(4.1 min read – 665 words)

Solomon – Israel’s famous “renaissance man”- recorded three simple yet powerful principles for achieving success in every area of life. What are they?

Let us first define “success”. What does it really mean? Unlike what the current culture would have us believe, success is not limited to wealth. That is a very shallow view.

Success is simply the accomplishment of an aim or purpose.

Aims are goals – big or small. For example, if you aim to cook Italian one night for dinner and you do – you have succeeded. If you aim to attend a child’s baseball game and you do – you have succeeded.

Some aims are big. You aim to launch a business. You aim to launch a ministry. You aim to run a marathon. You aim for a graduate degree. You aim for another child. Some days, we may just aim to survive!

Whatever aims/goals you may have, God’s wisdom through Solomon reveals how to succeed in them:

Share your plans with the Lord, and you will succeed. – Proverbs 16:3 (CEV)

That is simple, yet powerful, wisdom. Here are three keys of truth we can derive from this proverb and start applying today:

1. Plan – First, we must create plans. We cannot share with God what we do not have. A plan can be a goal or intention. Think big and plan big because God is big. He can far exceed whatever you could think of or imagine (Ephesians 3:20). Have you created plans that will glorify God and help you and others? Have you written them down?

2. Pray – Prayer is simply sharing with God – you with Him and Him with you. Prayer is giving God your plans and allowing Him to change them for the better as He wants. Prayer builds trust and transfers the burden of responsibility onto His shoulders (Philippians 4:6-7). Prayer is also how we receive resources from God. When we pray, we receive the grace, in all its various forms, to succeed. Have you shared your plans with the Lord? Has He shared His grace with you?

3. Act – After prayer, we must act. This takes faith. God does not direct parked vehicles. He only orders our steps when we start moving. Goals and aims are not carried out sitting in a chair in a perpetual state of planning, praying, and dreaming. We must start putting one foot in front of the other – making those calls, developing those relationships, going for those runs, writing that content, building that thing, serving those people, etc. for God to work in and through us. Miracles happen as we move. We receive grace not by works but for work. Like Paul wrote, but because God was so gracious, so very generous, here I am. And I am not about to let his grace go to waste. Haven’t I worked hard trying to do more than any of the others? Even then, my work did not amount to all that much. It was God giving me the work to do, God giving me (the grace) and energy to do it. – 1 Corinthians 15:10.

Do not let God’s grace within you go to waste. Start moving.

While your aims may remain fixed, the strategies for how you get there may not. Forgot the one-year strategy sessions. To succeed, we must constantly be adapting, evaluating, and changing while keeping the end goal in mind. God is in the business of winding our paths for us to develop flexibility, resiliency, and character. This was His ways with the Israelites and the promised land. He is the same then as He is today.

So, how do you succeed in any life area? It is simple: plan, pray, then act. In that order – every time with every aim.

God will direct your steps and move mightily on your behalf and for His Kingdom’s sake.

Write in and let me know what happens.

God speed and God bless!