By reviewing the six insights we have learned so far we will plainly see this next insight.
God is the Faithful Designer
God is the Trustworthy Sovereign
God is the Consistent Accountant
God is the Trusting Owner
God is the Wise Disciplinarian
God is Love
Do you see the pattern? Life is all about God. He is the Joyous Prize!
God is the Joyous Prize
Jesus said, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come
to abolish them but to fulfill them. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the
smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen; will by any means disappear from the Law until
everything is accomplished.” (Matthew 5:17-18)
Just what is the gist of the Law that Jesus is talking about? If we look at those first five books
of the Bible with an eye for the underlying theme, we will quickly notice the foundation begins in
Genesis 1:1 and culminates in the mountain top of the Shema in Deuteronomy 6:4-5. This
foundational law or precept is simply that life is all about God.
Genesis 1:1 “In the beginning, God…” There was no one else around. He had no peers to
console or to rival Him. When Job complained about what had befallen him, God asked Job if he
was around when He formed the stars and the earth. It is this great concept of a transcendent God
that makes the Bible unique.
Where did that idea of a transcendent God come from? There are only two options. The first is
that there was a human writer who was transcendent himself and therefore an eyewitness to all that
is presented about this God. The second option is that the Bible itself is proof that this transcendent
God has broken through the veil of human immanent mortality and revealed Himself to us. Since
no human can be transcendent and dwell independently from creation, God had to give us the Bible
through human instruments to show us who He is and what He is like and what He is about.
Therefore, this simple declaration in Genesis 1:1 opens our eyes to this great precept that life is all
about God.
After the Bible shows that God is the creating source for all things and creatures, He builds
upon the first precept by showing us what He is all about. The second precept as revealed in
Genesis 1:26-27 tells us that God is all about relationships.
“Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the
sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that
move along the ground.”
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and
female he created them.
The “Let us make…” is more than a majestic ‘we’. With the benefit of the New Testament, we
can clearly understand that this transcendent God is a trinity of persons in one being. This is further
proven when He makes mankind in His image. He makes the human race male and female. Now,
as disclosed in Genesis 2:24-25 “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be
united to his wife, and they will become one flesh. The man and his wife were both naked, and they
felt no shame.” The male and female persons are formed into one being. There is complete
transparency in communication, trust, and love. Marriage is the living example of the Triune God.
Since God is infinite and immense, the love and relationship among the three Persons is infinitely
grander than anything found in human marriage. However, marriage is the image of multiple
persons in one being. The very essence of God is that He is relational not just functional.
That is why He walked with Adam and Eve in the cool of the day. That is why He called out
Noah from a flood of evil through the flood of waters. That is why He called out Abraham, Isaac,
Jacob, and Moses. That is why David prayed, “And who is like your people Israel—the one nation
on earth that God went out to redeem as a people for Himself, and to make a name for himself…”
(2 Samuel 7:23) God is forming a people for His own pleasure for all eternity, because God is all
about relationships. All those relationships hinge upon Him because life is all about Him.
Thus His law is culminates into the Shema of Deuteronomy 6:4-5. “Hear, O Israel: The LORD
our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul
and with all your strength.” Jesus affirms that this is the greatest commandment ever given by God.
He then ties the second commandment right into it. “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” We
are to develop our horizontal relationships with those around us. However, those will be all
directed toward our relationship with God, because life is all about Him.
The key then to enabling your children to be successful is to point them to the right prize. Life
is not about sports, careers, hobbies, or wealth. It is about God and He is about relationships. But
the third precept of the Bible is that we are not able to maintain let alone develop our
relationship with God and others as we ought to. Look what happens relatively quickly after
Adam & Eve’s first days. The next chapter in Genesis after their blessed union as one flesh gives
us the account of their disobedience. Their disobedience causes God to look for them. When asked
about their absence, Adam widens the gap by blaming Eve. Eve tries to pass the guilt on to the
serpent. There is a huge rift in their relationship with each other and with God. Not long after that,
their firstborn, Cain, kills their second son, Abel. And on and on goes the story of mankind as
revealed in the Bible. We are not capable of maintaining our relationships to the standard God
requires.
But God does not leave us alone to destroy each other. This is the fourth precept: God
intervenes to restore our relationships to His pleasure. Immediately after Adam & Eve sinned
in Genesis 3, God confronts them and offers both a promise and a sacrifice to restore His
relationship with them. God promises that the seed of woman would crush the head of the serpent.
He then sacrifices an animal that may properly clothe Adam & Eve. That and many Old Testament
passages foretell of God’s own Son who would die to pay for our sins. Then we all become “sons
of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed
yourselves with Christ.” (Galatians 3:26-27).
In the same book that proclaims the Shema, Deuteronomy 30:6 tells us that God will have to
circumcise our hearts in order for us to love Him rightly. So how will our hearts be circumcised?
Romans 2:29 says, “No, a man is a Jew if he is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of
the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code.” Wow! From the beginning God knew that life is
all about Him and that He is all about relationships. All relationships should be about Him.
