I have spent the last 30 years in pastoral ministry. Something interesting I noticed during that time was many Christians have a hard time talking about professional success. Many people feel as though they must continually fly under the radar or live in obscurity to please God. This mentality is absurd! Believe God created you with the ability to lead and be successful. He designed you with the ability to lead and be successful. He designed you with talents and skills necessary to accomplish goals and be productive. When we invest in success, we are honoring God by cultivating the gifts and talents we were created with. God has called everyone to work and to work with excellence. So how do you reconcile with achieving personal success?
Here are a few ways to use your personal success in a way that honors God:
1. Have a Kingdom mentality.
Craving personal success for the money and power alone is a poor use of God’s resources. He made you uniquely, and the way you see yourself and those skills will affect the way you use them. Ask yourself, how do you view your own success? Is it with pride? Do you believe you got there all on your own? I suggest humbly going before God as you thank Him for the opportunities and the skillset He’s blessed you with. Think of ways He can use your personal success to bring Him Glory.
2. Using your influence to help others.
What good is personal success when it doesn’t flow into other people’s lives and experiences? Using your success to lift others up is an excellent use of your opportunities — and it shows that you’re not “too good” to help others grow.
What good is personal success when it doesn’t flow into other people’s lives and experiences? Click To Tweet
3. Using your personal success in your local church.
The local church needs business people. Marketing people. Coaches. People who are good with finances. People who are good at training. Educators. You might think working at the bank and making a lot of money isn’t a “spiritual” way to live, but think of all the ways you can use your money and knowledge to invest in the body of Christ! Think of ways you can leverage your personal success and skills in a way that helps your local church.
Christian leaders: Please, do not be afraid of success! Don’t shame others for being successful either. Let’s help each other use our personal successes for the glory of God and the Body of Christ!
Christian leaders: Please, do not be afraid of success! Click To Tweet
To invest in success is to develop habits that will grow who you are as a person before growing who you are as a professional. My book Get Up and Grow: 21 Habits of Successful People walks you through that process — because your desire to develop must be combined with actionable steps if true growth is to take place. You can find out more about Get Up and Grow here.
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