What is success?

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FrappeLover

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Hi everyone. I'm new to these forums and this is my first time on any Christian board so please bare in mind my newness. I wasn't too sure where to post this so sorry if this is the wrong place. I'll go ahead and give you guys a little background before I start the topic.

I was raised Baptist when I was a child but during my teenage years I began questioning the existence of God and started identifying as Atheist. I just started slowly coming back and now am Christian again. Also I suffer from mental illness and depression and God gives me hope that things will one day be better. I struggle everyday wondering why I haven't done anything with myself. I've never been able to hold a job so I have no income. I dropped out of college. Currently i live with my family and have very few friends. So I ask what is success and why does it feel like I'm such a loser.

Society tells us that going to college, raising a family, owning a home, having a good career are all things that are considered successful. From being an athiest I can tell you that atheists say that life is like a canvas; painting your own life doing what you think is good for you. But it is obvious that even the most well preserved painting eventually fades, no longer existing. Most nonbelievers say good works are the way to success. But no matter the good works you do it still matters not, for they were all pointless at your deathbed. So what can say about those big succesors who change the world, such the major billionaires. They leave a legacy behind so perhaps their works really did count for something. Well we know this simply to not be true. Because even those legacies will die in the grand scheme of things. Indeed even athiests say the same thing. They say the universe will over expand and die out. We say that Jesus will come and there will be a new heaven and new earth. Both are nearly the same, the only difference being that our teaching says there will be a new beginning. And in this new beginning all legacies left in the old world won't matter. Why? Because its in the past. So then I ask what is Success? At the moment, I honestly don't know. Im not well read in the bible and I have too much to learn still. Please can somebody tell me what the bible says about success and what God considers it to be. What can I do to make my life better?
 

Helen

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Hello there.
Welcome to the forum.
Let me say firstly that if you suffer from depression, then some of the debates on this forum wont cheer you up much!! Some of these guys can get " hot and heavy" while trying to "prove their point"..but hopefully you can post and share in the threads that you find more friendly. But please don't get discouraged...after about three week on here I got really discouraged and was close to leaving. One of the members asked me to "stick around". So I did. :D
There are some nice friendly people on here...just look for them. ha!

I used to suffer from depression...it felt like a thick cloud some days just sitting above my head.
After a few years of that I heard someone preach saying- " Depression doesn't go by praying it away..it goes by kicking it!" He went on to say that he had depression ( or more correctly... Depression had him!!)
He was mowing the lawn one day, in a black cloud of depression, and God spoke to him saying-
"You can keep this, or be free of it ..it's your choice." He says that he didn't have anyone pray any great prayers for him...neither did he do anything amazing...all he did was decide and say out loud..."I am not got to ever be depressed again" It lifted immediately.
Obviously it tried to came back many times...and many times he had to tell it to.. "GO, IN JESUS NAME" and he, little by little walked out of it, until it never tried to come back again .
But that was his story...we all have our own.
So I grabbed hold of that for myself. It took a while..but finally it worked.
That is all just a sideline....I just thought I would mention it. :) (maybe it will give you some hope..)

As for success...that is very broad, because each one of us measure success differently.
I'm sure no two people on this site will see it the same. So...very probably your definition for yourself is very different from mine!
"For me" - being able to live daily in PEACE and a 'one to one' relationship with the Lord is the first one on 'my' list for a person in this life who has succeeded,... and is doing what God asked us to do...to live in Trust.
Our 'self worth' NEVER comes from or is measured by what 'we do' or what we have achieved....(maybe it does, but for the Christian it shouldn't) our self worth comes from knowing and being confident in what GOD has said that we are worth in His eyes. That took a while for me to get hold of as well...
Every day..for about two weeks I woke up, lay there quietly and said out loud. "Father, in You, I am a winner, in You, I am a champion, in You, I am as righteous as Abraham was..I am righteous because Your word tells me I am. In You, I am an Overcomer.....In Christ I know that you love me." etc etc
It was not quick and I felt pretty stupid...I didn't believe any of it..it felt like 'dead air' and dead words. But I was faithfully saying what I knew God says about His people.." A chosen people, a royal priesthood..." etc
Then one morning I woke up and lay their quietly..... and a rush of the love of God flooded over me....for the first time ever, I felt the Love of God wash over me...I did not 'feel like' as usual, just a sinner 'struggling along the Christian path' and hoping upon hope that I was somehow pleasing God. ..and not making Him angry. For the first time ever, I felt an amazing rush of love..and knew how much God loved me. I'd been a blood wash Christian for a couple of decades...and one of the many people have an image of an grumpy God, who is just waiting to bash us when we step out of line.....but that day it changed.
Obviously now I don't always 'feel' this love...our walk is by faith not feelings.

