One of the first changes I had to make early on in starting this site was to change my definition of success. A few months in I went to a writers conference. The number one question people asked was, “How many subscribers do you have?” I was embarrassed to tell them 35. I had heard them sharing how they had several thousand. The next question that would get asked was, “How many clicks do you get a day?” On a good day I would get about ten. I became obsessed with those numbers and would allow them to ruin my day. I nit on,y began to measure my success by the numbers, I even began to measure my worth. It was t u til my wife gently reminded me thatIt wasn’t about the numbers. If God reached one person that day, it was successful.
In 1 Samuel 14, Saul had been appointed king of Israel recently. He began fighting the Philistines, but his army didn’t have swords. The Bible kept mentioning how many fighting men he had. Saul was camped under a pomegranate tree while trying to figure out how to get through a pass that was defended by the Philistines. His son Jonathan asked his armor bearer to walk with him. In verse 6, Jonathan said to his armor bearer, “Let’s cross over to the camp of those heathen Philistines. Maybe the Lord will help us; if he does, nothing can keep him from giving us the victory, no matter how few of us there are” (GNT). Jonathan understood that success wasn’t in his hands or in numbers. It was given and determined by God. He and the armor bearer fought the Philistine army and won a great battle that day through the Lord’s help.
What areas of your life are you feeling like a failure in right now? Are you measuring that by your definition of success or God’s? Chances are you’re looking at some form of numbers (bank account, sales, friends, etc.) to determine that. I heard someone recently say, “We measure what’s important to us, but are we measuring what’s important to God?” How we look at things matters and the enemy will twist our definition of success to make us feel down, unworthy, unsuccessful, un-you name it. In God’s economy, things work differently. Instead of asking Him to move whatever number you’re measuring, ask Him to move your perspective to see His idea of success. Ask Him to help you be content with what He number He deems a success. Once you change that, lots of things in your life will change and you’ll be satisfied knowing what matters to Him, matters to you.
Photo by Sebastian Voortman from Pexels
Devotions by Chris Hendrix 
I had a blog for a few years that had over 2,000 followers and would get better than 500 views a day sometimes.
I thought I was a reasonably successful blogger and I enjoyed the likes, clicks, and comments quite a bit. But, was I a success in general? I didn’t think so because maintaining the blog with posts people like was causing a lot of stress taking a lot of time that should have been put to better use.
It was also a Christian blog so it go a good deal of attention from atheist trolls and that was a different kind of stress I did not need.
Long story short, I prayed a lot and believe God told me to delete the blog and walk away so (after hesitating for quite a while) I hit the delete blog button and walked away which was surprisingly freeing.
Anyway, I have a blog now that almost no one reads and I am 100 percent OK with that because I have realized that my real success is in the real world ministering to real people.
Anyway, good luck with your blog, I think the content is great.
Thanks for sharing that! There’s such a pressure (whether self inflicted or societally) to perform, get likes, shares and get comments that it changes or focus inward instead of outward.
Keep blessing people the way God shows you and ministering to them. Each seed planted is success. Our responsibility is to minister and do what God asks.
Persevere Chris! Jesus would have come even if only one would have repented, only one believed, and only one had accepted Him as Lord!!
Amen to that!
My blog belongs to God. It’s up to Him what happens with it.
Agreed!