Joshua 1:8
This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success.
Success is measured in this world by money, aspiration, training, and by accumulating material wealth (the nice, car, dream house, etc.). So often as Christians it becomes easy to look to these worldly standards to claim success. How does God measure success and should we not also attribute our success to the Lord who was successful in all things, even in conquering death. Joshua 1:8 says the road to prosperity and success is through God’s Word. Our first step to success is keeping God’s words, as he has written them upon our lips. We must aspire to be literal walking talking Bibles ready at any moment to speak His truth. By letting the Word of God depart from our mouth, we might open our mouths to speak sinful words of gossip and slander and filth ((Eph 4:29 ESV) Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.) The second step to success apart from this world is to meditate continually upon God’s Word. Meditation conveys deep thinking and impressing his words upon our hearts. Psa 19:14 Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing before You, O Jehovah, my Rock and my Redeemer. So then, when we read God’s Word we should read it in diligence so that when we are apart from the Book physically, we are still constantly thinking about its words of truth. Psa 119:43 And do not take the Word of Truth completely out of my mouth; for I have hoped in Your judgments. If the words of God are always on our minds, it would be easier to follow the will of God and harder to step to the right or the left of the path in disobedience. The word way in this passage is exemplary a course of life, a mode of action, a journey. When reading scriptures such as these, I can not help but believe that if we were to be successful in continually keeping God’s Words at our hearts, we will look back at the end of the journey of life and say, “I can die knowing I faithfully served my savior.” What a successful journey of joy that would be! Although our journey will surely meet sin along the way, the Word of God imbedded in our hearts will quickly bring us to repentance. O Lord, so often I get distracted by the world’s way of success. All of my life I have been told it has been successful to make money, and when I find myself lacking in material wealth, sometimes I ten to step off the path of trust to swim in a sea of doubt in Your Providence. I must not let I must not let our words of truth depart from my lips or my mind. I want to have a course of life that find success in being obedient to You. I will meditate upon Your Word of Truth so I may be careful to observe all You have commanded me to do.
