Revelation 3:8 “I know that you have little strength, yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name.”

Success for Jesus is more than a matter of numbers. Many years ago I heard a missions administrator remind the pastors at a conference that when the board is interested in the numbers of people with whom we share the gospel, and the numbers of people who join our churches, they aren’t just looking for an excuse to take pride in good statistics. Behind every number there is a person, a soul. Someone is hearing about his Savior and believing in him. That is a matter of great importance and a reason for great joy.

We can’t make people listen to us. We can only offer to tell them. And we can’t make people believe. We can only share the faith-giving message. The rest is up to Jesus.

What Jesus asks us to do, with his help, is keep his word. We can preserve the content of its message among us so that it can do its faith-giving work. We can believe it for ourselves. We can conform our lives to it and let it shape the way we live. We can do this in a world that considers us strange, or worse, for fussing so much about holding on to an ancient book and its archaic teachings.

In spite of their criticism or skepticism, it is just that book and those teachings where we have met our God. There we found his forgiving love. If we hold on to it, if we keep it, then we will be a successful church in spite of the challenging times in which we live.

I still like to watch It’s A Wonderful Life at Christmas time. George Bailey so struggled to measure his life’s success. Do you remember how the movie ends? In the front cover of a copy of Tom Sawyer, Clarence the angel has written George a note: “Remember no man is a failure who has friends.”

Friends may be a better measure of success than money. But only one friend can bring us spiritual success. He is the Savior whose gospel opens heaven’s door. His strength covers our weakness. Keep holding to his word.