Husband and wife, parent and children, neighbors and strangers are all built with an inner compass
toward God. If He is the center and purpose for those relationships they will be rightly done in
healthy ways.
God is truly the joyous prize!
Does God want you to be successful in pursuing Him?
First, let us affirm that God does want you to succeed in your pursuit of Him. As Paul says in
Philippians 3:14, “I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me
heavenward in Christ Jesus.” God has the fullest intention and plan to have His children succeed.
It is no small secret that the one who defines his target can often hit it. God has defined success,
and He is ready to apply all His divine power into the enterprise of assuring the success of His
people. If life is all about God and He is all about relationships then success would be defined by
simply relating to God in a way that pleases Him since He is their joyous prize.
What has God provided us to be successful?
God does not expect us to become successful in our
pursuit of Him as our joyous prize in our own effort. He
knows we cannot lovingly serve, as He wants us to based
upon our own devices and ideas. Look at these seven
Scriptures. What is the common denominator in these
promises that revolve around Christian success?
1. You will have good success Joshua 1:8
2. Whatever you do will prosper Psalm 1:2,3
3. You will excel in wisdom and understanding
Psalm 119:97-100
4. You will have new power over sin Psalm 119:9,11
5. You will discover how to live Proverbs 4:4
6. Your success will be obvious to all 1 Timothy 4:15
7. You will glorify the Father with your fruit John
15:7-8
The common factor in all of these promises is our
dependence, study, and meditation upon the Word of God.
As Jesus simply says, “If you remain in me and my words
remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given
you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit,
showing yourselves to be my disciples.”
Now take note that you have some responsibility in
this effort to be successful. God wants you to succeed by
bearing good fruit. He will keep His promises. However,
we have something to do that is within human power and
capabilities.
The Fountain of true success is the Word of God. Like
an artesian well that is ready to gush out water when
tapped, the Word will pour out living water into our souls
if we take the effort and work to study it and meditate
upon it. Meditation on the Word of God demands daily
discipline. Seriously read and think through what these
Scriptures say about our responsibility to the Word.
1. Deuteronomy 8:3
2. Proverbs 8:34
3. Isaiah 50:4-5
4. Psalm 5:3
5. 1 Corinthians 9:24-27
Since this is so significant you may want to consider making a vow to abide in God’s Word
daily. Vows are very important because they cause us to keep to what we say or we will suffer for
it. Consider what Ecclesiastes 5:1-7 says about the serious nature of a vow. Yet, the commands to
order your day around the Word of God are equally serious. We want to be successful for the
Lord. The price to do so, is the daily routine study and meditation upon His Word so we may be
careful to obey all that is in it. If we do so, we will have success.
Learning the Word can be fun. There are several sources, like Focus on the Family, who can
give you good ideas on how to make Bible study and memorization enjoyable. Make the effort to
think through how to help your children to desire and look forward to times together in the Word.
God wants us to be thoroughly successful.
The training of children is not child’s play. Yet, we parents approach this great task with some
simplistic priorities and attitudes. Then we wonder what went wrong years later. The majority of
parents in our country have good intentions. They will even apply some of these insights and some
Scriptural food into the lives of their children at some point. However, most of these parents will
focus on just one or two of the components of their child. The Bible clearly says that the effort to
bear lasting fruit demands involvement of the whole person. Deuteronomy 6:4, Romans 12:1-21,
Thessalonians 5:23-24. Your attempt to make your children successful will be in proportion to
the application of God’s Word to their spirit, mind, and body as well as your own.
Two main problems will develop if we neglect the exercise of our soul. The first problem is
that we will sense an underlying boredom. Everything we pursue will appear to be meaningless and
uninteresting. Although we are essentially composed of these three areas, they are so interrelated
that they easily affect each other. If our spirit is under-exercised, then our soul will lose its drive,
our body will fall to poor care.
The second result of neglecting our soul will
be intense inner conflict and defeat. If we try to
use human resources to fulfill the demands of
God’s Law on our abilities without God’s Spirit
we are doomed to failure. See Romans 7:21-24
We may think that we will be forever stuck in
this rut as long as we live. However, the Bible tells
us very plainly that anyone can meet God’s
requirements for success. The answer is revealed
throughout the Word. Romans 7:25-8:1 states it
very plainly. “Thanks be to God through Jesus
Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself
with my mind am serving the law of God, but on
the other, with my flesh the law of sin. There is
therefore now no condemnation for those who are
in Christ Jesus.”
We can keep our life in proper focus when we
allow Christ to fill us with Himself. He is the Living Word of God. As He fills our life with His
person we must “digest” His written Word so we can understand what He wants to do through us.
We need to comprehend how He wants to enable us to obey Him. The study and application of the
Word of God is mandatory to our success. Yet, the pursuit of our heart is God Himself. He is
our joyous prize!
How can we help our children to be successful?
If success were simply dependent upon reading the Bible, taking a class or two, and passing
some kind of license test, we all would be fairly successful, in some ways. Yet, the Bible’s concept
of success is related to heartfelt, life changing, love empowered growth of each person. That
empowered love is what compels the successful Christian to reach others and make them disciples.
