The Bible — Success Literature for Christians
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“Success literature” refers to how-to-be-successful books and articles. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Think and Grow Rich! How to Win Friends and Influence People. Who Moved My Cheese? It’s a popular topic! Do a search on Amazon for books with the keyword “success” and you’ll have to plow through a list of 384,515. Yes, that’s right – six figures, and that number is going up by the day.
Some success literature is based on good psychological principles and can be helpful, so I’m not knocking the entire genre. But success literature cannot be a primary tool of transformation for the Christian. Why? Because classic success literature starts in the middle with the wrong theme.
Their primary theme is: “What you do.” What you do to make money… to be healthy… to be loved… to be respected… to be promoted… to matter.
Some character-driven success literature has a better start by beginning with character, the “Who you are” question. Steven Covey’s classic “7 Habits” material falls into this category. This literature starts with “Who you are,” positing that character informs and develops “What you do.” They’re right as far as it goes.
But for Christians, our “success literature” always start with the Bible and its central them: “Who God is.” When we know God – when we love Christ and accept Him as our savior – then we know “Who we are” and then “What we do.”
Everything good and healthy springs from our relationship to God.
“Seek first the kingdom of God, and then all of these things will be added until you.” (Mt. 6:33)
When we know Him we will grow in Him and develop His characteristics, such as faith, hope and love and the fruits of the Spirit.
“And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” (1 Cor 13:13)
And when we love and serve God, and our character is changing to reflect His, that is when we can hear and do His will. We will know His purpose for our lives.
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” (Jer. 29:11).
