Living at the Top

Take a moment and think back to the last time you experienced a success. How did you feel? While success is different things to different people, I think we can all agree that success feels great! For a moment, no matter how brief, we feel on top of the world, somehow more vital and alive than ever. Everything in life seems to be going our way. But no matter how much we may desire it, life is never one stretch of uninterrupted success.

That doesn't stop many of us from dreaming about living at the top, by seeking ways to maximize our experience of success. Countless authors have written hundreds of books on the subject of how to attain and keep success. Several classics come to mind such as, Andrew Carnegie's “How to Win Friends and Influence People,” Napoleon Hill's “Think and Grow Rich,” and Stephen Covey's “7 Habits of Highly Effective People.”

If you read even a few self-help books on success, you quickly discover that there is a high degree of overlap in the strategies they suggest. Some of the most common ones are:

• Having a clear vision and purpose to motivate you
• Proactively setting and attaining goals
• Being decisive, able to make and see decisions through
• Overcoming fear and taking risks
• Respecting, appreciating, and encouraging the contribution of others
• Consistent follow-through, always keep your word
• Enjoy the journey and challenges on the way

No matter how successful people are, no one lives at the top all the time, for all of us experience highs and lows. But even if it is fleeting, we keep on striving to experience success again and again, to drink in the wonderful sensation of being on top and fully alive.

Did you know that God wants you to have a successful life? That He actually created you for living at the top? Jesus clearly identified that His purpose in coming to earth was to give us abundant life (John 10:10b). In many ways, the Bible is a book about how to be successful and fully alive.

So what are God's tips for success? You might be surprised to learn they are very similar to the ones listed above. For example, Father God tells us that we can't get to square one without a vision (Proverbs 29:18); we must keep our eye continually on the goal (Philippians 3:14); our word is of utmost importance (Proverbs 18:21); and we have to take risks, counting their cost (Luke 14:28).

The strategies are similar because they are universal principles established by Father God for our success. However, the Bible gives important keys to ensure success that you won't find in any self-help book. Father God never intended for us to attain and maintain success through our own self-effort, but by continually abiding in Him (John 15). And once we become His child, He places us in His family where we exchange respect, appreciation and encouragement with others as we mutually build our success together (1 Corinthians 12:12–26).

Self-help success strategies provide fleeting results at best, but Father God promises that His strategies for success last forever.

Come join us this Sunday at 9:00 AM or 11:00 AM to learn more about Father God's strategies for success. This is the second week in our current series on “The Victorious Church.”

Pastor Che