The Road to Success (Part Two)

 

 

 

 

Yesterday we shared with you about the Road to Success According to Joshua 1:8: This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.

 

We identified two areas in which we need to focus: Meditation and Obedience. Yesterday we talked about Meditation, today we discuss "Obedience".  God certainly wants to bless us, but we must be mindful that to every promise there is a condition. As we determine to meditate, to think and re-think on God's word; we must also apply His word to our lives. Joshua said, "then you will make your way prosperous and then you will have good success".

 

Deuteronomy 28 outlines multiple blessings that God wants to be stow on us; Deuteronomy 28:3-12, lists the many way God desires to bless us and ensure success:

 

 

³ The Lord will make your businesses and your farms successful.

⁴ You will have many children. You will harvest large crops, and your herds of cattle and flocks of sheep and goats will produce many young.

⁵ You will have plenty of bread to eat.

⁶ The Lord will make you successful in your daily work.

⁷ The Lord will help you defeat your enemies and make them scatter in all directions.

⁸ The Lord your God is giving you the land, and he will make sure you are successful in everything you do. Your harvests will be so large that your storehouses will be full.

⁹ If you follow and obey the Lord, he will make you his own special people, just as he promised. ¹⁰ Then everyone on earth will know that you belong to the Lord, and they will be afraid of you.

¹¹ The Lord will give you a lot of children and make sure that your animals give birth to many young. The Lord promised your ancestors that this land would be yours, and he will make it produce large crops for you.

¹² The Lord will open the storehouses of the skies where he keeps the rain, and he will send rain on your land at just the right times. He will make you successful in everything you do. You will have plenty of money to lend to other nations, but you won’t need to borrow any yourself.

Do you see how many times "successful" is used in this passage? God wants to bless and make us successful in everything we do.  However, He does ask for obedience. To obey is to carry out or follow a command. And that is exactly what God asks in verse 9: "If you you follow and obey the Lord, He will make you His own special people."

This road to success is a difficult and narrow one, we must hide the word of God in our Heart that we might sin against Him. (Psalm 119:11)

Deuteronomy 28:1,2 says: Today I am giving you the laws and teachings of the Lord your God. Always obey them, and the Lord will make Israel the most famous and important nation on earth, and he will bless you in many ways.  God has so much for us, let's be sure to align ourselves with His Word in 2014.

Be sure to keep God's Word in your mouth; meditate on it day and night and obey--follow and carry out His Word. Then you will be on the Road to Success!!!


Blessings!



The Road to Success (Part One)

Now that we are in 2014 many of us are focusing on how is to be successful and prosperous in everything we do! However we cannot be successful without God and His Word. Joshua 1:8 says: This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.

I don't know about you, but I desire to be successful. I want to fulfill every single plan God has for my life. According to Joshua, in order to have a prosperous way and gain good success, the Word of God or "Book of the Law" cannot leave our mouths; we have to constantly be mindful and attentive to the Word of God. How can we accomplish this? Joshua said we must meditate on the word day and night and we must be obedient to what it says. This will be a Two-part blog, first I will share on meditation and then I will share on obedience. These two go hand and hand on the road to success.

To meditate is to think, to contemplate and/or reflect.  To meditate is to think and re-think on something.  Quite often it is the things on which we meditate that get us into trouble.  We meditate on the wrong things and they lead us into bad actions.  Our thoughts can truly overtake us, we will concentrate on a single thought for a long time and if it is not a good thought, that thought can lead us into sin.

Our thoughts lead us into our actions throughout the day.  Therefore, our thoughts must be on God and His word day and night; keeping our actions consistent with God and His will for our lives.  We must think and re-think on the word of God continually, in order to keep God’s word in our mouth.  Consider meditating on 2 Corinthians 10:5

Casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity everything to the obedience of Christ. (KJV)                     

And every bit of pride that keeps anyone from knowing God, we capture people's thoughts and make them obey Christ. (CEV)           

Every time a bad thought comes to mind, meditate on this word.  Meditating on 2 Corinthians 10:5, is a good “rule of thumb” to remember; if you have a thought or if you imagine anything that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bring it into captivity, lock it up and don’t let it go until that thought is obedient to Christ.  Lock it up until you are thinking things that you know without a doubt are glorifying God.  Keep that thought until it lines up with the word. 

We have a great need to give ourselves to Biblical meditation; staying aligned with God’s word in order to control the thoughts of our mind.  Psalm 19:4 says:

Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight,
O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer. (KJV)

No matter what your beliefs the reality is that everyday we are meditating on something.  And if we are not developing the skill of Christian meditation, we may find ourselves meditating on something destructive.  Please be careful on what you meditate. Be sure to meditate on the word day and night and you will be on "The Road to Success"

*Excepts from my book: "Why You Hatin?"