Focus: Enemies to Success (Pt.1)

Text: 2Chron.26:5

"And he sought God in the days of Zechariah, who had understanding in the visions of God: and as long as he sought the LORD, God made him to prosper."

Read the last phrase again, "God made him to prosper." God is the God of success and the source of true prosperity. God is always successful in all He does. He never fails. He has all it takes to succeed in any and every venture. He knows every avenue that yields hundred percent revenue. For you to succeed in life, you need power and wisdom - sense and strength, and God is infinitely powerful and wise. He is short of nothing that makes for success in every facet of life.

There is no failure in God. He begins a thing and ensures that He finishes it. He has no abandoned projects. If God's hand is in a thing, then be assured that success is guaranteed. God is not the author or source of failure. He created us to succeed, not to fail. He takes no delight in our failure or defeat.

God wants us to succeed or prosper in this world - spiritually, physically and materially. Suffering and poverty are not gifts from God. Poverty is not a virtue. There is nothing spiritual about being poor and nothing poor about being spiritual. There is no trace of failure, poverty, pain, and suffering in heaven. We cannot find anything that looks like failure and poverty in eternity.

Even now, God is willing and able to make us prosper. 

Truly, there are four foes you need to conquer in order to succeed in life as a Christian.

The first enemy is yourself.

You are your own enemy number one. If you can win the battle against yourself, then nothing can stop you from being a success in this life.

How well do you want to succeed or prosper in this life? How prepared and determined are you? Are you into habits that inhibit? Are you lazy and unthinking? Do you have guts to face life's challenges and difficulties? Do you quit easily? What are your goals in life? What are your value and belief systems? What are your priorities? Do you engage and indulge in trivia? 

Mark tells us about the mad man of Gadara, "And always, night and day, he was in the mountains, and in the tombs, crying, and cutting himself with stones" (Mk.5:5). He was cutting and hurting himself, and that is madness. We are busy being our own enemy, standing in our own way, and hurting ourselves, while passing the blame on others. Isn't that madness? 

We make excuses for our own failures and blame everyone else for the wrongs we are doing to ourselves.

How can you succeed when you are the reason why you fail? 

You love the comfort zone. You find it extremely difficult to take bold and daring steps. You are constantly afraid of taking risks. You live a life of low purpose and of no significance. You aim at nothing and miss everything.

Stop being the reason why you fail. God wants to make you prosper and He delights in your success. Uzziah did what was right in the sight of God. He set goals, made earnest efforts, and achieved great feats in Judah, for God made him prosper. God is the success-maker for those who align and fall in line with Him. Just conquer yourself, or better still, let God conquer you, and He'll ensure that you prosper.

by Bishop Moses E. Peter