The language of success is like every other language. You have to learn and practice speaking it, before you can master it. Do you remember when you were a child learning your abc’s? I vaguely remember, but what I do know is that it must have felt like a daunting task, yet here I am writing!
Just like every other language, the success language has an alphabet. This alphabet is the Word of God, as revealed in Joshua 1:8 (NIV):
Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.
From the above mirror as well as from last week’s study, we see that success is as a result of what we think/meditate upon, what we speak as well as our actions. If we learn to align these 3 areas, we shall be successful in everything we do. But, all this starts from gaining an appreciation of the Word. We cannot experience the type and level of success we were each created to experience, outside of the Word of God. Make the Word your friend and soon you shall become proficient in the true language of success, as God created it.
The Art of Meditation
The first level of the language of success we are to master is meditation. Meditation, not as the world prescribes, but as the Word instructs!
Why is meditation/ conscious thinking so important? Because our thoughts are actually alive, as is seen in the below mirrors:
May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart
be pleasing in your sight,
Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.
Psalm 19:14 (NIV)
Then one of them said, “I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife will have a son.”Now Sarah was listening at the entrance to the tent, which was behind him…So Sarah laughed to herself as she thought, “After I am worn out and my lord is old, will I now have this pleasure?”Then the Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Will I really have a child, now that I am old?’
(Genesis 18:10, 12, 13 NIV)
Your thoughts can be seen and heard. Your thoughts speak, they have a voice! In her book Battlefield of the Mind , Joyce Meyer advices people to think about what they are thinking about! Now I understand why this is so important. Do not allow your thoughts to wander around for they will cause you to wander through life. Take control of your thoughts.
How do we do this?
- Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. (Romans 12:2 NIV)
- Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. (Philippians 4:8 NIV)
And on those instances when negative thoughts threaten to make a return, do not fret, do what 2 Corinthians 10:5 (NIV) tells us:
We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
As with every language, practice makes us fluent. Take time, even if it is just 5 minutes every day, and consciously meditate on that which is excellent or praiseworthy. As you do this, you will create the success you desire.
For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he… (Proverbs 23:7 KJV)
Happy meditating!