Be honest, who would you say was a successful prophet? Hosea or Elijah?
If we use the number of miracles as a yardstick, Elijah would be more successful. But when we stick to their God-given instructions and the way they executed their assignments on earth, then we will agree that they were both successful.
Who’s more successful? Bishop Oyedepo or Pastor Adeboye? ~ But they measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise” (2 Corinthians 10:12).
The same applies when you wake up in the morning to your WhatsApp status or Instagram feed, see “your peers” doing something you’re not doing and then you automatically conclude that they are “successful”, and you’re not. Or that there’s something you need to do to meet up a standard.
In today’s world, if Jonah was on my status and I saw his selfie on that magnificent ship with the caption: “travelling to the beautiful city of Tarshish”, something in me would say: “Wow! See Jonah, touring the world while I am here doing whatever it is I am doing”. Who would have thought Jonah was actually cruising away from his purpose?
When a man is directionless and without purpose, anything others are doing that looks like success will be enticing to him. (By the way, success doesn’t have a look). Naturally, we long for fulfilment. It is human to want a sense of fulfilment, but if you’re towing someone else’s path or being swayed by what you consume online, it’ll be a similar case to that of the deer panting for the water ~ they are never satisfied. Because your true satisfaction will come when you’re walking in God’s will and you sit tight where God has placed you.
One last thing, if you are fulfilling your purpose or towing the path to fulfilling your purpose, then you’re successful even if you don’t have the gold bars, cars or fancy houses yet ~ all these things will be added.
And don’t be like Elijah, who, while he was doing God’s will thought he was the only one available to make a difference.
“I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.”
And in God’s response to Elijah, he categorically told Elijah, that he had 7000 people (Humans like Elijah) somewhere in reserve who have not rejected God or his covenant
God: “…Yet I reserve seven thousand in Israel—all whose knees have not bowed down to Baal and whose mouths have not kissed him.”
A whooping 7,000 humans, non-prophets and prophets like Elijah in reserve, that by today’s definition, were not successful or didn’t “make it.” They just came to earth, were in reserve and nobody ever heard of them.
Who’s more successful? Elijah or the 7000 God had in reserve?
The beautiful thing is that as long as those seven thousand were where God wanted them to be and doing his will, they were successful. See, our life is a continuum. When we leave this world, God has other plans for us.
The mansions Jesus talked about are not spiritual, they are located in a place..”In my father’s house, there are many mansions, if it were not so, I would have told you so…” Imagine for a second, the kind of city that has so many mansions that we would be living in.
If you are where God asked you to be and are walking in his will, you’re successful, whether it’s inside a cave or The Whitehouse.
When it comes to “making it”, there will always be different ways to look at it. Where your success stops is where another starts. We were all created with different capacities and privileges. And you need to know we would function differently in those capacities. So while few will be presidents, governors, famous, or wealthy, others won’t. In Elijah’s case, it was 1 ratio 7000. In today’s world, it’s probably more.
The moment you begin to define your success by the world’s standard is when you start to lose it. The moment you begin to define your success by the metrics of others is when you will not make it. You’ll find yourself always chasing the wind because what you have would never be enough. You can’t use someone else’s KPI at work to rate your performance so also, we can’t all use the same metric to judge who has made it or not.
The world will always attach sentiments to success. There will always be a generally accepted form of success which is why many are going to the extreme just to be among. But you see, if you walk with God and do whatever he says, you are already successful. It sounds cliche and bare, yet it’s true.
God chose the foolish things of this world to put the wise to shame. He chose the weak things of this world to put the powerful to shame.
For instance, it seems everybody is Japa-ing. There’s nothing wrong with it. Even Father Abraham japa-ed from his country to another country, on God’s instructions.
Likewise, there was famine in the land, Isaac stayed back, sowed in that same land and reaped a 100-fold, on God’s instructions. In both cases, there was an interaction with God and instructions from him on what to do.
Your best guide to making it is to have a relationship with God. You can try it with your head knowledge or do what others are doing but it’ll only last for a while. Those who know their God shall be strong and they shall do exploit. Doing exploit here is the equivalent of making it. There is never a better time to be in sync with God.
You see, you have to get to a point in your walk with God where his will, his words and instructions become your “purpose”. When the world is going left and God says you should go right, and you actually go right, then you are on the right track.
In this life, don’t follow the crowd. Don’t follow the trend. It’ll definitely lead you astray. If God’s will is that you should stay in the reserve with the 7000, stay put and know that you are serving his purpose. At the end of the day, that’s what’s most important.
.Like this Yourba saying “Ma fi ago alago sise” ~ “Don’t use another person’s time to work”
Everyone will make it if they walk in the will of God.