My advise is to allow God to establish in your heart in just how much worth HE sees in you..and how much He loves you...when you are confident in this, and have stopped believing the lies of the devil, whispering to you that you are not a success.. THEN your life will change. Only then is it time to look for the things of this life which "friends and family" judge as "being a success" ...or not, as the case may be!!
Success firstly comes from the inside....it a God thing as I see it.
But, I am sure that my long ramble here is NOT the answer you are looking for. :)
Just don't measure yourself by other people...let God do that.
Bless you...our prayers are with you. ✟
 

Stranger

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Hi everyone. I'm new to these forums and this is my first time on any Christian board so please bare in mind my newness. I wasn't too sure where to post this so sorry if this is the wrong place. I'll go ahead and give you guys a little background before I start the topic.

I was raised Baptist when I was a child but during my teenage years I began questioning the existence of God and started identifying as Atheist. I just started slowly coming back and now am Christian again. Also I suffer from mental illness and depression and God gives me hope that things will one day be better. I struggle everyday wondering why I haven't done anything with myself. I've never been able to hold a job so I have no income. I dropped out of college. Currently i live with my family and have very few friends. So I ask what is success and why does it feel like I'm such a loser.

Society tells us that going to college, raising a family, owning a home, having a good career are all things that are considered successful. From being an athiest I can tell you that atheists say that life is like a canvas; painting your own life doing what you think is good for you. But it is obvious that even the most well preserved painting eventually fades, no longer existing. Most nonbelievers say good works are the way to success. But no matter the good works you do it still matters not, for they were all pointless at your deathbed. So what can say about those big succesors who change the world, such the major billionaires. They leave a legacy behind so perhaps their works really did count for something. Well we know this simply to not be true. Because even those legacies will die in the grand scheme of things. Indeed even athiests say the same thing. They say the universe will over expand and die out. We say that Jesus will come and there will be a new heaven and new earth. Both are nearly the same, the only difference being that our teaching says there will be a new beginning. And in this new beginning all legacies left in the old world won't matter. Why? Because its in the past. So then I ask what is Success? At the moment, I honestly don't know. Im not well read in the bible and I have too much to learn still. Please can somebody tell me what the bible says about success and what God considers it to be. What can I do to make my life better?

You say you were raised Baptist. Did you ever accept Christ as your Lord and Saviour? Are you born again?

Understand, God does not require we who are Christian to be successful. He requires that we be faithful.

My life can be a mess. Yet my faith is in God. God is pleased.

Stranger
 

FrappeLover

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Thanks for uplifting speech Grace. It really gave me a different outlook on things. Depression is hard to deal with and its even harder if you have mental illness. I don't know exactly why God gave mental illness though. I've struggled with that during my Atheist years and partly why I became one. I just blamed God for all my problems. Of course im not doing that anymore.

Oh and as response to Stranger's question yes I did get baptized when I was 6. But I didn't really understand what being saved meant at that time. Now that im older I would have to say yes, I have accepted Jesus as my lord and savior. But I haven't been living my life for God currently. Its something I need to work on. I just don't what "living you life for God" is. Maybe someone here can explain that to me?
 

