Everyone has their own definition of success. Most people think of money, influence, power, fame. Certainly all these things can be described as a kind of success. But is that success in life in the deeper sense?

In 1923 there was a special meeting in a posh hotel in Chicago. It was a meeting of the nine richest men in the world to a secret conference. How did they fare 25 years later?

• Charles Schwab, owner of the largest steel company, had gone bankrupt and lived his last five years on borrowed money.
• Samuel Insull, owner of electricity companies, was on the run from justice abroad without a penny of money.
• Howard Hopson,owner of the largest gas company, died mentally deranged.
• Arthur Cotton, the largest wheat speculator, died bankrupt abroad.
• Richard Whitney,the president of the New York Stock Exchange, was imprisoned.
• Albert Fall, a member of the US government, had been pardoned and died at home.
• Jesse Livermoor,called the bear of Wall Street.
• Ivar Krüger,the owner of the match monopoly.
• Leon Fraser,President of an international bank.

These last three ended in suicide.

Were these men successful? They had plenty of money, great influence and power. But they were not successful in life. They didn't even have lasting economic success. They had overlooked something crucial: JESUS

May I put it this way: they had failed to enter into a personal relationship with God. God's word says:

„He who has the Son has life. He who does not have the Son of God does not have life.“ (1 John 5:12)

Jesus himself says why he has come:

„I have come so that they may have life and have it in abundance.“ (John 10:10)

I am pleased that more and more parishes are organising Bible study groups on the general topic of Personal relationship with God and study it in detail over a few weeks. You use the paperback „Steps to personal awakening“. 

God promises us success success in life. He accompanies us on our journey through life. He takes responsibility when we are fully united with him. He also gives us his wonderful spiritual blessings and eternal life.

We have a wonderful and ingenious God. I repeat: Jesus tells us that he has come to give us life in abundance (John 10:10).

Do you know the Bible texts in which our wonderful God promises us a successful life?

When God spoke the following word to Joshua, he was faced with the great task of conquering the land of Canaan. God gave him a great promise. And do you know what is so marvellous about these promises from God?

It also applies to us. The same consequences occur in our lives if we act accordingly.

Joshua 1, verse 8:

„And let not the book of this law - let not the word of God - depart from your mouth, but meditate on it day and night, that you may and do in all things according to what is written in it. Then you will succeed in your ways, and you will do right.“

2 Chronicles 20:20b: „Believe in the Lord your God and you will be safe, and believe his prophets, so you will succeed.“

Psalm 1:1-3: „Blessed is he who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor tread in the way of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers, but delights in the law of the Lord - for us this means delighting in the word of God - and meditates on his law day and night! He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. And what he does is probably right.”

Proverbs 3:5,6: „Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not rely on your own understanding, but remember him in all your ways, then he will lead you right.“

Finally, a word from Jesus on success in John 15:5:

„I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, bears much fruit, for without me you can do nothing.“

Everything is contained in this word of Jesus. Success in life is the result of divine-human cooperation. Jesus calls success fruit. Fruit is produced through the joint endeavours of man and God. Man tills the field. God gives seed and prosperity. And he clearly states this: Without co-operation with him, success is a purely human affair. It is therefore subject to all human limitations and mistakes.

You can have an omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent guide. And above all: He loves you.

Let's now look at a practical example that made a big impression on me as a nineteen-year-old. It's about Daniel. Daniel chapter 1 played a major role in my life. As a prisoner, Daniel became a great statesman in two world empires and a prophet of God. He is still highly honoured today by Christians, Muslims and Jews.

I would then like to share my experiences from my professional life. I spent the first 22 years in the business world, working in international haulage. Then 16 years as a preacher, and after that I worked in business for another 10 years and managed our old people's centre in Bad Aibling with 80 employees. So I worked as a businessman for 32 years and, after active retirement, as a pastor in the spiritual and missionary field for 44 years.

Let's turn to Daniel chapter 1: What kind of young people were Daniel and his fellow prisoners?

Verse 4: They were young, healthy, good-looking, clever and intelligent and came from faithful homes. They came from Judea. They were prisoners.

Verse 5: The Great King Nebuchadnezzar wanted to win these young people over. He wanted to give them special support. He ordered that they be provided with his food and wine.

This suddenly caused a small problem. The delicious food on offer either didn't correspond at all or didn't correspond in part to the orders of the Bible. What were Daniel and his friends to do? After all, they were totally dependent on the king's benevolence. They were prisoners. They must have thought and prayed about what they should do. They had to make a decision: Either they had to silently eat this food against their conscience or they had to do something. 

