From “Growing in the character of a disciple”: Chapter 10 – How we can develop ‘the love of the truth’ and the character quality , and habit, of truthfulness?
God wants us to be overcomers. He wants us to succeed in life, to win our battles, and to overcome the problems that we come up against. So it’s true that God wants His people to be winners. However, for success to be real it has to be achieved without resorting to deception, deviousness or manipulation, and without using other people.
In other words, for a Christian, success is only real if we achieve it in a righteous manner, by operating in line with God’s standards and principles. If we don’t, then any supposed ‘success’ that we might achieve would count for nothing. God would not view it as success, but as failure. It would therefore be ‘burned up’ and counted as ‘dross’ at the Judgment Seat of Christ. No reward would be given to us for it. On the contrary, we would be rebuked, at the very least, and probably punished as well. (See Book Four)
In other words, your achievements would only be viewed as a success in your own eyes, and possibly in the eyes of the people around you, but not to God. However, succeeding in God’s eyes, and by His criteria, is the only form of success worth having, and the only type that will last. The things we achieve for God, in accordance with His principles, and in response to His promptings, will last forever.
We will be rewarded for them and those rewards, whatever form they take, will last for eternity. We will be allowed to keep them. However, anything achieved by deception, or by cheating, will not last. They will probably disappear or be taken from us, even in this life, but even more so in eternity:
Bread obtained by falsehood is sweet to a man,
Proverbs 20:17 (NASB)
but afterward his mouth will be filled with gravel.
