One of the most thought provoking quotes I have come across recently was shared by the great evangelist Dwight L. Moody when he said: “Our greatest fear should not be of failure, but of succeeding at something that doesn’t really matter.”1
This quote got me to thinking that some of the things, even we as Christians sometimes view as failure, are in reality great successes. For example, when we share the gospel with someone and they don’t respond positively we often think of our attempt as a failure. But in the eyes of the Lord our sharing is what the Lord calls a success since we are just called to be faithful. And the reality is we can’t save anyone since this is the work of the Holy Spirit. Not only that but we sometimes may never know if the seed we planted will be watered by another person down the road. And thus, our initial sharing of the gospel may prove instrumental is leading someone to faith in Christ.
And on another front in the eyes of the world success is often measured by how much money we make, what position we hold at work, or how famous we are. But the reality is, while these things are nice, in the eternal scheme of things unless they help brings souls to Christ or help to advance God’s kingdom here on earth in some way these so called successes don’t really matter at all. For success in the eyes of the Lord, and that I believe is the only way we should really measure success, should be measured not by our accumulation of goods or the size of our house, but on the rewards we are storing up for ourselves in heaven.
When we pray for someone and don’t see immediate results we are pleasing the Lord and that my friends is the true mark of success. When, as I shared before, we proclaim the gospel and don’t see immediate results we are obeying the will of God for our lives and that is another mark of success. And when we empty ourselves of our finances, to help those in need, we may become monetarily poor, but in the economy of the Lord we become rich in the kingdom of God.
So in the final analysis to succeed at something that doesn’t really matter will often prove to be our biggest failure!
1 12 of DL Moody’s Most Profound Quotes About Faith – RELEVANT (relevantmagazine.com)