Everyone can say what success means if given the chance.
Success is accomplishing a desired goal or objective. Everybody craves success and loves to identify with successful people.
God loves it when His children achieve great feats and reach milestones in every area of their lives.
But it is interesting to note that there are two types of success according to the Bible. We discovered in the Word of God that there is good success and bad success.
Now, what is good success?
This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have GOOD SUCCESS. – Joshua 1:8
The Bible is intentional with the use of words. We also know that all that is written in the Bible was inspired by the Holy Spirit. So, there is no mistake in the grammar and thoughts in God’s Word because it is perfect.
We might think that success can only be positive, so there is no need to add good to it since success is already good. However, Joshua 1:8 proves that there is more to success.
Good success is anything we achieve that is within/according to the will and purpose of God for our lives by obeying His Word and doing all it commands us.
Good success is achievements that glorify the name of the Lord. The God factor is what qualifies a success as a good one.
How Can You Achieve Good Success?
God says He will not withhold anything good from his children (Psalm 84:11). But we need to have a good relationship with Him.
If we want to experience good success, we must cultivate and maintain a good relationship with God.
Now that we have understood good success, the question is, what is bad success?
First of all, the Bible did not mention ‘bad success’ specifically in any verse of the Bible.
But we understand that there are two sides to everything. In order words, for anything that exists, there is an opposite. For example, sin is the opposite of holiness, young is the opposite of old, and so on. If this is the fact, then there is bad success since the Bible says good success exists.
The scripture gives us an idea of what a bad success is. It says, “The blessing of the LORD, it makes rich, and he adds no sorrow with it.” – Proverbs 10:22
Two keywords to note here are the blessing of the Lord and sorrow.
This verse proves that there is a blessing from the Lord that brings joy, peace, and rest of mind, and there is another type of blessing or success that is not from Him that comes with sorrow.
Any blessing that does not come from God will most definitely be from the devil because he represents all that God is against.
How can we know bad success?
The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. – John 10:10
The aim of the devil is to kill, steal and destroy. Anytime he achieves either of these three goals, he is successful. This is success to the devil and his cohorts, and of course, it is bad success.
Anyone who gets money, promotion, certification, etc., by either killing, stealing, or destroying, has achieved bad success, even if such person was not caught and they go scot-free.
Killing can be taken literally; taking someone else life to achieve fame, an office, a position, money, etc. It could also mean killing the reputation of someone by lying, backbiting, slander, and the likes to achieve something you so much desire. No matter the level of achievement attained using this means, what one has is a bad success.
Stealing is a well-known social vice great and small nations, families, companies, churches, etc., are struggling with. Taking what belongs to someone else by either using force or other cunning tactics.
Not all robbers carry a gun. Many people steal using the keypad of their computers and the internet. They defraud innocent people for their hard-earned money and render them hopeless.
Others steal with their pens. They falsify documents and change figures in cheques. People generally steal because of their love for money and wealth. Most times they succeed, but the Bible says what they have is a bad success because it does not glorify God.
Destroying to achieve success could be pulling down what another person has built out of envy and drive to overtake such a person. Others try to mislead a person who is clearly on the right path with the wrong advice to get stuck or regress because of their selfish reasons. One might succeed at destroying someone else’s business, career, and other things such person holds dear, but that is bad success.
We must note that doing evil might pay, but the resultant effect always brings sorrow either here on earth or in eternity.
The sorrow of bad success includes guilt, disgrace, jail time, social stigma.
With these, it is safe to say bad success is the success that comes from evil dealings and which always leads to sorrow to whoever gets it.
Good success comes from God when we trust in Him and do His will, while bad success comes from the devil and evil.
-Sherri LaVonne Harris
Copyright 2021
