Day 2: The Key to Guaranteed Success in Life

Nobody really wants to fail. This is one of the things I have discovered over many years in dealing with people. Born in every human being, there is a deep desire and longing to succeed. The people who fail don't fail because they want to, but because they don't know how to succeed. However, Joshua 1:8 tells us how to succeed. It's God's guaranteed pathway to success. This is God’s promise:

“This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on 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.” (NASB)

However great, be mindful that there are conditions connected to this promise, which can be found in certain key phrases:

• "This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth." Notice the word "mouth".
• "You shall meditate on it day and night." "Meditate" refers to the heart and to the mind, to the inner being.
• "So that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it."

The keywords from the conditions to this promise are mouth, meditate and do. So, what do you have to do if you want to be successful? You have to think God's Word, speak God's Word and act God's Word. In other words, right meditation, right speaking and right action. The rightness is determined by their being in accordance with God's law.

Now Joshua only had the first five books of the Bible, the Pentateuch, the books of Moses; but we have a much more complete revelation of God, the total Bible, containing 66 books. If the five books of Moses would do that much for Joshua, how much should we anticipate from the total revelation of the Bible, all 66 books? Our revelation is greater, but the principles that we must act on are just the same. We have to think God's Word, speak God's Word and act God's Word.

This connection between our heart, words and actions can also be found in the New Testament. Let us look at Romans 10:8-10 which states the requirements for salvation according to the New Testament. Paul is speaking about the Word of God, and he says:

“But what does it say? "The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart" – that is, the word of faith which we are preaching, that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved; for with the heart man believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.” (NASB)

A more literal translation would be "with the heart man believes to righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses to salvation." Notice that all through is the joining together of the heart and the mouth. Do you see how they are related?