The True Measure of Success
Friday, August 9, 2024
For you make me glad by your deeds, O Lord; I sing for joy at the works of your hands. How great are your works, O Lord, how profound your thoughts! The senseless man does not know, fools do not understand. Ps. 92:4-6, NIV.
I was invited to give a devotional talk to a group of professional businesspersons of various faiths. My appeal to them that day was to consider measuring their success by a very different standard than one they were normally accustomed to. Instead of bottom lines, positive cash flow, net assets, hours spent in the office, why not evaluate the health of their business and their personal lives by how much time they gave to themselves personally, to their families, and most important, to their God? As I shared my thoughts, I could see in their faces a polite agreement to hear me out, but a silent message that said all too clearly that no matter what, time will always mean money.
For centuries Western civilization has lived the philosophy that we are a self-made people. We work hard, play by the rules, minimize our mistakes, and maximize our opportunities, always living by a tenuous promise that we're certain someday to have it all.
Psalm 92, David's psalm for the Sabbath, refocuses and reprioritizes our lives from the horizontal to the vertical plane; to the spiritual dimension where great are His works, not ours, and profound are His thoughts, not ours. Every seven days the Sabbath challenges us to a self-examination of time and priorities and life direction.
Before you this week are six 24-hour "windows" of opportunity. For those six days you will work, study, play, achieve, and probably accumulate a little—if nothing more than debt! At the end of those six days God has set a seventh day that calls you to a higher place. A place of refuge and communion where He alone, not we ourselves, is Lord. A place in time where we recognize that we are not the owners of ourselves, or our time, or our fortunes. They all are His.
"Fools" do not understand how this works, but through the experience of Sabbath, we understand and know that all we have is His, and all we have—including how we spend our time—must glorify Him!
What can you do this Sabbath to live on the higher plane of measuring success in how much time you give to yourself, your family, and your God?
I was invited to give a devotional talk to a group of professional businesspersons of various faiths. My appeal to them that day was to consider measuring their success by a very different standard than one they were normally accustomed to. Instead of bottom lines, positive cash flow, net assets, hours spent in the office, why not evaluate the health of their business and their personal lives by how much time they gave to themselves personally, to their families, and most important, to their God? As I shared my thoughts, I could see in their faces a polite agreement to hear me out, but a silent message that said all too clearly that no matter what, time will always mean money.
For centuries Western civilization has lived the philosophy that we are a self-made people. We work hard, play by the rules, minimize our mistakes, and maximize our opportunities, always living by a tenuous promise that we're certain someday to have it all.
Psalm 92, David's psalm for the Sabbath, refocuses and reprioritizes our lives from the horizontal to the vertical plane; to the spiritual dimension where great are His works, not ours, and profound are His thoughts, not ours. Every seven days the Sabbath challenges us to a self-examination of time and priorities and life direction.
Before you this week are six 24-hour "windows" of opportunity. For those six days you will work, study, play, achieve, and probably accumulate a little—if nothing more than debt! At the end of those six days God has set a seventh day that calls you to a higher place. A place of refuge and communion where He alone, not we ourselves, is Lord. A place in time where we recognize that we are not the owners of ourselves, or our time, or our fortunes. They all are His.
"Fools" do not understand how this works, but through the experience of Sabbath, we understand and know that all we have is His, and all we have—including how we spend our time—must glorify Him!
What can you do this Sabbath to live on the higher plane of measuring success in how much time you give to yourself, your family, and your God?
Used by permission of Health Ministries, North American Division of Seventh-day Adventists.
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