The Measure of Success

According to Merriam-Webster dictionary success is defined as getting or achieving wealth, respect, or fame. According to a Gallup News poll Americans with a lower household income tend to report a lower rate of success than those with a higher household income. It could be said that money is the root of a majority of the problems in our homes and families. The devil's plan is to keep families in financial bondage. For many people money is a god. Credit is another god that promises us things that God has not necessarily supplied. You may think that money can buy you almost anything. Well besides happiness there is one that money can't buy you and that is poverty you need credit cards to attain that.

1 Timothy 6: 5-10 ESV and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain. But godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.

The corporate minds of marketing have done a master full job of using advertising to create in us needs and desires, so that we will go out and buy things. Most Americans want something new, bigger, better and more shiny. The Apple company is so successful at doing this that many people think that having the newest I-Phone is a necessity, somehow the company has convinced many people that a new I-Phone is a need, that you have worked hard and that you deserve this new electronic device when in reality it is only a want. First Timothy 6 verse 8 tells us that we really only have 2 needs, food and clothes. If you are depending upon worldly possessions for your contentment and happiness you will never find any peace.

Ecclesiastes 5:10 ESV He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves wealth with his income; this also is vanity.

Imagine this, you have been ship wrecked in the middle of the ocean and your on a raft surrounded by sea water. You have ran out of drinking water, yet your surrounded by water. So you think that maybe just a little drink of saltwater would be better than no water at all, but if you drink saltwater it just makes you thirstier. That is the way money and material possessions are, it is like trying to satisfy your thirst with salt water. To many people try to measure their success by the number things they own or by the size of their bank account. I am sure you have heard this saying before, “He who dies with the most toys wins!” Sooner or later we are all going to die and they are gonna have your funeral. If Jesus doesn't return first, we are all going to die! Now imagine your funeral. Here you lie in your casket. Everybody is lined up and coming by to have a final look at you. What do you want the people  at your funeral to say about you? Do you want them to say, “Well he really did spend long hours at work, he really was a good business manager, he really knew how to invest his money.” Is that what you want people to say about you? What do you want your children, your grand children your wife or husband to say about you. What are you leaving behind in the hearts and lives of your children and grandchildren.

Job 1:21 ESV And he said, “Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed