Deuteronomy 11:22

“For if you carefully keep all these commandments which I command you to do—to love the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways, and to hold fast to Him— “

When a person becomes a Christian they face challenges that they never had to deal with before.  They enter into the realm of Spiritual Warfare, as the enemy of our soul is not happy with losing his people.  The best Satan can do is to render the Christian ineffective and rob them of enjoying all God has for them.  God knows this and equips the Christian with spiritual weapons to conquer the attacks of the enemy.  Using these weapons will ensure a successful Christian life.

In this text we have three simple instructions for a successful Christian life.  The first is to love the Lord.  Christianity is built on a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.  That relationship is built on love.  It’s love that drives the Christian.  It’s love that restrains them.  It’s love that motivates them.  Be careful not to leave your first love.  Love is at the heart of everything a Christian does.  Love never fails.

Secondly, a successful Christian will walk in God’s ways.  This means that God has a way to live and we are to order our lives in accordance to what God wants to do.  The Bible says that, “There is a way that seems right to man but the end of that way is destruction.”  It also says, “God’s ways are not our ways and our ways are not His ways.”  So, to walk in God’s ways is to live by faith and not by sight.  We do this by getting into the Word and by following the Holy Spirit inside us.  The Bible says to, “Not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of our minds.”  Satan wants us to walk in his ways but Jesus has set us free to walk in light rather than darkness.  As we do, we will be walking in God’s love.

The last point here is to hold fast to Him.  This means that there will be pressure to walk away from God, to walk in the old ways we used to and to do our own thing.  Here we see that we are to simply not loosen our grip on God and the relationship with Him.  It’s really just keeping God as our center.  When He is first in our lives, successful Christian living will come.  There are many things to distract us from the Lord and make us loosen our grip, so beware.  Many are very subtle, but anything that interferes with our relationship with God will loosen our grip.  Be aware of your life and pay attention to compromise and neglect.

In the end, you are already a success in Christ.  Live out that success by loving God, living for God and holding onto Him.  Success will be a life well lived, a life after God’s own heart and a life that ends with God saying,”Well done my good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of the Lord.”  That is what success is.