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Presented by Lauren Stibgen
What consumes our thoughts can often lead to a life that is truly out of balance. You know, too much of a good thing can stop becoming a good thing when it is causing you to feel like you don’t have balance.
“In the United States, achievement is life’s defining commandment: ‘Thou shalt make something of thyself.’ You are what you achieve.” This quote from Everything is Never Enough, by Bobby Jamison[1], sums up how our culture runs. What have you achieved? More importantly, how is this being measured?
Achievement can be about the accumulation of things that never fill. Achievement can also be about what you achieve at work in the form of a title, salary, or even about the freedom of being a founder of your own company. Again, promotions, raises, and even entrepreneurship are not inherently bad things! Perhaps this is even what God has planned for you. However, when running towards this achievement takes the place of God in your life this is when the trouble begins. Are you making something of yourself without giving glory to God?
Colossians 3:23-24 tells us: Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.
Are you working for the Lord when you are working towards achievement? Can God say, well done good and faithful servant, or is your striving more about the recognition you will receive from colleague or others in your sphere of influence?
What about patterns of self-indulgence? We can self-indulge in almost anything. From food to alcohol, to dining out when we don’t have enough money to overspending on any one item, we have the tendency to self-indulge. Sometimes we can focus so much on these things that we cause ourselves more stress in having to work harder to feed our needs for self-indulgence. If you think about any one thing more than you think about God, this has become an idol in your life.
God wants us to achieve everything he has in store for us, and he wants us to enjoy the good things he has created! But he wants us to enjoy him first!
Pray: God, help me to have the right attitude about achievement. Lead me in the paths you have for me. Help me, Lord, to enjoy what you have allowed and to give you glory in all things.
[1] Jamison, Bobby. Everything Is Never Enough: Ecclesiastes’ Surprising Path to Resilient Happiness (WaterBrook, 2025)
