5 Ways to Be Successful God’s Way
Podcasts, YouTube Videos, Social Media posts and self-help books are all flooded with headlines about how to be a high achiever and how to lead a successful life. Podcasts geared towards self-development and success, like On Purpose by Jay Shetty, Diary of a CEO by Stephen Bartlett and The Martell Method by Dan Martell are all operated by individuals that identify as high achievers who try and guide their audiences to reach the same levels of achievements in life.
The high achieving, highly productive life seems to be trending right now. Everyone seems to be working longer hours, spending less time having fun and focusing more on reaching success. It’s easy to feel like you have to live the same way if you want to be successful in life, but scripture says our focus should be on giving God priority in our lives, and then the success will follow.
I’m currently studying the book of Proverbs, which gives us wisdom on how to live a godly life, and Proverbs 3:6 prompted me to think about success differently. This verse says “In everything you do, put God first, and he will direct you and crown your efforts with success.” To me, this shows that instead of chasing success and seeking advice from podcasters and influencers, we should be focusing on God, spending time with Him and following what He leads us to do in life.
Through Jesus, we can live fruitful, prosperous lives full of victory and success, but we have to do things God’s way to achieve true success. These 5 principles will help you determine what success means to you, as a Child of God and how to achieve success in every area through godly living and keeping God first in your life.
1. Remember Your True Purpose
As humans, we want to feel important. We want to feel like we’re leaving our mark behind on the world and we want to be recognised for the things we achieve, the job title we have and how wealthy we appear to be. The problem is we’re too focused on what we want to achieve and the plans we have for our lives that we forget the true purpose God has for us.
Matthew 22:36-39
“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’”
We were made in the image of God and our true purpose is to love and worship Him as our Creator and to serve Him by loving and helping other people. The busy schedules, rushing around and constant need for productivity that we’re living in today keeps us distracted and makes us forget what we’re actually here for – to serve and love God and to serve and love people.
We all have a unique calling on our lives to follow certain career paths and God blesses us with the anointing and talents to be able to be successful in our work, but our work is only a part of our purpose. We all have the same purpose of serving one another, no matter what jobs we do.
Instead of making your career your purpose and following what the world sees as successful, follow your true purpose as a child of God. Use your life to serve others through God’s love and let His kindness and compassion be seen through you. When you remember your true purpose in life, your definition of being a high achiever will change from being all about what you want, to being about what God wants, and that’s how you’ll truly reach success God’s way.
2. Put it All Down and Follow Him
Matthew 4:18–22
While walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon (who is called Peter) and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Immediately they left their nets and followed him.
Sometimes God puts something in your heart to make a change, to let go of something or to start something new. Most of the time these promptings from God come when we least expect and can feel intimidating and even impossible to achieve. We may even really enjoy what we’re currently doing and don’t want to let it go, especially for something that will push us out of our comfort zone.
Peter and Andrew were fishermen and were casting their nets into the sea when Jesus saw them and called them to be fisher of men, or disciples, instead of fishermen. They immediately left what they were doing to follow Jesus.
Just like Peter and Andrew, we need to drop what we’re doing and follow the promptings of the Holy Spirit when we feel Him calling us to do something different. God’s plans are much better than we could ever know and He has placed that dream in your heart for a reason. Step out in faith, follow God and watch Him work miracles in your life. The calling God gives you may feel impossible for you to achieve, but that’s exactly why He chose you to do it. God will do the impossible through you and give you unimaginable success as you follow Him. Our success is only because of His goodness and strength and He deserves all the glory!
3. Do Not Lean on Your Own Understanding
Proverbs 3:5-6
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.
You may have the perfect plan for how you want your life to go, but a lot of the time, God has plans for us that are very different from what we thought would happen. Most of the time as we go through life, we start to notice that things take longer to happen than we expected, doors we wanted to open remain closed and the breakthroughs we need seem like they aren’t going to happen. The perfect path we planned out often looks completely different in reality.
Life can get really tough to navigate during these seasons of challenges. The high achieving podcasters and influencers will tell you to push harder and manifest more when things aren’t happening, like it’s something you can control, but only God can make the impossible possible. Only He can give you strength to go on when you feel like giving up.
