Our success is no proof that God is pleased with us. 

We assume that if someone is successful, God has blessed him/her. For example, whenever a Christian athlete wins an important game, he will say something like, “I’d like to first of all to thank my Savior and Lord Jesus for giving me the victory!” But I’ve never heard a Christian athlete say after a defeat, “I’d like to thank my Savior and Lord Jesus for giving me the opportunity to lose!”

And that view of God largely represents most American Christians – If God is pleased with us, then He will give us success. Therefore, our success is a sign that God is pleased with us. But this doesn’t hold up in the Bible.

During the time of the Prophet Jeremiah, God gave tremendous success to an empire called Babylon. Babylon swallowed up all the nations around it including the nation Israel. God, through the prophet, told the Israelites to submit to the Babylonians and not resist. However, there were false prophets who told the Israelites to resist the Babylonians because God will deliver them from their hands. Those people died. Only those who submitted to the conquering nation survived and thrived.

Now, you and I would assume that somehow Babylon has earned the favor of God to be so successful. Perhaps they were secretly worshiping God when Israel wasn’t? No. Not so. Babylon was as pagan as it could be. But for that time, God would use a wicked nation (Babylon) to punish and discipline His people (Israel) who were behaving badly.

Islam is on the rise. They are expanding. But their success is no proof that God is pleased with them. But God might be using them to punish and discipline Christians who are behaving badly.

There are many individuals who live prosperous and successful lives. But that is no proof that God is pleased with them. Their destruction is coming, if not in this life, then in the next.

The opposite is also true: Our hardship is no proof that God is displeased with us. As a matter of fact, if God favors us, then hardships will follow. (God disciplines those whom He loves. Hebrews 12:6)

Do not give too much weight to whether you are successful or not. It is no proof either way of your relationship with God. But focus on pleasing God whether you are successful or not. Worship Him in much as well as in little. He favors those who will be consistent in worshiping Him even though their circumstances change.

PH