Successful Living part 1

By Bill Gothard


THE FOUNTAIN OF TRUE SUCCESS

Meditation:
Psalm 119:98 - Wisdom
Psalm 119:99 - Understanding
Romans 10:17 - Faith
Psalm 119:165 - Peace
Psalm 63:5 - Joy
Psalm 1:2,3 - Prosperity
Proverbs 16:22 - Life
Joshua 1:8 - Success

* My lack of scholastic ability became quite obvious to my teachers and to me as far back as the first grade.

It required nine years and a lot of teachers’ patience and sympathy to get me through the first eight years of school. At the bottom of those eight passing report cards were those familiar
words, “PASSED ON PROBATION.”

Prior to my entering high school, I sincerely purposed to make good grades; but with four to six hours of study each night, I only managed to “achieve” average grades.

Then a Christian friend challenged me to begin a certain “project” in my Christian life which at first seemed quite impossible.

However, I diligently worked on this “project” for a semester. At the end of that semester the school grades rose to an A-average!

The “project” was continued during the remaining years of high school whereupon I graduated as a member of the National Honor Society.

This “project” was maintained “off and on” during college and graduate school. To my amazement, in direct proportion to my faithfulness in this “project”, my grades went either up or down.

THE BASIC REQUIREMENT…

…Which God has established for life, wisdom and success is meditation. Whenever God speaks of success in Scripture, He relates it to the continuous inner activity of meditation.

1. YOU WILL HAVE GOOD SUCCESS

“This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success” (Joshua 1:8).

2. WHATEVER YOU DO WILL PROSPER

“But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper” (Psalm 1:2,3).

3. YOU WILL EXCEL IN WISDOM AND UNDERSTANDING

“O how love I thy law! It is my meditation all the day…I understand more than all my teachers: for thy testimonies are my meditation” (Psalm 119:97,100).

4. YOU WILL HAVE NEW POWER OVER SIN

“Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed thereto according to thy word…Thy word have I had in mine heart that I might not sin against thee” (Psalm 119:9,11).

5. YOU WILL DISCOVER HOW TO LIVE

“he taught me also, and said unto me, Let thine heart retain my words; keep my commandments and live” (Proverbs 4:4).

6. YOUR SUCCESS WILL BE OBVIOUS TO ALL

“Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may appear to all” (1 Timothy 4:15).

* “The project that this Christian friend introduced to me was memorizing and meditating on a chapter of Scripture each week.

“God does not promise success for memorizing Scripture, but He does promise success for anyone who will meditate in His Word day and night.

“The continuous mental discipline of memorizing and meditating on Scripture rebuilt my thought structures, refocused my emotions, and redirected my goals.

“Very logical by-products of this activity were increased memory span, greater ability to concentrate and an improved reading rate.

“The absence of these had been some of the major causes for poor grades in school.

“As this project continued many other beneficial by-products began to appear. When it was discontinued there was a noticeable decline in the success of what I attempted to accomplish.

“One of the reasons God has guaranteed success in whatever we do if we meditate on His Word (Psalm 1:3) is that meditation brings a greater ability to discern ahead of time which ventures will be successful and which ones will not be successful.”

THE PRICE OF SUCCESSS: PERSONAL DISCIPLINE

1. THE PROBLEM OF GETTING INTO GOD’S WORD DAILY

My good intentions defeated me. I knew how important it was to read God’s Word daily and wanted to spend at least one hour, but since I didn’t have this much time in the morning, I purposed to do it after school.

After school, interruptions came and I decided to put it off until after dinner. But the pressure of homework caused me to postpone it until right before going to sleep. Then I was too tired so I resolved to get up earlier the next morning. But the next morning I reasoned that sleep was important and I’d do it right after school. This discouraging routine was repeated over and over again. It caused me to wonder if it really was important to read God’s Word every day.

2. THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING IN GOD’S WORD DAILY

“Blessed is the man that hears me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my doors” (Proverbs 8:34).

“…he wakens morning by morning, he wakens mine ear to hear as the learned” (Isaiah 50:4).

“My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O Lord; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up” (Psalm 5:3).

3. A CAUTION BEFORE MAKING A VOW TO READ DAILY

“When thou vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it; for he hath no pleasure in fools: pay that which thou hast vowed. Better is it that thou shouldest not vow, than that thou shouldest vow and not pay.

“Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin; neither say thou before the angel, that it was an error: wherefore should God be angry at thy voice, and destroy the work of thine hands?” (Ecclesiastes 5:4-6).

