You’ve invested a lot of your time & energy to your passions.
You focused on growing your impact & business, and it grew.
You received the public’s acknowledgement for your dedication. And now you felt you’ve arrived to what you had dreamed of in your childhood (and more).
Because we serve a big God who turns the impossible to the possible, we Christians are called to maturity and growth—in all aspects of life.
For me, when I became Women of The Year 2023, I became lost because most of my childhood dreams were achieved. It is the same phenomenon like athletes who won the Olympics— the hallmark of their career—and felt lost because they have arrived.
As we obey God, God begin to use us.
Maturity in the Lord plans for success and victories.
God matures us through failures and success. This is how God matures your faith: how you handle success. The platform exposes what is and has been on your hearts. This is now the time to look into your hearts. Ask these 3 questions…
1.How are you handling success?
“So the Lord was with Joshua, and his fame spread through the land.”- Joshua 6:27
In the book of Joshua, we learn about how obedience to God led a fame in the eyes of man.
They answered: ‘Your servants have come from a very distant country because of the fame of your Lord your God’" Joshua 9:9-10
2. Is your ego and pride getting the best of you?
If the devil cannot nbring you down with failures, he will corrupt you with success. The counterfeit currency of fame says “the more famous you are, the more ‘valuable’ you seem”. Then this makes us rely more to external validation and social affirmation. Then ego comes (edging God out) and we put God in a small corner in our lives, with our ego growing to think now, “we can make it on our own.”
When God gives power, Uzziah becomes prideful. When he becomes prideful, it prevents trusts—taking control away from God. This is wh
“But when he had become powerful, he also become proud, which led to his downfall. he sinned against the Lord his God.” - 2 Chron 26:16
Being famous can make you foolish. Are you still persistent in prayer? Because prayer is one thing that will keep us against pride.
3. Do you give God the glory?
“The reward for humility and fear of the LORD is riches and honor and life” - Proverbs 22:4
If you started your career believing in God and doing it for the glory of God, now that you’ve made it, do you now take the success for yourself?
Whatever we don’t turn to praise, turns to pride.
If you were to get what you prayed for, now do you still pray? Do you still surrender?
God wants to use our success as a vehicle for us to continue to bless others. The success is not just for ourselves.
The interesting thing is how we trust people who are humble. We do not trust people who are prideful. In the same manner, God can use you more when you are still surrendered and humble. Pride and success can make us lazy and be our greatest failures like what Napoleon Bonaparte said.
If God has given you victories and conquer your battles for you, and you have become famous in the eyes of men, keep giving the glory to Him. You are never too successful to talk to God. You never become too prominent to surrender to God. Persist in the humility of prayer to fight against pride. Surrender to God. The more you surrender, the more He can use you.
x,
T.W.
He has taught me to renew my mind, my heart & my strength so that I can live in God’s purpose for me. With a year older, I am a lot less naive and a lot more hopeful still. There’s one thing that never left me, that is wonder. For all this year has to unveil, here is my prayer to the Lord: