Christian Commentary Encouraging Devotions

This is so good I'm passing it on from www.christianpost.com.

Success from the standpoint of human success
is entirely different from what God has planned for our lives,
says church strategy consultant Ron Edmondson,
who is a co-founding pastor
at Grace Community Church in Clarksville, TN.

He says that success is guaranteed
for a person
if one shifts from desiring their own will to God’s will in their life.
"You have to define success
before you can measure whether you have achieved it or not."
"For me, success is only measured in the context of God’s will."

Edmondson uses the example
from the Bible of Abram being called by God
to follow His plans for Abram’s life.

"The Lord said to Abram:
Go out from your land,
your relatives,
and your father’s house
to the land that I will show you.
I will make you into a great nation,
I will bless you,
I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you,
I will curse those who treat you with contempt,
and all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you."
– Genesis 12:1-3

"The secret for Abraham’s success
was moving from his will to God’s will.
When the ‘you’ comes after the ‘I’ rather than before,
we’ll guarantee our success."

"If you and I want the new year to be a success, let’s:

Drop our agenda … join His agenda
Get off our path … get on His path
Release our ambitions … embrace His ambitions
Ignore my will … live His will.”

"It’s a daily thing for me.
Sometimes, it’s getting up in the morning and saying,
'God, today I want to follow you.
I’m yours.
I’m ready when you are' "

"It’s a process of surrendering daily."
"In my heart I say,
'God I’m going to follow Your will
before You even tell me what Your will is.'

I think that God sometime hesitates with giving our assignment
because we haven’t surrendered to His will yet.”