“Success is not what you’ve done compared to what others have done. Success is what you have done compared to what you were supposed to do.” – Tony Evans

The world defines success as wealth, achievements, accolades, status, and job titles. We admire movie stars, famous innovators, and business men with big bank accounts and say they are successful. But these people might not be successful at all—by God’s definition.

God doesn’t consider the CEO of a Fortune 500 company successful because of his or her position. A $120,000 Mercedes or a 10,000-square-foot mansion doesn’t impress Him. He doesn’t care if we make a name for ourselves and get interviewed by Oprah. He sees things differently.

God defines successful people as those who do what He has called them to do. Success is not what you’ve done compared to what others have done. Success is what you have done compared to what you were supposed to do. This concept of true success is difficult for us to understand because we’re so used to measuring people by money, power, fame, beauty, and material possessions. This is the world’s perspective, and it’s contrary to God’s. It’s possible to have all of those measures in abundance and still be a failure. Money and power can easily be lost, beauty fades, and fame is fickle. All the trappings of success can come and go quickly and easily. But God values the impact of our lives.

God measures inward growth and outward fruitfulness, often in ways we can’t even see. His ways are not our ways and His thoughts are not our thoughts (Isaiah 55:8-9). Even His simplest truths confound the wise (Luke 10:21; 1 Corinthians 1:25). When He delivered His people from Egypt, He chose methods and pathways that looked ill-informed and even disastrous at first but led to decisive victory in the end. When He sent the prophet Samuel to anoint a new king, He told him not to look at outward appearances because God looks at the heart (1 Samuel 16:7). In choosing His prophets, He often selected people whose status or appearance was unappealing but whose message was pure. He seems to enjoy choosing the least likely candidates for success—the foolish, the weak, and the uneducated—and making them experts in His ways.

Perhaps the best illustration of God’s perspective on success is His own Son. Jesus wasn’t born into a wealthy family with a lot of earthly fanfare. He was born in a stable among farm animals and placed in a manger. He grew up in the family of a hard-working carpenter in a normal town in an out-of-the-way region of the empire. When it came time to choose which of His followers He would train, He didn’t select well-educated scholars, decorated military leaders, or astute businessmen. He chose rough, common fishermen, a despised tax collector, and other ordinary guys. When His reputation grew to the point that people were ready to crown Him as their leader, He allowed Himself to be executed by one of the most humiliating and disgraceful instruments of torture ever devised. He died in a way most people considered shameful.

In spite of His humble beginnings and shameful death, Jesus was amazingly successful. Why? Because He completed all that His Father sent Him to do (John 17:4). None of us would have designed a plan for the Savior of the world to come and die; this isn’t our normal vision for success. But, as we’ve seen, God’s value system is not at all like ours. His conditions for success involve attitudes and actions that reflect His character and that accomplish His purposes. His grand strategy emphasizes humility and sacrifice, not wealth and fame and beauty. He doesn’t measure our success by how we compare to others. He measures it by how well we fulfill our calling.

So as we try to discern our life impact and plan for success, we’ll probably need to think a little differently than we normally do. We’ll have to go against our natural inclinations and envision a kind of success that’s more meaningful and more lasting. The question isn’t “What does success look like?” It’s much more specific: “In light of God’s values and my calling, what does success look like for me?”

Additional Resources

The Blueprint for Life study is designed to help you discover God’s will for you in five areas of your life:

• Spiritually
• Relationally
• Physically
• Financially
• and Career!

The study contains an eight week Bible study; 10 audio messages featuring Andy Stanley, Louie Giglio, Tony Evans, John Maxwell and others.    CLICK HERE to check it out!