Verse 8a: „But Daniel resolved in his heart that he would not defile himself with the king's food and wine.“

Daniel made a decision. He decided to be faithful to God and not to eat unclean food. In other words: Daniel decided not to take up this offer, but to act according to the biblical order.

We can already see here that Daniel lived in full devotion to God. We are already at the core of success in life. It is about always making decisions according to the will of God and not according to the will of any other authority, regardless of the consequences. (See the lions' den - God was with him.)

What significance do decisions have in our lives? The ability to make decisions is the steering wheel of our lives. There was a luxury passenger ship called the Queen Elisabeth. The hull of this giant ship was 1,300 times heavier than the rudder that steered it.

The rudder in our lives corresponds to the ability to make decisions. If we decide in favour of God's will and take the steps that are possible for us, then God will provide us with the necessary help. Then he accompanies us. It is about divine-human cooperation in our lives. Whereby God takes responsibility. God gives us strength and joy for this journey. (More details in the pocket book „Remain in Jesus“, chapter „Obedience through Jesus“)

Daniel and his friends had now made a decision. How did they proceed? They took the steps available to them and God provided the solution.

What is the best way to implement difficult decisions?

Verse 8b: „Daniel bat the chief chamberlain, that he should not defile himself.“

How did you proceed? You have taken the path of request. There is a big difference between making a request and saying: ‚I won't do that‘ or ‚I don't want that‘ or ‚That's out of the question for me‘.

A request expresses trust in a person. When we make a request, it is normal for the person to try to help us. If we do otherwise, for example by saying that it is out of the question for me, then the person concerned will be against us and show us who is in charge.

I heard this important point of view as a 19-year-old during a devotional at a leisure programme. I have never forgotten it. I have acted accordingly all my life. I can only say: this is the good and right way.

Daniel has done something else. At the same time, he has shown that this is a matter of conscience for him. If this is the case and we express this, it may be that this deepens the understanding of our request. 

Verse 9: „And God gave it Daniel, that the chief chamberlain was favourably and graciously disposed towards him.“

What do we see here? Because Daniel chose to do the will of God, and did what he could with wisdom and courtesy, God intervened. God moved the heart of this superior. God gave it.

Verse 10 shows us that this superior had reservations, however, because by authorising this request he himself would be acting against the will of the king.

Verse 12 shows us Daniel's next step:

He asks the overseer who was directly above them. „Why don't you try it with your servants for ten days and let us have seed food^[1] give them food to eat and water to drink.“

How does Daniel come to ask for „seed food“? Where did he get this term from? Genesis 1:29 says: „And God said, "Behold, I have given you every plant that yields seed and every tree with fruit that yields seed for your food.“ We see again that Daniel was familiar with the Word of God. Daniel asked for the best kind of food there is. 

So Daniel continues on the path of request and proposes a solution. He has had the opportunity to think about it. The superior has not yet had the opportunity to look for a solution to the problem. Daniel is again very polite with his proposed solution.

He says to this superior: please try this with us for ten days. So once again he makes a request that expresses trust in this superior. - It is clear that Daniel had no intention of eating unclean food after the ten days, but trusted that God would intervene.

God gave it again that this superior listened to the request. The request was granted and what gave God now according to verse 15.

„After ten days, they looked more beautiful and stronger than all the young people who ate the king's food.“

That settled the matter. And what was the consequence after verse 17?

„And these four young people gave God had insight and understanding for every kind of writing and wisdom. But Daniel understood visions and dreams of every kind.“

God gave Beauty, strength and high intelligence. God gave. If we have entrusted ourselves to God, he can give us all his love.

What was it like at the end of the training programme?
Verse 20: „And the king found them in all the things he asked them ten times wiser and more insightful than all the soothsayers and wise men in his entire kingdom.“ Can you do something like this yourself? Make yourself 5x or 10x more intelligent? Only God can do that. God can give gifts that we cannot give ourselves.

Here we have discussed the basic way we can proceed in life. It is about making a decision according to God's will when any matter is not in accordance with God's will, taking the path of petition combined with great courtesy and, if it is possible, proposing an appropriate solution that is according to God's will. Then God is with us. Jesus said in Matthew 6:33 NLB:

„Make the kingdom of God your most important concern, live in God's righteousness and he will give you everything you need.“

Now I would like to share with you some personal experiences from my professional life when I was working in business. Many people think you have to howl with the wolves in this area.

^[1] William H. Shea, The Book of Daniel, Part 1, Advent-Verlag Lüneburg 1998, page 52 - explained from the Hebrew text.

During the war, I lived with my mother and my dear sister in my grandfather's house on Lake Constance. My mother ran the household for my grandfather and her two unmarried brothers. It was a business household: a bakery, grocery and dairy shop. As soon as we had finished our schoolwork, we had to help out. There was a lot of work and few people during the war.

One uncle had a nervous condition. When he gave us an assignment, we weren't allowed to make a face, we had to repeat what we were supposed to do immediately, do it very carefully and then come back and say that we'd done it. If we hadn't done that, he would have raved. My sister and I had become very shy as a result. But we had acquired good habits as a result and I acted accordingly in my teaching. I'll give you an example later.

I would now like to tell you what my progress in my profession has looked like in practice. In particular, I would like to show how God has worked with me again and again. „gave“.

I joined a haulage company in 1946 as an unknown apprentice in a foreign city. I hardly knew anything about the job of a haulage clerk. But after the war I was glad to find an apprenticeship at all. I was almost 17 years old. An adv. family had taken me in. They had four children about my age. Shortly after I started my apprenticeship, I decided to be baptised. I was convinced that God's way was the right way. And in this family I learnt to hold personal devotions and we also had family devotions. In the winter months, we met on Friday evenings in 2-3 families to sing together and share our experiences.

As apprentices, we had to start half an hour earlier in the morning, among other things. We had to heat the offices, dust the desks and other things. After a while, only I was allowed to dust the boss's desk. He always had his whole desk under siege. How do you clean a desk that is fully occupied? I cleaned one section at a time. I put the things from one section on another desk in the same order. When I had cleaned, I put it back and did the same with the next part. As I did this well, only I was allowed to wipe the boss's desk and there were always interesting things to steal with my eyes.

One of the first things I remember is the following. I was reading a reference book during my lunch break. And about 2-3 hours later, the owner and the managing director were standing next to me talking about a legal dispute with a customer. They didn't know the right solution. I asked if I could say something. I explained the solution to both of them and told them the relevant paragraph in the industry regulations. God gave it.

Another thing: I picked up the phone: the manager was requested. He said to me: Say I'm not here. I said to him quietly: Please forgive me, but I can't do that. So he handed the phone to an employee and he did it for him. As often as he wanted to be denied in future, he simply gave the phone to that employee.

Once a month we had to dispatch a goods train with 42 wagons of cheese from the Allgäu to the Rhineland. I had to collect the documents from a government office to find out which cheese dairy in the Allgäu was delivering how much cheese to which recipient. I received the documents in duplicate. I asked the boss if I could take a copy home with me, I would like to make the loading plan. When I returned to the shop, he said: "Did you make the loading plan? Yes! Show me that once. He went through the loading plan and then said: "You've planned two wagons to Duisburg, but each one is only half full. I replied: "One wagon is for the left side of the Rhine, the other for the right. The Rhine bridge in Duisburg is still broken. He had overlooked that in his planning. So the goods train travelled according to the apprentice's plan.

God kept creating circumstances that made me stand out in a positive way. In other words: God gave it

My wage in the second year of my apprenticeship was 45 Reichsmarks. But I needed about 100 marks a month to live on. We had savings as a family. So my dear mother was able to give me the missing amount every month. But suddenly, one Sunday, the radio announced that our money was no longer valid and the bank accounts were blocked. From tomorrow, anyone can collect 40 new Deutschmarks from the city council. My mum couldn't give me any more money.

From that month onwards, my company gave me over 100 German marks without even talking to me about it, so I was able to support myself financially. That was my first tithing experience. - God gave it.

After two years of my apprenticeship, I was asked to move to Frankfurt am Main to open a branch there together with another gentleman. I was given the rest of my apprenticeship as a gift. My apprenticeship certificate says that I was the best apprentice the company had trained up to that point. And in Frankfurt I immediately received 320 German marks a month. That was an income that many family fathers didn't have. I could now send my dear mother 100 marks every month. God gave it to me.

It was very difficult to find a room in Frankfurt am Main, which was still largely destroyed by the war. My attic room was correspondingly primitive and without heating until I found something else. Sometimes my washing water froze overnight. It was the post-war period!

We soon acquired a large company as a customer. One day, the head of haulage at this company called to ask if we could transport 600 kg of printing inks to Stuttgart so that they would be there by 6 p.m. the next day, as they were needed for printing that night.

I agreed, as we were dispatching a lorry in that direction. Unfortunately, the consignment stopped at the warehouse that day. I don't remember why. In any case, the next day at 6.00 p.m., the head of the haulage company called again and said that he had just had a call from Stuttgart and that the consignment was not there yet. I replied: "What, it's not there yet? That was a so-called white lie that had come to me spontaneously. But the customer asked more questions. So I continued to lie. I immediately set the lorry in motion and instructed the driver to drive right through to the Stuttgarter Zeitung. I phoned the newspaper the next morning. The consignment had arrived at 10.00 pm. They had printed at night. There had been no problem. I immediately called the company in Frankfurt and told them that the consignment had been delivered late and that they could print it at night. That seemed to be the end of the matter. BUT!

I had strong pangs of conscience. I called the customer again later and asked him if I could visit him privately in the evening. He gave me his address. When I arrived at his place, I immediately said. „I've come to ask for your forgiveness. I lied to you yesterday.“ He put his hand on my shoulder and said: „What you said sounded very logical, but I had the impression that it wasn't true. Now everything is all right again.

What was the result? From that day on, this gentleman had unlimited trust in me. No competitor could poach this company from us. I worked with him for another eight years. But from that day on, I was careful not to lie to a customer again. It's very humiliating to have to ask for forgiveness, but at the same time it's a great help not to do it again.

As part of my further training, I did a correspondence course in rational working and planning with personal support at an institute in Munich. This helped me to do a good job and build up the business step by step.

When I was about 24 years old, I asked my boss in Frankfurt to let me work 1-2 days a week in the field. I would like to learn how to look after customers and win over companies. In other words, to offer haulage services. He told me - and he was an experienced salesman - that you have to give the people you visit a packet of cigarettes, otherwise you won't get anywhere. I did that twice. Then I had a guilty conscience. I decided not to do it again and prayed: Father in heaven, please show me a way to win customers the right way. - I had already stated in my correspondence course that I intended to learn how to sell haulage services. Shortly after my prayer, I was recommended a book by this institute to prepare me for this sales force -  „Live enthusiastically and win“ by Frank Bettger. This man sold insurance. And I learnt from his book how to sell forwarding services correctly.

Back then, if you visited a company and the reception called the haulage department, you would usually get the answer: "We don't have time or we have our connections. We're not changing. Well, I knew the name of the man in charge and called him the next day. I said: "I have a request: Please see me once so that we can see if we can offer you any benefits that you don't already have. If yes, then you are certainly interested in us, if no, then I hereby promise not to come back a second time. With this message, everyone was ready to receive me. I was then allowed to ask them detailed questions about their despatch during the visit. I concluded by saying that I would now check everything and get back to them. I soon had some kind of advantage for each company. As a rule, we started small at first, in the area where we could offer an advantage. Due to good work, our share soon increased. Sometimes we were able to get the whole dispatch immediately. I had very good results.

Much later I realised that this was a conversion from worldly methods (From the counsel of the wicked, Psalm 1 - giving cigarettes and many others) to biblical principles. The Lord wants us to seek the best of our neighbour.

At the age of 26, I was given power of attorney. I became head of the entire haulage company. I earned very well. When I was 27, the government issued new regulations for lorry drivers. The drivers of two of our lorries were driving for longer than was now permitted. I found the following solution: When a lorry train arrived in Frankfurt, I immediately let one driver go home and provided the other driver with a warehouse worker to unload. When they travelled back to Munich or somewhere else the next day, the driver who had unloaded was allowed to stay at home until departure. So he didn't have to help with loading. A warehouse worker helped again. Of course, the profit was a little lower because the warehouse worker's help resulted in additional costs. - When the director realised this, he came to me and demanded that we tidy up the logbooks and not let the warehouse workers help. When I politely refused, he got angry, shouted at me for the first time in eight years and threw my door shut as he left. - I then looked for another job in Karlsruhe and resigned. The director was, as they say, blindsided. He really wanted to keep me and do everything I suggested. But I had accepted the other position and left.

Six months later, I called this director again and told him that my new job would not satisfy me in the long term. If the Group - we now had 12-15 branches - offered me a suitable position, I would come back, but not to Frankfurt. The day after next, he offered me four managerial positions in different branches. I chose the offer at the branch on Lake Constance. This was in the wonderful area of Lake Constance where I grew up. There the gentleman also gave me great success in the organisation, enormous success in winning customers, starting an apprenticeship, introducing written advertising, building up certain national and international traffic.

When I was 37 years old, I was offered the position of director with a super salary and the simultaneous agreement that I would become his successor 5 years later when the general manager retired. The company had 2,000 employees at the time.

But the Lord had a different plan, he called me out of my job and into his service as a preacher.

Looking back, I can only praise and thank God for his grace and guidance in business and in the many years that followed as a preacher to this day. It all comes down to one thing: Living in a personal relationship with God.