Sword

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Hello welcome and I love you already :) I think the first thing I really got to share with you that stands out to me from both posts so far is.
I don't know exactly why God gave mental illness though.
God never gave it. jesus came to bring life and life more abundant. Jesus also tole us who brought depression satan did. he came to steal,your joy,peace,identification,wellbeing,sound mind. satan came kill, you your family your friends and animals., satan came to destroy. every thing our relationship or desire for good or satisfaction in God and our love for one an other. In days gone by God spoke through prophets and other thing. But today God has spoken through His Son. Jeus died and God,Jesus and Holy Spirit paid a very high price for you. If you were not worth it, He would not have paid it. He really loves you and paid the highest price. when Jesus tells us about the man who sold everything he had and bought the field because of the pricless pearl. We have always though. Ahh thats what we must do to recive Christ. But thats not it all. Its what He done for you. The church has really let us down on teaching us our true value. The church has always told us we are sinners. Sin was our condition. Sin is NOT us we are not sin. Sin is what we where caught up in with no choise. Hardly fair. God knows that and sent Christ to set us free. He sent his most valued to recieve His most prised possesion, to recieve His love. That is us. We are very highly thought of by God. We need to see this. When we see this there is NO higher success than realising who we are in Christ. When we see that we go on to share His love with the needy. and as we set them free things just drop off us as we go in His name. Please look up Dan Mohler on you tube. Look up depression. tell ya what here it is. But when you see it watch them all. So encouraging.

An gonna sto p here thats plenty for ya just now.
 
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Sword

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You say you were raised Baptist. Did you ever accept Christ as your Lord and Saviour? Are you born again?

Understand, God does not require we who are Christian to be successful. He requires that we be faithful.

My life can be a mess. Yet my faith is in God. God is pleased.

Stranger

You are so ignorant. Never thought I would look at your stupid posts again , but I did.
now am Christian again.
 

Stranger

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The whole site and God knows you are lying there.

I disagree. See its easy to say things.

Don't bother sending me messages to my profile. I just delete them.

Stranger
 

aspen

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Depression is one of the hardest challenges in my life. Every time I choose to remember how grateful I am to be alive to love another day, I am successful.. Gods will is love.
 

Helen

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Good one Aspen....amen to that. I liked your " :-

I choose to remember how grateful I am to be alive to love another day, I am successful.. Gods will is love.

Well said!! :)
 
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prashanthd

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Please can somebody tell me what the bible says about success and what God considers it to be. What can I do to make my life better?




I understand that you are a Christian and you have resolved to continue in Christian faith.


Success is a relative word. The success I have achieved in my life does not make any sense to my friends. The life some of them have, I do not consider it as success. You might find many rich people in this world but the shallowness they have, neither comes to light nor is anywhere written. No one has a perfect life in this world.

Ecclesiastes 1:14
I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind.


The success which you are referring to is human/worldly success. The Bible tells us about things which are better and beyond worldly success, such as righteousness, salvation, faith, everlasting life and so on.

The Bible does tell us about how to be successful, but remember that this is in the perspective of God and not from the perspective of Man.

Psalm 1
1 Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.
2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.
3 And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.



Matthew 6
33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.


I have seen many Christians who read the Bible everyday of their lives and have tasted success, not once, but many times.

Proverbs 24
16 For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again: but the wicked shall fall into mischief.


You have compared some aspects of Christian religion with other religion/belief, from your perspective ("Both are nearly the same"). When you read the Bible you will find the perspective of God. We would rather let God do the talking.

All glory to God.
 
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Helen

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Amen! Very good post Prash... well said. ( thumbs up)
 
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Helen

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For me, success is being content with what I have.

I only read something similar yesterday. It said-
" Happiness is not about getting what you want, but happiness it is being content with what you have."


I like that...
We foolishly think that is we get what we want, even if it is something that seems legit , it will make us happy. But really, happiness ( success) is from within, not without!
 
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