* “Even before that Christian friend introduced me to the inward exercise of meditation, another friend suggested that I make a decision which would be a big step toward helping me include God’s Word in my daily schedule.

“He suggested that I make a vow to God that I would spend at least ten minutes every day reading His Word. Previously I had made many promises and resolutions to myself that I would be more faithful in reading Scripture, but these never carried the same weight as did a vow to God.

“A vow to God is a very serious matter - as emphasized in Ecclesiastes 5:4-6. I was urged to consider this before making it.

“Shortly after making that vow, I discovered that it did remove one of my biggest hindrances to consistent Christian living - that of getting started in God’s Word every day. Once I started reading the Word, the time usually went well beyond the ten-minute minimum.

“The first big test to this vow came during the week after making it. One day I completely forgot about it until I was in bed and almost asleep. All of a sudden God reminded me about it - as He has faithfully done every day since. I realized that if I debated for even one minute, I’d fall asleep, and the words of Ecclesiastes 5:4 quickly came to mind.

“After jumping out of bed, I struggled to keep my eyes open for the ten minutes. I didn’t get too much from the reading that night, but this taught me a big lesson. Up to that point I was trying to fit God’s Word into my schedule rather than building my schedule around God’s Word. This became an important turning point in my whole outlook on life.”

TRUE SUCCESS DEFINED

Success is not determined by what we are but rather by what we are compared to what we could be. It is not measured by what we have done but rather by what we have done compared to what we could have done.

* OUTWARD SUCCESS BUT INWARD FRUSTRATION

A bewildered and very concerned young man revealed deep inward frustration which was becoming heavier by the day. His friends considered him to be very successful since he had achieved the high educational, social and financial goals he had set for himself. Inwardly, however, he was becoming more and more perplexed over a deep sense of unfulfillment. He was unaware of its cause.

* THE PROBLEM OF NOT BEING A “WHOLE PERSON”

The first step toward an answer came when he learned that one of the basic parts of his total being had been made alive and integrated with the other parts of his being.

He had taken care of the needs of his body and the needs of his mind, but life was designed to be lived on three levels, and he had neglected his spirit (pneuma). In spite of his accomplishments, he had not yet become a whole person. His life was lived on a dull “two-dimensional” one. He was outwardly successful but inwardly dissatisfied. He was outwardly busy but inwardly bored.

(The following material was then explained to him…)

THE CAUSE OF BOREDOME

Each person has a total set of aptitudes, interests, and capacities in his spirit, his soul, and his body. If we are only able to integrate part of these aptitudes and capacities into our lifework, the remaining part will constitute our boredom factor.

1. SPIRITUAL APTITUDES AND ABILITIES

Comprehending the essential nature of God (natural light)
Discerning right and wrong (conscience)
Comprehending the basic meaning of life (wisdom)
Sensing the spirit of others (sensitivity)
Directing basic drives and emotions (creativity)

2. PSYCHOLOGICAL APTITUDES AND ABILITIES

Thinking, reasoning, remembering
Feeling various emotions
Exercising the will and making choices

3. PHYSICAL APTITUDES AND ABILITIES

Seeing
Feeling
Hearing
Smelling
Tasting

* In determining the total potential of our lives, we must add up all the above aptitudes and abilities. If we only develop and integrate 30 percent of our total aptitudes and capacities into our lifework, then we will have a 70 percent boredom factor in our lives.

NOTE: The above divisions are designed as a teaching aid. Man is a unity and is difficult to divide into parts; however, in 1 Thessalonians 5:23 we have a three-fold division. “…and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless…” The Greek word “KAI” which is translated “and” is used between spirit and soul as well as between soul and body. This grammatical construction clearly shows that the spirit differs from the soul and the soul differs from the body.

THE BASIS OF MAKING CORRECT DECISIONS

* Just as our physical sense are the windows to the physical world, so our spiritual senses are our windows to the spiritual world. If any senses are dulled, we will not be able to gain the data necessary for proper decisions.

PHYSICAL DATA NECESSARY FOR DECISIONS

SEEING
HEARING
FEELING
TASTING
SMELLING

SPIRITUAL DATA NECESSARY FOR DECISIONS

“SEEING” (Ephesians 1:18)
“HEARING” (Galatians 3:2)
“FEELING” (James 4:8)
“TASTING” (Psalm 34:8)
“SMELLING” (2 Corinthians 2:16)

THIS IS CONTINUED…