to be faithful

"A faithful man shall abound with blessings: but he that maketh haste to be rich shall not be innocent."

Proverbs 28:20

People tend to make much of success. Success propels us to riches, fulfillment, and fame. Underlying all true success, however, is something we often overlook--faithfulness.

In Luke 16:10-11, Jesus taught that those who are faithful in little will be trusted with much:

"He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much. If therefore ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches?"

True success is never achieved overnight. It's built on the back of many days of doing the right thing, the necessary thing, and the good thing. This holds true no matter what arena of life you're in.

Solomon specifically addresses riches: the usual measuring stick for success in business and career arenas. He says that while a faithful man will abound with blessings, a man who tries to "get rich quick" will not only ultimately fail, but he will likely wind up in sin. A rush to success without faithfulness leads to a loss of innocence.

This is true in our spiritual lives as well. Many people spend their time chasing "spiritual highs" or attempting to be super-Christians before they've laid a foundation of faithfulness. We hear about heroes like Billy Graham, Amy Carmichael, George Mueller, or William Wilberforce, and we want to be like them. But the fact is, their spiritual "success" didn't grow out of a vacuum. When we think of such heroes, we think of the highlights of their lives. But those highlights grew out of lives of faithfulness: faithful prayer, faithful study, faithful hard work, and faithful love.

As I pray for myself and for others, I will pray that God would make us faithful.