God’s definition of success contrasts with the world’s definition of success.
According to Charles Stanley, “Success is the continuing achievement of becoming the person God wants you to be and accomplishing all the goals God has helped you set.” “Becoming the person God wants us to be” involves daily striving to be a faithful steward through the leading and empowerment of the Spirit, and growing in character as we journey through the six phases of faith. We “accomplish all the goals God has helped us to set” as we fulfill our God-given dream objectives.
In God’s eyes, as we strive to live a successful Christian life, based upon this definition of success, “failure is the refusal to try or the abandonment of trust in God.”
God’s Definition of Success Contrasts with the World’s Definition of Success
The World’s Definition of Success
Core Driver: Competition, social status, and being “the best.
Primary Metrics: Money, title, property, speed, and public acclaim.
View of Failure: A permanent, shameful disqualification or loss.
Time Horizon: Immediate results and short-term quarterly or generational wins.
The Comparison Trap: Inevitable and perpetual; someone is always richer or smarter
God’s Definition of Success
Core Driver: Stewardship, obedience, and doing your best with what you are given.
Primary Metrics: Character development, spiritual fruitfulness, and self-control.
View of Failure: A stepping stone, a refining test of faith, or a pivot toward God’s better plan.
Time Horizon: An eternal time span measured across generations and eternity.
The Comparison Trap: Eliminated; God evaluates individuals based on their unique, personal calling.
Source: AI.
Charles Stanley’s Definition of Success
“Success is the continuing achievement of becoming the person God wants you to be and accomplishing all the goals God has helped you set” (Stanley).
Growing in godly character and evolving as a faithful steward is a major part of what God desires us to become, and achieving all the goals and purposes of our unique God-given dream through character, stewardship, and reliance upon the Spirit, is the path which leads to being successful in God’s eyes, according to the definition of Charles Stanley.
“Becoming the person God wants us to be” involves us being a daily faithful steward of all “specific talents, opportunities, and calling entrusted by the Lord”, and when we are a faithful steward to our God-given dream, with the daily leading and empowerment of the Spirit, we can not only “accomplish all the goals” of our God-given dream, but also achieve all the goals God has set for our lives to accomplish. When we do all this properly, we live a successful life as our lives bear fruit and positively impacts other lives through the fulfillment of our dream, and God gets glory as the world around us experiences greater freedom, all which happens when we daily choose to be a faithful steward to our God-given dream.
“Moreover, it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful” (1 Corinthians 4:2).
Being a faithful steward often requires character, having a capacity of faith, resilience, humility, and patience, in which we grow through the process of living out our God-given dream. By journeying through the six phases of faith, as we chase our dream, God is slowly molding these “character” characteristics in us, with the objective of equipping us to be a better faithful steward. God evaluates our character just as much as He evaluates what we accomplish through that character.
How God Defines Failure
God doesn’t view us as failures when “we make mistakes or miss a target”. God defines failure as the “refusal to try or the abandonment of trust in God”.
1. Refusal to Try
In the Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25:24-30), the servant with the one talent is rebuked by the Master – because of fear which paralyzed his actions to be a faithful steward, the servant with one talent chooses to do nothing but bury his talent in the ground. The servant who fails in the Master’s eyes is not the one who attempts to invest (be a faithful steward) and subsequently stumbles, but the one who out of fear of failure, refuses to try to be a faithful steward, wasting the talents God gave them.
Doing nothing out of fear is considered by God as failing. Making an error in judgment, falling short of a target, facing defeat while doing your best to pursue a God-given dream is not considered as failure in God’s eyes, it is simply a part of life’s developmental teaching program of faith and growth. Doing your best and falling short of a measure is not viewed as failure by God – refusing to try, always is.
When God evaluates our lives, He acknowledges our human limitations, and honors those who do their very best to exhibit faithfulness despite their weaknesses.
The Faithful Steward Approach vs The Unfaithful / Fearful Approach
The Faithful Steward Approach
Risk Management: Investing time and effort courageously, accepting that failure is a teacher
Preparation: Actively sharpening skills, studying, and cultivating character
Outcome: Practicing obedience and leaving the harvest to God
Motivation: Serving others and honoring the Giver of the dream
The Unfaithful / Fearful Approach
Risk Management: Burying the dream in a “safe” place to avoid any chance of public failure (Matt. 25)
Preparation: Waiting passively until conditions are 100% comfortable and guaranteed
Outcome: Demanding absolute control and validation of results
Motivation: Seeking personal applause, comfort, or status
Source: AI.
