Can You Afford Success?

We all want to be successful. Nothing wrong with that. Nobody wants adversity. We all pray for blessing. But sometimes God answers “yes” by blessing us with adversity. He loves us too much to give us the success we crave the way we crave it.

Look at Asa, King of Judah, in 2 Chronicles 14-16. (At the time, Israel was split into two kingdoms, north and south. The northern kingdom had the name Israel, while the southern kingdom was called Judah with Jerusalem as its capital city.)

“Asa did what was good and right in the eyes of the Lord his God.” (14:2) He removed the foreign altars, smashed the sacred stones, cut down the Asherah poles—all objects of pagan idol worship. He was so zealous for the Lord he even deposed his own grandmother from her royal position as Queen Mother because she made an Asherah pole. Asa repaired the temple of the Lord and had the people rededicate themselves.

When the Cushites attacked with a vast army, Asa cried out to the Lord and won a great and improbable victory. He trusted God in his youth and experienced God’s deliverance first-hand.

But later in life, Asa faced the same situation. King Baasha of Israel and King Ben-Hadad of Aram attacked Judah. Two armies against one—Judah was in trouble. Rather than crying out to Lord like he did before and trusting God, Asa paid-off Ben-Hadad to break his treaty with Israel, with gold from the Lord’s temple. Baasha withdrew and Asa thought he was out of the woods.

But a prophet came to Asa and told him of his mistake. The Lord was planning to give Aram’s army into Asa’s hands. The impossible circumstance Asa faced was actually God’s plan to take down the wicked King of Aram, Ben-Hadad. But Asa short-circuited God’s plan by paying-off Ben-Hadad, with gold from the Lord’s temple no less! Doh!

Ok, we all screw up. So did Asa repent like King David when God exposed his mistake? Nope. Instead, Asa threw the prophet in prison and began to brutally oppress his own people (16:10).

The Lord tried again to woo Asa’s heart. God gave Asa a severe disease in his feet. But 16:12 says, “… even in his illness he did not seek help from the Lord, but only from physicians.” Asa’s success gave him another option.

King Asa was an amazingly faithful and good king, who experienced God’s miraculous deliverance first-hand, and then abandoned God in his later years. What happened?!?

I think Asa’s success was his downfall. Relax, I’m not saying success is bad. We should seek to successfully pursue the call of God on our lives, that thing that makes our heart leap. I write about that a lot on this blog. Success comes from the Lord, and so it’s a good thing. God only gives good gifts.

It wasn’t the success, in and of itself, that was the problem. It was what came with it. Success brings a choice we didn’t have before.

In his youth, the impending doom facing King Asa was well beyond his ability and resources to conquer. He had no choice but to cry out to the Lord. If God didn’t come through, Judah was toast. Seriously. The nation would’ve been wiped off the map.

But when King Asa was older, richer, more successful and established, he had a choice he didn’t have before.

“Money won’t make you happy… but everybody wants to find out for themselves.” — Zig Ziglar

It’s easy to trust the Lord when there’s no other choice. But what if we have another choice? What if our own strength might actually work? Will we still trust God when we don’t have to?

When I was in college as a math major at UCLA, I was taking some pretty challenging courses. I cancelled my social life, studied really hard, and got “A”s in pretty much everything. I would go through these cycles of feeling really good about myself. Too good, as if I’d done it all myself. I honestly remember thinking more than once, “I’m doing really well, aren’t I?”

Invariably, I’d bomb the next test. As I’d be doing the post-mortem analysis trying to figure out what went wrong, the Holy Spirit would be right there with his gentle whisper, “You thought you were doing this all by yourself.” No condemnation in his voice, just the simple truth.

“Oh, right,” I’d remember. “Success comes from God.” I’d repent and approach the next test differently—with an attitude of humility. I’d still study just as hard, but I’d go into it asking God for help instead of trusting in my own efforts. And I’d get my “A” back. Every. Time.

I remember thinking during those college days, “God, how long can you afford to let me be successful before I get cocky? Do I need constant trials and obstacles in my life to keep me dependent on you?”

God doesn’t bring misfortune to punish us per se. It’s not because he’s mad or mean. It’s to show us our own heart, to give us a choice to respond properly, so he can bless us more.

There are two situations where God brings adversity:

1) When we’ve done wrong. Often, it’s the logical consequences of our own actions—he just pulls back his hand of protection and lets us have our way. But the adversity is to turn us back to him when we may not even have realized we turned away.

I never “turned away” from God in college. I still worshipped him, prayed, went to church, tithed, and did all the things you’re supposed to. But when my heart got proud, he wouldn’t have it. Thank God.

2) When we’ve done right. See the whole book of Job. He’s giving us an opportunity to choose him when we have the resources not to. It thrills his heart when we don’t have to choose him but do, and he blesses us more out of that place. A right response to adversity we didn’t bring on ourselves shows us trustworthy for more.

It’s a strange cycle. We trust the Lord, which brings success. That success brings resources so we no longer have to trust the Lord. God uses this to show us our own heart.

So as you succeed, remember these three things:

1) Remain teachable.

2) Remain grateful.

3) Remain humble.

May my success never rise to the point where I forget my Lover-King Jesus. May yours never either. May we be ever faithful to him through all adversity, and even through all success.

Please share if this would please others, and tell us your story in the comments. We’d love to hear from you.