This is what extends Christian success beyond the definitions offered by the world. After
implementing the first six insights, there is a simple, yet, challenging series of steps to help your
children to be successful. God wants your whole being to be sanctified entirely by Him See 1
Thessalonians 5:23. These three steps revolve around those three components of our lives we have
already discussed. Pursue these only to be filled with Jesus Christ and know Him intimately. Then
you will find fulfillment of your whole person.
1.Your spirit must be born of God to have Christ’s Spirit. Christ’s Spirit enters our lives & writes
His Word on our hearts. Jeremiah 31:33-34; 2 Co 3:3. Jesus gives us the ‘formula’ for our
hearts to be circumcised so we can love God as we ought to. In Luke 9:23 Jesus says, “If
anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me.”
A. Deny yourself. Understand that your way has been a rebellious way. It has not been
about God. If He is not Lord of all your heart and mind and body, then He is not Lord at
all. Romans 3:23 Therefore the result of that is death, eternal separation from Him.
Romans 6:23
B. Take up your cross daily. Paul says it so well in Galatians 2:20. “I have been crucified
with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live
by faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Daily we need to
stay on that cross with Jesus so He may live His life through us.
C. Follow Me. Jesus is not dead. He is not off on some other planet. If you deny yourself
and accept His death for the payment of your sins, then He has circumcised your heart so
He may live in you. He is alive! His life is all about God. He is all about relationships
and will produce the right fruit in your relationships that will glorify God. So follow
what His Spirit wants to do in you that is ‘God-ward’ not self-ward.
2.Retool your soul - Psalm 103:1. Our soul must be instructed in what is right and wrong.
A. Rebuild your thought life to become Christ’s thoughts. (Mind) It is the Spirit of God who
will accomplish this through the Word. John 16:13. Since Jesus lives in you through His
Spirit, you now have the mind of Christ, 1 Corinthians 2:16.
1) Study Scripture to understand God’s thoughts. Isaiah 55:8,9
2) Use the New Testament to shed light on the Old Testament but always keep passages in
context 1 Corinthians 2:7-10
3) Begin a lifelong notebook to collect themes, principles, concepts about God’s thoughts
and will for your life. 2 Timothy 3:14-17
4) Let Christ’s Word sanctify your life and saturate your mind. John 15:3;17:17
B. Refocus your emotions so they become Christ’s. (Heart)
1) Personalize different passages by changing pronouns, replacing characters with yourself,
use portions of Scripture for your prayers.
2) Log a journal of your daily life and reflect on the emotions expressed in the Psalm for
that day. When have you felt like the Psalmist?
3) Make a record of the concepts you discover in Proverbs and how they benefited your
life.
4) Understand what God has done in your life through your greatest weaknesses that
Christ’s power may be made visible. 2 Corinthians 12:7-10
5) Thank God for every trial, disappointment, and irritation you have experienced and will
experience. Do so as often as necessary.
C. Redirect your goals so they are Christ’s goals. (Will)
1) As you study the Word look for what action God wants you to take.
2) Take responsibility to meet needs in the Body of Christ that God shows you through the
Word.
3) God will give you opportunities to “write” your life message and daily lessons on the
hearts of other people. 2 Corinthians 3:2-3
4) This is how you make disciples for Jesus Christ and bear fruit for Him that will remain.
3. Rededicate your body to be Christ’s body.
A. Accept God’s ownership of your body. 1 Corinthians 6:19
B. Romans 12:1-2 Offer your body as a living sacrifice to God. Understand that beyond your
control, God is in control.
C. Take appropriate care of your body but do not fear what man can do to it. Trust God the
Father. Luke 12:4-7; Philippians 1:6
As you implement these steps for yourself, you will need to share what you are learning with
your family. Be an open book for your children. Solomon did this and encouraged his son to learn
from his mistakes and victories. Then guide your children in following these steps.
God wants you to be successful. He designed you to be successful. He has the authority to
make you successful. He wants you to take the responsibility for your failures and success. He
wants to take full ownership of your full life so He can work in and through you. He will use the
suffering (situations, people, and events) of this life to develop your character and life message. He
has set you free to pursue a successful life.
As much as God wants you to be successful, He also, wants your children to be successful.
What more can God do? The rest is up to you. Will your life now be about Him and the
relationships He has for you?
Wrap up
So, you have studied these insights because you wanted to make your children successful. As I
stated at the beginning, “Children are a gift from God. We need to trust Him for their life, progress,
and success. There are no magic formulas to guarantee the end results.” However, if God is your
joyous prize, His Spirit will implement these insights into your life as you faithfully do your part.
Some of it is a change of the will. Some requires a cleansing of attitudes and mind. Some of it is
gut level discipline to take the Bible every day, open it, and honestly dig into it for the truth you
need at that moment for that day.
I will be pleased to pray for you as you enter this journey. Please send me an email and let me
know your questions and requests as well as your suggestions.
You will be glad you have made God your joyous prize!
Tim Carpenter
©2009