The Measure of Success

Jeremiah 9:23-24 (NIV)
23 This is what the LORD says:
“Let not the wise boast of their wisdom
or the strong boast of their strength
or the rich boast of their riches,
24 but let the one who boasts boast about this:
that they have the understanding to know me,
that I am the LORD, who exercises kindness,
justice and righteousness on earth,
for in these I delight,” declares the LORD.

By the world’s standards, success is usually measured by three criteria: wisdom, power, and wealth. The “successful” communicate insights that influence others (wisdom), gain strategic advantage over others (power), or accumulate and control resources (wealth). Yet God asserts here that these attainments hold no weight with Him and that true success is measured by our knowledge of Him (v. 24).

Both “understand” and “know” contain the idea of ascertaining something through the process of seeing (Job 42:5 See below). To know God is to encounter Him (2 Cor 3:16-18 See below); to receive “revelation” from Him as, through the Scriptures, He implants His thoughts into our minds (1 Cor 2:9-12 See below). Pursue this “knowing.” Cultivate in communion with him as His character engulfs us with the holy wonder of a God who passionately desires intimate friendship with those whom He has created.

Show me Your ways, O LORD;Teach me Your paths. Lead me in Your truth and teach me, For You are the God of my salvation; On You I wait all the day. Psalm 25:4-5

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Job 42:5 I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, But now my eye sees You

2 Cor 3:16-18 Nevertheless when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.

1 Corinthians 2:9-12 But as it is written: “ Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man, The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.