Insight for Today

Read 1 Peter 5:1, 5

Ours is fast becoming a success-saturated society. The telltale signs are everywhere. Check the magazine racks at airports, hotels, and drugstores. Click on the webinars and podcasts. Seminars by the hundreds are held every year, offering ideas, motivation, techniques, and mainly promises of prosperity. Books by the dozens and scores of audio and videotapes promoting the dream are published on an annual basis.

Read Proverbs 15:32–33

In a world where everyone is out to serve self, it’s refreshing to read these ancient words from the pen of one of the most powerful men who ever lived: Solomon.

If you reject discipline, you only harm yourself; but if you listen to correction, you grow in understanding. Fear of the LORD teaches wisdom; humility precedes honor. (Proverbs 15:32-33)

In different words, Jesus says virtually the same thing:

Read Philippians 1:6

Persistence is a costly investment, no question about it. But the dividends are so much greater than the original outlay that you’ll almost forget the price. And if the final benefits are significant, you’ll wonder why you ever hesitated to begin with.

Read 1 Peter 5:5–8

Ours is a day of superficiality. If you can fake it, you’re often admired as being clever, not criticized for being phony. Mediocrity can mark the ministry just as overtly as it marks many of those who work for the government and are employed in industry. I’ve also noticed that staying longer in the same place can only perpetuate the problem. People tend to let seniority excuse the erosion of excellence.