Choices on the Road to Success

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by Gary Hyrne

Turns, straight-aways, ups and downs, flats, crashes and many other adventures and obstacles await you on the road to success! The Christian’s journey to success is filled with opportunities to form the good habit of doing things that failures who interpret life through negativity don’t like to do. The purpose of this information is not to establish the exact steps necessary in order to be successful, but to establish the necessity for making positive choices about what God is saying to you. As my pastor has often said, “Successful people have learned to gladly pay the price tag of success that others refuse to pay.”

Early in my life a friend invited me to church to hear a pastor who spoke truth from his heart. Each message from then until now has shown clear directions for success from the Word of God and included a call to all to choose God’s timely answers for life’s journey. Weeks after I was added to the church my friend that invited me to church decided to leave the church. He told me his reason for leaving was that he had made one decision to become a Christian and didn’t think he needed to make any more choices. He said he was tired of hearing messages that always called him to make more decisions about his life. Joshua declares the opposite about important decisions we make and in Joshua 24:15 declares, “Choose you this day whom you will serve.” Paul said in Hebrews 3:7, “Today if you hear His voice, harden not your heart.” And again he said in II Corinthians 6:2, “Behold, now is the accepted time, behold, now is the day of salvation.” Hopefully the following will aid you in making good decisions on your road to success.

Christianity is not about another list of do’s and don’ts. The beauty of our faith is that God wants us to redefine ourselves. We have the privilege of lining up our speaking and thinking with what God says in His Word. Every qualification for real success is acquired through faith speaking and renewing our minds.  You are the kind of person you are because you have formed certain thinking and speaking habits. Only you can change you. Good success in our personal, family, business and church life is not achieved by following our natural likes and dislikes. The road to success is simply joyful obedience to God’s voice and what He has instructed you to accomplish. Paul said to the Corinthian church in II Corinthians 5:9 that we were to make it our aim to be well pleasing to God. Successful Christians live by faith in the Word of God, accenting their desire for results that please God.  Unbelievers yield to their desire to enjoy self-pleasing agendas and have chosen to be satisfied with the results. When their agendas and methods don’t yield the fruit they desired, they often blame others for their plight and consider themselves victims. The Psalmist David said God was not interested in sacrifices, but a humble and contrite spirit, in Psalms 51:17.

Our Heavenly Father and we as Christians understand the human frailty element and learn to rise from our personal failures in the power of God’s love and mercy through repentance and faith. The love of God is expressed clearly through the honest encouragement and support of fellow church members. It is vital to review and reinforce in our lives what God has been saying to us through the messages in the house of God and in our personal walk with Him. Whenever we cannot find successful resolve in an area, the best tune-up is to seek the pinpointed input of anointed church counselors.

Any good decision you make today will be challenged by your adversaries. Don’t let your spiritual and physical opponents slow you down today or any other day. If it’s a big purpose you are called to, then you will have big challenges in your accomplishment of your destiny. Several years ago Dr. Drummond delivered a collegiate commencement address entitled “Destiny.” He challenged the graduates and those guests in attendance to consider the price tag of fulfilling their destiny. The following italicized section is my abbreviated notes from that night.

There is a “price tag.” Nothing worthwhile comes cheap. “My soul is troubled, what should I say? Help, get Me out of here, but for this purpose I came to this hour.” There is no other course, “that I may finish my race with joy” (II Tim 4:7b). You have a destiny. “How often I would have gathered you together as a hen does its chicks, but you would not come unto Me” (Matt. 23:37). The choice factor is pivotal in “the race.” We are in a race, and we all have our race to run. Christ’s race was troubling to His soul.

 

Phil. 2:13—How motivated are you to fulfill your destiny? Versus, are you a convenient believer? Are you mediocre or motivated to fulfill His destiny for you?  You have to lay hold of this every day. Jesus said in John 1:27, “Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour.” Esther also said in Esther 4:16 that she was prepared to perish in following God if necessary.

 

The Lord tests us to see if we love God. We should face this hour with faith, honor and dignity rather than the lust of the flesh. Catch on. This is the thumbprint of our destiny: how seriously we take our decisions in life. My life is dedicated to helping you run your race. I am committed to finishing the race with joy. What are you committed to? Why has God brought me to this hour? Resolve it. Jesus set the joy before Him. Pay the price of your call. Does it hurt? Remember, there will be pleasures forevermore. Every Christian has a race to run as unique to them as their fingerprint. Jer. 1:4-6; Ps. 139.

 

God designed Jeremiah for his call before he was born. He cried out to God, “Show me what to do.” God answered Jeremiah specifically and told him his call, but Jeremiah’s reply in 1:6 was, “I cannot….” The higher up the call, the thinner the air. Don’t let your destiny beat you up and force you into your position.

 

You will never succeed beyond the degree to which you are willing to surrender.  Furthermore, your surrender will not be complete until you have formed the habit of saying, thinking and doing with gladness the things that failures don’t like to do. Men in the world system like to glory in their abilities and attribute their pseudo-successes to their favorite verbiage. They say such things as ‘it was lucky’ or ‘my hard work is responsible for my success.’ Christians know that every good accomplishment in our lives is a gift from God, as James 1:17 states. We are laborers together with God, but He is our Senior Partner! Jesus has taught us to take up our cross daily and follow Him. Let us spend quality time positioning ourselves to hear from and obey God. Choose today to enjoy traveling the road to success. Join the victory caravan in the house of God with others who are choosing by the grace of God to form and maintain the good faith habits needed to succeed.