In chasing a God-given dream, God is responsible for the outcomes and the results; our responsibility is just to be a faithful steward. God doesn’t view our mistakes as failure; He again views, refusing to try, as failure.
2. Abandonment of Trust in God
Failure in God’s eyes also happens when a steward is not dependent on God, when a steward handles stewardship entirely in their limited strength and wisdom rather than being reliant upon God’s perfect power and wisdom – this Christian chooses not to trust in grace, they decide to face challenges of stewardship in their own abilities. Because they are abandoning their trust in God, they decide not to be reliant upon God, and God views their efforts as a failure.
Christians may choose to rely upon grace, but when delays, difficulties, and dead-ends occur, many also give up on God’s goodness altogether and surrender to hopeless despair. Because “without faith, it is impossible to please God”, from their abandonment of trust in God, God also views their work, just as those who don’t rely upon grace, also as a failure.
“Failure is not stumbling or falling short of a standard” but the complete abandonment of trust in God’s grace, or in His goodness and sovereignty. In a crisis, when a steward relies solely on their own understanding and strength rather than on God’s wisdom, empowerment, and grace, that person is effectively saying in their heart: “God is either unavailable, untrustworthy, or incapable of successfully manage this circumstance.”
When we do things in own strength and abilities, or fall in complete despair and hopelessness when things go awry, we live as failures in God’s eyes. When a Christian decides they no longer need to rely upon God’s grace and empowerment to achieve dream because of pride and the desire to be self-sufficient, or when they choose not to trust in God and give up in relying upon God’s grace and empowerment, the dream’s success can be definitely hindered by these failures of the steward.
God designed God-given dreams in a way that, in order for God to receive glory for the success of the dream, the God-given dream requires exceedingly more than self-reliance of human abilities and strength for all of that dream’s goals and objectives to be fully achieved by the steward; it also necessitates God’s power, wisdom, and grace working on the steward’s behalf. When the Christian, either out of pride or despair, chooses to no longer depend on grace and divine power to make the dream go, the dream subsequently becomes less outreaching and impactful to the world without the presence of God’s power; God doesn’t get glorified as He should; and the Christian, according to Charles Stanley definition, subsequently fails to live a successful life. Failing to accomplish all the goals God intended for their life, because they chose not to depend upon grace and divine power because of abandonment of trust in God, the Christian fails to be a faithful steward, and failing to become the person God wanted them to be.
Refusal to try and the abandonment of trust also both limit the refining process of our character which happens as we chase our God-given dreams. When our character growth is stunted, our character is not growing to the extent He desires of us, negatively affecting our goal of “becoming the person God wants us to be”.
Conclusion
To properly chase our dream, we must be reliant upon the Spirit and not ourselves. When we face delays, difficulties, and dead-ends, in chasing our dreams, we must not also totally fall in despair or quit trying. We must not abandon trust; instead, we must trust in His goodness and sovereignty; we must trust in Him enough to be willing to fully depend upon Him and not be self-reliant.
If we desire to be viewed as a success, and not a failure, in God eyes, we must break free from the agreement of the fear of failure, in which, I will discuss in the next article, Breaking Free from the Fear of Failure.
Other Articles:
God, Guide My Heart Toward a Dream That Requires Faith and Dependency Upon You to Achieve It
Managing the Six Phases of Faith While Chasing a God-Given Dream
Breaking Free from the Fear of Failure
Sources:
https://iask.ai/q/is-this-behavior-considered-as-failure-is-god-s-eyes-Why-or-why-not-7492dm8
https://iask.ai/q/meaning-of-abandonment-of-trust-in-God-vs-failure-and-growth-mindset-f2bddr0
https://iask.ai/q/meaning-of-failure-in-God-s-eyes-abandonment-of-trust-vs-trying-gogao5g
https://iask.ai/q/what-is-the-definition-of-failure-from-god-s-perspective-0dufa1o
https://iask.ai/q/biblical-definition-of-failure-vs-refusal-to-try-and-abandonment-of-trust-g317p60
https://iask.ai/q/biblical-definition-of-failure-vs-refusal-to-try-and-abandonment-of-trust-34d88e0
https://iask.ai/q/how-do-we-obtain-this-kind-of-faith-d91qav0
https://iask.ai/q/what-is-faithfulness-to-a-god-given-dream-entail-enq5rbg
https://iask.ai/q/Charles-Stanley-definition-of-success-God-given-dreams-meaning-c789ta8
https://iask.ai/q/Charles-Stanley-definition-of-success-and-God-given-dreams-vs-failure-8ddmi88
https://iask.ai/q/what-are-some-of-the-characteristics-of-the-person-god-wants-us-to-be-ou1n3ko