Let your hope and trust in the Lord Our God be your anchor as you go through the seasons of life. He will guide your steps, little by little, to show you the direction He wants you to go in. Let go of trying to control how your life turns out and be content with the blessings that God has already given you. You don’t have to try and force things to happen in your own strength or feel like a failure because you haven’t reached the level of success you thought you would have by this stage of your life. Let His beautiful plan for your life unfold, one step at a time.
As Christians and children of God, we are given a Helper to guide us, anoint us and strengthen us as we live our lives. If we seek Him and listen to Him, the Holy Spirit partners with us and helps us with everything we do. As we surrender our lives to God, He strengthens and guides us to achieve the purpose and plans He has for us. When we live life and achieve success in His strength, not in our own, we are anointed and powerful, and can do things we could never do without God. He is our faithful Heavenly Father and He has so many good plans for you. Don’t lose faith or become discouraged when life doesn’t go exactly as you planned, God is working it all for your good and His plans for you will turn out to be exceedingly, abundantly above all that you could ever ask or imagine!
4. Be Satisfied in Him, Not in His Blessings
When we pray, we usually have a long list of the things we’re asking God to do in our lives, and God does want to bless us and be good to us, but most of all, He wants to have a relationship with you as His precious child. For any relationship to thrive, it’s important to spend time together, enjoying one another’s company. Our relationship with the Lord is exactly the same. God wants to spend time with you and He wants you to pray and talk to Him all through the day, in everything you do, not just when you need Him to work in your life.
Matthew 7:7-8
Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
Jesus tells us to pray and ask God for His help and provision in our lives, but He also tells us that we will find God when we seek Him. Seeking God means wanting to have a deep, connected relationship with Him, spending time with Him because you seek more of His presence and growing spiritually as you surrender to God’s will for your life.
God will help you to have success and victory in your life, because He loves you and He is a good and faithful Father. If you have asked Him to work in your situation and provide for you in prayer, leave it at His feet and spend time with Him throughout your day, being fully satisfied in His presence and His love.
5. Run Your Own Race – Don’t Compare
Scrolling on social media for hours every day, seeing the incredible lives other people have, the success they’ve achieved and the amazing things they get to experience, can send us into a spiral of comparison and self-doubt. The same thing happens when we compare our lives to the lives of friends, family members and the people we went to school with. We feel like we haven’t achieved enough or reached certain life milestones fast enough. Our life just feels not good enough overall, which makes us feel like we aren’t good enough.
There is a reason why the saying “comparison is the thief of joy” exists. When we feel like our life and achievements aren’t where they should be, we start to believe the lies of the enemy. We focus on everything that’s wrong with our lives and forget how much God has blessed us.
When we truly start to think about how good God has been to us and how He redeemed us and gave us eternal life through the blood of Jesus, it really puts things into perspective. Yes, you may not have achieved everything you’ve wanted to achieve at this point in your life, but you are saved! You are loved beyond anything you could ever understand! God sends His angels to protect you and keep you safe wherever you go! He has blessed you with people that love you and care about you. Your life is full of His blessings, you just need to take the time to think about how blessed you are, instead of thinking about what you don’t have.
2 Timothy 4:7-8
I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.
In 2 Timothy 4:7-8, Paul is speaking about how he has accomplished the calling God has placed on him with endurance and faith. He is encouraging us to do the same thing in our own race in life. God has a unique plan for all of us, each with different achievements, goals and timing. It serves no purpose for us to compare our lives to the lives of others, because we are all on different paths, with different callings from Our Father. God may take you down a different, much slower path for life than you expected, but He is using every experience you have, including seasons of waiting, to grow you and make you more like Jesus, and that is the greatest success we could ever be blessed to have in life!
Achieving success God’s way through seeking Him, serving others, leaning on His strength and not striving through your own strength may seem strange compared to the hustle culture of the world, but we are made for more than just striving and being high achievers. We were created to serve our Heavenly Father and follow His plan for our lives. Don’t let the world define what it means for you to be successful, follow God and He will lead you to the life of success and fulfilment that no book, podcast or reel could ever give you.
If you’d like to read more about reaching success God’s way, The Pathway to Success by Joyce Meyer is a really good book that goes more into detail about achieving success through God.
