areliablefaith

My oldest daughter mentioned the other day that one of the challenges with her new faith is the bias in favor of those who will do anything to get ahead.  Rhi does not do anything halfway so in giving her life to the Lord she has taken her work habits which were pretty ethical to begin with and made them spotless.  No more cutting corners for the sake of “getting better numbers”.  Prior to her conversion Rhi was a company ladder-climber with many persons envious of her rapid rise and her consistent high performance.  Since her very public conversion (the Lord used work confrontations as one of ways to get her to look to Him) Rhiannon has had many work challenges thrown her way.  I can so see the Lord working through these to strengthen her, but it is admittedly not easy.

Rhi, like me and many others, is sorely tempted to look at our performance in the workplace as a key barometer of how successful we are.  When others surpass us, particularly when we know they are not practicing sound, ethical behaviour, it can get under our skin and cause frustration and irritation.  We may even be moved to complain to God about this.  Fortunately David, who is refered to as a man after God’s own heart, did on several occasions.  We can see this best in the Psalms.  I think the best one is Psalm 37.

David acknowledges that the wicked flourish at times and it is tempting to wonder if our efforts at righteousness are of benefit.  If those who cut corners are richly rewarded it seems like plodding along faithfully will always have us playing second fiddle to those who do not have the same scruples.  But David correctly observes that the success of the wicked does come to an end… sometimes sooner, sometimes later but they always come to an end.  Even as I write this I can think of wicked rulers that have come to an end within the recent past.  Moamar Gaddafi, Hosni Mubarak, Saddam Hussein were all rich and powerful dictators who have fallen.

All of Psalm 37 is good, but I want to point out what I believe to be the key verse, verse 4.  “Delight in the Lord and He will give you the desire of your heart.”  The Lord spoke this to me once when I was laboring in intense intercessory prayer.  I stopped immediately and said, “No Lord not my will but Yours,” to which He replied.  “That is exactly why I am going to give you the desires of your heart.”  When our heart becomes so supple in God’s hand, when our intimacy with Him becomes the source of our greatest joy and delight, then we are in a place where we will want what He wants more than anything else.  And when that is our greatest desire, then things like worldly recognition and praise diminish in importance to nothing.

For me the prayer above was followed up by a move from Louisiana to Tennessee within a few months.  I was not praying for or seeking the move at the time, but it was something I did deeply desire and God brought it to pass.

Now concerning those who chose to do whatever it takes to get ahead in the world, I will only point out that each one of us have cut some corners in life and transgressed against the God who loves us so.  My response today is a bit different from when I was younger.  Very few of the persons I have known well who practiced this have lasted.  In the end it seems their actions came back to be their undoing.  A few have even faced their past with true conviction and repentance and come into a living relationship with God through His Son, Jesus.  But the point I am trying to make is that I don’t dwell on any perceived advantage that they might have.  I know it is short-lived.  Rather I focus upon the One who loves us so much that I can find my joy overflowing in His presence.  In Him I am whole, I am happy, I am fulfilled, I am called, I am equipped, and I am able to do anything He calls me to do.  And whatever He calls me to do is of greater worth than the things I might gain if I cut corners.

Today my wife and I are successful.  We count our success first by the relationships we have beginning with our relationship with God.  Next is our marriage and the intimacy and joy we share in being best friends and lovers.  Right behind that is our relationship with our children – they are all great people in their own right, but even more special because we share so much in common.  Next is the good health we walk in.  We realize this is a special blessing and we don’t take it for granted.  Notice that I have not mentioned our jobs anywhere in the list thus far.  That’s because we both enjoy, appreciate, and work hard in our jobs, but they do not define us nor are they our primary measure of success.  We both have good jobs and we do well in them, but if the Lord should separate us from our jobs, He would still be our delight.

My prayer is that this helps you to see that God’s frame of reference for success is bigger than the momentary success achieved by cheating or cutting corners.  I wish you a blessed day and pray that your delight will be in the One who loves you beyond comprehension.   To Him be the glory and honor and power and dominion for ever and ever.  Amen.