I’d like to have a one-size-fits-all, quick and easy path to success. In Googling “success formula,” I got 1.6 million results, and not one was what I was searching for. I’ve read many Books for Dummies. I’ve watched how-to podcasts and paid for seminars that said, “I did it, so you can too.” Why haven’t those formulas worked for me?
Einstein and Edison were nobodies when they were born. Jesus was born with a promise, but few people knew he would save the world. He began as a nobody. The work still had to be done. Scripture says, after his work was finished, he was given a name above every name (Philippians 2:7–9). Like Einstein, Edison, and Jesus, I was born a nobody. I have potential, but my life will be wasted if I can’t finish the work I was given to do.
When I needed to replace my car’s electronically adjustable heated side-mirror, an online purchase of the replacement part was easy enough. But then I had a problem. Without breaking something, how could I remove the faded mirror and install the new one? Simple. I searched YouTube and found a video that gave me the steps to success.
I wish my formula for life could be solved as easily as Googling how to change a mirror. After so many years of searching, I still don’t know all I am to do. Can I get a success formula with written steps from 1 to 9,999? No, it doesn’t exist. Everybody is in a different place, going a different direction to fulfill a different purpose. I’m told the Bible is a superb instruction book, but a lifetime of assembly is required. I’m doing well if I can identify a few steps in the right direction.
Learning what others have done won’t reveal God’s plan for me. Yet God’s success formula is simple: just keep taking the next right step. If I can keep doing that, my achievements will lead to God saying, “Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter the presence of the Lord.”
People want to map their entire journey, but God shows them only the next step. — Proverbs 16:9, The Discussion Bible.
All things might be okay, but I am looking for what most pleases the Lord, because that is most beneficial. I cannot allow myself to be enslaved by social pressures or selfish desires. — 1 Corinthians 6:12, The Discussion Bible.